Welcome to Unitarian Universalist Society East
Summer Services at 10:00AM Only
Director's Corner
Emmy's Friday Update
For Sunday July 21st
Greetings CYM Families & Friends!
Last Sunday Lynn Dove guided a mixed age group of children through the grounds to determine the best place to hang our previously constructed bird houses. Personalities came out - some were excited to trek in the woods, clear dead branches from the path, help hold Lynn’s ladder and pre-drill holes, and others preferred to observe nature on the grassy hill or chat at the shady picnic table for relief from the heat. Summer programming is unique because we have a wider age range working together and a more relaxed feel. (Although “regular” Sundays are pretty relaxed as well; we value freedom of choice and spaciousness year-round!) The experience really filled me up and I’m so grateful for Lynn sharing her time and expertise in outdoor education!
A life-long passion of mine has been experiencing nature with children. Through our work in the garden this year and discussion about why a snapping turtle laid eggs there, we learned from building manager Jane Osborn that the snapper likely came from a natural spring on the property (that I didn’t know existed!) After Jane showed me around, I later brought the kids over to see this part of the grounds. I explained to them that there used to be a bit of trail there with a sitting spot in the woods, near the spring. I told them that Jane was hoping for a group of youth who might be interested in clearing the trail back up and helping maintain it as ongoing project. That’s when several of the youth exclaimed “we could do that!” I was hoping they would say that. So we visited this spot again and imagined further how we might enjoy and care for this space. If you or your child(ren) have a particular interest in this work, let me know! It will be offered to children and youth over the course of the next program year, but we may schedule some additional work sessions alongside the Building & Grounds volunteers. More to come!
Here’s what’s happening in CYM Sunday, July 21, 2024:
Nursery: Childcare will be available in our nursery at 10 AM for children age 3 and under.
A great service to attend as a family!:
Sunday Service: “Let Us All Sing” Come one, come all! Great fun for all ages and musical abilities: Join us at 10 A.M. for UUSE's first request-a-hymn service since before COVID! We've received over ten hymn requests already, and we'll have time for more. Bring the name of your favorite hymn and our fantastic Music Director Mary Bopp will play it live while we all sing together! The service is at 10 am; you can attend at the meeting house or on Zoom. Visit www.uuse.org to sign up to get the Zoom link. Coordinator: Martha Larson.
CYM Summer Programming: CYM will offer a relaxed summer schedule of activities for children and youth of all ages on the following dates:
July 28: UU mosaic art! with Nancy Madar
August 11: Fairy houses & Gnome dwellings - Bring your imagination and be ready to play with plants and other items to create sacred spaces for magical beings!
+ Monthly CYM Family Potluck after service (open to whole congregation!)
August 25: Field Day - Bring your favorite outdoor game to share or choose from some UUSE classics!
Get Ready for Fall!
September 8: All Congregation Homecoming Service, Blessing of the Backpacks
+ Tentative UUSE All Congregation Picnic (Details to Come)
September 15: CYM Orientation
@ 11 AM
Parent and Volunteer Orientation in Children’s Chapel
Orientation for Youth Group participants in Youth Group Room
Childcare for all ages (outdoors/classroom)
Food provided for all groups
@12:15 PM
Childcare provider training for youth in Youth Group Room*
September 22: Harvest Brunch & 1st Day of Classes
@10 AM - Meet in the Children’s Chapel for an All Congregation Harvest Brunch between services (which happens to be the date of the pagan festival Mabon!)
@11 AM - Children and Youth in 1st grade and up will join their families in the Sanctuary (as they will every Sunday), and will be dismissed after a Time For All Ages (TFAA) to the Children’s Chapel. (Nursery is available beginning at 10:50 as usual.)
Notes: Youth Group will not go to Children’s Chapel but instead will go directly to their classroom after TFAA in the Sanctuary. 1st through 8th graders will share in Children’s Worship together before being dismissed to their classes. Classes will run until 12:20.
We recognize this routine is both new and involves a few transitions for kiddos. I invite you to give some thought to this ahead of time, and if you know that your child may benefit from a modification to this routine, we are absolutely able and happy to partner with you in creating that. Feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.
September 29: 2nd Day of Classes & All Congregation Fire Drill (alarm will not sound)
We’re starting off with a bang! And lots of opportunity to join in community as you are able. I’m so excited for it, but lets all thoroughly enjoy summer first!
2024-2025 UUSE Children & Youth Ministry Program: Register here
*If your 7th-12th grader is interested in being on the list of certified babysitters for UUSE, they should attend this training. Childcare providers are recruited by several committees throughout the year, in line with our safe congregation policy, which offers youth opportunities for employment and a feeling of purpose and connection to our UUSE community. Feel free to reach out with any questions.
Happy Summer!
With Love and Gratitude,
Emmy Galbraith
Cell: (860)576-7889
CYM Committee Members:
Desiree Holian-Borgnis, Chair
Michelle Spadaccini
Paula Baker
Sudha Sevins
Committee email: uusecym@uuse.org
Angela Attardo, CYM Program Assistant
Director of Children and Youth Ministry's Monthly Column for August
A Children and Youth Ministry Message from Emmy Galbraith, DCYM
We talk a lot about giving. Generosity, charity, even interdependence can focus disproportionally on giving.
We don’t talk as much about receiving. After all we all need to receive to live, grow, and thrive. But it can feel like a difficult thing to take time to focus on what we need. How to freely and non-judgmentally open ourselves to the flow of receiving what we need. That’s not to say that it will simply land on our doorstep. No every poor, disabled, and otherwise marginalized person could share stories about the immense effort life requires of them simply to get needs met, and that too often, needs aren’t met.
We can receive well-meaning messages coated in toxic positivity that if we already have all we need, or to pray, change our mindset, or pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. While some of these can be tools to keep in the toolbox, there is an underlying shame we inherit when we focus on what we need. Caregivers, elders, children, and solo people alike. Someone else needs it more, do I deserve it, have I worked hard enough, I should focus on giving. But I think true interdependence models yin and yang, 50% in and 50% out. We don’t need to slice 10% off for ourselves and give away the rest.
Now I can imagine what someone might be thinking. If we all gave freely, we’d all be taken care of, too. But it too often just does not work that way in real practice. Let’s take a moment and look at ourselves scientifically. We are living beings. Complicated living beings with complicated needs to stay alive. Some might say we focus on giving because receiving is innate from our first cry for warmth and nourishment.
Nourishment. I love that word and have been thinking a lot about it. The most recent pagan festival on the wheel of the year aligned with the Summer Solstice, some call it Litha, or Midsummer. It is a celebration of the first fruits of the harvest we have labored over. Food! One of the most basic human needs, which many people equate to nourishment. I like to focus on spiritual nourishment a lot, but often I need to strip it down and get real basic.
What does my body need? A lay down? A walk? To visit with a friend? A quiet room? A hug? A boundary? Americans are notorious for losing their hunger and thirst cues, due in part to our culture and capitalistic system of working for the future material needs, instead of honoring what we need in that sunup to sundown. Now I’m not suggesting we throw generosity and giving out the window. I’m just suggesting that we allow more space for checking in with ourselves to ask what we need. Allowing our needs to take up space, be witnessed, and prioritized.
I invite you to consider this, in your day to day. And also as you start to prepare for the next season. What do you need? Where can you find it? How can you get it? I invite you to follow the answers that come, non-judgmentally. Follow them and continue to listen to what your body says it needs. You might just inspire someone else you love to do the same