Magical Happenings for January 21, 2007
from Alice Anacheka-Nasemann, Director of Religious Education

Today’s Classes:

• Nursery (0-2) Adult Volunteer with Kelly Anne
• Pre-School-Kindergarten: Ted with Chelsea. Kids will hold a candle lighting ceremony for their sorrows, learning about church as a place where we support one another and share joy and sadness.
• 1st- 6th Grades: Barbara, Jennifer & Jackie. Students will continue their SpiritMagic classes, affirming our 3rd principle of encouragement to spiritual growth. They will make prayer bead necklaces and finish up projects from previous weeks, including their images of God.
• 7th-9th Grades: Alice. Students will continue work on a comparative religions chart, looking at key beliefs and characteristics of the religions they are studying.

CLASSROOM FOOD POLICY: To create a safe space for children in our religious education program who have severe allergies to a variety of foods, the Religious Education Committee has established a policy restricting the foods that are eaten in the classrooms to those on a list of safe foods established by the committee. To help us ensure that unsafe foods do not inadvertently end up in the classrooms during coffee hour or at other times, we ask that children always be under adult supervision when in the religious education wing. We will not serve food in the classrooms during our regular Sunday class time. Please help us maintain a safe space for all of our children and help us enforce this policy! If you have any questions, please contact Alice or our committee co-chairs, Wendy and Jen. A list of the safe foods will be posted on our website, on the classroom and religious education wing doors, and in the February and March newsletters.

CHILD PICK-UP: Parents, please remember to pick up your child (through 6th grade) from his or her classroom at 11:45. Alice will ring a bell to remind you to do so at the appropriate time.

COFFEE HOUR & CHILDCARE: Our babysitters will be available in the parish hall until 12:20 to play games and make simple crafts with kids for the first part of coffee hour.

FAMILY & ADULT EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES

• PLAYGROUP: Our playgroup meets on Thursday mornings from 9:30-11:30 at church. Please invite your friends!
• GUEST AT YOUR TABLE: If you forgot to bring your box in last week, please get it to Alice as soon as possible — the money will be sent to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee within a week or two.
• ARTICULATING YOUR UU FAITH CLASS: Ever struggled to tell someone what we believe at our church? David Johnson and Alice Anacheka-Nasemann will co-lead a 5-week curriculum, “Articulating Your UU Faith.” Participants will be given the opportunity to develop personal credo statements and will learn about and practice articulating the shared Unitarian Universalist values and beliefs. This promises to be personally enriching, but also can help our church to grow. As we become better at articulating our identity, we will be more effective in welcoming and inviting others into our church community.

  Classes will take place on 5 Tuesday evenings in February and March, from 7:30-9:00 pm. Please note: we will not meet on March 6th. Childcare will be provided. To register for the class there is a sign-up sheet in the parish hall or contact Alice at ReligiousEducation@UCMH.org.