First Parish Cohasset

Last Sunday the children began the morning in the Meeting House, where we heard about a famous Unitarian Universalist minister, the Reverend Mark Morrison-Reed. Much of the information I shared with the congregation came from this article in the spring 2009 issue of UU World.

In the Parish House, all the children gathered in the Atkinson Room with their teachers and youth helpers for our opening ritual of chalice lighting and sharing time. I told the story The Butterfly Friends, from Elisa Pearmain’s book Once Upon a Time, which addresses the themes of friendship, loyalty and prejudice. After the story, the youngest children went upstairs with their RE leaders to talk and explore the story through art. Downstairs, the older children brainstormed situations where exclusion or inclusion can happen; times when they have felt welcomed or welcomed another; times when they experienced prejudice. It’s a privilege to be present for these conversations. First Parish’s children think and feel deeply, and generously share their experiences with each other.

This Sunday the children will be in the Parish House for regular curriculum lessons. I hope you are enjoying the school vacation week and are finding time for all the things you want to do.

See you on Sunday.

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.