This Sunday, December 9

CHURCH!

Your children are so awesome. They have been teaching us more than we teach them. We can’t wait to be with them on Sunday morning. I am not even saying this to puff you up…they give us a reason to hope.

Here’s what is happening in the classrooms this Sunday:

The babies will be held and played with lovingly in the nursery. If you see our amazing nursery coordinators: Janie Howland, Sharon Dickinson and Emma Lewi, give them a high five. These women are so warm and kindly with our littlest.

The 2s and 3s will be celebrating the winter holidays together and making snow flakes.

Our preschooler/kindergarteners will be learning about the use of candles (SAFELY AND WITHOUT FLAME!) during the winter holidays.

Our 1st and 2nd graders will learn about the sources of our Unitarian Universalist tradition. Bonus points if you can name them all. If you can’t, here they are:

Unitarian Universalism (UU) draws from many sources:

• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
• Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
• Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
• Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

ATTENTION 3rd and 4th GRADE PARENTS! We are piloting a new curriculum with your cherubs that we are very excited about. Starting this Sunday, we will be using the UUA’s Tapestry of Faith curriculum entitled “Moral Tales”. The most exciting thing about this curriculum is that you can READ THE WHOLE THING ON LINE! Here is the link:

http://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/tales/index.shtml

It is story based, and we think it has more substance than the current curriculum in use in that classroom, which has gotten less than stellar feedback from teachers. We hope you are as enthusiastic as we are about this change.

5th, 6th, and 7th graders will be learning about birth legends from various religious traditions.

8th graders will be continuing their exploration in Islam in preparation for an upcoming visit to the mosque in Sharon.

COMING OF AGE is meeting this Sunday after church! Youth, come to church. It is imperative. We will be talking about the service afterward. And it will be so awkward if you didn’t show up since Stephanie’s preaching, and then she’ll be teaching your class afterward. Avoid awkward situations and come.

I hope that your preparations for the upcoming holiday season are filled with moments of grace.

-Robin