K-3 Wonderful Welcome: begins this Sunday, 9/25! K-3rd Children will begin in the Great Hall with their families and stay through the Story for All Ages, when they will join their teachers and head to their classroom in the church hallway, next to the dining hall. Please be sure to pick up your child by 11:50.

Our Terrific Teachers for this class are Joel Best, Megan McClearn, Juliana Post-Good, and Sarah Tyo!

In this class, children identify intangible gifts central to Unitarian Universalism such as friendship, hospitality, and fairness, and share these gifts with others.

4-6 Love Connects Us: begins this Sunday, 9/25! 4th-6th Children will begin in the Great Hall with their families and stay through the Story for All Ages, when they will join their teachers and head to their large 2nd-floor classroom across the street at Waters House. Please be sure to pick up your child by 11:50.

Our Terrific Teachers for this class are Ben Backes, Leah Fagerstrom, and Dyana Warnock!

Love Connects Us celebrates important ways Unitarian Universalists live our faith in covenanted community. Moved by love and gathered in spirit, we embrace our responsibility toward one another and the world at large. We encourage one another’s search for truth and meaning. We strive to be active in peace-making and other efforts to improve our world.

7/8 OWL (begins in November and will run through late May/early June—day and time to be determined):

Our Fabulous Facilitators for 7/8 OWL are Sue Brunelle, Ash Trotter, and Donald Whisenhunt!

We are once again offering 7/8 OWL classes this church year. We will not be offering OWL next year (2023-2024) but returning the following year to our tradition of offering it every other year.

All 7/8 OWL participants must be vaccinated.

OWL! (Our Whole Lives sexuality education): Sexuality education programs change lives. Honest, accurate information about sexuality changes lives. It dismantles stereotypes and assumptions, builds self-acceptance and self-esteem, fosters healthy relationships, improves decision making, and has the potential to save lives.

A sexuality education program for youth that models and teaches caring, compassion, respect, and justice. A holistic program that moves beyond the intellect to address the attitudes, values, and feelings that youth have about themselves and the world.

Unlike many other sexuality curricula currently available, this program is comprehensive and progressive. In an inclusive and developmentally appropriate manner, it addresses sensitive topics that are typically excluded.

9-12 Coming of Age (COA): Please note: COA begins this Sunday, 9/25, at 9:30 with an orientation for parents and youth. We will meet in the Waters House youth room, to the right as you enter Waters House. At 10:30, parents may attend the service. Youth will remain with their advisors.

Coming of Age is a yearlong curriculum that helps teens learn more about Unitarian Universalism and articulating their own beliefs. This year’s COA program is offered to ALL high schoolers. (Senior Youth will return next year.) Our COA program is sensitive to culture, race, class, gender, and theological/philosophical diversity. Workshops for youth include social justice projects and rites of passage. Participants explore theology, spirituality, and history through discussion, drama, music, writing, and art. The program concludes with a ritual that features the youth sharing their statements of personal belief (credo statements) with the congregation during Sunday morning worship.

During this year of transition, we are REimagining some of the ways we do RE. One exciting change for this year is that we are offering 9-12 Coming of Age (as opposed to the tradition of offering it for only 2 grades)! We have an amazing group of youth and some truly awesome advisors to guide our youth through this pivotal year: Emma Joy Maher-Horvath (longtime Unirondack board member), Erin Piotrowski (longtime COA advisor), and Aaron Tyo (longtime Senior Youth advisor)!

Plans are underway for an overnight adventure at Hawk Circle in November, a church sleepover in January, and a heritage trip to Boston in April! A couple of our Youth participated in COA back in 2019-2020, but their COA year was cut short, and they never completed the curriculum or made it to Boston due to COVID. The thinking is that they’ll likely experience COA with a more mature perspective this time around, have the ability to complete the curriculum, and enjoy the trip to Boston.

COA will take the place of youth group for this year only. Our hope is that once the youth have shared a year together in COA, they’ll emerge as a close-knit youth group.

Another REimagining for this year is foregoing the $200-$400 COA fee we usually request to cover COA expenses! There is funding available in the budget this year to cover this fee. We’ll likely still do some fundraising as we prep for Boston, but that’s to be decided later.

For now, I hope you’ll consider registering your youth for this fun and meaningful class! Most youth who experience COA consider it a high point in their RE experience.

Childcare for children 5 and under is available from 10-12 on Sunday! If your child wears diapers or pull-ups, please bring some of theirs along, as well as wipeys, and maybe a change of clothes, just in case.

We also still have some nursery staff positions available. If you know someone 18 or older who is fabulous with children and might like to earn a little extra cash, please have them contact Director of Lifespan RE Robin Ahearn at dlre@uuschenectady.org.