From the Associate Minister for Religious Education – Kid-friendly Holiday Events at UUCPA

It’s December, so as usual there are a lot of holiday events at UUCPA. This edition of the CYRE newsletter lists most of the kid-friendly holiday events at UUCPA this year.

I’d like to particularly mention the No Rehearsal Christmas Pageant on Sunday, Dec. 23. This service gives a Unitarian Universalist view of Christmas, with a bit of social justice awareness, a bit of ancient Near Eastern politics, and a bit of poetry. This service is a good antidote to the two extreme versions of Christmas that dominate our society — on the one hand, a completely commercialized Christmas that’s all about conspicuous consumption, and on the other hand a rigid fundamentalist Christian interpretation of Christmas.

We Unitarian Universalists take a more creative approach — reinterpreting the old story of Christmas with its core message of peace and love, while rejecting that which is unbelievable, hateful, or rigid. That’s the message underlying the No Rehearsal Christmas Pageant. But most importantly, the No Rehearsal Christmas Pageant is fun. Where else will you get to see adults pretending to be sheep, and children who become Magi?

See you soon,
Dan Harper