Hi Reach Gang!

This worship we did as the opening of our teacher training for this year was very well received. I based it on the Rev Lowell Brook's statement about what our children need on Sunday mornings. I chopped the sheet into strips and gave a paragraph to a teacher who was going to teach in that room or who worked a lot with that particular closet to read when we got to that space. We took three deep breaths in each space, and walked in silence from one space to the next. The children had done a blessing ritual of each of these spaces earlier in the day that left a large loop of yarn on the floor, so we all could enter the space and stand within the loop of yarn.

During the closing time when we returned to the sanctuary wonderful, brief memories of people or other creatures or places that played a key part in teachers' religious education were shared impromptu, It was very moving and inspiring, and made sure all the teachers knew where all the rooms were and what they were for.

It was fun to notice how different rooms sounded when they were filled with the quiet, and how they all smelled different.

The children blessed each space by taking three deep breaths within it, listening to what it sounded like in the quiet, forming a circle and wrapping the outside of the circle with one strand of multicolored yarn, having the youngest student present (aged 3) ring a bell, and the oldest two (aged 12) blow bubbles; then all spoke or yelled together, "This is children's space! Yayyy!"

We did the kids' blessing of the spaces the Sunday before ingathering during the church school time, and the worship after church that same day as the first part of our three-hour teacher training.

Onward to ingathering Sunday!

Teacher Training Worship - Sept 6, 1998 based on comments by UU minister Rev. Lowell Brook (Divide sheet into slips for each room and distribute in sanctuary. Ask that each be read in the appropriate room. Walk from space to space ringing bell and carrying chalice candle.)

This is the Sanctuary. (Light flame) What do our children need on Sunday morning? A loving embrace. An embrace that might take one of many forms and occur in one of many places. Let's go to some of those places.

This is the Beatrix Potter Room, where our babies will be on Sundays. The loving embrace might be found in our church school being a place where parents can trust us to keep their children safe, where parents know we will ask for their help to find ways for their children to feel comfortable and be successful here.

This is the Susan B. Anthony Room, where our toddlers and preschoolers will be on Sundays. The loving embrace might be found when students sing a song - to hear their own voice and other voices joined together, and to feed the feelings that are stirred by music

This is the Norbert Capek Room, where our K-2nd graders will be on Sundays: The loving embrace might be found when students hear stories, remembering that we are each different and also very alike.

This is the Henry Bergh Room, another place where our K-2nd graders will be on Sundays. The loving embrace might be found when students have a chance to share their own stories, remembering that we are each different and also very alike.

This is the Sophia Lyon Fahs Closet, where most of our supplies for Church School on Sundays are stored. The loving embrace may be found when students create something. Expressing themselves using words or materials helps to bind the different parts of themselves together. That is part of what religion is.

This is the B & G Annex, where our 3-5th graders will be on Sundays, and our high school youth in the evenings. The loving embrace might be found when students are with an adult who is interested in the world and who feels the privilege and responsibility of their trust ... one who is glad to be with them and regards them positively.

Let us walk quietly back through the forest to the Sanctuary. As we walk, let us reflect on the ways this loving embrace has been manifest in your own religious education, wherever and whenever that education has occurred.

I invite any who wish to describe briefly a form the loving embrace has taken for them in their religious education.

Closing Prayer:
May we find ways to work together through the coming months that provide a loving embrace in these and other forms for our students and ourselves. By the ways we cooperate may we form a loving embrace in our church school, an embrace that will turn our children's education in the history and common threads of our identity as Unitarian Universalists into a truly religious education for them, and for us. Blessed be.