First Parish offers a comprehensive religious education program designed to introduce young and old to the principles of Unitarian-Universalism and the mission of our congregation.
The program is led by a professional religious educator with volunteers serving as teachers. Parents are fully engaged in the development of each year's curriculum.
Religious education classes for students 4 through 12 are offered each Sunday during the worship service. Teens are offered the opportunity to participate in the "Coming of Age" program, an intensive, year-long program during which students deeply examine their own faith and develop a personal statement of beliefs.
The First Parish youth group offers an opportunity for the young people (ages 13-18) to gather once a month in a social setting to build leadership skills and explore their faith and values. The youth group also runs the annual yard sale with the proceeds being used for group-approved activities ranging from social functions, to church repairs to charitable contributions.
This year will be spend tackling the issue of extreme poverty in the world. The children will be engaged in lessons about justice, compassion and the inherent worth of all people while learning about poverty, developing a plan to end it and implementing that plan. It seems like a monumental task, but we as a world community absolutely can end world poverty in our lifetime
We begin our year with our annual Water Communion. The remainder of September will be spend catching up with each other and becoming familiar with rules and routines.
In October and November, we celebrate All Hallow's Eve and Thanksgiving at church while learning about poverty in Sunday School.
December and January will see our annual Christmas Eve celebration featuring a children's pageant and choir performance. In Sunday School, the children will be developing a plan to end poverty.
February and March include some of the most fun worship services ILLUUmination and Balloon Sunday. The children finish their Sunday School lessons by implementing the plan that they developed in the prior months.
In April and May the children will prepare for Children's Sunday and include an outdoor service at the Boyden Wildlife Refuge.
For more information, please contact Barry Sanders, Religious Education Director at dre@firstparishtaunton.org or 508.822.2107.
December 26 marked the 3rd anniversary of what has been called the deadliest earthquake (and resulting tsunamis) ever.
Rev. Tedesco and DRE Barry Sanders organized the First Parish Church contribution to the relief effort.
Trevor is a smallish bear (seen below as our Director of Religious Education Barry Sanders introduces him to the congregation on December 31, 2006) who will shortly begin traveling through Canada and the U.S. Barry explains:
"I am a big proponent of acting on ideas. You just never know where something is likely to go until you get it started. That is how First Parish Church's penny drive for the Southeast Asian Tsunami survivors' started. That idea took on a life of its own and ended up being one of the things in my life of which I am the most proud."
"Trevor is another one of those ideas. The idea is to send a stuffed animal bear to Unitarian Universalist churches around the country as a sort of pen-pal experience for the Sunday School class at First Parish Church in Taunton. On December 27th, my wife and daughter and I went to the local Build-A-Bear Workshop and created 'Trevor' - a 16 inch golden brown stuffed bear with an adorable little maroon and tan outfit with matching hat and a blue backpack. My daughter named him."
"I posted my idea on an email list for Unitarian Universalist religious educators. Within 2 days I have already received 10 requests for Trevor to visit churches from an hour up the road to across the country. I couldn't be happier. Sunday, at church, I will introduce Trevor to our congregation and get the Sunday School kids involved in getting Trevor ready for his first trip."
And Trevor has this to say about himself:
"Let me tell you a little about me. My name is Trevor and I'm a Unitarian Universalist. My birthday is December 27th and I'm left-handed."
"I think Sunday School is wicked cool!!"
"I don't talk much, but I love to meet new friends and learn new things."
See more pictures of Trevor's travel preparations & follow his adventures on Barry's blog site which is HERE.
