Well, as shocking as this might sound, last week was another busy, informative, and fun RE children’s service in Fellowship Hall. Grades K-7 started out with Jane Dixon, who explained that two new refugee families had arrived in our country and asked if the students would like to make welcome cards. They absolutely did, and worked intently on designing beautiful and colorful “welcome to America” cards, which Jane promised to deliver. Next on the agenda was children’s music director Lyra Harada working with the students on “It’s A Small World,” to be sung at RE Sunday, June 16. Lyra led the rehearsal with a great deal of energy and the students responded with a lot of laughter and bantering back and forth. The audience of adults even “egged” the kids on by saying, “we can’t hear you” and the children stood up like a chorus and increased the volume, as asked. They were great, as was Lyra – our very own junior choir! At this point, grades K-3 left to their classrooms and 4-5 and 6-7 students were invited to hear special guest Ivan Smith from the Coachman Family Center talk about the plight of people who are homeless and about the resources that Coachman provides for them. The youngsters quickly got a sense of how limited the space was for these families at the center and how few personal belongings they could have. This served as a perfect segue for the question posed to the students: what items would they bring if they were homeless and there was a limit? They also were asked to think about what they would miss the most. The answers that several children had were not surprising, as we have very focused, introspective, and deep young people in CUUC RE. They felt that the lack of privacy, or as they aptly termed it “personal space,” was the biggest loss. This session with Ivan and Ray Messing truly added another level of understanding and compassion to the UU principles taught every Sunday. Looking ahead, we have another Social Justice Program on May 19 by the LBQTIA team, we have Memorial Day around the corner on May 26 with no RE classes, the Special Friends breakfast and Annual Meeting on Jun 2; barbeque and Affirmation Sunday on Jun 9; and of course RE Sunday on Jun 16. Whew! I don’t know about you but I’m amazed at the whole lot of fun, food, camaraderie, and well-deserved honoring and recognition of the RE students that is coming up. The culmination of a wonderfully facilitated RE year… until next time!
Michele Rinaldi
RE Coordinator
Looking ahead...
RE This Sunday, May 5
Grades K-7 start in Fellowship Hall for Children's Worship. Lyra will be here with music activities. Grades 4-7 will move to 41 for the LGBTQIA Social Justice Sunday program. Grades 8-9 start in classes. Youth grades 10-12 will stay with their families in the sanctuary.
College Scholarship Awards
Each year CUUC offers two scholarships in the amount of $250 for our graduating seniors. Qualifying youth are encouraged to send a short essay on their contributions and leadership at CUUC, with a brief explanation of how the scholarship will be used, and the names of two CUUC references to
re@cucwp.org by Fri May 31.
Special Friends Meet-Up Breakfast, Sun Jun 2, 9:00am, Fellowship Hall
The secret pen pals in our Special Friends program will be revealed at a celebration breakfast. We will provide masquerade costumes to help with the excitement of meeting our mysterious writing partners. Thanks to all participants for helping our kids and adults get to know one another better and for creating greater community at CUUC!
Summer programs for youth and young adults are an important way to support young Unitarian Universalists in their faith development and help them discern their life’s calling. Learn more about summer programs offered by the UUA office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries at
uua.org/young-adults/events.
UU Summer Camps & Retreat Centers for Children, Youth, and Families
Unitarian Universalist retreat centers offer the opportunity to connect with UUs from around the country in fun and fellowship. Whether you are looking for a place to go as a family or somewhere for your kids to experience a fun camp, there are many amazing Unitarian Universalist summer destinations:
- Ferry Beach is oceanfront in ME. ferrybeach.org
- The Mountain is atop the Blue Ridge Mountains in NC. mountaincenters.org
- The Rowe Center is in the Berkshire Mountains in MA. rowecenter.org
- Sophia Fahs RE Camp is one week in August on Shelter Island. liacuu.org/Fahs
- Star Island is a 46-acre island off the NH coast. starisland.org
- Unirondack is in the NY Adirondacks. unirondack.org
- Murray Grove is a Universalist retreat center nearby in NJ. murraygrove.org
- UUMAC Retreat is one week in July at DeSales University in PA. uumac.org
- CERSI is one week in July in Oberlin, OH. cersiuu.or
- SUUSI is a weeklong multignerational event in North Carolina. suusi.org
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