Director of Religious Education

We had a great time learning about Easter’s pagan and Christian roots and decorating cake-shaped cookies yesterday! Our all-ages event culminated with a new type of Easter Egg Hunt. Instead of searching for eggs filled with candy, our young Wildflowers hunted for dog and cat toys the congregation donated and assembled them to go to Austin Pets Alive. 

It was a great way to weave themes of generosity into our celebration. It was also heartwarming to see the youth interacting so kindly with the younger children.

We had a great Sunday together this week! In our elementary group, we talked about the Transgender Day of Visibility coming up next week. The kids had great ideas about why such a day is needed and about ways to be welcoming and not make assumptions about new friends! Then, we collaborated on a trans flag poster made up of encouraging & welcoming words along with stickers for decoration. Check out the finished product on our blog or in person in the Community Room.

The Youth Group discussed a possible upcoming camping trip and then explored the power of photography to create empathy between communities.

Next week is our Easter party at our regular CYRE time. Hope to see y’all there!

For this week’s class, our elementary group explored our 7th UU Principle: We believe in caring for our planet Earth and all living things. We began by brainstorming ways that we are all part of the interconnected web of life and the ways that we can communicate with the non-human creatures in our world. Then, we listened to a folk tale where a mother tells her son that when you hurt one living being, you hurt all of nature. After discussing how that could be true for us in our lives, we got the chance to observe and interact with some non-human creatures: rats! These incredibly tame rats were able to communicate with us through their body language and we all enjoyed holding & petting them.

The youth group focused on connection & community with a group discussion of art and a game.

Our elementary class learned about our new UU values and a fun acronym to help remember them by — Jet Pig! This adorable piglet carries a jet pack and is powered by love. In addition to discussing each part of Jet Pig (Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, Generosity, always with LOVE at the center), we also talked about why churches might want to create new goals and update their values instead of just sticking with whatever had been written long ago. Kids shared some ways that they mark the new year and think about goals and values in their own lives. We finished by coloring in an image of Jet Pig and playing an interdependence yarn game!

The Wildflower Youth Group (Middle & High School) began with our weekly check-in and offered each other support as needed. Then, they played a question & answer snowball game to reconnect and welcome new members at the beginning of a new year.

Our Sunday began with a lovely child dedication in the service that the kids and youth participated in. After that, we headed to the classroom to learn about the origins of our UU chalice. Did you know that the flaming chalice symbol was first used by the Unitarians during World War II as part of their work to help refugees? From this two-dimensional origin, chalices became a ritual part of UU services in the early 1980’s after UU children made a great variety of three-dimensional chalices in the 1970s! To celebrate the season, we made our own chalice out of a pumpkin.