To My Beloved UUFM Community,
January’s focus on the RE front was to wrap up the “creating safe and welcoming spaces” phase – inventorying, evaluating and establishing the physical resources and safety infrastructure that will provide foundational support to our RE rebuilding efforts. We made significant progress on the Nursery renovation, and had a productive work day on the 17th tackling a good chunk of what remained to be done in the Neptune room, all while maintaining Sunday Time for All Ages and RE session offerings. The RE Team has also been working to establish cleaning protocols for our RE rooms to add to our existing safety policy and protocols. On the 25th, we enjoyed an engaging All Ages Sunday Service developed by one of our youth.
February is going to be focused on “establishing communication channels and building relationships.” The RE Team will be hosting a “Coffee, Cheesecake and RE Conversation” on Saturday, February 28th from 3-5pm at UUFM. Childcare will be provided. At this event, we hope to accomplish a few things:
- Update registration of children and youth who may participate in RE. Part of our evaluation of our safety infrastructure identified a need to update how we gather and hold safety information so that it is appropriately accessible to our RE staff and volunteers. Even if you registered in 2025, we will be asking everyone to re-register or register for the first time using this new format.
- Discuss and establish a clear communication channel for RE families. What is your preferred method of communication? Email? Texts? Something like a GroupMe? We’re interested in figuring out – not just how we want to communicate about programming with families – but also how we might want to create ways for RE families to communicate with each other. Parenting during these times is hard, and feeling connected to community in a way that is centered around our shared values in the context of parenting can be even harder. How can we better support connecting with each other and meeting the needs of families?
- Finally, we’re interested in talking about what people want and need in terms of RE programming. We have some ideas and framing from the larger UU conversation around Whole Church RE, and we have some observations around the kind of programming that folks seem to engage with more or less in recent years. Since we have a half-time DRE, we want to be careful about where we put our energy and prioritize the programming that has the most interest and energy around it. That’s where we need your input.
This is a Whole Church conversation. We hope you will join us as we explore possibilities together.
Grounded in Love,
Emily Fraser, Director of Religious Education
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Manhattan
(785) 370-6141