fdo-jan-2014-webinar.mp4
JESSICA YORK: Welcome to the Spiritual Preparation for Leading RE webinar. I want to start off by saying how much we appreciate your giving up an hour of your time during your very busy day to join us for this webinar. And I certainly hope that you will find it useful.
During this webinar, you will get a chance to meet most of the members of the Faith Development Office. I'm Jessica York, your faith development director at the UUA. We're also joined today by Rev. Dr. Monica L. Cummings, Dr. Melanie J. Davis, Gail Forsyth-Vail, Susan Dana Lawrence, and Alicia LeBlanc.
Unfortunately, Pat Kahn couldn't join us today because she is not feeling well. But you will be able to meet Pat on some future webinars, though I will have to admit to you that you may not have all of us on every single one of the webinars going forward. We thought this first one was a good opportunity, though, for you to get to meet people.
I would like to share with you the mission statement of our Office of Faith Development, which we frequently call FDO. The mission statement is on the slide in front of you. Grounded in Unitarian Universalist principles and values, the Faith Development Office equips individuals and communities with resources, coaching, and training to intentionally grow and sustain a dynamic, lived faith capable of transforming the world into the just, compassionate, pluralistic, beloved community of our dreams. One of the ways that we thought might be useful to assist in training [INAUDIBLE] development [INAUDIBLE] webinars. Not only do webinars make [INAUDIBLE] accessible to more people than it would be in a face-to-face meeting in a particular place, but it also is a way to build community amongst religious educators far and wide, such as the people who are on this conference.
Now today's webinar is the first one in a new monthly series that we are launching. And we chose this topic because we believe that spiritual preparation not only helps leaders be centered and better able to lead but also is a tool for intentional faith development for you, the leaders and teachers and facilitators of our religious education programs for all ages. You are the most important resource to Unitarian Universalism. And your faith development [INAUDIBLE]. This is a theme that you're going to see reflected throughout our work in FDO.
What will the subject be for next month's webinar? Well, I don't know. We want to ask you that question. So at the end of today's webinar, we're going to save some time specifically to ask you for ideas that you may have for future webinars. I hope you [INAUDIBLE] with you. [INAUDIBLE] want you to hear from [INAUDIBLE] is our host tonight, along with Alicia LeBlanc. And Susan's going to give us a little more information on how we should be together during the webinar.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Thank you, Jessica. Well first of all, I don't mean to be rude. But if you are not in an FDO staff role today, we would like you to turn off your camera so people are not too confused as to who the FDO staff is. And we appreciate that. And I'm glad for you that your equipment works so easily because not all of us have it quite so good getting started.
If you have a computer audio problem-- if it's interfering with your ability to hear, or you think you're making some noise that could be disruptive to others due to a technical problem, could you please log off of Fuze and call in by phone? And the initial email that I sent you has the phone call-in. And I think Alicia can-- do you have that available to-- the phone number and meeting number is going to be put up in the Meeting Chat room by Alicia in just a second.
So if you have to hang up and call in-- if you have to log off and call in, please do. And there'll be a recording available of this webinar online within a week or so. So you'll be able to see the visuals. And the slides will be up even sooner than that on uua.org.
On your slide, you'll see the landing page for the webinars where you'll find all of this as we schedule--
SPEAKER 1: This schedule is being recorded.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: [ECHOING] As we schedule future topics-- is anyone getting an echo besides me? Yeah, sorry about that. As we schedule future webinars, you'll see the dates and the topic and maybe the presenters on that web page.
And you'll also be able to click and look at the old recorded webinars, as well as see the PowerPoints only from each of the webinars that we're going to do. And that's all. Some of that's online already from-- OK.
We are going to ask that you stay muted during the presentation to make it easier for everyone to hear the person who's presenting. When it's time for question and answer discussion, you will see a red flag over the little window that says Meeting Chat. If you click on that red flag, that will indicate that you would like to speak. And we will call on you in turn, and we'll unmute your mic for you when it's the time for you to speak.
If you'd like to practice that, it might give you a good idea if you haven't used Fuze before. Try to click your red flag just to see that it works. And then you can click it off again.
So thank you. Good practicing. And later on, that will be extremely helpful.
OK. So please do keep an eye on your Meeting Chat box over to the left there. Alicia is going to be putting up some resources as people mention them. And as you've probably figured out already, you can converse with, quote, "everyone," or you can converse with a specific other participant by finding their name.
There's a scroll down on the bottom corner. And it says To Everyone. And if you follow that arrow and play with it, you might find some of your friends on there. And you can have a private conversation, which is a cool feature.
It's also a place where you can comment during the presentation. We won't want to be interrupting during the presentations for conversation. But if you've got something you want to remember to bring up, feel free to type it in there, and we'll see it.
Later on we're going to be asking you for suggestions of topics for future webinars. And that conversation can go on in the Meeting Chat room because we probably won't get to have everyone have a chance to speak together here. OK. We are asking you to send any questions or comments after the webinar that relates to future topics or today's to the email address, religiouseducation@uua.org, which is up on the slide now. And we will look forward to hearing from you.
And finally, in case you haven't figured this one out too, you can cut and paste out of the Meeting Chat to your own computer. So if you see something that you want to grab, you can highlight it and take it and put it in a Word document. So I believe that is all that I have.
And I would like to apologize for the technical troubles. It seems that they're inherent in webinars. And we're certainly finding interesting new things each time. So thanks for bearing with us.
Oh, and finally, Alicia is actually physically sitting next to me today. And that is why she can't speak because when she does, it sounds like we're joined by chipmunks. And it's not pleasant. So Alicia's going to be the silent partner today. But we did want to make sure she's introduced, and here she is.
With that, I'd like to turn this over to Gail to begin our presentation.
GAIL FORSYTH-VAIL: Hi. I'm Gail Forsyth-Vail, and I'm the adult programs director. And I'm going to start by talking about why we chose spiritual preparation as our first webinar topic. We thought a lot about how we keep faith development front and center in all aspects of congregational and family life. And the Tapestry Project has spiritual preparation in every workshop as a way of doing that.
By faith development, what we mean is deepening the sense of being at home in the universe. We mean thoughtful reflection on one's life stories and experiences illuminated by UU values and UU tradition. We mean growing the ability to carry one's Unitarian Universalist faith into everyday living and into compassionate action in the wider world.
You might be a leader of a class or a workshop or a program. You might be the leader of a social action or service project, a multi-generational event, a family ritual or gathering, a committee meeting, or any of many kinds of gatherings where you want to bring a faith development component to your work. For many of you who are religious education teachers or leaders or directors of religious education, the Sunday morning experience is your primary contact with your faith.
And so therefore, your work with children or with youth in an RE group may be the place where you do the most work on your own faith. And so we really need to lift up the teaching aspect as a way to develop your own faith. And we need to pay attention to how we do that intentionally.
Your own spiritual preparation can grow and deepen your own faith. And yes, that is me actually when I was on sabbatical. It can also help you nurture other spiritual growth. So if you are a leader or a facilitator, it's your responsibility to create a container where other people can grow spiritually. And you could do that best by being prepared and centered and grounded yourself.
You, the leaders in Unitarian Universalism-- the religious leaders in Unitarian Universalism-- are its most important resource. Whether you're a teacher or a religious professional or someone who's involved in youth leadership-- any of those things-- you are Unitarian Universalism's most important resource. No curriculum works without strong and healthy and developed people to lead it. And so spiritual development is about faith development for you.
For all of our leaders, volunteer and professional, it's about paying attention, and it's about understanding your teaching and leading as a spiritual practice. It's not just a volunteer gig that you do, although it certainly is that. It's a really welcome volunteer contribution to your faith community. But it also can be and should be a spiritual practice.
Spiritual preparation can make you more fully present with yourself and with others. And it can help you engage with participants, whether it's children, youth, adults, cross-generational groups of all kinds. It can help give you confidence, humility, and love in your leadership role.
We provide spiritual preparation suggestions with every session or workshop in Tapestry of Faith. And here's just a small sampling of them all. This is what they look like. And I'm sure that most of you have seen them.
Our office is committed to supporting religious educators and other leaders and making sure that our programs have a strong faith development component. We're committed to providing the resources that grow our leaders and through our leaders to help people grow and deepen as Unitarian Universalists carrying our faith into the world. That's a really big charge.
So spiritual preparation is about, as I said, two things-- your own growth. What issues and topics in a particular session, workshop, or gathering connect to my own life experiences and how? That's one set of questions.
What challenges does this particular topic or experience or issue present for me? That's part of spiritual preparation. You also prepare spiritually by intentionally holding in your heart, mind, and spirit those who you lead and really being careful about creating the conditions for their own spiritual growth.
And I'm actually-- Pat Kahn is not here because she's not well. So I'm going to put on my Pat Kahn hat now. And Jessica will chime in wherever Pat's stuff needs elaboration.
So here I am. And here she is. She's the Children and Families program director.
Spiritual preparation is a tool tailored to each specific workshop, which helps the leader center and ground themselves to do the work of leading. It helps you to engage in your own spiritual development. It is a spiritual practice.
Ideally, you do it with your co-leader. The two of you take time, whether it's on the phone the night before or via Skype or whether it's coming early before you meet with a group. But ideally, you do it with your co-leader. But if that's not possible, you could do it on your own through meditation or journaling or in conversation with someone that you love and trust.
There are different kinds of spiritual preparation that show up in Tapestry of Faith. Some of them are about you and your baggage. The exercises guide you to acknowledge your own experiences-- positive and/or negative-- about the topics presented and invited by the workshop.
So what about this workshop is likely to push my buttons? It helps you to articulate negative or resisted emotions and encourages you to let leading the workshops help you deal with them and grow from them. How am I going to rewrite the story that I have about what this particular topic or issue is?
A second form of spiritual preparation is about the challenges a leader might experience in and from the group. What if a group itself or some people in it are challenging? It helps you to honor the growth path of everyone in the group. It guides you to affirm everyone's gifts and everyone's fragile places as you prepare to lead a group.
And the third kind of form that a spiritual preparation can take is to lift up the hard parts of a topic to explore to help you reflect on personal experiences, fears, or doubts that might be a barrier to being truly authentic. It helps you get comfortable with the topic. And it affirms that you need not be an expert in order to lead effectively.
And I want to say that again with big underlining. It affirms that you need not be an expert in order to lead effectively. And I think that's a fear that often volunteers have.
So here's an example. This comes from the Tapestry of Faith multi-generational program Wisdom from the Hebrew Scriptures. And session six of that program is on the biblical story the binding of Isaac, which is a difficult story.
And here it is. "The story of Abraham and Isaac is powerful and disturbing. If you are familiar with this story, recall the circumstances under which you first encountered it. What meaning was ascribed to it? How did it make you feel?"
So this particular question or set of questions helps you reflect on your personal experiences-- on your fears and doubts that might be a barrier to being truly authentic. It helps you understand what baggage you might be carrying into leading this particular session. And then it asks you to read the story with fresh eyes, paying attention to the emotions and images the story evokes in you. And that instruction helps you articulate and think about negative or resistant emotions and encourages you to let leading the workshop help you deal with those emotions and grow from them. What wisdom are you finding in this?
And then it asks you to "Reflect on how you responded or might have responded to the story as an 8-year-old child, a 14-year-old youth, or a young adult making your way in the world. Envision the way you will think about this story when you are an elder looking back on your life." And this helps you to honor the growth path of everyone in the group.
OK. And then it says, "Bring each person in your group into your mind and hold them in appreciative thought and/or prayer," which helps the leader to affirm everyone's gifts and everyone's fragile places. Jessica, did you want to jump in here?
JESSICA YORK: I think the only thing that I would add to that, Gail, is that we're aware that so many of our teachers are so devoted to their RE programs that they may teach year after year after year. And being downstairs in RE, if it's offered during the same time as the worship service, it means that they are missing out on worship service and some of the development and worshipful pieces that would come into their lives in that way. So a spiritual development truly is something that we see as faith development for the teachers and the leaders in RE as a way for them to be very intentional about their own spiritual health and to model what we are asking other people to do in our RE programs.
And I think that the specific example you just gave is a very nice example of how one can use that to reflect back on your own experiences. And you mentioned things that push your button, even if it's not a topic that you think is going to push a button or something for which you have baggage, which commonly has a negative connotation in our language, no matter what the topic is, you will have had some previous experience in this. And you are carrying around a story in your head about you and how you relate to this piece of faith development. And spiritual preparation gives you a chance to be very intentional about relating to that and giving attention to it.
GAIL FORSYTH-VAIL: Thank you. And I think I'm turning it over to Monica now.
MONICA L. CUMMINGS: Hi, family. I am the Rev. Dr. Monica L. Cummings. And my ministry is with youth and young adults of color. And I'm going to talk about pastoral care and Tapestry of Faith.
Pastoral care is something that-- I'm going to remind folks to please turn off your cameras and mute your mics, please. Thank you.
Pastoral care is something that many leaders of Tapestry of Faith do without putting a name to it. It includes comforting a young person with words of encouragement or letting a discussion go longer than planned so everyone feels heard and validated. Pastoral care while leading a Tapestry of Faith program creates a safe and nurturing environment for marginalized youth.
In many of our congregations, RE is the most diverse area of the congregation. In many of our congregations, there are trans-racially adopted, multi-ethnic, and multiracial youth-- young people of color. And often, they are the only people of color in the congregation. And you, the religious educator, can make a profound impact on the lives of these young people by being aware and attentive to their lived experience of being the only one.
As you prepare to work with young people in your care, consider doing the following exercise. So Gail talked about, and you saw in Pat's material talked about spiritual preparation. And I'm going to help you to experience spiritual preparation.
So please get comfortable in your seating area. And for those of you who are joining us via the internet, you'll see a candle with a flickering flame. For those of you who are on the phone, imagine you're seeing a candle with a flickering flame. And get comfortable, and settle and relax into your space.
And as you're relaxing into your space and as you think about preparing to teach a Tapestry of Faith program class, I want you to keep in mind the following questions as you prepare. How can I create a learning environment that will nurture young people who feel marginalized? What can I do to communicate to the young people in my care that they are valued members of their faith community and the community beyond the congregation's walls? What resources can I draw from to support trans-racially adopted or biracial young people whose life experiences may be different from the dominant group in the congregation?
I encourage and call you as religious educators and youth-group leaders and coordinators, as you teach and teach other people to teach to be mindful of the young people in your care who are marginalized and the profound impact you can make on their life by focusing and being attentive to the needs of young people in your care who are marginalized. And I will now turn the program over to Dr. Davis.
MELANIE J. DAVIS: Hello, everybody. I'm Dr. Davis. I am your contact for all things OWL related. The Our Whole Lives program, which many of us just know as OWL, and the companion volume, Sexuality in Our Faith, which we often refer to as SOF, enable you to help your participants of all ages gain an understanding of their own and other people's sexuality throughout the lifespan.
As an OWL facilitator, you can help transform a climate around sexuality that is filled with fear and confusion into a reality that's safe and empowering and in which everyone's inherent worth and dignity are valued. This is very rewarding work. But it's also challenging and frustrating. And at times, it can be heart-wrenching.
Unlike Tapestry of Faith, OWL does not include a spiritual preparation. So it's good that you're participating in this webinar so that you can learn at least one tool to use in it. By having a spiritual preparation practice, it can enhance the experience of OWL facilitation for both you and your participants. I'm going to introduce mindfulness as one way to do this. But of course, there are lots of tools that you can use.
As a OWL facilitator, you bring to the work all of your attitudes, your beliefs, your assumptions, and your personal experiences related to sexuality. But it's imperative that you leave those outside the door to the best of your ability so that you can focus on the participants' needs rather than your own. And that's easier said than done, of course.
I'm going to give you two examples of when spiritual preparation might be helpful. Let's say that you were teaching a kindergarten OWL workshop on body privacy. But you, yourself, had been molested or otherwise assaulted as a child.
Well, you might feel very emotional when you are facilitating the lesson. Or you might feel very emotionally distant. And neither of those conditions will allow you to be fully present to your OWL participants.
Another example-- if a participant makes a comment or a joke about a marginalized group that you may or may not be part of and you find it offensive, you might be tempted to either say something in anger or in sarcasm when a more measured and objective response would be better for the entire group and that single participant. So mindfulness is a way to take experiences like that and, of course, other experiences and be fully present in the moment. And there are six steps I'd like to introduce you to about how you can integrate this into your OWL work.
The first step is to practice mindfulness on a regular basis so that it becomes an established habit that you can fall back on when you're actually doing the work of OWL facilitation. And I'm going to have a slide in a minute that has some resources for you. The second is to read the workshop plan in advance so that you can identify any topics or activities that might trigger something in you-- an emotional response in you-- that might make you feel comfortable. Step three is to discuss with your co-facilitator the challenges that either you or your co-facilitator may face and figure out a way that you can work the plan so that both of you can be present.
So this might mean that the co-facilitator takes a piece that would be difficult for you and vice versa. Step four is to center yourself prior to entering the OWL setting. This could happen well in advance at home before you leave the house or if you arrive a little early in the OWL space. Remind yourself when you're doing this of the strategy that you came up with to deal with any potential discomfort. Another way that you can do this is to work a centering activity into your reentry so that everybody in the whole OWL group is able to center and settle before you start the lesson.
Step five is to be mindful as you facilitate. Be aware of your feelings and thoughts as they come up. Try to focus on the present moment rather than on the feelings that are coming up and the memories that may be triggered.
Accept your feelings without judgment. They are what they are. If you're nervous, that's fine. If you're nervous, just acknowledge it and let it go.
Step six is to use the reflection time after the lesson to review how it went for you. Maybe discuss with your co-facilitator if things went smoothly for you or if you'd like to do something a little bit different next time to make it work more comfortably for both of you. Now here are some resources that you might be able to use to learn more about mindfulness if you're not already familiar with it. These are free blog posts and resources. There's another book that's really great for beginners called Pieces Every Step that takes you through little daily activities and practice.
Mindfulness is just one approach that you can use to spiritually prepare for OWL facilitation. You may have your own. You may use prayer or meditation-- something like tai chi. And feel free to use whatever works for you to help you feel comfortable as an OWL facilitator and, again, be present for your participants. Thank you, and I'm going to turn the microphone back over to Jessica York.
JESSICA YORK: Thanks, Melanie. Thanks also to Monica and to Gail for what they contributed to the conversation. We're now going to open up the webinar for questions. So you may have some general questions, or you may have questions for a particular individual who presented something during the webinar. And both types of questions are fine.
You might also just have some comments you might like to share with us. I mentioned earlier that we hope that these webinars can serve a dual purpose in terms of really solidifying relationships amongst the religious education community. And so if you have some particular experience working with teachers, other RE leaders, or yourself around the theme of spiritual preparation, whether it's using Tapestry of Faith or using some of the other means that were discussed during the webinar, then feel free to share some of that information also.
I am aware [INAUDIBLE] that we've got about 30 [INAUDIBLE] on the webinar right now. So [INAUDIBLE]. But we're going to ask [INAUDIBLE] how we can participate. And when you are called upon, if you do unmute yourself, we ask you to keep your comments short and succinct. And I also want to remind you that at the end of the webinar, we are going to save a little time to discuss topics for future webinars. So if you've got comments about that, save that for later.
Susan, you want to tell us a little bit about how we should proceed with questions and answers?
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Sure. I see some red flags already. And if you, again, want to find the red flag, it's under the list of your co-participants and above the Meeting Chat. If you click the red flag, it'll let us know you want to talk. And I've got three red flags already. And I'm going to unmute people in the order in which I have seen the flags.
And that means Ralph, you are up first. Jessica will respond to your questions. Others may chime in, and I will butt in when we're running out of time and when there's another red flag, OK?
JESSICA YORK: And Ralph and others who ask questions, perhaps you could tell us also where you're calling from and if you like your role.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Ralph, you're unmuted. I think you are. Ralph, are you there?
OK. I don't know what's going on. But I'm going to go over to Leah. And Ralph, if we hear you, we'll put you back in the queue.
OK, Leah you are now--
LEAH: Here I am.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: --able to talk. Yes that's better.
LEAH: Great. I wanted to share with you that I did a workshop for RE volunteers in my congregation and the neighboring congregation with another DRE on teaching as a spiritual practice. And just quickly, we had a couple tools for people to use. The workshop was presented as if it was a Tapestry of Faith session with a gathering, a story, opportunities to reflect, and then a craft project.
But what we found was that either people were reading the Tapestry of Faith spiritual preparation or not just on their personal preferences. So we gave them some tools that they could use as well. And it was some mindfulness tools.
And one thing we did was on Thursdays, I send a message to all the RE volunteers with what I hope is an inspirational message. On Sunday, I print it out and cut it. And I put it in singing bowls outside the classrooms and invite the teachers to come out of their classrooms at some point when they're preparing and gather together, sound the singing bowl, and reflect on the message that I have given them. So that's it for me.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Thank you. What is a singing bowl?
LEAH: Oh, like a Buddhist chime.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Nice.
LEAH: Yeah.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Thank you.
LEAH: You're welcome.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Thank you. I'm muting you, and I'm going to try Ralph again, who apparently has fixed his mute. OK, Ralph, are you there?
RALPH: All right. Can you hear me now?
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Yeah.
RALPH: All right. Thanks. Sorry about that.
I guess one of the things-- it's not Tapestry-- one of the things that was always such a nice opportunity in doing Spirit Play, which is something that I have a lot of involvement in, was that teachers didn't have to focus on a lot of prep each Sunday. The focus was almost on this overarching teaching practice. And not that that's unique to Spirit Play. But that's one of the places where I got to really experience, I think, offering something that had a lot of built-in opportunities for folks to approach it as faith development.
And so part of what I'm thinking is, what are the ways in which we build that in. And the one that I was thinking as I'm trying to think, well, what do I do? The best thing I've had is by approaching any orientation stuff with the overarching question of, what is your goal? And then using that as a touch point in my support and encouragement and coaching for the teachers in that group as we proceed through however many units it is.
But setting the expectation that, what is your personal goal? What are you going to achieve or accrue for yourself in doing this? So--
JESSICA YORK: Thank you, Ralph. Those are both really good comments.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: And let's hear from Anna. Anna, are you--
ANNA: Hello?
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Yes, you're on.
ANNA: Hi. I was wondering if you have any ideas about how to get our volunteers to actually take the time to read and the spiritual preparation? Because I think a lot of times since it is a volunteer position and because everybody's so busy in general, a lot of times they are either skimming through it Saturday night or Sunday morning. And Sunday morning is then consumed by preparing class materials and whatnot so that they're ready. And I think that a lot of times, that does get left behind, which is why I love that you picked this as your first topic.
But I do wonder if there's any practical tips for how to set that time up and give that to our volunteers?
JESSICA YORK: Mm-hm. So I have a suggestion or two that I can contribute to that. Other people in FDO might also have some suggestions. And then we may hear some suggestions also from other religious educators who are on the call. For example, it sounds to me like Leah has somehow or another fostered an expectation that the teachers in RE are going to do some intentional faith development. I believe we also have Annie Scott on the call who has done some work around that issue, particularly with teachers and also, I think, with her religious education committee.
And so one thing that I would say is to try to start as you plan to finish and as you hope things go along. So when you do your teacher training, which may happen before the RE year actually starts, you may want to use a portion of that teacher training to focus not just on the nuts and bolts of what you want people to know but to also do some actual spiritual preparation during that teacher training. If you're doing some spiritual preparation with them and they find that particularly meaningful, I think they'll be more likely to take the time to do it week by week as it goes along.
So what we're looking at here is definitely a change in congregational culture. And it's difficult. One of the first pieces of feedback I got from a Tapestry of Faith program was from someone who was rather outraged-- [LAUGHS] feedback that was full of capital letters and exclamation points saying, how do you possibly think that I have time to do a spiritual preparation when I have to do this and I have to do that? And again, some of it comes back down to modeling. And what are we modeling for our children and the youth and the adults who are taking parts in our program and that we hope that we can find ways to model for them intentional self-spiritual care?
I do know that other people have some other suggestions that they may want to contribute. If anyone in FDO would like to share something, they can.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Gail?
JESSICA YORK: Gail? Mm-hm.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Go ahead, Gail.
GAIL FORSYTH-VAIL: OK. Just one little thing, and I think the frantic busyness before Sunday morning or else, even if you're leading an adult program and the frantic busyness is before Thursday evening or whenever the program is, I think if there's a way of looking at that and making it otherwise. I think a lot about the fact that before a minister steps into the pulpit, they don't run around and light the candles and replace the toilet paper and et cetera. They really do take the time to center themselves.
We expect as people come in to worship that there's a prelude and there's time to center. And I think if we can get the focus off the stuff-- the preparation stuff-- and onto preparation for dealing with the participants of whatever age they are-- is it possible, for example, to have parents take turns being the person who runs around and gets the supplies? With adults, is it possible to have participants in the workshop do that and really honor and make it really clear that we're honoring the religious leadership role of the facilitator or the leader or the teacher in that moment and that part of honoring their role is to not crowd their time right before they begin with a bunch of construction paper and whatever?
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: I am going to invite Annie Scott into this. And you are now unmuted, Annie.
ANNIE SCOTT: Hi. Hi, everyone. I love this conversation. I just wanted to share a couple things.
One is that I do a lot of work on inviting the teachers to think of this as their co-journey, that they are on the journey with the young people and that expect them to be changed by the experience. And for first-timers, that's kind of a ridiculous notion. But as people do it for multiple years, it becomes, I think, more understandable.
We have a monthly teacher meeting that happens right after church. And parents sign up to bring food so the teachers are fed. And they're usually about an hour and a half.
And we begin with announcements as people are finding their way in and getting their food. And that's also a time where we might do some discussing. Like we might talk about how a fire drill's going to happen or other issues that come up in church life.
And then we have a centering practice-- a worship practice. And it involves a whole variety of things. Sometimes I choose it based on things that are going on in the world or in the congregation or things that I want to emphasize in the RE program. But there's always prayer and some silence.
And last week at our teacher meeting, we talked about change because we're in an interim couple of years-- interim years-- and how people [INAUDIBLE] and reflected on how changes that they have been through in their lives. And then collectively, we came back together and talked about how does the church serve service when we're in times of change? And then how do teachers serve kids when they're in times of change.
And we close with a reading. And then we have team time. And so people are invited to check in with their team and do the work.
But I think that it really-- we don't have perfect attendance. But I think it really invites people to take the work more seriously. And it also builds a sense of community that they're not getting to go to the service as often and not nurtured in that way. But they should expect to find a sense of community and belonging and spiritually nurturing as an RE teacher. Thank you.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: I'm going to get Melanie's mic open to chime in.
MELANIE J. DAVIS: One of the things that is particularly important for OWL facilitators-- well, I'm sure it's important for everyone. But when people facilitate OWL year after year, it's easy to start making assumptions about the types of concerns that the participants have. But our culture is changing so quickly that the things that concerned a young person four years ago or even two years ago are very different than the things that may concern them now.
So I think using Pat Kahn's advice to look at the material as if you were when you were that age or as if a young person might look at it-- that's a really important part of the spiritual preparation for OWL facilitators to not get in their older maybe sometimes jaded head space and to look at things fresh and be open to the possibility that the people in their classrooms may have very different concerns than have ever come up before. Thank you.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Thanks, Melanie. I'm going to open Thomas's mic now. And nope, that didn't work. Now you're on.
THOMAS: Now. Hello. OK.
JESSICA YORK: Hi, Thomas.
THOMAS: Hi. My question's been answered. So please pass me by. Thank you, though.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: OK, will do.
JESSICA YORK: OK. Thanks.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Thank you. I'm going to invite Martha to contribute now. You're on, Martha. Martha, are you with us?
OK. Martha, in the interest of time, I'm going to take your mic off. And Deb has here. And we can see you. Hello.
DEB: Hi, guys. How are you?
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Hi.
DEB: So this is a follow-up, actually, for Melanie. And it's just a curriculum question. I'm wondering relative to what you just said to us whether you can say whether there will be updates reflective of the changing nature of things as it impacts the OWL experience in some of the other levels of OWL, specifically four to six is what I'm most interested in.
MELANIE J. DAVIS: Mm-hm. Yes. Susan, am I on?
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: You are.
MELANIE J. DAVIS: Yeah, OK, sorry. Yes. As many of you know, the grades seven to nine revision is going to be out this summer. We're very excited about that. And the four to six curriculum is the next one that we plan to revise.
It's a long process to make these revisions. We certainly wish they could go faster. But the development, the field testing just does take a long time.
One thing that a lot of people aren't aware of is that every time we reprint, we have an opportunity to make small changes so that the newer additions of K-one and four-six do have more updated language on gender and updated resources. So if you're using a curriculum that was printed in 1999, you might want to get a more recent copy.
DEB: Thank you.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: OK.
JESSICA YORK: Do you want to see if we have Martha now with us?
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Let's give it a try. Martha, are you there? Martha?
MARTHA: Yeah, I'm trying.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Oh, good.
MARTHA: Does that work?
JESSICA YORK: We've got you.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Yep, you're on now.
MARTHA: [INAUDIBLE]. OK. My question was, is there anyone out there who's-- it just occurs to me it could be a neat thing in a worship service prior to singing children forth to go to their classes, which I am guessing is a pretty common way we go about doing worship and then transitioning to educational programs for children's, it seems that it could be a neat thing to actually build in a centering moment for the whole congregation to really bless the teachers and give them a moment to reflect on what they're about to do in terms of leading classes with children. And I'm wondering if anyone does that in their worship services.
JESSICA YORK: That's a very interesting idea. If anyone does do that in their worship services now, they can either type some information into the Chat Box-- because I do believe that Martha can see that Chat Box there-- or they can raise their flag if they need to.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: There's a couple comments in here, Jessica, where Deb has written that she just did a commissioning ceremony for teachers. And Leah has written that there is a centering in family chapel.
JESSICA YORK: Mm-hm. So there's some good information that's coming there in that Chat Box.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: We are about eight minutes out right now. So if there are some more questions, we could take them. But we want to save some time to hear your ideas for future webinars, as well.
JESSICA YORK: Well, I actually want to go ahead and move on to the future webinars portion, if we may. And if people have additional questions, they should remember that they can direct those questions to us at religiouseducation@uua.org, which is always a good way to get in touch with us and communicate if you're not trying to address someone directly.
So we did want to save some time here for people to bring some suggestions forward. And some of you may have suggestions already. Some of you may be thinking of suggestions now as we are talking.
These are suggestions for future webinars. It can be a topic that you would love to hear something on. It could be a topic that you feel like you have some particular experience or expertise in. And it may be a topic that you might like to actually work with us to present on in a webinar. It could be either of those things.
Or it could be something that you've heard from other people-- just heard from the field. And you work with other religious educators that you think is a need that could possibly be filled with a webinar. And though we can't promise that we're going to offer a webinar on every topic that is offered up to us, we certainly want to hear from you as to what you think may be useful.
So we're going to open up the conversation for that now.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: We have Deb with a comment. Go ahead, Deb.
DEB: Thank you very much. I would love if we could discuss ways to work with children and with learning differences in an all-volunteer teaching structure.
JESSICA YORK: Thank you. Thank you for that suggestion, Deb. And I see there are some suggestions also in the Chat Box. We're going to be capturing all of that [INAUDIBLE] at work, making sure she keeps a nice current look for us. Anyone else who would like to raise a flag and share a suggestion?
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: We have Ralph. Come on in, Ralph.
RALPH: Yes. Hello. One of the things that I think would be tremendously helpful and there's so much to explore is all sorts of digital media resources and avenues for faith development, not just webinars but getting people who would be interested in designing games that could be used for religious education to do that, using mobile devices for our programmings effectively, doing QR code or Aurasma augmented reality scavenger hunts, and just all the ways that you can fold people who wouldn't normally sign up to teach into teaching because they are comfortable with those other medium. I don't know.
JESSICA YORK: Mm-hm. Thank you, Ralph. Good suggestion.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: OK. Come on, everybody.
JESSICA YORK: Well, the Chat Box is quite busy. So a lot of people are typing in, and that's great.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Yes, I--
JESSICA YORK: And we're going to capture all those.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: I don't know what Full Week Faith is. But maybe someone who's suggesting it could speak to that.
JESSICA YORK: Sure. Would Someone who-- I think it originally came from Leah, perhaps?
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Leah, you are on.
LEAH: OK, thanks. This is an idea-- and maybe others can jump in, too- that was talked about act LREDA fall con and other venues to think about how we can bring meaning-making for families to do during the week instead of just counting on that one hour a week, if that. So it's compiling resources for families. And maybe others can chime in about that, too.
JESSICA YORK: Mm-hm. Yes, thank you, Leah. It was developed by Karen Bellavance-Grace, who was one of the Fahs Fellows last year. And I believe that probably if you search for Full Week Faith and put Karen Bellavance-Grace in there that you could probably find the website where she talks about it more fully.
SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE: Laura, your mic is open now.
LAURA: OK. Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for this. This has been wonderful.
So I was wondering, right now we have a lot of parents who I know would be wonderful teaching. But all they want to do is go to worship. This is one of the drawbacks of having a really fabulous minister who preaches really well. So we'll live with that for a while.
But I would love to take the spiritual preparation part and remind the parents that they are also religious educators. And they're probably even more important than me so that if they're teaching on Sunday mornings once a month or whatever they end up doing that they can also take that home and help out that way.
But it's really difficult right now in the congregation I serve to get anybody to see beyond their teaching means that they're not going to worship. So anything to help inspire or some tools and things [INAUDIBLE] help with that would be great.
JESSICA YORK: Very good suggestions. Thank you so much.