Let It Shine is a monthly series for our community to grow, learn, explore, and create together. Each time we meet we will explore our monthly theme using a different medium/experience.
Come have fun, and let your light shine.

Join us for our Multi-generational religious education experience.

When we are still, all kinds of ideas, inner voices, and insights come to us. One way to think of it during this winter holiday season is to imagine these voices that arise out of the silence to be “angels speaking.” If we look for insights in the traditional Christmas birth legend of Jesus, we might even imagine ourselves as the shepherds in the still of the night, tending our flocks. When above us, we notice an angel calling us to make an important journey, a change in our lives, a new way of being in the world. So what’s one of the ways our faith guides us into becoming a people of stillness? It tells us, “Listen for the voices of angels!”

We will be playing with silence and stillness to help us tune into our inner voices, or the voices of angels, and exploring the Carol-It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, written by Unitarian minister Edmund Sears.

If you have any questions or would like to help lead an activity, please message us at admin@uuclv.org.

Zoom meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87942752264 - please message us for the Zoom password

#UUCLV #UU #UnitarianUniversalist #UnitarianUniversalism #UUCLVEvent #stillness #holidays #angels #innervoice #EdmundSears #Jesus

Join us for our Multi-generational religious education experience. 

Each month we are dedicating one session to a different aspect of decentering whiteness work, with our theme guiding us toward which aspect to focus on. When it comes to healing, so many brave and wise voices have lifted up the importance of telling the true history of Thanksgiving. This search for the true history is reflected in our Fourth Principle: “A Free and Responsible Search for Truth and Meaning” and our Eighth Principle: “journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.” Our faith has taken up this work and called on white UU’s to be especially vigilant about the work of correcting stories that have caused harm. So what’s one of the ways our faith guides us into becoming a people of healing? It says, “Learn and tell our true history!”

If you have any questions or would like to help lead an activity, please let us know.
​Email us at admin at uuclv.org

#UUCLV #UU #UnitarianUniversalist #UnitarianUniversalism #UUCLVEvent #Healing #LearningTogether #ReligiousEducation #Thanksgiving #AmericanHistory #History

This week was all about healing by learning more about what actually happened around Thanksgiving, what is cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation, and how we can begin to honor Indigenous cultures by listening to and learning about them.

During the Mindfulness Moment we asked participants to think of times when they felt wounded, sad and ignored. Indigenous Peoples have had their history twisted and erased. In this song, the children want the truth of their lives to be listened to. Think of times when you wanted “the truth of your story” to be listened to and honored. Share that story with family or friends to help them further imagine how Indigenous Peoples feel around Thanksgiving when the traditional (and false) story is told.

N'we Jinan Artists - "COME & LISTEN" // Penticton Indian Band, B.C. (younger children)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du7WsfG-u78

You may also want to watch more of these videos from N'we Jinan Artists
N'we Jinan Artists - FOR OUR CULTURE // Seabird Island Community School, BC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3yrPfDtOWQ

N'we Jinan Artists - "HOME TO ME" // Grassy Narrows First Nation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgaYz8YWsO8

And here are more videos to watch and reflect on:
6 Misconceptions About Native American People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHdW_LVfn28

The Wampanoag Way Video to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmisO7pdMW4

Two girls who work at the Wampanoag Homesite are filmed as modern girls and then how they reenact their heritage from 1620.

Here is a map which shows the percent of Indigenous persons in the U.S. https://www.educationworld.com/a_images/population_map.gif

Read each statement on this link that describes the map and guess whether the statement is true or false. https://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/TM/WS_nativeamerican_map.shtml

evil with justice, compassion and the transforming power of love.” But it’s not just prophetic people, it’s also wise people. 

And our faith tells us that some of the wisest people are older people, or as our faith calls them, Elders. They have many years of life experience. Listening to their many journeys helps us navigate our own. So what’s one of the ways our faith guides us into becoming a people of deep listening? It tells us to “Listen to those who have come before! Listen to the Elders!”

We will be talking about our Elders who have died and the wisdom they have passed on to us, drawing pictures to remind us of our loved ones who have passed, and sharing objects or photos with each other that remind us of those who have died. (please bring and object/photo to share)

If you have any questions or would like to help lead an activity, please let us know.

​Please message us for the Zoom ID & password.

to nature, we are taken to a place of calm, knowing that we are not isolated and alone but instead a part of something so interconnected. So what’s one of the ways our faith guides us into becoming a people of deep listening? ​

It tells us to “Listen to Nature!” We will be listening to cicadas/crickets, reading a story about listening to nature, doing some deep listening to our surroundings, and making a cricket band (please bring a comb and wax paper/ plastic bag)

If you have any questions or would like to help lead an activity, please let us know.

​Please message us for the Zoom ID & password.

this work and called white UU’s to be especially vigilant about the work of listening to and centering BIPOC voices. So what’s one of the ways our faith guides us into becoming a people of deep listening? It says, “White UU’s, listen to BIPOC voices and actively work to bring them into the center of our faith!”

​We will be reading stories that center white and BIOPIC voices and talking about why it is important to have stories that reflect everyone, talking about a time when deep-listening help a UU congregation reflect on their racism, taking a moment to meditate and pause so we are better able to listen to each other, and talking about the importance of names and having some fun with our own.

If you have any questions or would like to help lead an activity, please let us know.

We discussed the differences between the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you) and the Platinum Rule (Do unto others as THEY would have you do unto THEM), and we explored how offering healing and help to people must start with asking them how they define the problem they are struggling with. To get at this, we used this Google slide deck (shared below) to show each other a variety of “ambiguous images” on the Zoom screen, and then had everyone share which image they saw first. Like this game, we may think we see their struggle clearly when in truth they have an entirely different perspective on it. The game became a reminder that we can never assume we hold “the one right view” and instead always need to honor how others view their own circumstances and challenges. Talk about times in your life when you’ve struggled with this dynamic.
​
Google Slide Deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vCAsW7Z6GqlqUEI3ugHPcWpAItYXqDOHADNvoaxWOb4/edit?usp=sharing

It tells us to “Listen to your heart’s call to be compassionate!”

We will be reading a story about listening with our compassionate, singing about listening with our hearts, and getting to active to tune into our own hearts.

So what’s one of the ways our faith guides us into becoming a people of renewal?
It tells us, “Love who you are!” 
​If you have any questions or would like to help lead an activity, please let us know.

Learning Together - Love Who You Are
by ARIEL SUBLETT on MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

Hello everybody! Thanks to those of you who joined us on Saturday for Learning Together. During our last session with the theme of Renewal, we focused on how we are renewed by loving who we are, we did a meditation where we visualized a path to a treasure box with a key given by a guide, and we played a game called “Our Favorites” and drew pictures of what we love to do. This was a simple, fun game you can try with your family or friends. Everyone has only a minute to draw their favorite things and others had to guess what their favorites were.
​
Here are some additional resources to use with your families:
● Watch this Story Video: Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl's Baseball Dream

Written by: Crystal Hubbard, Read by Kevin Costner and Jillian Estell, Suggested grade level: 3rd - 4th, Run time: 14 minutes

Summary: “If there was anything in the world better than playing baseball, Marcenia Lyle didn't know what it was. As a young girl in the 1930s, she chased down fly balls and stole bases, and dreamed of one day playing professional ball. With spirit, spunk, and a great passion for the sport, Marcenia struggled to overcome the objections of family, friends, and coaches, who felt a girl had no place in the field. When she finally won a position in a baseball summer camp sponsored by the St. Louis Cardinals, Marcenia was on her way to catching her dream...” – from the website https://www.storylineonline.net/books/catching-the-moon-the-story-of-a-young-girlsbaseball-dream/

• Or purchase or make a Journal: Me: A Compendium
https://vimeo.com/178109298