NEIGHBOURHOOD Unitarian Universalist Congregation

Children's Programs at Neighbourhood

Programs for Children are held on Sunday mornings at 10:30 am
See Newsletters for more details.

Here comes Summer! Programs for all Ages

Tapestry of Faith

This program year, we used for the first time two new programs from the Tapestry of Faith series: "Creating home" for our youngest children and "Toolbox of Faith" for our Senior Elementary group.

Tapestry of Faith is a (new and developing) series of programs and resources for all ages that nurture Unitarian Universalist identity, spiritual growth, a transforming faith, and vital communities of justice and love.

Together, we have learned much about our Faith, our children and ourselves as teachers and volunteers. When we first started using these two programs, they were the only available pieces of (new) curriculum available.

This spring, when I began researching curriculum we could use for the summer of 2010, I was pleased to find a very robust set of new program materials available including materials for intergenerational learning from the American UUA website.

Here is some program information and how we plan to engage with all generations this summer. We hope you will join us!

Gather the Spirit: A Multigenerational Tapestry of Faith Program. Authors: Richard S. (Rick) Kimball and Christine T. Rafal, Ed.D.

Gather the Spirit is an eight-session, multigenerational program that teaches stewardship with a focus on water. Stewardship can take many forms: donating money to our congregations and to causes we care about; volunteering to teach, to lead or to physically maintain our congregations; helping to meet the needs of others and protecting our shared resources in our local and global communities.

Perhaps, today, there is no more compelling focus for our stewardship than the clean, drinkable water all life on Earth requires. Through a lens both scientific and religious, using activities a wide range of ages can do together, this program addresses the importance of water, the inequity of access to clean water, and actions we can take as Unitarian Universalist stewards. It asks: Can water sources be owned? Why is clean water scarce in parts of the world? If clean water is abundant where I live, what difference does it make if I conserve it? What can I do to promote global water equity?

Summer and the Stewardship of Water at Neighbourhood

I am pleased to welcome back Rick Salay and Balazs Farkas as volunteers who will work with the children, myself and this exciting new program.

As an open invitation on the topic of our Unitarian stewardship of water, we invite all adults and children who are interested to join us weekly and to get to know our programming and the children.

Also, instead of linking the children’s story to the adult theme, we will read the stories that are imbedded into the program. We hope this will keep those who wish to remain "in service" aware of what the water related themes are.

We plan also to culminate our summer with the Congregational Water communion which usually takes place early/mid September.

Deborah Miller
Director, Lifespan Learning, Neighbourhood Unitarian Universalist Congregation
I am at Neighbourhood most Wednesday afternoons and Sundays after service. I am also available by telephone and appointment at most other times. I hope you will take some time to meet with me personally and dialogue about family and spiritual literacy at Neighbourhood and how your family engages in this dream.

kriate@hotmail.com
647-388-8387

Our mission statement:

The Religious Education Committee exists to support Unitarian Universalist principles and values by:

Providing:

·an organized, creative, and respectful learning environment to achieve
spiritual literacy as a foundation for an authentic and balanced life;

·the tools and strategies to enable our volunteers to achieve these goals;

·opportunities for Congregation members to enrich their personal spiritual practices through involvement in Religious Education.

Serving:

·families of all kinds within our Congregation (children, youth of all ages and adults);
·our Congregation members;
·our local and global communities.

A Parent’s Journey
By Moira MacDonald

I started wondering about my son’s spiritual education before I had even confirmed his conception. I was hiking with friends on northern B.C.’s famed Chilkoot Trail and the walking topic turned to religion. I no longer identified with a faith and neither did my companions. They were hoping to have children too. I mused that I was grateful for the religious education I had had when I was a child, even though it was not something I totally believed in any longer. It had grounded me, and given me joy. I wondered how I could provide the same thing for my own child when I really didn’t know where to go or what I believed in anymore.

A week later, my pregnancy was confirmed (conception didn’t occur on the trail, by the way!) but I did not think much more about the spirituality issue. More than a year after my son’s birth, I came to Neighbourhood Unitarian, in the way a curious traveller happens on an interesting doorstep. But maybe my search for a faith I could pass on to Holm was an unconscious reason for walking in.

As I’ve learned, it is a reason for many other parents in our congregation too. We want to nourish our children’s souls, but what we have seen of religions elsewhere has not been the sustenance we want to give. The tricky part about being a UU parent is that our faith puts a responsibility on us to search for our own spiritual truth. And that adds a special responsibility when it comes to the spiritual education of our children.

I thought the reaction was remarkable when there was a move some years ago to eliminate catechism classes in Montreal schools. Parents - many of whom had rejected the tenets of the Catholic church and no longer attended - were upset. One father who was interviewed by a radio journalist said he didn’t believe the catechism but he still wanted his own child to learn it. Why? Maybe these parents wanted their children to have the same opportunity for spiritual teaching as they had had, even if they later rejected the content.

Spirituality and faith speak to our deepest values. Start saying, "It’s all relative," and maybe we create a marshmallow universe that children struggle to find their way through. In the novel, "Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret," the main character is raised by a mother and father from two different faiths, neither one practising. Eleven-year-old Margaret is told it is up to her to pick her faith when she’s old enough, though neither of her parents takes her to church or synagogue.

So Margaret - who has a pretty good personal relationship going with God anyway — starts to navigate her way through the confusing sea called religion, all by herself. It’s more than a little confusing!

I am looking for ways to be a better parent and guide in the spiritual dimension for my son and I am looking for ideas on how to build faith in our home. Maybe you are too.

As our opening words read, "If we want the world to change, we must craft in our space and in ourselves the seeds that grow a different kind of life. A life of graciousness, of creative intelligence, a place of life and spirit for ourselves and our children."