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2022-09-23

Religious Exploration: September 25, 2022

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Religious Exploration & Faith Development
Community Unitarian Universalist Congregation at White Plains
September 25, 2022

2022-2023 RE Theme: Unitarian Universalist Identity
Overview of the Year & Upcoming Schedule
Community Activity for All Ages

CUUC Mosaic of Identities

Remember to bring the hexagon pieces you designed to reflect the identities you carry with you into community. Blank hexagons and supplies will also be available in the sanctuary and during coffee hour through September.

If you are attending by Zoom, Tracy (cuucwptracy@gmail.com) would be happy to mail mosaic pieces to you and then place them with the others after you mail them back. We look forward to learning about and celebrating the multilayered identities in our CUUC community.
If you are attending by Zoom, Tracy (cuucwptracy@gmail.com) would be happy to mail mosaic pieces to you and then place them with the others after you mail them back. We look forward to learning about and celebrating the multilayered identities in our CUUC community.
Sunday, September 25

Childcare

Sundays, 9:45am-11:45am, Room 32, Yellow Hallway
Diane K, Hans E, and Max T welcome young children in childcare. We offer a safe, loving environment where our youngest build community. Once each month, Tracy visits childcare for a short class with the Kindergarteners. We all wear masks and play outside when weather permits. 

1st-9th Grade Classes Meet
Youth Group is On Break

 

Sunday, Sept 25, 10:00-11:15am in the Classrooms
Religious Exploration classes for 1st-9th grade meet this Sunday. Go directly to the classrooms, not the sanctuary. Youth Group does not meet this week. The schedule posted here will be updated regularly. A link to this is also on the homepage of our website

1st-3rd Grade ClassSigns of Our Faith
Room 33, Yellow Hallway 
Laura S is leading session 1, Signs, Symbols, and Rituals, assisted by Ginny S. In this first session, children learn what we mean when we talk about signs, symbols, and rituals, and examine why rituals are important to connect us to each other and our faith. They also hear a foundational statement of this program that will be repeated: Our behavior every day is a sign of our faith. Children in 3rd grade and younger must be picked up in their classrooms. Please do so right after worship so RE leaders can go to other activities. 

4th-5th Grade Class, Toolbox of Faith
Room 41, Green Hallway
Session 1, Faith (Toolbox and Ruler)
The toolbox symbolizes our Unitarian Universalist faith. In this session, there are opportunities to reflect on what we might put in a toolbox of our faith and what tools our faith can provide. In addition to the toolbox, this session introduces a ruler to illustrate the rules and promises that are decided together. 

6th-7th Grade Class, Riddle & Mystery
Room 13, Red Hallway
Gail is leading session 1, The Big Questions. Youth explore the importance of big questions to humankind and investigate their first Big Question: "Where do we come from?" They learn to accept, appreciate and celebrate mystery, ambiguity and contradiction as part of human life and the starting points of religion as they explore Unitarian Universalist responses to big questions.

8th-9th Grade ClassOur Whole Lives (OWL)
Room 11, Red Hallway
This class meets until 11:45am

Alex S and another OWL team member are leading session 1, What is Sexuality? and session 2, Examining Values. The first session fosters a spirit of fun while reassuring youth that this will be a comfortable space. Youth will learn about the Circles of Sexuality, which encompass broad aspects of self and relationships with others. In the second session, youth clarify their own values and learn to hear and honor values that differ from their own. 

8th-12th Grade, Youth Group
Room 14, Red Hallway
Youth Group does not meet this Sunday. We’ll see you next Sunday, October 2nd. 


Read more about the curricula and activities HERE
We look forward to seeing you!

10:00am Worship
In Person & Livestream

“Moving Gracefully Through Change” ~ Rev. Patience Stoddard

Rev. Stoddard is our ministerial consultant, helping us navigate through our ministerial transition happening next summer. 

Organizational consultant William Bridges wrote, “It’s a paradox: To achieve continuity, we have to be willing to change. Change is, in fact, the only way to protect whatever exists.” Guest worship leader Rev. Patience Stoddard examines the opportunities and challenges that come with transition, including some that our congregation explored in Saturday's Path to the Future workshop. We also recognize the beginning of the Jewish Holy Week that starts this evening with Rosh Hashanah, the time for self-examination and repentance.

Visit our website for the Sunday order of service.

Covid safety policy update: We are no longer requiring proof of vaccination. Masks continue to be required for those in the building.

Click here to join the live-stream of our Sunday Worship or phone in (audio only): 646-876-9923 · Webinar: 761 321 991 · Passcode: 468468. Everyone live-streaming the service is invited to stay online afterward to socialize on Zoom. Log in to bit.ly/CUUC-CoffeeHour or phone: 929-436-2866. Meeting: 336 956 2210, Passcode: 468468.

Community

Parents/Caregivers of Tweens/Teens
Covenant Group

Wednesday, Sept 28th, 7:30-9:00pm, Zoom 8428
This UU covenant group is for parents and caregivers of middle school and high school youth to meet and be present to each other.

From Chaos, Wonder and the Spiritual Adventure of Parenting: “In the context of parenting, the spiritual [...] becomes tangible. It is felt, touched, and communicated daily as the tone and color of family life. We hear, taste, breathe, and touch the spiritual through the ways we attend, together, to countless sunrises, meals at the family table, celebrations, frustrations, griefs, joys, laughter, and responsibilities. We feel its press in the disparity between the path we hope to walk - full of kindness, love, forgiveness - and the path we actually walk.” As a covenant group, we will share and support the fullness of each other’s experiences of parenting. 

The first gathering is Wednesday, September 28th, 7:30-9:00pm and we will set an ongoing meeting schedule together. Gatherings will be on Zoom: bit.ly/CUUC-RE or meeting ID 817 388 428 and passcode 468468.  For phone audio dial 646-558-8656. Contact Tracy B (cuucwptracy@gmail.com) and Nicole T (nturygin@gmail.com). 

Donations for HOPE's Soup Kitchen

Inviting Donations of Food Items from the Congregation
HOPE Community Services in New Rochelle is busier than ever. A dedicated team at CUUC has been preparing weekly meals for the Soup Kitchen for many years. Families are now getting involved by providing 70 to-go breakfasts and lunches. We invite the congregation to donate individual-sized food items such as shelf-stable milk, juice, water, fruit cups, and soft granola bars, as well as napkins, loaves of bread, and peanut butter. Leave them in the labeled bins located in the foyer. Frozen items such as French toast, pancakes, waffles, frozen sausages or patties (no pork) can be brought in Saturday morning, October 29th or as coordinated with Christine Haran (christineharan@yahoo.com).

Youth Pride & TransParentcy+

Center Lane has two exciting events coming up! The first is their second Youth Pride, an in-person event which will be on Saturday, October 1, from 2:00-5:00 in Ardsley. The second is TransFabulous, a short-term TransParentcy+ that will meet virtually on Mondays. See the flyers below for more details. If you have any questions email them at centerlane@wjcs.com, or call (914) 423-0610.
UU BIPOC Gatherings

October 3rd, 6:30pm & Monthly on Mondays
If you identify as Black, Indigenous or a person of color (BIPOC), you're invited to join the Central East Region's BIPOC gathering happening monthly. In our gatherings we are joined by lay folks of color, lay leaders of color and/or religious professionals of color to be in community.

Our conversations focus on topics like wellness and resilience and our goal is to center BIPOC experiences and create space to explore our UU experiences. Our first meeting of the year will be on September 12th at 6:30pm ET. Remaining dates: 10/3, 11/7, 12/5, 01/09, 02/06, 03/06, 04/03, 05/08, 06/05. Please email Sana Saeed (ssaeed@uua.org) or Paula Cole Jones (pcolejones@gmail.com) for zoom information. 

Families Supporting
HOPE's Soup Kitchen

Sat Oct 29, 10:30am-12:00pm, at CUUC
Family & Youth Activity: To-Go Bag Lunch Prep for HOPE

We will be making bag lunches and breakfasts Saturday, October 29th, 10:30am-12:00pm. Join us and feel welcome to bring friends. RSVP with Christine Haran (christineharan@yahoo.com) to coordinate what food is needed.
More About Religious Exploration 
Welcome to a new year in Religious Exploration! We look forward to growing together as we explore ways in which we see ourselves (identify) as Unitarian Universalist individually and as a community, and what those mean for the ways in which we nurture our UU community, welcome new people, and carry our values into the world.

A quiet activity area is available for young people when attending worship in the sanctuary. We ask parents/guardians to sit near your children to help monitor quiet activity and tidy up after worship.

Signs will be posted every Sunday indicating what we are doing in RE, where to go at 10:00am, and who is leading the activities for each group. Check the bulletin board in the lobby, the table with nametags for children and youth, the RE lobby bulletin board, or the REsource room window. 

Children in 3rd grade and younger must be picked up in their rooms (yellow hallway). Please do so before heading to coffee hour so RE leaders can go to their next activities.

We wear masks Sunday mornings and will refrain from offering snacks for now. 

Tracy Breneman, Director of Religious Exploration and Faith Development, cuucwptracy@gmail.com
Community Unitarian Universalist Congregation at White Plains  
468 Rosedale Ave · White Plains, NY 10605-5419







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