First Parish Cohasset

We had great fun and fellowship last Saturday evening at Everybody’s Birthday Party. First Parish’s excellent cooks again shared their talents and put forth a delicious dinner that covered every taste and all the food groups (no matter whether you use a square or a triangle to organize them). We shared birthday stories recent and not-so-recent, decorated many birthday cakes, sang and laughed and played with balloons. I hope this will prove the first of many such celebrations.

We appreciate the Parish Committee and RE Committee for sponsoring this event, the set-up and clean-up crews, and everyone who baked cakes and brought dinner. Thank you!

Sunday morning the children were in the Parish House.

The preschool/kindergarten children settled in to the Spirit Play routine this week, experiencing the story of Crow Boy, who was picked on by other children for what made him different until his differences were shown to be what made him special. The children then chose “work” from several possibilities including clay, crayons, paint, and this week’s story. Some of their work is displayed in the upstairs classroom. Stop in and have a look when you’re in the Parish House.

The “big kids” (grade 1-6) started the morning with a chalice lighting and sharing time, then took a swift detour to talk about First Parish’s past ministers. We are fortunate to have photos and other portraits of them right there for us to see. We talked about some of the contributions these ministers made beyond First Parish, to the UUA and to the town, for instance; the difference between settled and interim ministers; how and when First Parish’s next minister is being selected; what would happen if no settled minister is found this year (unlikely but possible, and comforting for the children, and others too I bet, to know that there is a plan for every eventuality). Thanks to the Ministerial Search Committee and Carol Martin in particular for the thorough update published in last month’s newsletter, from which much of the information I shared with the children came.

The children played a game matching names of famous UUs with their accomplishments which they then brought home to share (ask them). The children also worked with clay while thinking about the qualities that helped these people achieve their dreams (persistence, vision, leadership and so forth).

This Sunday (2/19) the children begin in the Meeting House. We’ll have a One Room Schoolhouse-type lesson  in the Parish House in which we’ll all hear the same story and then break up into groups for age-appropriate activities.

See you Sunday!

This week’s update is a little tricky, because we spent our Sunday morning Religious Education time preparing a presentation for this week’s Time With the Children. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, so just a general outline:

We began in Trueblood Hall with the “name toss game”; a favorite way (of all of us) to begin the morning, burning a little energy, introducing visitors and new friends, and helping us get ready for the stillness of our opening ritual. We moved to the Atkinson room to light our chalice and sing Come, Come Whoever you Are from the grey hymnal. We engaged in the spirit of community with our sharing ritual. One at a time, each person is invited to share a piece of news (or not) while placing a stone in the bowl of water (or not — each person chooses how they would like to participate). Once again, the fortunes of a certain local sports team were a main topic of sharing time. This ritual offers us a chance to practice respectful listening, a learned skill that takes lots of practice!

Next, we reviewed the Bible stories of the past few weeks, and chose one, the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, to share with the congregation. The children find much to relate to in this story. They decided upon the most important elements, and how they might convey those in the physical space of the Meeting House. They practiced telling the story in a variety of ways and settled on a plan. There was some creative revision involving the powers of flight, invisibility and time travel, but I believe those scenes were left on the cutting room floor. And that’s as much as I can reveal now; the rest will unfold on Sunday morning.

Happy February 2, the day which marks the “quarter turn” of the earth; halfway through the dark half of the year. In some places the next season’s seeds were blessed today; nowadays we may leaf through seed catalogs while waiting to see if the groundhog sees his shadow.

However you observe this day, I hope you are well and happy. I look forward to seeing you in the Meeting House on Sunday; if we miss you, please find a recap of the morning’s events here in the middle of next week.

Jill

Last Sunday (1/22) the children participated in a “One-Room Schoolhouse” in the Parish House. Fifteen children aged 3-11 joined together to hear the same Bible story that the congregation was hearing in the Meeting House.

In the story of Jesus and the Canaanite woman, Jesus has a “used to think, now I know” moment. Through an encounter with a not-Jewish woman in which Jesus and the woman speak to each other in riddles, Jesus realized that his message of love and justice was not only for the Jewish people, as he “used to think” but was really meant for everyone, everywhere. Knowing that, he went forth with new understanding.

Many of the children were able and willing (which speaks to their comfort with and trust of the group) to share a “used to think, now I know” moment from their own experience. Through the course of our conversation we covered several topics:

• that Jesus the Christmas baby is the same person as Jesus the grown-up man in this and other stories;
• that Jesus the grown-up man “went about doing good” (as Peter said of him) by helping sick people feel better and sad people feel more hopeful;
• that because Jesus often told stories or spoke in riddles in order to teach something people then and now have to think about the story and work out the message for themselves;
• that many of Jesus’s stories told people to be good and kind to everyone, not just the people that they liked, or that looked like them or liked the same things they did, but everyone.

We reviewed Bible stories from the last few weeks, inviting volunteers to act out the story of Moses leading the people out of Egypt and Jacob and Esau quarreling over Isaac’s blessing and later reconciling. I asked the children to begin thinking about which parts of these stories and our conversations they’d like to share with the congregation during the Time with the Children on February 5.

We also had a children’s worship in which we sang hymn #188 Come, Come Whoever You Are, lit our chalice, and observed our sharing ritual which involves placing a stone in a bowl of water. Quite a number of “shares” involved looking forward to that afternoon’s Big Football Game, often including (not surprisingly) a prediction for a hometown win.

We ended our morning together with a special treat of cocoa, conversation and drawing.

This past Sunday the RE children began the morning in the Meeting House. I told the congregation a version of the story of Jacob and Esau, who were the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. Their story is a long one, and is only part of an even longer story that includes their grandfather, Abraham and Jacob’s sons, Joseph and his brothers. The part we looked into on Sunday was the struggle between Jacob and Esau — to inherit Isaac’s estate, to soak up all their parents’ love, to outshine each other, to “win.”

In the course of their sibling struggles, Jacob stole the blessing Isaac intended to give Esau, then ran far away to escape Esau’s wrath and vow of revenge. Many years later, the brothers met again, Jacob overcoming his fear of Esau in his desire to be reconciled, and Esau “forgetting” his anger out of love for his brother. You can read Rev. Anita’s sermon on this topic, which explores some similar and some different aspects of the story than I did with the children.

When I asked the children what was the most important part of the story, they first focused on the brothers’ relationship: “be nice to your brother.” I pointed out that the story doesn’t tell us that either brother ever apologized, just that they met and were not angry. “You mean Esau just FORGOT about it?” one child demanded. They discussed that idea for a while, whether they would be able to forget such a transgression, whether they would want to, whether forgetting was the only option in this case. They did not reach a conclusion, which puts them in the very good company of centuries of scholars who have (and continue to) debate the meaning of these ancient stories and their implications for modern lives.

We also talked about the idea of “blessing.” What is it? Who can do it? Is it only for something big, or can a blessing be as simple as “good morning”? There were many opinions. Some thought that saying ‘good morning’ or ‘have a nice day’ does nothing; some suggested that it only has an effect on the person who SAYS something like that — “it doesn’t change the other person’s day, but it makes you feel good.” Some thought blessing is like magic.

When we reached the natural end of this discussion the children chose to play some cooperative games rather than do an art project. We played the Name Toss game, Would You Rather, Simon Says and a complicated version of hide and seek that requires patience, working together and trust. Even though this last game was designed for older groups, they showed thoughtfulness and real cooperation, and liked it so well we played it over and over.

Rev Anita and I try, whenever possible, to include similar themes in the “big church” and the “little church”. I hope that posting this recap of RE activities will foster conversations about what we as a congregation did together and separately on Sunday morning.

Plans for the 2011-2012 Religious Education program are shaping up beautifully. The RE Committee formed a small group to choose next year’s RE focus and specific curricula (thank you to Mark Alves and Polly Duxbury for serving on that sub-committee). All the classes will concentrate on UU identity – what is Unitarian Universalism? What are the 7 Principles? Why are they important? Why are they important to me? Each group will consider that question through age-appropriate activities, exploring the 7 Principles, and learning about famous Unitarian Universalists and how they lived their faith.

The preK/K class will spend the fall semester exploring the church (the building, the people and the beliefs) with 12 lessons from Chalice Children. Children will learn that the chalice is the symbol of Unitarian Universalism, will create their own chalice to take home, will explore (literally!) the Meeting House and Parish House, experience some of what the church is for and about (with lessons titled “helping others,” “feeling sad” and “wondering about stars”) and learn about how UUs celebrate the fall holidays with special sessions on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. This curriculum includes a variety of activities, including creative “making things,” simple songs, and physical movement. In January this class will participate in the all-church Bible programming and for the spring semester (February – May) will further explore Unitarian Universalist principles, sources and values through 14 Spirit Play stories.

The 1^st – 3^rd grade class will be using the Free to Believe curriculum for the whole year. This curriculum looks at the 7 UU Principles, both the actual words and what they mean, and then the children learn about a famous Unitarian or Universalist (or UU) from our history and how that person lived out the principle in question. This curriculum also includes time to think and express ideas about the Big Questions or life mysteries. It’s designed to include time for creativity, for discussion, for movement, for expression, for meditation.  This class will learn about the Bible along with the rest of the church in January, and will continue with the Free to Believe lessons for the spring semester.

The 4^th – 6^th grade class will go on four “quests” with the curriculum The Questing Year. The 24 lessons in this curriculum also explore the 7 UU Principles, but with more emphasis on exploring what the principles mean to the individual, how they have been lived by famous UUs from history and how they can be lived by modern 9-12 year olds. The four “quests,” the Mystery Quest, the Inner Quest, the Action Quest and the UU Quest, lead participants through the church year and through various activities, with opportunities for physical activity, creativity, contemplation and social action built into the lessons.

Copies of all curricula and sample Spirit Play stories will be available for perusal at the RE table at this week’s coffee hour.

But the kids, as amazing as they are (spiritually and intellectually curious, enthusiastic and always, always smiling) can’t accomplish this important work alone. They need guides – people who have experience living as a UU, learning, growing, seeking, changing. People just like you.

Over this year, I’ve heard several concerns about volunteering to lead Sunday morning Religious Education classes. In response, the Religious Education Committee has adopted a new team-leaders plan for the 2011-2012 church year, and set out a number of ways the classroom leaders will be supported in their efforts.

Each class will be lead by a group of four people who sign up for one semester. Fall semester is September – December, spring semester is February – May. Those four people teach two at a time, in rotation, two weeks in the classroom, two weeks off. For example, on week one person A & person B teach together, week two B & C, week three C & D, week four D & A, and so on. This way,

• no one leader misses more than two weeks of Sunday worship at a time,
• over the course of the fall semester each leader is in the classroom 6 times (spring semester it will be 6 or 7 times),
• the team builds relationships among themselves as well as with the children,
• the children have the benefit of continuity in the classroom,
• the leaders gain confidence and familiarity with the curriculum and the rhythm of the lessons.

Teacher trainings will be offered in the fall, before classes begin, and again in January for the spring semester leaders. In addition, I will meet with each team once a month by the most convenient method – in person, by phone or by email to troubleshoot any issues, offer support, and talk through the next group of lessons.

Because leading class on Sunday morning is a spiritual practice, a brief chalice lighting and moment of reflection will be offered for the teachers at 9:30. This will not last more than 10 minutes so there will still be time to prepare the classroom space and welcome the children.

Leading Sunday morning classes requires preparation. Reading the lesson for the first time in the car on the way to church (although we all know it happens) does not make for a truly rewarding experience for anyone. However, a certain amount of the prep work involves routine tasks, like finding a particular book in the RE library, or cutting out two dozen yellow construction paper circles for an activity.

The RE Committee is recruiting non-classroom volunteers to help with some of that prep work. If the construction paper is cut, the book set out and the art supplies collected by a behind-the-scenes volunteer then the classroom teachers are free to spend their prep time reading and planning, and with two leaders scheduled for each class, the tasks can be divided to take advantage of each person’s strengths. Another advantage is that this prep work can be done at any time during the week, or even by two or more people who enjoy each other’s company, or who would like to get to know one another better, working together.

For those who would like to volunteer for a shorter time span, there are four One-Room Schoolhouse Sundays, which are stand-alone lessons. This year we’ll be learning about famous Unitarians and Universalists from the UU Superheroes curriculum. On these Sundays (holiday weekends) we expect lower-than-usual attendance, and all the RE children experience the same lesson. We’ll need two or three adult/youth leaders to share a story and lead activities. If you sign up for one of these Sundays I can help you develop a lesson on your favorite UU or offer a selection of prepared lessons to choose from.

We also need three or four leaders for the 5-week special unit on the Bible. For the month of January the whole church will focus on the same topic. Plans for this month of programming will take shape as we get into the autumn, but it will certainly be a great opportunity to be involved in the RE program and learn along with the children.

You can sign up (early birds get first choice of age group/semester) or get more information by calling me (508-821-8935, before 10pm for a lucid response) sending me a note (justjill@comcast.net) any time, filling out the insert in this week’s order of service, or coming by the RE table at coffee hour. Would you like to talk to someone who has taught this year or in the past? We can make that happen. Do you have a concern about leading classes that hasn’t been addressed yet? Let me know and I’ll work to find a solution.

First Parish is growing, and so is the RE program. As Rev Anita says, we’re a moving train. Come on board.