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Parents! We are working on ways to revamp Religious Education at our UUSP but your input is needed! All parents, please respond to this email with your updated telephone number and address so that we can stay in touch with you. Winter break starts next week Friday and there are art boxes getting made. In order to deliver to our families, your input is needed and appreciated!
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This month we’re exploring the many ways our UU faith invites us to become “A People of Stillness.” Our sessions are centered around four of these lessons or “stillness invitations.”

Our theme of Stillness invites and calls us to… 
  • Listen for the Voices of Angels (Lesson B & How to be Guided on a Journey/ Christmas Story/ 4th UU Source)
  • Rekindle Hope by Watching for the Light (Lesson C & Winter Solstice/ 6th UU Source)
  • Wait for Freedom (Lesson D & Watch Night/Anti-Racism, and 8th UU Principle)
WELCOME
UU Friend

When we are still, all kinds of ideas, inner voices, and insights come to us. One way to think of it during this winter holiday season is to imagine these voices that arise out of the silence to be “angels speaking.”

If we look for insights in the traditional Christmas birth legend of Jesus, we might even imagine ourselves as the shepherds in the still of the night, tending our flocks.

When above us, we notice an angel calling us to make an important journey, a change in our lives, a new way of being in the world. So what’s one of the ways our faith guides us into becoming a people of stillness?

It tells us, “Listen for the voices of angels!” 
Religious Education Virtual Classes K-12th
Parents, please watch this video for the month of December.
This month we’re exploring the many ways our UU faith invites us to become
“A People of Stillness.”

Ms. Trish &
Ms. Jeanay's
K-5th Grade Lesson
This section provides ideas for our weekly emails to you, giving families some ways to build on themes and activities you can do together in your online worship from home and groups.
Song of the Week
Transitional: Angels We Have Heard on High - Pentatonix 
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Tune in Sundays at 11 a.m. for Sunday School!
Hello Parents!

We reflected on the “humanist carol” titled “The Angel’s Song - It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” written by Unitarian minister Edmund H. Sears. The Angel’s Song outlined the way stillness allows us to “notice angels” as did the shepherds in the traditional legend of Jesus’ birth For UU’s, angels are imaginary yet noticing angels in stillness is a metaphor for hearing a message from your inner voice that can make you want to undertake a journey. The shepherds were surrounded by the stillness of the night, then they noticed the “angel and heavenly host of angels” appear. They listened and then undertook a journey to find the baby Jesus in a manger.

Talk with your family about times when you were surrounded by stillness which allowed you to “notice angels” - a metaphor for hearing an inner voice urging you to some change or journey. Enjoy this version, made famous when used on an episode of Gray’s Anatomy!
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Mindful Moment:
Do you suppose that it seemed like time stopped when the shepherds saw the Angels? When you find stillness, it can seem like time slows down. Try this Qigong to find stillness and feel like time has slowed.
Mindfulness Meditation
1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms at your sides.
2. Breathe in and out of your nose with your tongue touching the roof of your mouth.
3. Slowly breathe down to your lower abdomen...
4. Once you’ve connected with your breath and slowed it, move your palms to touch the front of your thighs on the next EXHALE.
5. From here, slowly lift your arms, shoulder-width apart, up in front of you to the height of your shoulders ON THE INHALE.
6. Then slowly let your arms coast back down to where your palms touch the top of your thighs ON THE EXHALE. 7. Gently repeat this practice for about 10 repetitions, going nice and slowly.
8. Look at the space between your hands with a soft gaze...” Continued here
"Sometimes we need help noticing angels. It takes focus and stillness to find them!"
Helpful Resources
Mark your calendars. Save this in advance! Our very own Ms. Trish came across this information and wanted to share with our families!

Sesame Street Virtual Fun Run
Date: March 27 – April 30, 2021
 
Join us for the Sesame Street Fun Run, a virtual race supporting Sesame Workshop’s mission to help children grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. The Sesame Street Virtual Fun Run will celebrate all things Furry, Lovable, and Brave while empowering kids (and adults!) to feel resilient when facing challenges big and small. By registering and fundraising for our virtual race, you’re joining a passionate community of families and friends from streets far and wide to help make a meaningful difference in the lives of children in need.
Click the flyer below to expand!
Calendar Connections
Parents!

Explore these calendars connections from national and cultural experiences. Click on the hyperlinks to gain insight while expanding your families perspective of what the world considers important. For a print out/download, click the link below.

Have fun!
Today is Human Rights Day.

"2020 Theme: Recover Better - Stand Up for Human Rights

This year’s Human Rights Day theme relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and focuses on the need to build back better by ensuring Human Rights are central to recovery efforts. We will reach our common global goals only if we are able to create equal opportunities for all, address the failures exposed and exploited by COVID-19, and apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched, systematic, and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion and discrimination.

10 December is an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of human rights in re-building the world we want, the need for global solidarity as well as our interconnectedness and shared humanity."
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The first day of Hanukkah marks the start of Hanukkah, also known as Chanukah or Festival of Lights. Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish observance that remembers the Jewish people's struggle for religious freedom.
Unitarian Universalist Church of St. Petersburg is not affiliated nor a sponsor of the community events posted on our UUSP RE e-newsletters. The information is derived from PeachJar.com, The Parent's Guide Magazine and City of St. Petersburg Events page, PlayLargo.com and various applications for family engagement strictly for informational purposes only. The information posted is not for profit or for monetary gain unless specified to contribute to a fundraiser in whereas the donations are to UU and/or UUA affiliates such as UUSC. If you have any questions or concerns about this statement, reply to this email.
Stay Connected!
Friend Jeanay Johnson here. I am the Religious Education & Communications Coordinator at UUSP. I am also on our Communications Team. We meet every 4th Tuesday of the month.


Thank you to all volunteers that make our UUSP a special place to be.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH
OF ST. PETE |
100 Mirror Lake Drive
Saint Petersburg, Fl 33701
www.UUStpete.org