Explore and Connect

Lifespan Religious Education for all ages at First Unitarian is all about exploration and connection. Learn with us!

[uurebaltimore-blog]

RE@Home: Nov. 9 — Faith

Each week our “Home Groups” examine the congregation’s theme of the month through a particular lens. This week we will be talking about religious faith.

Take some time at home this week to talk with your kids about some of our focus questions:

• “Why do you think people have different beliefs?”

• “Why do you think some people who believe different things about god fight about it?

• “What is good about religious faith? Is it important to you? Do you know people of other faiths who consider their own faith very important to their life? Why do you think that is?”

• “Why do you think people come to our church—or any congregation—instead of practicing their religion on their own?”

• “We often use the words ‘religion’ and ‘faith’ interchangeably. Do you think they’re the same? If not, what’s different about them” (reassure them if needed that there’s no wrong or right answer to this one!) 

Have you made bread with your kids yet this week? Often some of our best conversations can happen while we're doing other things: driving to soccer, baking, drawing, or playing outside. 

[uurebaltimore-blog]

RE@Home: Nov. 2 — Faith

Each week our "Home Groups" examine the congregation's theme of the month through a particular lens. This week we will be talking about Personal Faith. 

Take some time at home this week to talk with your kids about some of our focus questions:

• “What do we mean when we talk about ‘faith’?” Ask the kids to name some common phrases with the word ‘faith’ in them.

• “What are some things you feel like you have ‘faith’ in?”

• “Have you ever believed something to be true even though you don’t have any proof?”

• “People in our congregation have a lot of ideas about god. Some believe in a god or something like a god, some don’t. And yet we’re all Unitarian Universalists. Do you think there is a god?” 

• “Why do you think people have different beliefs?”

• “Do you think you can choose what to believe or do you think it just happens?”

As we look forward to our multi-generational worship service on Nov. 23, "Breads of the World," take some time this month to make bread with your kids at home.

[uurebaltimore-blog]

RE@Home: Oct. 12 — Emptiness

Each week our "Home Groups" examine the congregation's theme of the month through a particular lens. This week we will be talking about sadness.

Take some time at home this week to talk with your kids about some of our focus questions:

• “If you were empty, what would you put inside you?”

• “What is something you’d like to empty out of yourself?”

• “What about the idea of emptiness is religious?” 

• “Why is this something we’d talk about in church?”

• "What is something in your life that if it was taken away, it would make you feel empty?”

• “We sometimes talk about feeling empty after someone we love dies. Have you ever lost someone you loved?” “Did you feel empty or something else?” “Did the feeling of emptiness ever change? Why or why not do you think?”

One of our activities will be the story "It Could Be Worse" Find it online here.

[i-am-uu]

Everything you do has the power to change the world. We never know who will be touched by our words, or inspired by our actions.

[i-am-uu]

This image has been downloaded and shared on a lot of other social media pages, so we felt we ought to put the original in front of people again. Words and image by Thomas Earthman.

[uurebaltimore-blog]

RE@Home: Oct. 5 — Emptiness

Each week our “Home Groups” examine the congregation’s theme of the month through a particular lens. This week we will be introducing October's theme: Emptiness. 

Take some time at home this week to talk with your kids about some of our focus questions:

• "What does it mean when something is empty?” 

• “What feelings does the word ‘empty’ make you think of?”

• “What is the opposite of emptiness?” 

• “What is something positive about emptiness?”

• “What about the idea of emptiness is religious?” 

• “Why is this something we’d talk about in church?”

• “Do you ever feel like there’s so much stuff going on in your mind that you can hardly think?” or “too much stuff in your room that you can’t find anything?” “How does that feel?” “How do you react when you feel that way?”

• “How would it feel to take all your worries and busy thoughts and empty them out of your mind?”

This is our first Sunday thinking together about "Emptiness." Both our activities are easy and fun to do at home. 

• Decorate worry jars. Use paint, glitter glue, or stickers to decorate an ordinary jar with a lid. Encourage your kids to write or draw their worries and keep them in the jar. (more about worry jars from Dr. Stephanie Margolese)

• Trash pick-up field trip. This is another thing you can do in your neighborhood or local park or playground. 

[uurebaltimore-blog]

Emptiness

a newsletter column by Becky Brooks for our October Beacon.

Intellectually, when I hear the theme of the month for October: Emptiness, I have a predictable reaction (for someone in this culture). Ick, I think. I don’t want to feel that. I don’t want to feel empty. I know there are positive aspects to emptiness, but my initial thought is wariness and avoidance. I want my life to be full. I want my heart to be full. The idea of emptiness sparks in me a visceral huddling, turning left, turning right, hands over my heart. Empty can’t get me!

And yet… I was almost 40 years old before I had language for something that had plagued me my whole life: the open loop. What’s an open loop? It’s that email message I really should answer, but stays in my inbox because I haven’t figured out what to say yet. It’s the pile of books in my office that I need to donate to Book Thing but haven’t gotten around to yet. It’s the conversation that I keep meaning to have with someone, but every day keep not having it. Open loops drive me crazy. I feel like a computer that has too many windows open, downloading too many files, loading too many webpages, processing too much information. 

I love it when my inbox is empty. I love it when my desk is free of clutter. I love it when we finish the box of cereal and instead of putting it, half-full, back into the cupboard, there’s a gap, waiting to be filled with something new. I love it when all the dishes are done and put away and the laundry is folded and the hamper lies empty. I love it when the table is cleared at the end of a meal. I love it when I have an hour to myself and no one is clamoring for my attention—even if that hour comes before sunrise. I love it when one of my kids flops down for a cuddle and I put my book and all my thoughts away for a few minutes. Emptiness can be rare and banal and sublime. 

There’s Kabbalistic idea of God, which I know I’ve shared with the congregation before in story, that suggests that in order for God to create the world, God needed to contract, to leave some space in the universe empty to make room for creation. I love this idea of the vitality of emptiness. What do we make room for when we experience emptiness? What grows in the hollow places? There is no question that emptiness can be incredibly painful. What exists in and alongside the pain? How do we experience emptiness with love? 

I look forward to exploring together this month.

[uurebaltimore-blog]

RE@Home: Sept. 28 —Love and Community

Each week our "Home Groups" examine the congregation's theme of the month through a particular lens. This week's focus is on Community. 

Take some time at home this week to talk with your kids about some of our focus questions:

• "How do you show someone you love them?” “What about different kinds of people: your family? Your friends? Your neighbors?” “What about groups? Your school? Your church? Your city?”

• "What do we mean when we talk about Community?” 

• “What does the idea of Community have to do with Love?"

• "What are some of the different communities you feel you belong to/in?”

• "What’s your favorite thing about your church community?” 

• “What do you wish were different about your church community?"

• “There is a phrase: speak the truth in love. What do you think that might mean?”

On our last Sunday together working with the topic of "Love" we gave the kids two options for their activity. Try these at home!

• Photo safari for heart shaped items & images of love — break out your cameras and wander your home, neighborhood or city looking for images that relate to Love. Print them out and make a collage or post them to your own tumblr. 

• Make a banner reflecting the theme of the month — we'll be making banners each month on the different themes. This is another thing you can do at home to put minds and hands to work. Make a small (or big!) work of art for your home on September's theme: Love.

[thetithingman]

YRUU: Young Religious Unitarian Universalists #yruu #uu #uua (at Unitarian Universalist Association)

[uurebaltimore-blog]

Unitarian Universalism: Now Serving 31 Kinds of Families

a blog post at Call And Response, by Karen Bellavance-Grace

Our times and families have changed. Although our faith formation ministries still largely focus on Sunday morning as though it were the one way we know to kneel and kiss the ground, we are called today to show up in new ways. Religious professionals must show up where our families are, because although they cannot all be with us on Sunday mornings, they are still all our people. Our parents must show up to live Unitarian Universalism at home, in neighborhoods, and even on soccer fields. Our world is moving rapidly from an Age of Enlightenment culture into a new and radically connected Age of Embodiment. We all need to embody our faith in new ways that help our own people understand and live out our theology and help our communities know we are the Love people...

read more...

[veryaaron]

Fire of Love From Ellen Kristi We light this chalice by giving thanks for the fire of love that burns within our hearts, to remember that when fire meets fire there aren’t many, but one fire. And now we want to worship the source of fire in all hearts, so that we may all be one in love. #shabbat #unity #interfaith #bahai #uuc #unitarian #love #light #universalist #love #sabbat #sabbath #inspirational

[beingblog]

"When we treat children’s play as seriously as it deserves, we are helping them feel the joy that’s to be found in the creative spirit. It’s the things we play with and the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives."

Fred Rogers (via beingblog)

[dailydoseofstuf]

It’s not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It’s our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.

L.R. Knost (via maxistentialist)

[uurebaltimore-blog]

Ella's Song ("We who believe in freedom") by Sweet Honey in the Rock, sung by First Unitarian Society of Denver's choir.

[uurebaltimore-blog]

5 [AWESOME] Things About Freedom

1. You are free to be yourself [and loved for it]! (h/t Loved For Who You Are)

2. You are free to create your own path!

3. Freedom of belief, expression, and association emphasizes diversity!

4. You are free to be a leader!

5. You are free to grow and change!

[uurebaltimore-blog]

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

—Viktor E. Frankl

[uurebaltimore-blog]

5 Things: The downsides of freedom

"Freedom, Reason, and Tolerance," were meaningful watchwords within Unitarian Universalism for many years. But what are the drawbacks to making Freedom such a strong component of our faith?

1. We forget the value of obligation in religious community and spiritual growth.

2. We lose something when we don't have a sense of accountability to our neighbors and ourselves.

3. We can become unmoored from this faith and our religious communities and allow our companion UUs to become lost when we become disconnected as we practice our freedoms.

4. We undervalue our neighbors when we assume that freedom of belief is unique to Unitarian Universalism.

5. Sometimes we give ourselves and our friends permission to let go of ways we could improve, missing out on pursuing excellence and growing.

(Download our Common Conversations highlights guide for June, or view the full listing online)

[firstubaltimore-blog]

Common Conversations June: Freedom

Don’t miss this month’s Common Conversations guide on June’s topic: Freedom. 

(or download the highlights here)