“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But…the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” -The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dear church,
Hi! Welcome to our new blog. I hope you will check here weekly for information about children and youth religious education at UUAC in Sherborn. I hope to provide information and inspiration for RE teachers and parents about the goings-on in our beloved religious education program.
Themes for Spiritual Practices
This month’s spiritual practices theme at church is the theme of sacrifice and surrender, and children are no strangers to these concepts. Our children understand on a deep level what it means to surrender one’s power and control as their lives often feel out of their control. Hopefully, we are teaching them what it means to sacrifice for other people by doing the messy work of coming to a multigenerational church every week, trying to do our best to sacrifice for one another. We sacrifice our taste (“I don’t like this hymn, but the person next to me is crying while he sings it!”), and our comfort (“Will these toddlers keep it down a little? I can’t hear the minister speaking!”) for the good of the whole. That is part of the work of a faith community…to sacrifice our own comfort for the sake of something larger than ourselves.
You can talk to your children about spiritual practice themes in your families at home. Try saying grace at meals or bedtime prayers with the theme of sacrifice and surrender. For further inspiration, our themes for spiritual practice are here.
Children’s Church this Sunday
This Sunday in children’s church, our children in preschool-eighth grade will be learning and worshipping around the theme of sacrifice, and will hear the story of The Good Samaritan from the Christian Bible.
This Sunday’s worship will follow both the presidential election and will be on Veteran’s Day weekend. The children will explore the idea of sacrificing for one’s country and world looking beyond the militaristic definition to a more service-oriented approach of helping one’s neighbor. In children’s church, children will also have the opportunity to participate in spirit-filled worship: high energy music with accompanist Valerie Anastasio, prayer and meditation, and lighting candles of joy and sorrow.
Babies will go to the nursery, and the 2s/3s will go to their classroom on Sunday morning where there will be extra childcare providers on hand to relieve our regular toddler teachers. Preschoolers through 8th graders will begin in the sanctuary before being dismissed to children’s church in Unity Hall.
If you have been feeling particularly grateful to your children’s religious education teachers this fall and would like to give them a gift by joining us in children’s worship this Sunday, please come! The success of our worshipping together sometimes relies on some strategically placed, enthusiastic adults.
Youth Ministry
In both Coming of Age and our senior youth group, youth are invited to answer some of the same questions for spiritual practice that the adults are, also focusing around the theme of sacrfice and surrender. Youth are invited and encouraged to attend adult worship and talk about the themes in their various groups. We hope you have noticed their increased attendance worshipping among us!
Coming of Age meets this Sunday and every Sunday this month except for November 25 from 12:00-1:30 pm. November 18th is a particularly special, “Meet Your Mentor” gathering. Please be there!
The Senior Youth Group meets this Sunday from 6-8 pm! All high school aged youth are urged to attend. The group will be discussing their upcoming trip to City Reach in February, a homelessness ministry experience in downtown Boston.
WINTER TEACHERS: SAVE THE DATE!! Teacher training for all winter teachers will be on Thursday, November 15 from 7-9 pm.
See you in church!
Robin
