Forty Acts for sacred water for Earth Day

We are celebrating Earth Day differently this year at UCM: our spring multigen will be held on May Day because the calendar has given us the gift of May First on a Sunday, but I want to share a way you can affirm the sacred waters that surround us here on the island of Montreal and in this water-blessed country. For Earth Day 2011, the UU Ministry for Earth has challenged congregations to celebrate the sacred waters that sustain us, and to commit to 40 days of actions that will make our world more just.
Last week on April 17th , the kick-off Sunday for those 40 days, I brought a tray of some seemingly disparate objects to show the children during Time for All Ages, asking “What do a brick, a toothbrush, and a plastic and metal water bottle all have in common?” The children correctly guessed “water,” (though not everyone understood at first that the brick was to put in a toilet tank!) and we talked about the water saving practices each represented: I went on to encourage them to see how quickly they could count up their own 40 water-saving acts.
Question for parents and other adults: do YOU turn off the water while brushing your teeth or applying shampoo in the shower? Remember that “Water is a human right, not a luxury” (from my daughter Evalyn Parry’s “Bottle This!” –you can listen to it on her website, www.evalynparry.com). Check out http://uuministryforearth.org/ for more information.

Talking to children about Easter as Unitarian Universalists

Dear RE families and helpers,
We will be having a Spirit Play lesson this Sunday about the story of Easter, told through a set of 12 props placed inside hollow plastic eggs, and making a big connection to the cycle of life-death-rebirth, and we will be sharing several Children's Bibles plus a great little UU book called Meet Jesus, all of which can be borrowed for the following week.

In case you have been thinking about talking to your own or others' children about Easter as UUs, here's a wonderful short spiel from a DRE in Houston, TX, who has saved me the time to write something similar --enjoy!
Have you wondered what to tell your children about the holiday we celebrate
this Sunday? If you are a Christian UU, celebrate Jesus’ resurrection
joyfully. If the story of Jesus’ resurrection has become slightly
problematic for you, in that you may have a more symbolic understanding than
that he rose from the dead in a literal sense, know that you are not alone
and share your sense of wondering with your children.
Then again, perhaps you will find something more helpful in what Michelle
Richards wrote in her parenting blog on April 18. Take a look at
http://blogs.uuworld.org/parenting/
Perhaps you will have to admit to your children that this is a mystery; that
people have been trying to make sense of life and death for a very long
time. Tell them that Easter is about life: about life coming from eggs, from
seeds, from mommies and daddies, and in all sorts of stories. Tell them
that mystery is exciting; that what they feel in their hearts is precious;
that what they think is important and that they can think and feel about
life and be glad.

First I saw snowdrops, then this afternoon, crocuses!

By the time you are reading this, I believe the weather is going to be delightfully warmer than when I was writing this on Wednesday. I have been thinking about many aspects of spring this week, as I work with several volunteers on scripts and story boxes for seasonal Spirit Play lessons, one about May Day and Pagan or Wiccan beliefs; one about the Easter story. That thinking brought to mind some lovely lines of a Rilke poem to share with you: [from “Threshold of Spring”] Harshness gone. All at once Caring spreads over The naked gray of the meadows… May your personal “meadows” feel the warmth of caring –-and of the burgeoning season— this week. I am so grateful for the warmth of this congregation and the many caring hands and hearts that help in Religious Education!