Lifespan religious education

is an important and ongoing component in the life and organization of the Fellowship. A religious education trustee on the governing board of UCF , an acting RE administrator and a religious education committee plans, recruits leadership and oversees a program of religious education. Included are classes for children on Sunday mornings, an emerging teen and pre-teen youth group and classes for adults. A professional nanny provides care for infants and pre-schoolers.

If you have questions about lifespan religious education at UCF, contact our minister, Reverend Sally B. White (at the church office 240-2283) or Doug Hayes (910-330-7601-7601)

Teen Craft Workshops

News from RE

Hello again from the RE corner. Typically, summer is a slower time for RE in general with the interruptions of
summer vacations and trips, and this year was no exception – however, there are a few things worth mentioning. Once again we had a successful summer
program, and this year added a ‘drama’ week that was well received and filled to the brim with children. Many kudos to Manda Long and Sharon Farmer and all the folks who helped out. We also implemented a curriculum plan that let our teachers “plug and play” lesson packets that had been prepared in advance. These packets were available in the RE room and the teachers just picked up a packet a week or so before the lesson and reviewed the material.
Most of the prep work was already done. All the teachers liked the new system and we are continuing to use this for our fall sessions. As all the material is
already scripted and any prep work is clearly detailed, we found that anyone could easily implement the lesson,
even without a background knowledge of the topic, making it easy for someone to step in and help out the primary leader at the last minute. As much as possible
we plan to adapt our curricula to this system. That leads to a request (um, a REQUEST!) from RE to all the UCF committees and interest groups. Actually, to everyone in the congregation who has a passion or idea they want to share. We want to develop a library of
teaching resources for adult seminars/ lessons as well as units for youth and children’s RE classes and are inviting
all the committees to help us do this. It benefits everyone to have a library of programs we’ve (UCF) done or plan to do, so we can carry the knowledge
forward to help someone do a similar (or spin off) program in the future. And it can help the individual committees to have programs that explain or demonstrate their specific areas of interest. For
instance, let’s say a group wishes to do an evening group to discuss ethical eating (I know, someone is actually planning on doing this – convenient, huh?) and assembles some resources for this: book, movie, Internet information and so on. The presenters need to
organize this material into some type of format for adult education, whether as an informal discussion group after viewing a movie (or reading a book) or a more scripted series of events and topics. What we would like is to have the committee make a record of this plan – make an outline of the program and actually identify some specific goal or piece of knowledge that they hope will
come out of this. Then, the RE committee would like to organize a central file of all RE programs, available to folks in the future. That way, if someone decides to present the same or a similar topic or program in a year
or two, they can use or build on the original program. THEN, we would like to have you think about what you want the children and youth in our congregation to know about this issue – or about the mission of your committee – and then rework the material or lesson so that it can be presented at an elementary and/or middle school level. The RE committee can help with that. What we can’t do as effectively as YOU, is to filter
through the ideas and issues you are concerned about, nor can we bring as much specific knowledge to the
subject as those of you with a special interest. Some examples might help: 1) The ethical eating group could make a simplified presentation of the ethical issues involved in food production (animal overcrowding or poor living conditions; environmental or human effects from aggressive antibiotic use; loss of habitat to food production companies, etc.) and then have the children participate in an ethical eating cooking class (again,simplified) or menu preparation one day; 2) the Green
Sanctuary committee has in the past discussed composting and recycling and then made compost pails for everyone – a crafty way to gets the kids involved. 3) the facilities committee could discuss wear and tear and
upkeep, and then recruit the class to help with a project (this could tie in to helping the community, showing
respect, being fair by doing their part, etc.).So, we invite each committee or interest group or member of the congregation, to think about how to
develop one or more lessons or programs that we can use to build a library of RE resources – adult, teen/ youth,and children specific. WOW, thanks for making it through all that! Next month we’ll discuss our new approach to teaching and planning
our year’s program and our RE program registration form, as well as update everyone on the status of our search for an RE administrator. Doug Hayes has agreed to resume the role as Acting RE Administrator for the next several months, while that process continues to
unfold.

That’s all for now. We hope you enjoyed your "fortune” cookies on Sunday. For questions, queries, quibbles, concerns, or suggestions, contact Doug at djhayes29@hotmail.com or call 910-330-7601.

Las Posadas Christmas Service