Unitarian Church of Montreal

Religious Education

 As Unitarian-Universalists, we celebrate the lifelong pursuit of ever-deepening understanding, and we believe we find it best in each other's company. We offer an extensive and constantly evolving program of activities for:

Children in four groups:
Nursery: (babies up to age 3 or 4)
Garden Room: ages approximately 4 through 6
Primers: Grades 2 through 4
Older Primers: Grade 5, 6 and some 7

Youth 
Approximately Grade 8 through Cégep

Adults
Young Adult Group and ongoing lifelong learning for adults of all ages

You can read more about the activities in a blog by Caroline Balderston Parry, our director of religious education. And check out the calendar of events for 2012.

Mystery Friends Revealed

Continued from the March newsletter:

Mystery Friends revealed!

Our 2010-11 Mystery Friends program ran from mid-November to Valentine's Day, culminating in a wonderful clue-giving-and-solving ceremony and a yummy potluck for RE families and helpers on February 13. RE children at church that day gathered with parents and friends in the Darwin Room after their classes ended to watch the big reveal. Each Mystery Friend (MF) participant had a badge to wear and was asked to give some clues about him- or herself (but not their MF code name). Then the children tried to guess which adult was "theirs."

Some found this easy, like Mathias Lee-Poy Paxman, who quickly deduced he was matched with John Pike, the only male MF in sight.  Zoe Corchesne figured out she shared a love of lady bugs with Caroline BP, and soon was decorating a Valentine for her MF, only known to her previously as "Bunny."  Some matches were confusing, however --it turned out both Asha Barnard AND Hannah Lee-Poy Paxman told their MFs they loved to jump in the snow, and Lisa Chojnowitz assumed her match was the latter, only to hear Shawn ask for further clues.  Soon Lisa discovered that Asha had been her partner over the past 3 months, and Victoria Schmidt claimed Hannah, with hugs all round!

These are the names of all eight of our recent pairs:

Celeste Courchesne	Dragon	↔	Joyce	Sue Gray
Asha Barnard	Maria	↔	Sky	Lisa Chojnowicz
Zoe Courchesne	Princess	↔	Bunny	Caroline Balderston Parry
Jia Yang	Mimi	↔	Giraffe	Genevieve Patterson
Charlotte Dunford	Luber	↔	Pocahontas	Carolyn St-Denis
Hannah Paxman	Ella of Frell	↔	Penelope	Victoria Schmidt
Mathias Paxman	Secret	↔	Dogwalker	John Pike
Genevieve Dohring	The Drummer	↔	Clouds	Lauren Delrio

 The Mystery Friends program was organized by Shawn Dohring this year, and I especially appreciated his careful pairing up of the children and adults who participated.  Don't you think he did a fine job?  I bet some of these mystery friendships will continue for years to come.

If you are interested, you can see a display of my correspondence with Zoe on the stairwell bulletin board this month.  We hope these samples will draw you into next year's program.

 Thanks to all those who helped set or clean up from our Mystery Friends feast in the Chapel, and a warm "welcome back" to David Horan, a keen MF supporter.  Kudos, too, to the many adults who worked to ensure regular correspondence took place -- for instance, Zoe's mother Elizabeth Patterson provided necessary writing assistance for each exchange.  You can notify the RE office now if you want to be put on a MF waiting list for next year, and someone will contact you in the fall with details.  dre@ucmtl.ca

Children's Music Program

The Children’s Music Program is about the joy of music for 6- to 10-year-olds. We have frequent short songs for the children to play/sing, for chalice lightings, time of all ages, and other occasions. 

The children's choir program sessions will start again in October and run through June. Practice will start at 10 am sharp, the first and second Sunday of the month, and finish at 10:25, in time to go to the Sanctuary for "Time for All Ages." Please check the Week at a Glance updates and have your children wear nametags.
Call Shawn Dohring for more details: 514-461-1388 or email him.

We had a very nice group of singers for the Thanksgiving service: Amanda, Annie, Catherine, Elise, Elizabeth, Gloria, Hannah, Jia &  Stephanie. Thank you, everyone, for participating, including Dr. Bob Barnes for helping direct….
You can view a YouTube video of your performance by clicking here.
Feel free to join our our next practice, Sunday Nov. 6 at 10 am.

Our RE program

Wondering which RE group your child fits into?  We have something for babies through teenagers heading into young adulthood. Read on to find where your little ones fit into our set-up.

Link to the DRE's blog!

Download Calendar 2011 Winter & Spring

Lyrics to Circle of the Sun, by Sally Rogers

Babies are born in the circle of the Sun
Circle of the Sun on the birthin' day
Babies are born in the circle of the sun
Circle of the sun on the birthin' day.

Spirit Play - a new trend in Unitarian Religious Education

On Saturday, April 25, one of the three creators of Unitarian Universalist Spirit Play, Nita Penfold, will be coming to Montreal to train an interested group of people from the Unitarian Church of Montreal on Spirit Play. 
Spirit Play is based on the Montessori philosophy of education and is one of the most dynamic and interesting new trends in Unitarian Religious Education.
For more information on Spirit Play visit http://www.spiritplay.net/
Please advise Shawn Dohring by March 8 to secure your place in this program. dohrings@yahoo.com, tel: 514-461-1388.

 
 

From Sunday photos