Religious Education News

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by Rev. Sierra-Marie Gerfao

Upcoming in Religious Education

The nursery is open for children ages 0-5 every Sunday during service. Our nursery care providers cannot wait to welcome your children! We also offer regular programming open to children in preschool through high school. 

  • Sunday, October 1st – Regular Sunday morning programs + first day of middle and senior high school youth groups
  • Friday, October 6th – Group for Caregivers of LGBTQI+ Young People 
  • Sunday, October 9th – Regular Sunday morning programs + Circles of Connection (interfaith rituals for healing from miscarriage)
  • Sunday, October 15th – Regular Sunday morning programs
  • Sunday, October 22nd – Regular Sunday morning programs 
  • Sunday, October 29th – Regular Sunday morning programs + Trunk or Treat after service + Circles of Connection (interfaith rituals for healing from miscarriage) + Middle School Youth Group pumpkin carving event

If you have not yet registered your family for children and youth programs, please do so here. 

Urgent: Volunteers Still Needed

Here is the bad news: we do not have enough volunteers to run all of our planned programs for children and youth. Without volunteers, programs will be canceled. And here is the fantastic news: you can help us fix this! We have fun, interesting, and fulfilling volunteer jobs. 

Will you help us make sure that we have a complete set of programs this year? Below are some of the volunteer positions open as of the mid-September newsletter deadline. Please contact our Director of Religious Education, Sierra-Marie, at dre@uudanbury.org to discuss whether any of these might be a good fit for your skills. Please note that volunteers must complete an application, including a background check. 

  • Love and Wonder in Nature (LAWN): Formerly known as our Forest School-inspired program,this is a mostly-outdoor, play-centered, child-led Sunday morning religious education program for children in primary and middle school grades. We still need two to three volunteers to commit to spending two Sundays a month with the kids, playing outside with them and exploring their questions. 
  • Spirit Play: This is a Montessori-inspired Sunday morning religious education program to help children make meaning through story, ritual, and play. We have enough volunteers through December but need one to two more volunteers who can spend two Sundays a month with the kids starting in January. A special training is required.

Resources for Learning About Judaism

This month in Neighborhood Bridges we are meeting our Jewish neighbors. To learn more about Judaism, check out the following resources:

General:

  • The Judaism 101 website offers basic, wide-ranging information on modern Judaism.
  • My Jewish Learning is a comprehensive website with information on Jewish holidays, life, beliefs, global demographics, and more. Though centered on European Jewry’s history and contemporary practices, the website also addresses a range of cultural communities and diverse practices within Judaism.
  • On the Ask Moses website, you can type questions and receive answers from a rabbi or another person learned in Judaism. Research kashrut (keeping Kosher) and other topics.
  • The Absolute Astronomy website offers a variety of encyclopedia-style articles about facets of Judaism, including “Atheist Jew” and “Humanistic Judaism.”

On the History of Judaism:

  • The Eighth Day: The Hidden History of the Jewish Contribution to Civilization by Samuel Karlinsky (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994) is an excellent scholarly book on Jewish contributions to humankind.
  • A website published by the Christian Resource Institute offers “The Date of the Exodus,” Dennis Bratcher’s compilation of a variety of kinds of evidence suggesting a date for the Jewish Exodus from Egypt.

Torah, Commentary, and Interpretation:

  • The Internet Sacred Text Archive website offers the Jewish Publication Society’s 1917 translation of the Tanach—the Five Books of Moses plus the Books of Joshua, Judges, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, and II Kings.
  • A searchable, comprehensive Complete Torah is published by Mechon Mamre (“the Mamre Institute”), an Israeli group of observant Jewish Torah scholars.
  • An article on The Religion of Islam website explores how both Torah and Talmud function as authorities for observant Jewish practice.

Israel, Today:

  • The Jewish Virtual Library published by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise offers information about Israel including its links with U.S. organizations and enterprises, its position in international politics, and a “virtual tour” of the land.

Unitarian Universalism and Judaism: