Religious Education Musings
by Rev. Ellie Duhamel, Director of Religious Education

October 2007

The church year is well begun. Classes are running smoothly. The RE Committee is its usual wonderful, hard-working and life-celebrating self. All twenty four teachers and two Youth Group leaders are doing a superb job. And all our children are above average. I am writing this on Sunday morning and looking forward to today. It will be the first "into the woods day." All classes will go out to their own spot in the woods for a brief time, then return to their rooms to journal for a few minutes before moving on to their regular lessons for the day.

As Marcel has told you all, this is to be his last year as your minister. And so, of course, it will be my last year too. There is sadness in this for me, but also there is much to celebrate. This church has a wonderful RE program, due in large part to the amazing folks who serve as Religious Education Committee and as teachers. I am truly blessed to work with these dear people. I plan to spend this year reveling in their company and the work we do together. Im hoping that together we can all make this a year of celebration.

I want to say THANK YOU to the large group of parents who have filled out registration forms for this years Church School program. And a PLEASE to those few who havent done it yet. The record keeping is difficult and time-consuming until we have all this years in, so "please" and "thank you."

Again this year, the last Sunday of the month will be a "Family Sunday" at church. This year there is a minor change. There will be childcare available for children in Preschool and Kindergarten. While Family Sunday isnt ideal for all our families, the survey the RE Committee did last year showed that, across the board, it is working pretty well. Some families are glad to bring their children to church once a month. Others choose not to come that day, which at first concerned us, but we have seen that there is a positive aspect to that. Attendance on all the Sundays when there is Church School was higher and more consistent last year. It turns out that it works out for many families to use the last Sunday of the month to do those things that would take them away from the church anyhow, with the result for the Church School being that we have more children together in class when there is class.

This year, our annual UNICEF Fair will have an international theme. The Fair is held in classrooms during Church School time; it will be on October 21. This year the RE Committee is adding something new to the fun, and inviting everyone to an international potluck lunch. There are more details about this in a separate place in this newsletter.

I wish you all a lovely month of gorgeous foliage and celebratory mood.

Love,