Weekly Update for May 23 - 29

Please note that this Sunday, May 29th, is the last day of our 2010/2011 RE program year. I encourage all children and youth to attend this last session, which will be a wrap up and celebration of the year.

Our annual multigenerational worship celebrating our RE year is on Sunday, June 5th. All classes will participate in this worship, sharing what they have learned this year. Also, our dedicated & hard working RE volunteers will be honored. Please arrive at 10:25am on June 5th and sit in the reserved front rows of the sanctuary.

Summer RE begins on Sunday, June 12. Social Justice, Spiritual Practice, Movies with a message, and Games/Crafts/Play! There are no multigenerational worship services or Stories for All Ages during the summer. Children & youth should be dropped off in the small dome instead of coming into worship. Please sign your child in at the small dome and pick them up immediately following service.

Curriculum details and goals for Sunday, May 29th:

We Are Many, We Are One (Age 4 – 6): "We Give Thanks for Our Year Together" Goals: To conclude the class experience with positive memories; to celebrate our church as a place to make friends; to celebrate this group of friends and our working and playing together.

Moral Tales (Age 7 – 10) “Working Together”

This session will:

• Increase participants' understanding of our Unitarian Universalist Principles, particularly the inherent worth and dignity of every person, acceptance of one another and encouragement of spiritual growth, the goal of world community, and respect for the interdependent web of all existence
• Create a forum for children to share with one another about acts of goodness and justice
• Foster participants' pride in sharing acts of goodness and justice that they have done (or witnessed)
• Demonstrate that individuals gain strength by pooling their strengths with others, and sticking together
• Help participants articulate and appreciate situations in which they have experienced cooperation
• Present opportunities for cooperative problem-solving
• Strengthen participants' Unitarian Universalist identity by demonstrating the connection between the choices we make in our lives and the beliefs and attitudes we hold as Unitarian Universalists, including the Principles and Sources
• Strengthen participants' connection to and sense of responsibility to their Moral Tales group

Riddle & Mystery (Age 11 – 16) “UU Me”

This session will:

• Pose the Big Question "What does Unitarian Universalism mean to me?" and explore a variety of responses
• Guide youth to explore the roles of religion, spirituality, faith and faith community in their life journeys
• Offer one teenager's experience of Unitarian Universalism
• Help youth shape simple statements of what Unitarian Universalism means to them
• Celebrate the conclusion of Riddle and Mystery.

May 15 UU Tampa RE

We Are Many, We Are One (Age 4 – 6)
Lesson: We Give Flowers to Friends (Hawaiian Lei Day)

Goals:
• To celebrate the beauty of nature.
• To associate the giving of flowers – a practice common to many cultures – with affection and friendship.

Moral Tales (Age 7 - 10)
Lesson: Courage

Goals:
• Give participants an opportunity to share acts of goodness that they have done (or witnessed);
• Provide a forum for children to hear peers share stories about courage and articulate their own
• Encourage participants to imagine themselves feeling more courageous in a situation that they are concerned about
• Help participants understand courage as an act of goodness
• Guide participants' understanding of the role of conscience and compassion in inspiring one to act with courage.
• Strengthen participants' connection to and sense of responsibility to their faith community.

Riddle & Mystery (Age 11 – 16)
Lesson: Life as Mystery

• Pose the Big Question "Can we ever solve life's mystery?" and explore Unitarian Universalist responses
• Re-examine Big Questions from previous sessions
• Present mystery as an essential part of human life
• Show how answers generate new questions
• Demonstrate Unitarian Universalist joy in mystery, as well as our need to explore it.

Worship story: The Story of Zacchaeus, Luke 19: 1 – 9

After RE & worship please stay for our Parents Potluck Picnic on the playground. The “PPP” takes place on the 3rd Sunday of each month. All birthdays of that month are celebrated with a cake!