Religious Education Conference 2007 | July 14-21
Below: Theme Speaker | Minister | Workshops | Afternoon Activities
We'll Build a Land:
Educating for Social Justice in Intergenerational Community
What can I do? I’m just one person. Building a land where “justice shall roll down like waters, and peace like an ever flowing stream” requires both our hearts and our hands. R.E. Week 2007 brings together prophetic words and practical tools for social change in one energizing and inspiring conference.
Theme Speaker
 Garlands Instead of Ashes
Rev. David Carl Olson,
actor, singer, community organizer and minister of the U.U. Church of Flint, Michigan
David Carl Olson came to ministry after a professional career in musical theater. Throughout his theater career, David served as an artist in residence at numerous urban schools and community centers. In 1987 with 120 sixth graders he created an original musical about the 1912 “Bread and Roses” textile workers strike. (For more details see www.davidcarlolson.com) While minister of Community Church in Boston David was president of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization and became known as “the pastor to the workers” for his public solidarity with the downtown janitors and their union. As president of G.B.I.O., David worked to bring together religious communities of many faiths to organize for funding for education, the dignity of nursing home workers and for shared responsibility for the poorest among us.* He has also found time to address the UUA General Assembly on community organizing, lead workshops in singing, chanting and spiritual practices. He is an entertaining speaker with great energy and a passionate commitment to social justice.
David will speak to us about the great challenge all social activists face: how to balance “the world as it is” with “the world as it should be.” We must mediate the ideals of our faith with the mundane reality we are given. Our effectiveness depends on developing a narrative which we recognize, embrace and perpetuate. The story of our faith, then, is retold in every generation. We “own” our faith when we, ourselves, cherish a vital, coherent and true narrative. Our tools are honesty, joy, confrontation, celebration, taking risks. Our task is to “give them garlands instead of ashes.” With storytelling and singing, drama and improvisation, we will draw on the stories of our forbears and contemporaries to inspire us in our core task: the full development of our faith through engagement in social justice action.
Minister of the Week
Our Minister of the Week is the Rev. Carol Haag. Carol is a religious educator of long standing. She has served as a Good Officer, an OWL trainer of Trainers, on the LREDA board and in numerous other positions in the U.U. world. She is the retired Minister of Religious Education from Summit, N.J.
Workshops
This very special seven day conference includes a daily morning theme talk, week long two hour morning workshops, afternoon adult and intergenerational workshops, and a variety of activities designed just for fun, such as informal porch chats, softball games, hikes, a talent show and polar bear swims! Morning and candle lit evening chapel services are held daily in the island’s rustic stone chapel dating from 1800. Star is also a wonderful experience for our children. Well developed morning programs for our youth entering grades K through 12 provide a rich opportunity for our younger conferees to discover the joys of community on Star. Choose from the wide variety of workshops shown here and make your reservation for a religious education experience you’ll want to come back to year after year!
 FEATURED MORNING WORKSHOP
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SERVICE COMMITTEE
Please join the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee each day this week to gain a deeper understanding of our work to advance human rights around the world, and to learn more about how you can bring that work directly into your RE classrooms.
Learn about UUSC’s many experiential education programs, from JustWorks camps to JustJourneys travel experiences. Share in the experience of a youth group visit to UUSC by participating in the same educational activities as the Coming of Age groups that visit our office. And view our exciting new documentary about the incredible story of Martha and Waitstill Sharp, two of UUSC’s founders who helped thousands of Jews and political dissidents escape the Holocaust. After the showing, join us in discussion about the relevance of the Sharps’ experience to our work to defeat the genocide devastating Darfur.
 Our team will consist of two different groups of UUSC staff members that will switch halfway through the week. The team will be headed by UUSC President Charlie Clements. Charlie, a well-known human rights activist and public health physician, has led UUSC since 2003. |
CREATIVITY AND OUR UU SPIRITUALITY
Creativity and the spirit are intrinsically one. As UUs and as educators, we know the importance of creativity and spirituality in our daily lives. We also know how easily both are blocked. Through journaling, drawing, poetry, music, theater games, and dance, (each optional of course), we will foster the magic of imagination, the joy of being alive and together. Drawing from such books as Julia Cameron's, The Artist's Way, Shaun McNiff's, Art Heals, How Creativity Cures the Soul, and Michael Gelb's How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci, Nancy will blend in her own creativity, spirit, and humor to lift us off the ground. No experience necessary. Song and laughter throughout. Spouses most welcomed.
The Rev. Dr. Nancy Jay Crumbine is a Unitarian Univeralist minister, a professor at Dartmouth College, a writer, actor, and public speaker. She is the author of Humility, Anger, and Grace, Meditations Towards a Life that Matters.
THE POETRY OF MARY OLIVER
This workshop will combine the pleasures of reading and reflecting on the poems of Mary Oliver with the learning of a simple method for facilitating similar classes in adult religious education classes. Each day of this week we will read and discuss poems selected by the class from Oliver’s New and Selected Poems, Volume I. (NOTE: Class participants should have a copy of this book.) The object of this class will not be the academic dissection of the poems, but rather the seeking of life-meaning through them.
Bruce Bode is in his third year as the minister of the Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Port Townsend, Washington. He is very much looking forward to a return to Star after an absence of several years, and plans to come with softball glove in tow.
RENAISSANCE MODULE: TEACHER TRAINING
Recruiting, training and nurturing the volunteers who work with our children and youth comprises much of the work of the religious educator. This module will give you new skills and insight. The reader will be mailed to you ahead of time. There is a separate fee for Renaissance participants.
Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Strong is the District Religious Education Consultant for the Mass Bay District. Sandra Greenfield is the Director of Religious Education at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Portsmouth, NH
SCIENCE AND RELIGION FOR UU EDUCATORS (& OTHERS)
This workshop will focus on the many ways in which the relationship between science and religion affect us as religious educators. How are we to teach about Principle 7's ecological values within a framework of our UU faith tradition in a way which is adequately supported by the life sciences? This workshop doesn't assume a background in science, just a willingness to think about the issues in an open-minded way.
John Maxwell Kerr has taught chemistry, physics, logic and theology at Winchester College and lectured in Science and Religion at Oxford University for twelve years. He is currently doing research for a book on Science and Religion as reflected in English Poetry.
WORSHIP FOR ALL
Participants in this experiential workshop will create and present worship in 4 categories: children, youth, young adult, and intergenerational. Community building, cultural respect, personal spiritual practices, art, journaling, singing, music, and meditation will be interwoven into our sacred time during RE Week. Together we will learn the value of worship and how it relates to community building while taking time to appreciate our spiritual development as an added enrichment to the experience.
Nan Moore is the Director of Religious Education at First Parish in Cohasset, MA and a Youth Advisor and Spiritual Development trainer for the UUA.
Afternoon Activities
An Afternoon on Star offers so many possibilities! Both the U.U. Service Committee presenters and our theme speaker, Rev. David Carl Olson will offer daily small group discussions. There will be a “Gathering Of Men” each afternoon lead by Rich Elliot. Helen Zidowecki will convene a group to offer encouragement, feedback and support to anyone involved in developing curriculum. Ellen Foster and Joan MacDonald will offer “Peace By Piece: Crafting as a Spiritual Practice,” an exploration, through sewing and embellishing fabric, of the potential for hand made objects to transform the individual and the community, the maker and the receiver ($15 materials fee). Cheryl Cluckey will again offer her Silver Jewelry Workshop. There will be groups to explore the “History and Lore of Star island” and for musicians, writers and poets to get together, not to mention an afternoon softball game and ice cream social. Of course, a nap or a stroll on the rocks always remains an option!
YOUNG ADULTS ON STAR
The Young Adult community on Star grows every year and is an important part of our intergenerational family. We will be offering a Young Adult workshop, opportunities for Young Adult worship and community building.
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