Previous RE Week: 2006, July 15-22
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2005 was an exciting year for our movement with the long anticipated publication of "Engaging Our Theological Diversity." Unitarian Universalists are addressing the ongoing challenge of articulating our faith as a non-dogmatic, pluralist tradition. Our 2006 conference is designed to challenge and energize our conference community of religious educators to be an involved, informed, and vibrant part of that effort.
Experiencing the Music of Our Being:
A New Theology of Faith
The foundation of our faith is not an idea or a set of beliefs. It is an EXPERIENCE that affirms and renews us, gives our life direction, purpose and meaning, and establishes the principles that guide our ethical lives as a religious people. It resonates between and among us as music to our souls. Together we can discover it, know it, and live it.
Theme Speaker
 We are delighted to have renowned writer and theologian, the Rev. Dr. Thandeka, join us to share the inspiring and practical goals of what she calls Affect Theology, and to lift up the religious educator’s extraordinarily important role in helping the members of our communities develop and celebrate their faith.
The Rev. Dr. Thandeka is senior research professor of theology at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago and co-president of the Center for Community Values. She will be a visiting associate professor of theology at Harvard Divinity School during the 2006 spring term. Thandeka is the author of The Embodied Self: Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Solution to Kant’s Problem of the Empirical Self (The State University of New York Press, 1995) and Learning to be White: Money, Race and God in America (Continuum 1999). Thandeka is currently working on volume one (doctrine of human nature) of her systematic theology, which will be published in 2006. Thandeka has taught in the philosophy department at San Francisco State University, the religion department at Williams College, and has been a Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center at Stanford University and a visiting scholar at Union Theologian Seminary in New York City, and Before receiving her doctorate in philosophy of religion and theology from the Claremont Graduate School, Thandeka was an Emmy award-winning television producer for sixteen years. An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister and theologian, she was given the !Xhosa name Thandeka, which means “beloved,” by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Minister of the Week
 We are delighted to have the Rev. Denis Meacham join us as Minister of the Week.
Rev. Meacham, DMin., LADCI, is associate minister of First Parish Brewster on Cape Cod and director of its Center for Addictions Ministry. He is a licensed drug/alcohol counselor, maintains a small private therapy practice, and is active with several nonprofit groups working to improve access to mental health and substance abuse care on the Cape and Islands. He is the Author of The Addiction Ministry Handbook: A Guide for Faith Communities, published by Skinner House Books. He lives with his wife and son in Brewster, and his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson live in western MA. He is the putative leader of the All Worn Out Jug Band, the only Unitarian Universalist jug band in the U.S. (a fact that does not seem to be terribly impressive to potential employers of the band).
Morning Workshops
 Clear Edges/Clean Windows
Clarity is the key to successful professional relationships, and we know that our work depends heavily on relationships. This workshop will focus on the role of good process and relational style for Religious Educators, including units on establishing solid Ministerial, Committee, Board and Family relation models. We will consider the role of personality using a variety of typologies, and will end with a unit on spiritual, emotional and physical self care. Participants will be encouraged to share particular professional concerns with the Workshop leaders prior to RE Week so that they might be used as models for realistic, proactive problem solving.
Melaney Mashburn has served as Religious Educator at All Souls in New York City for the past 9 years, and as LREDA Good Officer for MetroNY for the past 8 years. She is a licensed Clinical Social Worker, with additional post-graduate psychotherapy training.
Rev. Carol Haig, MRE Emerita at the Unitarian Church in Summit, NJ. A fourth career minister, Carol served 13 years in Summit before retiring in 2003. Having served MetroNY in numerous capacities, she is now President of the Murray Grove Board. She served on the LREDA Continental Board for 5 years as MRE for professional concerns and was responsible for Good Offices trainings. Carol continues as a MetroNY Good Officer, going into her fifth year.
DISCIPLINE WITH DIGNITY:
Behavior Management and Group Work Skills for Sunday Morning
Our happiest volunteer teachers have learned how to be caring while setting limits when working with children and youth. They know the need to have clearly defined limits and at the same time a sense of flexibility (and humor!) when dealing with young people. This workshop will explore how volunteers can establish both respect and responsibility during our Sunday morning programs. During the week, a clearly defined behavior management plan that gently helps our children be responsible for their actions with realistic consequences for inappropriate behaviors will be created and shared. Topics will include: creating workable rules and procedures; eliminating put-downs; and, handling the defiant child. Some cooperative learning techniques will also be demonstrated and practiced.
Todd Johnson is a professional educational consultant who conducts similar workshops for teachers and parents. He continues working with elementary, middle and high school youth at Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Spirituality in World Musics
This delightful workshop is an exploration into the divine inspirations and spiritual purpose behind the music of many cultures. Tribal rituals, circle drumming, improvisation, chants and trance music will be explored. We will study, discuss and perform world musics from the ancient to the present, where jazz and blues will close the workshop. Participants will be offered many ideas to incorporate in their RE curricula or services of worship.
Frank Doyle has a Master of Music in Theoretical Studies from the New England Conservatory, has published several articles worldwide on jazz improvisation and led workshops on “the Musical Experience,” including “Spirituality in Jazz,” at his home congregation at Shelter Rock. He has long been a major musical contributor for our Star Island RE Week.
Wisdom for the Second Half
Our models for spiritual development and growth need to take into consideration life stages, each with its particular tasks and challenges. We do it for children, now we need to do it for adults. The adult spiritual journey from forty-five and beyond is a different journey from our earlier years. In mid-life (defined as 45-65 years) we understand ourselves and our place in the universe in differently. Mid-life brings the challenge of mastery in relationships, careers, and finding direction from our inner resources. What are the paths, the archetypes, and the models? And what does this indicate we need to do in our congregations to meet the needs and encourage the growth of all of us? What are the spiritual tasks of later life?
This workshop will explore the spiritual tasks of mid life and aging. We will create ways to help one another and our congregations explore the journey through learning activities, ritual and worship.
Sue Sinnamon is the Minister for Religious Education at the Unitarian Church of Evanston, Illinois, having supporting the spiritual growth of children, youth and adults together for over 20 years. Sue takes a Jungian approach to religious growth and learning, creating multi-generational community in learning activities, small group ministry and ritual and worship.
Media Literacy for UU Parents and Educators
We are immersed in popular culture – movies, advertisement, music, fashion – with a range of messages being communicated: sexism, racism, homophobia, consumerism, xenophobia, but also love, acceptance of differences, activism, democracy, patriotic dissent, etc. We can situate these messages within the framework of our Unitarian Universalist values, and decide whether we agree or disagree with them. This same process can be practiced in our homes and classrooms, so that our children and students become aware of these messages and develop, at their own pace and with our support, their own "spiritually" critical thinking skills.
Odile Mattiauda, an OWL teacher for the past six years at the 1st Unitarian Universalist Church in Providence, RI, is a doctoral student in Education. She is a co-founder of the French-American School of Rhode Island, and teaches French at the University of Rhode Island. As a UU parent, teacher, and a student, she is focusing her research on issues of gender and masculinity and the effect of the important messages we receive daily from the world around us, in the media, in school, and at home, on the development of identity.
Renaissance Module: Philosophy of Religious Education
Articulating a philosophy of Unitarian Universalist religious education helps participants envision, design and implement programs for children, youth, and adults in meaningful and successful ways. This module seeks to provide both content and process involvement. Reader: The Essex Conversations. The reader is used extensively throughout the module; participants should have read as much as possible before coming.
Susan Freudenthal has been a professional religious educator since 1996. She is a UUA trained Renaissance module leader and currently works as both religious educator and sexuality educator in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She is eternally in debt to the Star Island RE Conference for giving her family a spiritual home and for providing her with inspiration, friends and continuing professional training opportunities. Natalie Maxwell Fenimore is a Credentialed Religious Educator and Director of Religious Exploration at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax in Oakton, Virginia. She has served 3 congregations in the Washington, DC area over the past 8 years, and is presently on the Joseph Priestley District Journey Towards Wholeness Committee and the LREDA 21st Century Grants Committee.
UU's in Interfaith Dialogue: We know why but do we know how?
This workshop will be presented in two parts: The Rev. Nancy Jay Crumbine will present a three day consideration of how UU’s might approach dialogue with those outside our faith, looking at the need, the challenges and the rewards. Denny Davidoff will then introduce a program being developed by the Interfaith Alliance designed to teach high school students about religious diversity and civic engagement. GLADD - Giving Life to American Democracy and Diversity is an action-oriented mission aimed at empowering youth and young adults to become informed and engaged citizens in a religiously diverse nation. This promises to be an engaging and important conversation for the future of our movement.
Nancy Jay Crumbine is a professor at Dartmouth College, a UU minister, writer, actor and public speaker, and author of Humility, Anger and Grace – Meditations Towards a Life that Matters (northbound books.com). She is long-time shoaler with deep roots in the RE Conference, having been theme speaker in 2002, Minister of the Week in 2005, and lively Star workshop leader over the years. Denny Davidoff has been active in UUA leadership for over four decades, as President of the UU Women's Federation, Chair of the General Assembly Planning Committee, and as a Trustee-at-Large on the UUA Board. She served as Moderator of the Association from 1993-2001. Denny presently serves on the Boards of Meadville Lombard Theological School and the Church of the Larger Fellowship, and is an active member of The Unitarian Church in Westport, CT. Denny's workshop will draw on curriculum material developed by The Interfaith Alliance Foundation in Washington, DC for use with interfaith groups of high school students. She is the Board Chair of The Interfaith Alliance Foundation.
SUPERSIZE THIS! A Young Adult workshop on engaged spirituality, leadership and community
Everything our faith has to offer, young adults are ready for more of it. Aren't you? During this week we're going to take Unitarian Universalism to the next level. We'll start with an honest UU reality check, looking at the assumptions, structures, language/terms that congregations have been using to operate. After identifying what we think has been, we’re going to challenge the status quo! Drawing on wisdom from small group ministry, life coaching and other sources we will look at new ways of doing spiritual growth, leadership development and community building. Topics will include spiritual leadership in group ministries, covenants and group health, peer spiritual direction and coaching, weaving spiritual disciplines into group life, cultivating relationships that matter, and techniques for sharing our faiths with those who are hungry for it.
Peter Bowden is the director of UU PLANET Ministries, an independent Unitarian Universalist training and resource center (www.uuplanet.com), and a children's television producer ("Peep and the Big Wide World" and "Curious George"). He has worked with youth and young adults since 1990. This work led him to Star Island a number of years ago where he discovered Small Group Ministry and become one of its greatest advocates. Peter is one of the founders of the UU Small Group Ministry Network (www.smallgroupministry.net). He lives in Newport, RI, with his wife, the Rev. Amy Freedman.
Afternoon Workshops
Glad Rags
Gather to share stories from our lives while sewing worship "garments" - a stole, a prayer shawl, banners, an altar cloth, or . . . ? Topics we will explore include: the work of the hands, symbols that hold special meaning for each of us, creating and using a personal altar, and what it might mean to us to serve as a worship leader. Bring your favorite scissors, scraps of interesting materials, and many small personal objects, including photos, that you might want to include in an altar or sew onto a garment.
Jory Agate is the Minister of Religious Education at the First Parish in Cambridge where she has served for the past 9 years. She is also an avid quilter and has participated with her congregation in creating a community Faith Quilt, caring quilts, and a variety of religious vestments. Gretchen Thomas is a UU Minister who has lived and worked in California, Connecticut, New York, Toronto, Stockholm and now Melbourne. Local quilting groups in each of these places have made it possible for her to feel at home. She has helped UU congregations and conferences make banners, group quilts, caring quilts, and worship leaders' stoles and robes.
Start As You Mean to Continue: A Workshop for New Religious Educators
Pat Ellenwood will lead this highly recommended five-day afternoon opportunity for those new to the work of religious education leadership to learn about some important aspects of administering and ministering as a professional, including:Compensation — Ralph Mero from the Office of Church Staff Finances on all aspects of compensation.
UUA Religious Education Credentialing — A recently credentialed Religious Educator will share the experience of the process as it has evolved for aspiring professionals.
Programming — Learn about the many decisions regarding programming: curricular structure, worship, outreach, intergenerational activities, and more.
Leadership — A consideration of different governance structures, staff configurations, and congregational polity as it impacts the role of the religious educator.
Organizational Strategies — Overview of the configuration of religious education committees, volunteer staff, office materials, and personal files.
Childcare for this afternoon workshop will provided as requested.
Pat Ellenwood has served as the Director of Religious Education at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley since 1979. She has served in numerous District and Continental capacities, was a contributor to the Essex Conversations, is a past President of the LREDA Board and recipient of the 2002 Angus H MacLean Award for Excellence in Religious Education.
Cheryl Clukey’s Jewlery & Clay in the Afternoon
Workshop #1: Basic Silver Jewlery- come learn the basics of earring or bracelet design – no soldering required, only hands and imagination. (small lab fee to cover the silver) Bring beads, seaglass, whatever!
Workshop #2: Claywork: self-portrait mask of “you” with soothing music to inspire your thoughts; or, build a panoramic scene of something you love. Self-drying clay can be painted.
Cheryl Clukey, UUCC, Augusta, Maine, is a long-time educator who specializes in Dyslexic students. Cheryl was a school principal for 9 years. A frustrated artist who would love to know how to paint and sing with a band, she can make anything with her hands, and considers it the the best form of self-satisfaction1<
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