Worship
The experience of worship is important for the religious
growth of children and youth. To this end, children up to and sometimes
including the Junior High group are welcomed into our regular Sunday Worship
Service every Sunday for about the first fifteen minutes, where they experience
the opening readings, music, a hymn, the chalice-lighting, and a brief
“Time For All Ages”. They are then sung out to their classes.
We ask parents of preschool children to please escort your child to their
class. The 9:30 service is the home of the Family Choir, which sings at
the service every 3 - 4 weeks. Families of any number and configuration
are invited to sing with this group on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 - 8:00
pm.
About five times a year, at Ingathering, Thanksgiving,
Christmas, Easter, and in January for “Children and Youth Ministries
Sunday”, we hold an Intergenerational service which all children
attend with their families. At other times, children youth and families
are invited to help in the leadership of the regular service by contributing
music, chalice lighting or readings.
NURSERY - Gandhi Room
Care for our youngest children is provided by paid caregivers, Stacey
Gregor and Sydney Colburn, with the support of volunteers. We are eager
to provide nurturing care to make it as comfortable as possible for small
children and their parents to be in church. Child safety is of utmost
importance to us. We require parents who want to use the Nursery to register
their children and sign them in and out each Sunday. We ask that all
parents who use the Nursery to volunteer as a parent helper several times
a year.
SUNDAY MORNING CLASSES
We offer classes during both our 9:30 and 11:00 am Sunday
services. At the 9:30 am service there are classes from preschool through
5th grade, and at the 11:00 am service there are preschool through 5th
grade and Senior High class. Junior High class meets ONLY from 10:00 –
11:00am. Every Sunday at both 9:30 and 11:00 am children up to 5th grade
attend the first part of the service with their families and are dismissed
to class after 15-20 minutes.
The Children and Youth Ministries office is the first room
on the left in the Mason Wing. Jennifer Halperin, Director of Ministries
with Children and Youth, and Nancy Schwartz, Religious Education Administrative
Assistant, are available on Sunday mornings. Our classroom teachers, with
the exception of the nursery caregivers, are all volunteers. Some are
veteran teachers, and some are newcomers. They are enthusiastic, dedicated,
and especially appreciated by all. Please consider joining an RE team
as either a teacher or helper for special events and activities.
CLASSES AND CURRICULA FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH
2011-2012 Theme: Our Judeo-Christian Heritage
The following is available as a PDF.
PRESCHOOL and KINDERGARTEN
(3-6 year-olds) - 9:30 am and 11:00 am
Eliot Room
SPIRIT PLAY
SPIRIT PLAY is a child-centered, UU curriculum adapted from Godly Play
by Jerome Berryman. (www.spiritplay.net).
Our team of teachers is led by Montessori teacher Cathy Rohrer, with Jennifer
Petrus and Christa Brackley at 9:30am and Brendan Coyne, Sally Kupchock
and Olivia Parks at 11:00am.
LOWER ELEMENTARY
(1st – 2nd Grades) – 9:30 am, Fahs Room
(1st – 2nd Grades) – 11:00 am, Fahs Room
PICTURE BOOK BIBLE TALES
SPECIAL TIMES: HONORING OUR JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN
Picture Book Bible Tales, written by religious educator Kate Tweedy, is
designed to introduce UU children to bible stories through the use of
fourteen different picture books. http://www.uure.com/PBBibletales.html.
Each story has activities that will help young children learn the values
of our faith. Special Times focusee on holidays and celebrations from
the Jewish and Christian traditions. It was written by UU religious educator
Betty Jo Middleton. Teachers at 9:30am are Lisa McDade, Barbara Litt,
Jan Steckel and Stuart Olmsted. 11:00am teachers are David Hereth, Vespera
Barrow and Susan Regan.
UPPER ELEMENTARY
(3rd – 5th Grades) – 9:30 am, Junior High Room
(3rd – 5th Grades) – 11:00 am, Junior High Room
LIVING THE PROMISE
A KINGDOM OF EQUALS
Living the Promise focuses on the Hebrew scriptures, the development of
monotheism and the meaning of covenant. A Kingdom of Equals focuses on
Jesus’ radical path toward love and justice and the gospels. Teachers
at 9:3-am are Melody Platz, Christy Decker and Kelly Drum. 11:00am teachers
are Sage Bowser, Kathy Lawson and Jennifer Lawyer.
JUNIOR HIGH (6th – 8th Grades) –
10:00 - 11:00 am only
Priestly Room
NEIGHBORING FAITHS
NEIGHBORING FAITHS invites the youth to learn about and experience
different faith traditions practiced in the Pittsburgh area. For each
faith tradition there will likely be one or two introductory classes,
then we will invite someone to the class who practices that faith, and
then the class will have an off-site visit to the church, temple, mosque
or meeting house. The youth are encouraged to have input into which religions
they learn about. Teachers are Ebe Emmons-Apt, Bethany Getgen, Paige Beauchamin
and Jon Erik Schreiber.
SENIOR HIGH (9th – 12th Grades) –
11:00 am only
High School Room
TRUTH AND MEANING
This year the High School class will be following the curricula “Truth
and Meaning; Questions About Western Religious Heritage of Unitarian Universalism”
which was developed by former First Church Youth Group Leader Jeff Liebmann
who has now become the minister of the Unitarian Church in Midland, Michigan.
The youth will also be involved in The Green Sanctuary Program which was
originally nurtured and managed by the Unitarian Universalist Ministry
For Earth. It was designed to give roots and wings to the vision that
together, we can create a world in which all people make reverence, gratitude,
and care for the living Earth that is central to our lives.
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