| To all the children and youth of South Church, I have been thinking about all of you so much this week, and wanting to reach out to you to see how you are? Usually, sending a message to you when our regular routines are being changed for some reason, would be my first priority. But this particular week has been different than anything I’ve ever experienced before, and it’s created a whole new set of work for me and the rest of the staff at church. We’ve been working really hard, but I haven’t had enough time for all of it, so I’m really sorry it’s taken so long to write to you! SO, here’s the most important thing; I want to tell you how very proud of each of you I am, because you are all doing a great job at being flexible about really unexpected changes. And I want to tell you how sorry I am about all of the things that may have been in your plans over the next few weeks that are being cancelled. I am sure a lot of you are feeling really sad about that, or frustrated, or confused. If you ever want to talk, you can write to me, or Cat, or Jen Del Deo, any time! My email is: Kirsten@southchurch-uu.org Cat’s email is: Cat@southchurch-uu.org Jen Del Deo’s email is: Jendeldeo@southchurch-uu.org The second most important thing I have to tell you, is that I need your help with one of the coolest projects I have ever seen us try to do at South Church! Starting this Sunday, South Church’s worship will be streaming online! Our in-person gatherings are on pause for at least the next 4 weeks. This means that I am working with a whole bunch of other adults to figure out how to make a space on the internet where we can all come together as a community and share time with one another. Just this week, those of us who have been planning worship have thought about all kinds of cool ways to start this project, but we need your help! I’d be willing to guess that none of us know even a quarter of what most of you know about technology, and we want to make sure we take advantage of all the expertise we can find right now! I’m hoping you’ll help us create this new church space over the next few weeks!? Tomorrow’s worship will be the very beginning of the adventure. If you haven’t already heard, tomorrow will be extra special because we have just welcomed a new minister to our church, named Reverend Susan (you can sneak a peek at her HERE), and she’ll be at worship with us! Alice O’Traynor, (one of the nicest, smartest people I have ever met!) is giving the sermon, with another amazing church member named Laurie Bilby who will be the worship associate. Joanne will be leading music, with a whole bunch of other musicians joining her, and Jen Deldeo and I are planning a special story for you all. I hope that you will ‘come’ to worship with your parents. It will be streaming on Youtube live, and we will be posting the link on our website or on our South Church facebook accounts. Make sure one of you have a youtube account, so you can make comments! South Church members group on facebook South Church’s public page (you can access this without joining facebook) Before worship, look around your house and see if you can find something you can use as a chalice at home, so you can light it with us during worship. Maybe you might like to download some some coloring pages too, so you have something to keep your hands busy as you listen and watch the worship. You will have a chance to share a rose, bud, or thorn during the worship, so if you don’t know how to type, you might want to tell a family member what you want to share so they can type it for you. |
| This coming week, and for the next few weeks Jen Del Deo and I are going to be brainstorming what it might look like to have religious education gatherings online. Maybe we can have a bedtime story hour? or a kid chat where we share ideas with each other about what we do when we’re bored at home?! Maybe you all want to play a game together on a zoom chat?! What do you think would be a good idea? Youth group will be meeting online for sure, as will coming of age. But what other ideas do you have, and how can we support each other and keep one another company? That’s what I want you to wonder about– I CAN’T WAIT to hear the cool ideas you come up with! I can’t wait to “see” you tomorrow!! Please be extra kind to your family if you can right now, everyone is feeling a little bit overwhelmed. Most of all, don’t forget that I love you all very much! ~Kirsten |
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