Roots and Wings
Children's Religious Education Newsletter, October 26, 2022
Another UU Crafty Idea: Carve a Chalice'o'lantern
We light this pumpkin for the warmth of love, the light of truth, and the energy of action.
Take a picture of your pumpkin chalice and post to the Soulful Parenting Facebook Group @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/427330786190788
What's Happening in Faith Development
Faith Development Hour This Week
Everyone is invited to our intergenerational Halloween Party!
Be sure to wear your costumes, bring a pumpkin for carving or painting*, and bring a ghoulishly good treat to share!
(*we have 20 pumpkins that have been donated for carving!)
What's Coming in Faith Development
- October 30th- Intergenerational Halloween Party during our Faith Development Hour
- November 6- Hands On Live Oak! The kids will be volunteering in the playground area.
- November 27- Intergenerational Hour making Blessing Bags
- December 10- Selfies with Santa and Christmas Bazaar
- December 11- Christmas Pageant-Save the Date on your calendar Now.
- December 17- Parents Day Out! Get your last minute "to-do's" done while the kids have fun at church.
- Soul Full Parents Small Group-- Coming Soon! facilitated by Carrie Holley-Hurt and Chris Jarman--Please give us feedback about scheduling below!
- OWL beginning in Spring
- Kg-2nd
- 4th-6th
- Parents and Caregivers as Sexual Educators
May you be happy, may you peaceful, may you be filled with love
Chris
Survey
Upcoming Activities
Hands on Live Oak!
It's all about Stewardship & being part of a community!
During the Faith Development Hour on November 6th, the kids & youth will work on the playground to get it spiffed up. We will move rocks to where they need to be, rake leaves, and take inventory of items that need to be replaced or repaired. This is a tangible, concrete action that helps our young UUs learn about taking care of the community and being good stewards of our grounds. Lunch will be served for those staying to lend a hand. Sign-up with Diane so we are sure to have enough food at administrator@liveoakuu.org
Spiritual Practice
Listen to Your Ancestors
As a family create an altar for your ancestors. This can be as simple as placing a single photo on display. Or it can be quite elaborate! You can include offerings from each member of the household, photos and written words, objects to represent the 5-elements, and on and on. Use your imagination. Feel free to interpret “ancestors” in whatever way is useful for you. Maybe it’s your blood relatives, maybe it’s a well-known person from the past with whom you feel an affinity, maybe it’s people from your spiritual lineage, maybe it’s a general idea of your heritage.
Tend this altar for several days. Allow your heart to open to the past. Pray for the peace of your ancestors and listen for the wisdom they can offer you in the present moment.
Soulful Home -- October Theme: Courage
What Does it Mean to be a Family of Courage?
By its ubiquity, courage seems to be one of our favorite values to place before our young people. Children’s literature, from picture books to YAL series, is full of courageous protagonists; to be a leading character, defeat the evil wizard, take down the land-grabbing tycoon, face down the dragon, and outsmart the pirate-robbers.
Most often in these stories, the time for courage is easy to spot (it’s often about 90% through the story, when the tyrant/villain/bully/monster finally goes too far). But in real life, the moment for courage is rarely so simplistic.
Sometimes one calls up courage for a singular, bold action. But more often, we build ourselves up for consistent effort over time. Sometimes, courage looks like loudly speaking truth to power. But at least as frequently, courage is lovingly speaking truth to peers and then building power together.
Sometimes, acts of courage are followed by cheers and happy endings. They can also lead one to harder, more uncomfortable questions, and a need to recharge and reassess.
In short, courage is complex. But time and experience–as well as the opportunity to reflect with trusted family and friends–can help us to get more effective at embodying courage as we move through the stages of life. As we learn in the story, Sophie Learns to Be Brave, all the courage we possess along the way can help prepare us for the courage we will also need to let go of the people, places, and things we love, when the time comes.
We may each be the hero of our own vignette, but it’s really just the one story we’re all in together, and we have many, many pages–and challenges–ahead.
Sophie Learns to Be Brave
In this story, a girl who lives in the American Southwest becomes afraid of loud thunderstorms and meets that fear in part through the companionship of an unexpected friend. However, the friend must leave, and it take a different kind of courage to let the friend go.
Discuss the Story:
- What is your first memory of being afraid? Do you remember how you returned to calm afterward?
- Sometimes, when we are afraid, we don’t want to be around other people, and sometimes, we do. Which helps you better?
- There is a big, sudden kind of courage, like when you would rush to grab a toddler’s hand before they wander out into the street. And there is a smaller, quieter kind of courage in releasing people, pets, and places we love, such as when we move homes or a beloved relative dies. Parents, tell about a time you experienced each, or when you remember your child showing each.
Youth
Young Unitarian Universalist Project
Scan the QR code to learn more and register to join in the fun! Parents please share with your 14-18 yr olds.
JUUst Breathe Live UU Podcast
JUUst Breathe Live is a podcast where youth ministry has a say! Hosts Shannon Harper and Eric Bliss interview youth and adults who hold a vision of liberal religious youth ministry that is both life saving and spirit lifting. JUUst click on the graphic
October UU Music Box
I’ve Got Peace Like a River
(Written by Marvin V. Frey, Found in Singing the Living Tradition 100)
Principle 4: Each person must be free to search for what is true and right in life.
Principle 6: We believe in working for a peaceful, fair, and free world.
Principle 7: We believe in caring for our planet, the home we share with all living things.
Source 1: The direct, personal sense of wonder and awe.
Source 6: The harmony of nature and the sacred circle of life.
The original composer of this song is contested, but a white Pentecostal minister named Marvin Frey is credited with writing the first three verses of this song while the last three verses were added anonymously over the years. It may originally have been an African American spiritual. The repetitive nature of this song makes it fun and easy to learn for singers of all ages.
Discussion Topics
What do you like about this song? What do you think “peace like a river” feels like? This song reminds us of inner feelings or qualities that are being expressed as a part of nature. What other unsung qualities do you have inside yourself that you are proud of? What qualities do you need help growing or remembering you have inside yourself?
Movement
Make up (or have the children make up) your own hand motions for peace, river, joy, fountain. For older groups, look up the ASL signs for peace, joy, love, pain, tears on websites such as www.handspeak.com/word/
Activities
This is a fun song for improvisation. Have the participants make up their own similes: “I’ve got [what] like [what].” Thoughtful and serious responses are great but encourage play and spontaneity too. There are no wrong answers. There are more verses in Singing the Living Tradition than on the recording. Look them up and add them in as you sing!
Parenting Resources
About Us
Email: dlfd@liveoakuu.org
Website: https://www.liveoakuu.org/
Location: 3315 El Salido Parkway, Cedar Park, TX, USA
Phone: (904)-383-7439
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/353200692274924