Religious Education: Jazz Fest & Beyond

Jazz Fest is upon us, but YES we will be holding services and Sunday School classes during the festival weekends. Our focus for the next three weeks is preparing for our annual Religious Education Sunday service, to be held this year on May 18. The service is a chance to celebrate our children and youth and the adults who work with them, to reflect on what we've been up to all year, look forward to where we're headed and experience who we are in the now. Our theme this year is "We Are", from the song by Ysaye Barnwell.

For the next three Sundays (April 27, May 4, May 11), children and youth are invited to stay following the service for 15 extra minutes (finishing by 12:15 at the latest) to participate in the first ever First UU Young People's Chorus. Our wonderful music director, Betsy McGovern, and brilliant accompanist, Jane Jensen, will be working with the group to learn one of the song's from the UUA's new children's hymnal in preparation for a debut performance on RE Sunday.

We will be holding an RE Wing Work Day on Saturday, May 10, from NOON til 4, to continue the important work of putting all of our STUFF in its place. Friends, we have so much stuff. We are continually blessed by donations of all kinds from all corners of the world, but organizing our supplies in a useful way really takes the touch of those of us who use the space on a regular basis. Please come by Saturday the 10th and give us the gift of a few hours of your time if you can. Snacks and childcare provided! If you are attending the Gillespie Breakfast, just plan to stay a little later and lend us a hand... you'll be in excellent company.

May 11 will be our next Earth Scouts Sunday - stay tuned for details! Following RE Sunday, we'll finish May off with Ice Cream Sunday at the church on May 25, while the senior high youth attend a district youth rally up in Shreveport, and then we'll be heading into summer with our fourth annual Summer at Hogwarts Day Camp... Please get in touch to volunteer with making any of these events happen.

The newly formed Religious Education Team will be meeting Tuesday evening, May 13, at 7 PM. Please join us in the RE Wing to get hands-on in shaping our program for the 2008-09 church year.

It's been a lovely and inspiring April, with the Youth Sunday service kicking things off with a powerful hour of worship for the whole community. Huge thanks are due to all of the youth and to the adults who work with them each Sunday, Emily Danielson and Max Oeschger, for taking the time to connect with all of us so eloquently and from such a genuine place. The music, the readings, the shared sermon - it was all amazing and beautiful. If you missed it, ask someone who was there! And put the May 18 RE Sunday on your calendar now. You don't want to miss it.

Thanks and See You Sunday - Coleen Murphy
re@firstuuno.org