From the Associate Minister of Religious Education • May 2020

As we continue into another month of shelter-in-place, the Children and Youth Religious Education (CYRE) Committee and I have been figuring out how to serve kids and families in this situation. Here’s a summary of what we’ve been doing:

Online Sunday school has been going well. Regular Sunday school was scheduled to end on May 3. On Mother’s Day, May 10, there won’t be any Sunday school. On May 17 we’ll start doing mixed-age summer Sunday school for elementary grades. We’re still working out the details of what we’re going to do for middle schoolers during May. And once we go to the summer schedule of one service per week on May 31, summer Sunday school may change as well.

All OWL sexuality education programs have been closed down, based on guidance from the Unitarian Universalist Association. We are looking into online alternatives for sexuality education, but have nothing definite yet.

The Senior High Youth Group plans to continue meeting at their usual time, 6:30 p.m. Sunday evening, throughout the month of May.

We’ve started a UUCPA CYRE Youtube channel, and we’ve been working with Amy to incorporate family-friendly elements into Sunday services.

Looking ahead, we’re all dreaming up fun, creative ways to deal with social distancing. In one example, I’ve been talking with Bruce Olstad, our music director, about the possibility of online sing-along sessions this summer. Looking even further ahead, the CYRE Committee and I are beginning to think safe plans for the fall, but right now there are too many unknowns to say anything definite.

There’s one thing we can be certain of — we’re going continue to dream up fun and creative online programming for families. And if you have any ideas, let me know!

Take care, Dan