by Robin Mitzcavitch, Director of Religious Exploration

It feels strange to me, after the final Religious Exploration Sunday Service, that we have to go our separate ways. Children and families have made connections, and to imagine those Sunday connections being put on pause, seems unnecessary. But, the fact is, we New Englanders travel over the summer. We get away, we visit family, we like to adopt a slower pace, even though many of us continue to work and study.

At Youth Group last night, our final meeting of the church year, we had a record number of teens show up. We also had a brand new teen from outside of our church come. I asked the teens, as part of their opening check-in, to say what town/city they were from. Worcester, of course, was represented by a good number of teens (but all in different schools), then the other teens called out their towns: Brookfield, Holden, Leominster, Princeton, Paxton, Shrewsbury, and Sterling. Wow.  To say that UUCW is not a neighborhood church is an understatement. These teens deliberately come together to create a new group. A group who are not their school mates, their nextdoor neighbors, their sports team or town clubs. We are a different place, and we know it feels different for them to be engaged here too. 

So, with that said, I would like to propose that we make some efforts to keep families, children and teens together as much as we can this summer. Let’s brainstorm!  See the image below!

AND THEN>>>>>

When we meet back together for programming in September, I want to let you know what is planned for the curriculum.

The Childcare Space- Will still be open to our children under 3 years old. Our staff person, Gladys Maldonado, is present for our littlest ones every Sunday.

Spirit Play- Our Montessori-based storytelling and activity classroom will be up and running for pre-k through Kindergarten!

Explorers-  Soul Matters theme-based curricula will be running for grades 1-5. 

Questing Year/Neighboring Faiths-grades 6 and 7- is a pre-coming of age class and will focus on discovering world religions, and visiting their houses of worship, and teambuilding.

Teen OWL – Our Whole Lives Human Comprehensive Sexuality Education– Grades 8 and 9 – will happen for 14 weeks on Sunday afternoons with trained facilitators.

Youth Group- Meet various Sunday evenings 6-8pm, as planned by the 8-12th grade teens and their advisors.

We’ll run the threads of our Soul Matters Church Themes throughout all of our programming.  This coming year, the themes will look like this:

                   Soul Matters, where we explore  The Practice of…

September:  Invitation

October:  Deep Listening

November:  Repair

December:  Presence

January:  Story

February: Inclusion

March:  Trust

April: Joy

May:  Imagination

June:  Freedom

And most Importantly, we need to know who we’ll be seeing in September…so registration is critical for our planning!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER:  https://bit.ly/UUCWREX2425

For all these fantastic programs to run, we rely on our Religious Exploration cooperative of volunteers from all families participating with their children and other members of the congregation who have skills to share.  Thank you for taking the time to sign on to volunteer a few of your Sundays next year!   

Our RE Program Runs With YOUR Help:
Please let us know how you can help by filling out this form. Many hands make light work and meaningful programs for our children and youth.  Thank You !

It’s been a joy for me and our Religious Exploration team to serve all of our families.  Thank you for keeping our program strong.  To build it, we always love to see new families come through our doors.  Please talk about our church and how much we love doing what we do.  

With Love and Care,

Robin Mitzcavitch- Director, Jenny DelGizzi (retiring), Ana Gregory, Beckley Schowalter, Karen Stephenson, and Kate Sweetser.