Every end of summer is the beginning
of a "new year" for the UCM community, and especially for the
Religious Education, or R.E., program, because we (your DRE, RE Assistant and
staff other than childcare givers) are largely inactive from early June through
to the week after Labour Day and the Water Ceremony Sunday, which will be
September 7th this year.
Naturally, every New Year brings its
reflections on what has passed and plans for the future, and this fall those
thoughts are especially poignant for me, as I will be retiring next June. That means I'm aiming to leave our RE program
in as overall great shape as I can! I
want to ensure a clear and inspiring sense of purpose is shared among all our
RE families, leaders and volunteers, as well as having clear procedures in
place for all the usual nitty gritty matters, like who will read for the
chalice lighting, how to register or get on RE mailing lists, find name tags or
library books . . .
Also, I will continue to have fun
with our children and entire UCM community as the main "Time for All
Ages" storyteller, while facilitating an expanded list of others who would
enjoy that role on occasional Sundays.
The "T4AA" gives us all a wonderful shared aspect of multigenerational
worship every week, and I relish my part in it!
As the children are sung out to their more age-specific programs, I
intend to exit with them, but step back from the almost weekly classroom
teaching I have done in the past two years.
I want to expand my role as mentor/leader with our various very part
time RE leaders, both those in the classroom on Sundays and our RE committee
members, and I will also be facilitating one of the new church wide theme
exploration groups. Those personal relationships are an absorbing, valuable way
to share UUism and the many gifts of "spiritual friendships" with one
another.
Finally, in this coming year I'll to
continue to make what I hope are beautiful and engaging bulletin board
displays, on at least three levels of the building (which ones have you
noticed?) -- but I would be very pleased to have help with those, so please
step up! We are living in an
increasingly visual age in terms of social media, and those boards may be
"old school," but they are a vital link to give all ages of attenders
a sense of what goes on in our weekly programs in a three dimensional sense --
of course our FaceBook page and web presence are important links, too. [give
these?]
An important "P.S." --
Carlene Gardner, our very wise and experienced
Youth Program Coordinator, is not so quiescent during the summer months as
other staff. She and the Lakeshore DRE,
Casey Stainsby, have worked out plans to offer a Gr 8&9 OWL series (the
UU sexuality and self-identity program called "Our Whole Lives," with
a new curriculum). Children
of members and attenders will be able to participate this year in Montreal for
the first time since 2007.
Carlene is now in a full time Masters
of Education program at McGill, plus in an expanded role at UCM that includes
campus ministry. Although we only pay
her for a few hours each week, this responsibility means she's gearing up to be
ready to greet incoming students at Dawson College, McGill, Concordia, UQAM,
etc. This year we are going to refer to her more often by her full title of
Youth Program and Campus Ministries Coordinator -- or "YPCMC."
