The 2024-25 RE year is off to a rousing start! Among the highlights: we had fun at our first game night, students from our upper grades enjoyed a great weekend at Mystic Lake, and our RE classes wrote their covenants. Please join our next game night and potluck on Saturday, November 2, including the teens and tweens putting on the traditional “Haunted House” for the younger kids (see sidebar).
Also in our upcoming events, the RE Committee invites everyone to a book discussion on Chapter 1 of Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults by Robin Wall Kimmerer, adapted by Monique Gray Smith. Mark your calendars for Sunday, November 17, 12:30 pm. Please bring your own lunch. To RSVP, email Diane Melvin, RE@peopleschurch.net, so we can have enough chairs.
Our RE curriculum for children and youth this year is World Religions. This is one of our most popular curricula. We aim to give our students a better understanding of the UU “P is for Pluralism” — there are many paths to spirituality, and we respect our shared values. K-6th graders will learn about a wide variety of belief systems, from the more-familiar UU and Judeo-Christian traditions to Indigenous and Yoruba faiths. Our elementary curriculum team spent many months carefully balancing the choices of religions and activities so that children would get basic ideas of how broad, but often similar, religious beliefs and practices can be. Part of the learning experience will be to map where each religion began and spread. Every section will involve a chart of the gods/goddesses (if any), rituals, symbols, and central teachings on “how to be a good person.” The 7th-12th grade Crossing Paths curriculum will have a deeper exploration into some of the beliefs and rituals. Students will visit Christian, Quaker, Hindu, and Buddhist houses of worship.
Families can join the Facebook page — People’s Church Religious Education Families — for previews and activities. Many of the elementary-age books will have YouTube links, and you can learn the JET-PIG song! The RE teachers are looking forward to learning together with our children and youth.
Mary Kate Webster, RE Committee Secretary
Who: Everyone’s Invited
What: Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Book Discussion – Chapter 1
When: Nov. 17 at 1pm, Bring your own Brown Bag lunch
Where: Room 19
Planning to attend? Please email Diane at re@peopleschurch.net
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