From Our Director of Religious Exploration
Courage, Community, and Taking Heart
It was good to see the Harvest Moon on full display this past weekend – big and golden at the horizon in the twilight, and high and bright through the trees in the pre-dawn morning sky. At just past Equinox, the Harvest Moon for me is a harbinger of Linus’s Great Pumpkin, and of all the lesser pumpkins suddenly now at the farmstands and farmers markets. As the days markedly shorten and we begin our gradual descent into the darkest part of the year, it is good to savor our time together, to soak up the sunshine, to notice the glorious color of the natural world around us, and to stock our pantries, literal and spiritual, as we may.
As October moves us toward Samhain and the thinning of the veil, it is a good time also to consider our courage. This is our Soul Matters theme for the month, and our young people in Preschool – 12th Grade Religious Exploration (P-12 RE) will consider courage from many angles. The courage it takes to know ourself, to be our authentic self in the presence of others, to face our fears – of particular realities, and of the unknown. Even we grownups need not be fearless in order to be courageous – in fact, true courage might be understood as the ability to move into and beyond what scares us, toward what needs to be done . And goodness knows, there is much that needs doing in this precious world of ours. Our young people will also use the lenses of interdependence, transformation, and (always) love to consider courage: how might community and mutuality help bolster or even transform our courage? How might our sense of shared belonging help see us through personal evolutions that require courage? How can we practice transformation together? And what is that love at the heart of courage (which takes its root from coeur, the French word for heart) that can sustain us as community through the uncertainty of transformation?
This might seem heady stuff for a preschooler – but even our littles know what it means to be afraid, to seek the comfort of communion, to be brave. Our Flourishers (2nd to 5th grade) will consider, for instance, how it might feel to a caterpillar to enter the chrysalis, dissolve into soup, and then resolidify and emerge as a butterfly! Sometimes facing the unknown can result in the most beautiful and miraculous ways of being. May we all know the blessing of such courage, and may we find it in loving community with one another.
Sunday Religious Exploration is Underway!
- The Theme for October Church-Wide is Courage
- The Pillar Values for this year are: Interdependence, Transformation, and (Always) Love!
- This month, all cohorts will discuss the meaning and practice of courage, interdependence, and transformation in helping us to become more loving.
Registration is annual & ongoing! We always welcome new people into our preschool-12th grade religious exploration classes – it’s not too late! To learn more: https://ccuu.org/religious-exploration-for-children-youth/