UUCSJS Religious Education News
March 3, 2019
Upcoming Events
Volunteer Sundays - March 17 & 24
Intergenerational Stewardship Service - March 31
March Birthdays
Dinner and Drive Time Tips
This Week in Class
Spirit Play
You can ask your child to tell you which animal in the story was their favorite. Which animal do they think helped the rooster the most? You can ask if they have ever helped a friend in need or maybe tell a story of a time you helped someone "find their voice." At the end of the story, the rooster learns to crow but you can ask your child what they think would have happened if the rooster never learned to crow? Would he still have been welcome at the farm? Would the other animals still want to be his friend?
Young roosters really do need to learn how to crow. For fun, here is a short clip of a young rooster just testing out his voice you can share with your child.
Crossing Paths
We watched this short video with Zach Anner to learn a little about the Hindu faith. Here is a list of other YouTube videos you can view with your child to learn more:
During the month, you may want to view the movie "Gandhi," directed by Richard Attenborough, with your student or consider making it dinner and a movie by ordering some Indian food.
Heeding the Call
In today's Workshop, the teens explored courage as taking a stand in big and small ways. They heard a story about Juliette Hampton Morgan, a white woman in Alabama who took courageous stands of solidarity with the African American community throughout the 1940s and 1950s. They gained a new tool, the Oppression Continuum, to help heed the call to create a more just world.
Discuss the story with your youth. Ask what courage means within your family. Is it always big acts with big consequences? If there are elders available in your family, you could ask them for any family stories involving courage. Ask if there were times in their lives when their courage was lacking. What would they have needed to feel more courageous under those circumstances? Does their story hold any lessons for you or your youth? Be willing to share your own stories with your teen.
You may want to consider watching and discussing movies about racial and ethnic oppression with your teen. Two to consider:
- Something the Lord Made (a true story about the relationship between two men who invented a procedure to save the lives of children with heart defects)
- Smoke Signals (a movie about two Native American youth). A study guide on the Unitarian Universalist Association website has interesting discussion questions you can share with family and friends.
There is an interesting website called the National Youth Rights Association which argues that by teaching children to be submissive to adults we create adults who are equally submissive in the face of other oppressions. Do you agree? Try talking with your youth about how they feel about this. The website offers arguments for lowering the voting and legal drinking age and eliminating curfews. Do you agree with these arguments? Does your
teen? How might submission to adult authority effect the way your teen views or participates in social justice?
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore
Director of Religious Education
Email: uucsjsdre@gmail.com
Website: uucsjs.org
Location: 75 South Pomona Road, Egg Harbor City, NJ, USA
Phone: (856) 200-7089