FEB - BELOVED COMMUNITY WK 3

Dear UU Parents and Guardians,

Thursday Night Services

Did you know that there's a Thursday night worship service at 7:00PM every week? I know this is often bedtime routine time for many parents and guardians, but I wanted to remind you that this is an option to connect with the church.

The services are called Vespers and you probably receive the link for them each week in the Thursday eblast from the office. Services last about an hour with time for connection in 'breakout groups' each service. 

The fabulous part about Zoom? You can turn your video off, join in your jammies, or while cleaning up after dinnertime. You could even just have an earbud in while putting kiddos to bed. I will be the worship leader for the Vespers service for the first time on March 4, so I hope that you will consider hopping on! The service is for adults, but of course children and youth are welcome to tune in.

If you are not signed up for electronic communication (daily eblasts and monthly newsletter) you can do so HERE.

Parents as Primary Sex Educators Workshop

It has been highly recommended to religious professionals that we should NOT offer our OWL (Our Whole Lives) sexuality education courses online.

There will be a gap in our timeline for when we are able to offer OWL in-person to children and youth.

That being said, would you potentially be interested in a facilitated support group called, "Parents as Primary Sex Educators"? For parents of K-12th students. The description states, "The 90-minute sessions use a small group ministry format to engage adults in topics including Gender Identity, Relationships, Social Media, and Consent."

If yes, would you please send me a message just saying something like, "Yes, I'd be interested"?

I would like to gauge whether this is something which would be worthwhile to offer. I know you would obviously need more information to commit to something, but it would help me wrap my mind around this if you are interested in this topic.

*Sunday School *
Approximately: 30 minute program geared towards K-5 but open to all ages
Sundays at 11am

***An email was sent a couple days ago with an attachment for a printable to bring to this week's class***

*Middle and HS *
We are joining up with the Omaha youth groups - 

Wednesdays at 7:00PM

We invite all Middle and High School students from Omaha and Lincoln to join us for discussion and community through this app. 'Would you rather' questions - Thoughts along our monthly Soul Matters themes - 'Big questions' related to UUism. Also - a "Pet Page"! So much fun.
***Be aware that once joining Discord, it opens up the app to multiple pages which will need to be moderated by students themselves and their parents/guardians for security.

https://discord.gg/3NuSj6f

*Parent and Guardian Chat: *
The chance for parents and guardians to check in with me for 'open office hours'
Every other Thursday 8pm and every other Wednesday noon (I close the meeting after 15 minutes if no one checks in)


Wednesday, Feb 24 at NOON
Contact Chelsea for Zoom links


Thursday, Feb 4 at 8:00PM
I will NOT be having a Parent Chat since I will be leading the Thursday night service that night - but feel free to schedule a time to meet with me.

Videos This Week: 

Story with Miss Chelsea: 
Wanda's Roses: https://youtu.be/6wuhh0H01Lc

NEW THIS MONTH

Theme: Beloved Community
These materials come to us from the Soul Matters Curriculum team

From the Mailbox

At Play

Bonus Resources for Parents With the theme of: Beloved Community

What do we mean when we say, "Beloved Community"?

"Beloved Community is when we say "we," and we mean everyone.

Beloved Community is not homogenous. It can't be. When commonality is presumed, when we make assumptions about who's present and whether people are "like us," or not, we're not practicing Beloved Community because Beloved Community doesn't make those assumptions. It doesn't presume commonality...

Another thing that Beloved Community is not is Beloved Community is not like-minded. Because we're not called to be like-minded in spiritual community. We're called to be like- hearted.

And, finally, Beloved Community is not devoid of conflict. And this one is also really hard. Beloved Community is not easy. There's nothing easy about practicing Beloved Community. When we avoid conflict in order to "get along," we're not practicing Beloved Community, because Beloved Community exists when we trust each other, we have the relationships, the strong enough relationships to actually disagree with each other, to be in conflict, even to risk hurting each other, and we can stay in relationship through those disagreements, and conflict, and potential hurt. That's practicing Beloved Community."

Alex Kapitan and Rev Mykal Slack


Inspirational February Message from the Soul Matters Team
https://youtu.be/rUw4t3c9azc


An Invitation to Brave Space https://onbeing.org/poetry/invitation-to-brave-space/ 


Confronting racism is not about the needs and feelings of white people, by Ijeoma Oluo 
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/28/confronting-racism-is-not-about-the-needs-and-feelings-of-white-people

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