November’s Neighbouring Faith: Islam

November 4^th – Islam – Basic Facts. We’ll walk the children through the who, what, when and where of Islam, touching upon such concepts as Allah, mosques, daily prayer and worship.

November 11^th – Islam – Call to Prayer and Daily prayer – we’ll discuss the strict times of daily prayer and the challenges in today’s society of how this is incorporated. We’ll also hear examples of the Call to Prayer and discuss the meaning behind the words.

November 18^th – Preparation for Visit to the Islam Association (Mosque) – We will talk about how we will behave as visitors to the mosque and any questions we may have based on our previous 2 Sunday’s exploration.

Mosque visit: 1:00 pm – 222 Copeland Cr. http://www.islamiccenter.sk.ca/ We will need to carpool – please see Mary-Anne if you can drive and accompany us. We will serve a light lunch at the centre if you’d like to come in the morning and stay through. Please let Mary-Anne know so we can plan.. thank you!

November 25^th – Islam – Reflections – We will spend some time together discussing our exploration and visit to the Mosque.

RE World October 2012

RE will see an exciting month of Communication, Culture and Community in October, with a specific focus on local First Nations culture and meaning making.

October 7^th – The Lessons of the Pot-latch – All Ages Worship

The indigenous peoples of the Canadian and American Pacific Northwest practised the custom of pot latch whereby tribes met yearly to celebrate together and to distribute wealth and resources. As part of a complex monetary system, the pot latch centred around the redistribution and reciprocity of wealth,where the status of a family was not necessarily raised by the accumulation of wealth but in the giving away of gifts.  Important connections were made and maintained by these gifts.  It was a time of celebration.
Jumping forward to today, surrounded by marketing and economics that scream `I need this`, have we lost the art of gift giving?  Are certain gifts more valuable than others?  Via stories, activities, reflections and experiential exercises we will explore the concepts of gift giving and thankfulness.

October 14^th – Storytelling as Communication – First Nations cultures enjoy a long tradition of recounting stories and using wisdom tales to make sense of the world. Join us as we welcome a special guest and delve into the power of the spoken word.

WRFG – The Western Regional Fall Gathering is being hosted by Saskatoon this year. We will extend our RE program to visitors from the Western Region. Welcome!

Oct 21^st. – A gathering of Song and Dance – We will be joined by special guest Pete Chief who will display one of the many First Nation traditional/evolving dances.

In his words, “I am a Cree from the Onion Lake First Nation. I have been dancing pow wow since I was 3 years old. Pow wow is a celebration where First Nations gather for song and dance. It has become a common celebration held by many different First Nations throughout North America. The dances that our family does are The Men’s Fancy Bustle dance and Women’s Fancy Shawl dance. Both dance styles evolved from the much slower traditional dances that men and women dance. Today the fancy dance is the show case or show piece of all the dances of pow wow due to the fast and fancy style.”

Oct 28^th – Reflections

After hearing and seeing stories and dances we will take a Sunday to reflect on what we’ve learned. Through various artistic media the children can explore their feelings and views on any messages and ideas they have seen in the past weeks.

You are welcome to join us at any time. Please also let Mary-Anne know if you are willing to help in any way. Assistants, snack preparers are always welcome. You can reach Mary-Anne via cel 222-8345 or email ucs.dre@sasktel.net.

To kick off our year long look at Faith and cultural traditions in our Saskatoon community, we start with a look at… US!!  Children’s worship starts at 10:30 am downstairs followed by a series of fun and interactive activities that look at Unitarianism, our principles, our symbols and our stories.  Looking forward to seeing you all….

Welcome to a new Religious Education Year! 2012-2013

Summer has slipped by very quickly as usual and we move into the exciting time of preparing for the Fall. Fall has a good, “get back into the rhythm” feel to it and I appreciate the return to routine and the neat, tidy rows of unpacked school supplies. It’s also wonderful to re-connect with friends and hear about summer adventures.

We are planning an adventure in Religious Education! An adventure that takes us out of our own four walls and into an exploration of other faiths that reside in this community. The goals of our Children’s program this year will be to participate as observers in other faith traditions in order to experience community in variety of settings; to reflect on the unique and universality of religious experience; to explore our own values as they relate to other faith traditions; to become more aware of the many connections between Unitarian Universalism and other faiths; and, to increase our understanding and appreciation of religious diversity. We do not intend to feel like we can become ‘experts’ in others’ faith traditions, but to truly share in the often moving ways that people live lives according to their beliefs.

The traditions we are exploring are listed below. We hope to have special guests, field trips to other places of worship and many chances to dine together during special occasions. Food and ceremony play an important part in our yearly planning.

As always, we look for those who wish to share their unique talents and perhaps knowledge of other faith traditions with us. Please let me know if you would like to be involved or had ideas as to how we can explore together. Exploration and Community are the cornerstones of our program, please feel free to join us at any time.

Mary-Anne

September – Unitarianism

October – First Nations Spirituality

November – Islam

December – Buddhism

January – Atheism

February – Hinduism

March – Judaism

April – Christianity

May – Paganism

June – Humanism

Notes for the Year:

Start time – Our Sunday morning Start-time has changed to 10:30 am.

Children’s programming – will take place from 10:30 to 11:30, followed by snack.

Classroom Groupings: Jr. Kids (Pre-K-Gr. 2) Sr. Kids (Gr. 3 – 5), Jr. Youth (Gr. 6-7), Sr. Youth (Gr. 8-12)

Our first Sunday back, September 9^th, will be an inter generational water communion and the basis of our subsequent Sundays topics in Unitarianism. Interactive, participatory for all ages we encourage you to attend. Looking forward to seeing you!

Religious Education takes a brief hiatus during the summer as our summer serv ices are a little more informal and in the evening.  Children are, however, more than welcome to come to the centre during our summer services…we will always have a few games, crayons, colouring sheets etc. so they can amuse themselves.  Supervision is the responsibility of the parent, but we will try to make it as easy as possible !