Religious Education Ministry Blog
The regular column from Rayna Hamre, OCUUC’s Director of Religious Education.
Justice General Assembly in Phoenix 2012
Justice General Assembly is just around the corner. I hope to see many of you there. We will be exploring border justice issues with plenty of hands-on opportunities to work with other organizations around this social issue. If you have any questions about the Youth Caucus, here is a great place to start:
http://www.uua.org/re/youth/events/gacaucus/faq/index.shtml
Our 1st-6th grade class will be holding a sock drive in June in support of the No More Deaths Ministry. I will deliver the collected socks to that team at General Assembly in Phoenix:
Blessings~~
Rayna Hamre, OCUUUC Director of Religious Education
Justice General Assembly, June 2012
Unitarian Universalist General Assembly. It is a huge gathering of UUs from all over the country; from all over the world, really. I love going to our UU General Assembly. As an employee of the church, it is now an expectation that I go, but I started loving GA long before I began working as our OCUUC Director of Religious Education.
My very first two General Assemblies were in Phoenix, where this year’s GA will be held and in our own backyard, in Long Beach. I went with my entire family. Those GAs were very special. I went to GA in Salt Lake City, where I was able to visit my mother’s family, and to GA in Minneapolis, where my husband’s family lives. Those trips were also, very, very special. One of my proudest moments was a GA I didn’t even attend, where youth advisor Birdie Reed sponsored my son, and he carried our UU banner in the big banner parade that opens GA every year. I wasn’t even there, and that GA in Cleveland was very special to me.
But last year we went to Charlotte, North Carolina. So my very proudest moment at GA was putting on this ‘Standing on the Side of Love’ T-shirt, gathering with so many other UUs wearing this T-Shirt, and marching with everyone to stand up for Marriage Rights for All. Swirling in that gathering of UUs, and knowing that we all stood together; that we all were there to stand on the side of Love gave me goose bumps. I got goose bumps writing about it, too.
We walked together in our shirts that day, we had signs and we sang. We heard inspirational stories and singers. But being part of that group, just being together, straight and LGBT, old and young and in-between, being there to do the right thing and to speak up for justice, was an incredible experience. It rained on the way back from the park that day, and that in no way dampened our spirits. We were there, and we were all present for justice. We were together in the spirit of life and love.
This year we will be standing up in Phoenix for another important issue, immigration and border justice. I want for each and every one of you to be able to have that experience. To march with your UU sisters and brothers, to hold space and speak up for doing the right thing. Please join us for justice GA in Phoenix in June 2012. Walk with UUs from all over, walk together with others from OCUUC. Please come and join hands, and walk with me.
http://blueboat.blogs.uua.org/ga2012/programs/
http://www.uua.org/documents/lfd/1202_youth_ga.pdf
Our Whole Lives
Our Whole Lives (OWL) is coming up for grades 10-12 at OCUUC!
OWL provides accurate information to young people so that they can make informed decisions about their bodies and their lives. It’s a lot of fun too! We still need one male facilitator for a Saturday if anyone from another UU church is available who has had the OWL training.
Mandatory Parent meeting Monday March 26 6pm-10pm
Friday March 30 5:30 (potluck 5:30-6:30) pm through Saturday March 31, 6 pm
Friday April 20 6 pm through Saturday April 21, 6 pm
Registration is $30. OWL is open to all youth in the 10th-12th grades in the larger community. Contact Rayna Hamre (dre
ocuuc
org) for more information.
Please let us know ASAP if your children will be participating in Our Whole Lives, or, OWL. We will be opening up the sessions to other churches in the area, so spaces will fill fast.
- Senior high OWL will meet for two intensives on Friday March 30 6 pm through Saturday March 31, 6 pm and Friday April 20 6 pm through Saturday April 21, 6 pm.
- 5th-6th grade OWL will meet on the following: Sunday April 15, 1-3:30 pm mandatory parent & student session; Sundays April 22, 29; Sundays May 6, 13, 20, 27; and Sunday June 3, 1-2:30 pm.
The Year of the Dragon and the OWL at OCUUC
The New Year is a time of reflection and celebration for many of us. Reflecting back on our growth and expanded activities over the past year is a great source of joy for me. The months of January and February also held so many fun and activities for our children, youth, parents and volunteers at OCUUC. Our families and volunteers make it all happen!
Our Year of the Dragon is off to a great start. Thanks to the help of our January volunteers, our children had the fun of putting together a dragon parade for Chinese New Year. Fittingly, this is the Year of the Dragon, so there were dragon stories and poems along with our dragon making activities in the Social Hall. The adults had a surprise when the dragon was waiting for them on the patio after the second service. If there were any evil spirits lurking about the building they should be gone after our parade. We welcomed in the New Year with plenty of noise and good wishes. February brought us our second craft night, with the evening focused on Valentine activities and a pizza dinner. Through the cooperation of several committees, our Spirit Grant money, and a private donation, we were able to replace the television in the Social Hall with a new model. With much clearer picture and sound available, RE will be able to resume family movie nights and to provide up-to-date equipment for trainings and classes.
If our Religious Education classes seem a little small during the months of February and March, it is because we have a large group of youth who are taking Our Whole Lives (OWL) at the UU Church of Long Beach. Our families and events will be back on track at OCUUC in May. OWL provides age appropriate information, in a caring environment with trained facilitators, about the human body, sexual health and positive life choices. OWL classes are scheduled at OCUUC for our 5-6 graders and senior high this spring.
Parents, please let us know ASAP if your children will be participating in Our Whole Lives, or, OWL. We will be opening up the sessions to other churches in the area, so spaces will fill fast.
- Senior high OWL will meet for two intensives on Friday March 30 6 pm through Saturday March 31, 6 pm and Friday April 20 6 pm through Saturday April 21, 6 pm.
- 5th-6th grade OWL will meet on the following: Sunday April 15, 1-3:30 pm mandatory parent & student session; Sundays April 22, 29; Sundays May 6, 13, 20, 27; and Sunday June 3, 1-2:30 pm.
Email dreocuucorg (dreocuucorg)
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and the Four Noble Truths
Dear OCUUC Community-
Our December 2011 worship theme at OCUUC is world religions. Here is my Time For All Ages presentation that compares Unitarian Charles Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol and the Buddhist Four Noble Truths. Dickensians around the globe will celebrate his 200th birthday in February 2012.
Happy Holidays to All!
Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education
~~~~~~~~~~~
Once upon a time there was a man named Ebenezer Scrooge. He has become famous, many of the grown ups know his story. He loved money more than anything. His business partner dies, and his partner comes back as a ghost on Christmas Eve. I always want to say Bob Marley, but it was Jacob Marley. He warns Ebenezer that he will be visited by three ghosts before the night is over, the Spirit of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future.
The Spirits do come and visit Ebenezer, and give him a good scare. The Spirit of Christmas Past shows him the person he used to be, that he used to be able to have fun and was in love with a girl, but his love of money became more important. The Spirit of Christmas Present takes him to his nephew’s, where hears how the others see him, that he is mean and only thinks of himself and his money.
The last Spirit, who shows him the future that might be, takes him to see the family of the man who works for him, Bob Cratchit. He has a little boy named Tiny Tim, who will die because his family is poor and not able to take care of him. Ebenezer sees his own death which really scares him.
After he wakes up in the morning he is very different. He realizes that we should be good to each other, that to take care of each other and to be kind is the most important thing. He tries to make all of his family and those who work for him happy. He learned an important lesson.
Rev. Ed has talked about a religion from Asia, it is called Buddhism. I saw some of the important things in Buddhism in this story. The Buddha told everyone what are called the Four Noble Truths. Charles Dickens lived at a time when many people suffered, and that is the first noble truth, that everyone suffers. Rich people, poor people, everyone suffers.
The second noble truth is that the cause of everyone’s suffering can be known and understood. Good news for all of us, and Ebenezer was able to find out what was caused his suffering in the story. He was greedy, he only loved money, he tried to keep everything he had for himself, and he never shared anything.
The third noble truth talks about greed, that is the way that all of us try to hold on to the good things in our lives, and worry if we will not be able to do that. It makes us unhappy that everything changes, that things never stay the same, and we worry about that and try to hold on to things and people. It can make us mean and crabby with ourselves and with others.
The fourth noble truth tells us how to live to have a happy life. We need to do what Ebenezer did, share what we have and expect things to change all the time. We can be happy if we accept that things are always changing and don’t expect them to stay the same, if we can let things change. We have to see that all the things we own can go away and even our feelings or other people’s feelings can change, and that all the changes are okay. We shouldn’t expect to keep everything forever. If we see that, it sets us free, and we can open up our hearts and stop worrying. Then we are free to love ourselves and each other.
Exploring Our UU Heritage, 1st Sundays, History with Some Zip!
Unitarian Universalists have a wonderful and inspiring heritage. We have many people in our denominational past who have been in the forefront and the background fighting for both public and private good. It is my pleasure this year to introduce our children and youth to some of those people during our Religious Education 1st Sundays together. Our 1st Sunday format is for all our children and youth to gather together for about 20 minutes, then to break out into smaller groups for activities.
Our first group of highlighted UUs includes Margaret Fuller, Hans Deutsch and Rev. Charles Joy, and George de Benneville. Margaret Fuller was a 19th century intellectual, mystic, war correspondent and early champion of women’s rights. Hans Deutsch and Rev. Joy designed the flaming chalice during the resistance movement of World War II. This symbol eventually became the symbol of our shared Unitarian and Universalist faith. George de Benneville championed our Universalist heritage in the 18th century, and preached that all people are loved and saved by God. He risked of his life to say these words in both Lutheran and Catholic Europe, and many of his friends were killed for these activities. His life was important, important enough for our UU Camp de Benneville Pines in the San Bernardino Mountains to be named after him.
One paragraph cannot do justice to the lives of these amazing and complex individuals. Below are UUA resources if you would like to explore further:
http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/margaretfuller.html
http://www.uua.org/publications/pamphlets/introductions/151248.shtml
http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/georgedebenneville.html
I am honored to share these brave and inspired lives with our children and youth. I hold an MA in history, so this is a true passion of mine. Presenting age-appropriate information and activities with enthusiasm can bring people from the past alive to young people. History shouldn’t be boring!
Of course 1st Sundays are only one week out of our month. Our regular curriculum Sundays are taught by a wonderful group of volunteers. As always, I am so grateful for our RE community! Thanks to all those who help teach and support our young people on Sundays and beyond.
I look forward to a year of learning and fun with our OCUUC children and youth!
In Gratitude~~
Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education
Embracing Change
Fall is a time of change for most American children. Moving up a grade can be a challenge and can be fraught with a mix of excitement and anxiety. AT OCUUC we hope to help our children with transitions in their Sunday classes, and to create a warm caring environment for them to feel safe as they explore new UU territories with their classmates.
We have had a wonderful changes in the past year in our program. We have steadily increased our registration for church school thanks to hard work and planning by our volunteers and staff. Close to 30 children and youth attend our Sunday program on a regular basis. It is a thrill to see their enthusiasm and excitement as they participate. We have a team of dedicated volunteer teachers and coordinators who make it all happen. Our Religious Education for Children and Youth Committee (RECY) plans with the Director of Religious Education for our classroom activities and programs, with support from our minister, church administrator, Worship Committee and Director of Music ministries. Our parents and church members volunteer to make it all happen, and bring their suggestions and ideas to the community along with their caring and creativity.
With this dynamism and growth does come change. As planners for this religious community, it is our job to find, to listen for, and to evaluate and implement new ideas. It is then our responsibility to make these changes. This can mean streamlining some procedures or trying a new idea. Change can be a challenge, but it also can be exciting and dynamic. As one browses through our curricula dating back over 50 years, it is clear that change is vital! And young or old, change will find us. Embracing the new can bring vitality and energy to our lives.
I was able to attend one transitional event this month, a big change for one person and our Pacific Southwest District, that made me so proud to be a Unitarian Universalist. It was Rev. Tera Little’s ordination at the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles. The religious educators and the ministers, along with all guests and visitors, processed around the block of 8th Street, singing and waving celebratory wands. It was wonderful and invigorating. It was a true gift to see our Rev. Tera’s hard work and dedication rewarded at this loving event. A big congratulations to you, Rev. Tera
In Gratitude~~
Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education
Summer 2011
The summer days are racing by for many of us. OCUUC Religious Educaiton has had some great moments for our Going Green Summer. Water day, recycling sorting, and mask making have been just a few activities our children and youth have participated in over the past month.
Some of us are able to travel and get away for a time. My husband and I were visiting Oslo about two weeks before the tragedies there began, and we were very saddened by the news of the bombings and shootings. Fun and tragedy, laughter and tears. Our lives are often made up of dualities.
As I work with our youth to create this week’s service, Faithful Fools: Standing On The Side of Love for the Homeless, some of those dualities from the trip I took with our youth come into focus. Four OCUUC youth, one youth from Fullerton UU Church, two Directors’ of Religious Education and two chaperons set out on a rainy April day in a rented van. Rain turned to light snow as we traveled over the Grapevine, but we were warm and comfortable in our van, able to stop for dinner along the way.
The next morning we went out on our Street Retreat. This was my second retreat, and I had a completely different experience than the first time, which I wrote about in a previous column. Our youth were in groups of two, with an adult chaperon close by at all times. I was a woman alone, not pretending to be homeless, but hanging out at the park and outwardly not doing much. I was approached by a man for sex while I was sitting by myself in the park (hey, I’m old, what’s going on here, I thought to myself!), which I declined. At that point, he opened up his coat, took out a glass pipe, lit it up and inhaled deeply. He then told me I looked like the type that ‘never got high.’ We were told by Rev. Denis Paul, the Faithful Fools coordinator, to say ‘no, thank you’ when presented with illegal or inappropriate requests on the street, so I was using my ‘no, thank yous’ quite a bit that day. I never felt unsafe, many people were close by including one of our small groups and a male chaperon, but the experience was an eye opener for me in terms of safety for homeless women.
Later in the day I was sitting in a different area and started talking to a homeless woman named Cami. She described her life to me. She could stay at friend’s house one or two nights a week. The other nights she tried to scrape up enough money to ride the rapid transit or the bus all night so she could safely sleep. She couldn’t sleep on the street alone, day or night, it was too dangerous. She said it was safer for a woman if she joined up with a mixed-gender group. Cami had lived with relatives her entire life until they all passed away, was sweet but was obviously not educated, and she had some physical problems. I bought her lunch, gave her $20, made sure she was plugged into a social service agency (she had an appointment the next day) and then had to leave her to return to the Faithful Fools office. My feeling of abandoning her was overwhelming as I walked away. A deep sadness for her and for an economic system that fails so many so regularly.
As a society, I know we have failed these people. A free lunch will not fix this problem; it runs so much deeper and is so much more complex. I was faced with the figure of a person who is realistically not employable in today’s economy. How many more Cami’s are there in the first world; how many are trying to function in the poverty and despair of third world countries? Far, far too many.
Our UU faith provides us with ways to help out in those deeper ways. Please take a moment and review information on our UU Legislative Ministry for California, and our UU Service Committee. Immediate needs are so important, but also we need to look for the root causes of social problems and work for long-term solutions, not quick fixes. The duality of rich and poor is fixable. It’s up to us to become educated and to work for social justice.
Standing On The Side of Love 2011 and 2012
Standing on the Side of Love. Powerful words, and I can feel the love and strength of our denomination when we sing this song together. One of the great things about being a Unitarian Universalist is that we don’t simply sing lines to our shared songs, we are called to live out the values of those words in our daily lives. And we are obligated to share those values with our young people.
As I return from this year’s General Assembly in Charlotte, North Carolina, I know that I am blessed to belong to a faith that asks its member’s to act on their shared values. On Friday June 24th I stood in Marshall Park in downtown Charlotte beside my husband and hundreds of our UU sisters and brothers of all ages. We were there to stand up for LGBTQ rights and marriage equality. Later I was able to cheer with a large group of UUs when the passage of the New York Marriage Equality Act was recognized and announced.
It is distressing that this type of activism is needed. Sadly, rather than declining, violent acts against this part of our community are on the rise. In the U.S. violence against victims because of real or perceived sexual orientation, HIV status or gender identity rose 13% in 2010 over the previous year, according to a report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-lgbt-hate-crimes-20110713,0,3199857.story
At General Assembly in Phoenix, we will be asked to stand on the side of love for immigrant families. I hope to see many OCUUC families make the trip. This is a wonderful opportunity to show our children and the world that we stand on the side of love in response to immigration issues. We have one year to plan for this event.
Our voices are being heard. I was at the Charlotte airport and started chatting with one of the guards while I was waiting to go through security. I said I had been at a church conference at the convention center. He asked if “y’all are part of that yellow shirt group?” There was not a hint of displeasure in his tone, he was simply curious. I proudly said, “yes, we are the yellow shirt group.” We are being noticed as we stand on the side of love and justice: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/06/25/2405808/liberal-denomination-stands-up.html
Please pick up a yellow “Standing on the Side of Love” tee shirt or hat in the months ahead, and be ready for next June’s General Assembly: http://www.sslonlinestore.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=77&zenid=4c9ec254f165b7ddc3981ad3f51160ea
I hope to hold your hand, let our hearts beat as one as we Stand on the Side of Love together.
In Gratitude~~
Rayna Hamre, OCUUC Director of Religious Education
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Elie Wiesel
Religious Education Summer 2011
Please join OCUUC Religious Education for our 2011 Going Green Summer! We will take a look at ways to save energy, how we use water, what happens to the things we throw away and more!
Note our time change for summer services and Religious Education for Children and Youth. OCUUC will transition to our summer schedule of one service only.
RE will gather from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Sunday mornings in July and August 2011.
Rayna Hamre, Director of Religious Education
Saturday July 23:
As part of our “Going Green” this summer, the Religious Education committee invites ALL to attend the Trail of Beauty at the Environmental Nature Center on Saturday July 23. The Trail is open from 10 am to 3 pm so you can attend anytime you’d like but if you want to join others from OCUUC, come at 11 am. Questions? Ask Merrie Lee Wooten (oceanmother221gmailcom) .
