RE Weekly Newsletter🙏 Happy Holidays!!❤️

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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…

Wait for Freedom (Lesson D & Watch Night/Anti-Racism, and 8th UU Principle)

In This Holiday Season, May We Simply Be

Like so much in 2020, the winter holidays arrive as a mixed blessing for many of us. UUA President Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray shares a pastoral holiday message to help us find balance and joy in the present moment.

Holiday Greetings 2020 from Rev Susan Frederick Gray

WELCOME

UU Friend

Each month we are dedicating one session to a different aspect of anti-racism work, with our theme guiding us toward which aspect to focus on. When it comes to stillness, we look to our siblings in the AME denomination who, among others, celebrate Watch Night/Freedom’s Eve. On Dec. 31, 1862, “Black slaves and free Blacks came together in churches and private homes all across the nation awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation actually had become law. Lincoln had used the occasion of the Union victory at Antietam to issue a preliminary proclamation, which freed all slaves in the rebellious states after January 1, 1863.”

Learning about the tradition of Watch Night/Freedom’s Eve as a “wait for freedom” lens for stillness helps support our Eighth Principle: “journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”

Our faith has taken up this work and called on UU’s to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community. So what’s one of the ways our faith guides us into becoming a people of stillness?

It says, “Learn about what it means to wait in the stillness for freedom to come.”

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.”

YouTube Channel

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

Nina Simone - I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free) (Live at Montreux, 1976)

Tune in Sundays at 11 a.m. for Sunday School!

Hello Parents!

“During the Mindfulness Moment we asked the children to think of times when they felt bound up. BIPOC Peoples have lived with racism for a long time. In this song, Nina wishes she knew how it would feel to be free. “I wish I could be like a bird in the sky, how sweet it would be to find I could fly.” We asked the children to think of times when they wished to be free. While Nina Simone sang the song, we invited them to draw a picture of freedom. Ask them about their picture. Find a time to share your own wishes for freedom with them."

Mindful Moment:

When was a time when you had to wait and anticipate something good? Something bad?

When did someone really make you jump?

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

“The Christmas Pledge: Believing in the true spirit of Christmas, I commit myself to… * Remember those people who truly need my gifts * Express my love in more direct ways than gifts * Examine my holiday activities in the light of my deepest values * Be a peacemaker within my circle of family and friends * Rededicate myself to my spiritual growth”

Holiday Resources

We invite you all to join us for Mishumaa Saba (The Seven Candles)! This event will be held each night of the celebration at 7:00 pm ET. Team Sankofa members will host a short Mishumaa Saba ritual and share reflections on the principle of the day.

Share with your friends via the Facebook event page here.

Calendar Connections

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.