Creative Ways to "Sing the Children" out of worship service and on to their RE classes

Reverend Paul L'Herrou, interim minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lancaster, PA, wrote the following to be sung either to the music of Old Hundredth, known to most as the Doxology, (No. 371 in Singing the Living Tradition) or Tallis' Canon (No. 372 in STLT).

WE BID YOU WELL
As children leave, we bid you well.
When you are here our hearts do swell.
You are our future this we know.
You bring us joy and then you go.
© 1996 Paul L'Herrou

Creative Ways to Remember our 7 Principles

Can you remember those 7 Principles? Here's one way to help you.

We told our kids if they could recite the 7 Principles, they'd be invited to a party in their honor. A few months went by and our 2nd grade teachers, Kay and Rod Deck, asked me to come up with some way to help their class remember all those principles. Rearranging and adding a few words to the kids' version of our principles, I came up with the following thought: If you work for and believe in the 7 Principles, they work! In other words, We Believe ... IT WORKS! In more words,

WE BELIEVE
Every person is I mportant and valuable
all people should be treated fairly
our churches are places where we should accept one another and learn together
all people have the right to speak out and vote on things that matter to them
each person should be free to search for what is true and right
we should help build and keep a peaceful, fair, and free world
we need to take care of the earth, the home we share with all living things

And, I believe in you! You may certainly shorten or put them in your own words -- I just want you to start to be familiar with them. Learn the seven key words first, then the several words in the phrase that complete it. Next, try to explain that phrase and you'll have it. You can do it.