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

April, 2007

Spring is coming and in the world of our church’s Church School, that means we are getting ready for our annual Spring Fling. What you may well ask is THAT?

It is a special curriculum that all the children, Kindergarten through Grade Eight do at the end of the church year. Last year we had a lot of fun learning about Shakers.

This year the RE Committee ad already agreed that we would do something in concert with the Green Sanctuary initiative, when I was introduced to the book, “Last Child in the Woods”.

The author of the book, Richard Louv presents a strong case for the imperative that children NEED to spend time in nature if they are to become emotionally and spiritually healthy and whole people.

I believe this is true. I have always believed it true, but it took reading the book for that knowledge in my semi-conscious awareness to come together as conscious awareness.

Sooooo, beginning on April 15, we will begin our Spring Fling, “Earth Mysteries”. We’ll spend one week each exploring the mysteries of human spirit, earth, air fire and water. On June 3, rain or shine, we’ll all plant a garden on the church grounds. On June 10, we’ll share some of our adventures with the whole church community at the last service. With luck, we’ll be able to share some of the fruits of our garden in the fall.

I hope many of you will read Richard Louv’s book. I think this book can be a turning point for many of us individually and for us as a society. Maybe even for our Church School program. To me it came as a reminder. I found myself remembering my own childhood, blessed by hours in the woods and even in trees and by the ocean. I remembered how essential to my soul time spent outdoors in nature still is; and it left me wondering why I so often “forget”. We who live in New Hampshire are so very lucky. We can be outdoors “in the wild” any time we want. We of this church have our own marvelous woods out back. Would anybody be interested in making a Sunday-after-church-informal-woods-walk a regular thing?

There are several copies of “Last Child…” in the church library. I am going to get a bunch and ask, beg, bribe the RE Committee to read it and then make those copies available for borrowing. I invite you! Read the book. Go outside. Walk in the woods. Walk beside a river. Lie in the grass and look at the sky. Climb a tree. Tell me about it and I’ll tell you.

Spring blessings to you.

Love,