Welcome to Unitarian Universalist Society East
Sunday Services at 9:00 and 11:00
Director's Corner
Emmy's Friday Update
For Sunday March 23rd
Greetings CYM Families & Friends!
I’ve got some exciting plans for Spring and I’m bursting at the seams to share about it. Believe it or not, plans are already in the works for Summer and even Fall programming. But first, there is this glorious Spring! Check out the “Save the Date” section below and expect more details about each event to be featured in upcoming Friday updates. If you have specific or immediate question, or would like to get more involved with any of them, don’t hesitate to reach out! The graphic above is for an extra-credit UUSE outing with some additional details in the middle school class description of this update. See you Sunday!
Here’s what else is happening in Children & Youth Ministry on Sunday, March 23, 2025:
@11 AM
Sunday Service: “Love Will Guide Us Through the Hard Night” - This Sunday morning, we welcome the Rev. Carolyn Patierno to our pulpit. Drawing on our Universalist spiritual heritage, Rev. Patierno will explore how we tap into the power of love to find resilience and hope.
Coordinator: Josh Pawelek
Children & Youth Ministry Groups:
Children and Youth in 1st-8th grade will join their families in the Sanctuary for the beginning of worship Sunday. Students will be dismissed from the Sanctuary to the Garden Level for programming after a Time For All Ages.
Nursery (Age 3 and under): Childcare is available in our Nursery on the Garden Level at 11 AM for children 3 and under. Care is provided by two regular childcare staff including our Nursery Coordinator Molly, our Nursery Assistant Lilly. Our nursery staff have grown up at UUSE, and are equipped with loads of experience, patience, and creativity to keep our youngest UUs safe and engaged. Families are always welcome to tour and stay in the nursery at any time.
Spirit Play (Pre-K/Kindergarten): “How Kindness Leads to Great Joy” - Spirit Play children go directly to their classroom at 11 AM for the day’s lesson. This Buddhist tale teaches us that when we (re)act with kindness, kindness is returned a thousand-fold. When we act in kindness towards animals, we honor our 7th UU principle and value of interdependence.
Spirituality & Religion (Grades 1-5): “Spring Stories” - Our students will continue to explore the themes and stories of Spring. We will work on Sacred Books and talk about our progress on end-of-year projects.
Anti-Racism (Grades 6-8): “Makin Protest Art!” - I purchased a couple new books about the history of protest art and symbolism for our CYM library. Our middle schoolers love to make their own protest art, so this week we will design and create our own posters to bring to the extra-credit family outing on April 5th at the state Capitol. April 5th is a Saturday, and is a protest organized by the CT chapter of the national 50501 movement, and I feel it is a safe and well organized event. We have already been discussing protest behavior, ethical obligations, expectations and the power of peaceful protest. We will continue that discussion, take a look at protest art dating back decades, and deciding what matters to us, our youth, our families, right now in this moment. And make some protest art! Final votes for our group t-shirt will be tallied as well before we place our order with a local black owned business.
SAVE THE DATE!:
TOMORROW Sat, March 22: CYM sponsored Game Night open to all ages! In the Sanctuary @ 6PM. BYOD and favorite game, light refreshments will be served. RSVPs appreciated!
Sun, March 23: UUSE Pagan Group ritual for Spring Equinox - open to all! @ 1PM
Sun, March 30: HSYG Thrift Shopping Outing - meeting and leaving from UUSE @ 1PM
Sat, Apr 5: UUSE attends a 50501 Protest at the Capitol building in Hartford at 3 PM. More details to come)
Sun, Apr 13: Author event with UUSE’s Sam Taylor - mark your calendars! (More details to come)
+ High School Youth Group volunteer at Soup Kitchen
Sat, Apr 19: UUSE attends Kamora’s Cultural Corner’s “Thinking and Doing Day: Take Back the Land.” Please visit https://kamorasculturalcorner.com/ to learn more about KCC, a new (to us) partner in guiding our children, youth, and families about community engagement at a grass-roots level. Register to attend this free event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/2025-thinking-and-doing-days-3893073. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions!
Sun, Apr 20: Easter Egg Hunt between services, beginning at 10:30 in the Memorial Garden.
Sat, May 3: May Fair at UUSE! 10AM-2PM
Sun, May 18: Flower Communion Service & UUSE Annual Meeting
Sun, May 25: NO CYM programming, Memorial Day Weekend
Sun, Jun 1: Affirmation Sunday Service
Sun, Jun 8: CYM Field Day and final ‘24-’25 CYM Stakeholder’s Meeting in the field
Sun, Jun 15: CYM Sunday Service
Sun, Jun 22: UUA General Assembly
How Can You Help CYM?
1.) We need more volunteers in our Elementary and Middle School classrooms to finish out the year! They are a fun and engaged group of kiddos - please reach out to me to discuss details.
With Love and Gratitude,
Emmy Galbraith
dcym@uuse.org
Cell: (860)576-7889
CYM Committee Members:
Desiree Holian-Borgnis, Chair
Michelle Spadaccini
Paula Baker
Sudha Sevin
Rhona Cohen
Committee email: uusecym@uuse.org
Angela Attardo, CYM Program Assistant
CYMAsst@uuse.org
Director of Children and Youth Ministry's Monthly Column for April
The Space Between Winter and Spring
The energetic body becomes very loud right before a death. It could be the death of a habit, a pattern, or a physical body. The body is scared because it doesn't know what’s on the other side of the death. The dying sounds like alarm bells, frightening blood work, doubting thoughts. Plants wilt, yellow, and decay.
My pagan spiritual beliefs ensure me that after a death there is rebirth, as natural as sleeping and waking. This is fitting with the Spring Equinox upon us. I feel death loudly right now, with deafening silence heard through other places than the ear. Hospice nurses report a supreme peace that takes hold at the moment a death occurs. It may be a fraction of a second, or it may be the gift of hours or even days. Science and medicine mark the point of death in different ways, by brain function, heartbeat, breath. I'm defining death here as the moment the energy leaves its past host.
There is a pause, a stillness, that point in between death and birth where all that exists is source. In yoga it is that space between the inhale and exhale. Its that place we eagerly try to access throughout our lives, or perhaps play hide-and-seek with, from one life to the next, from one season to another.
When the birth of a being happens, there is a cry once again. A baby's first scream is a universal sign of health and hope, and life. Still a scream, but treated with such different emotion and meaning than the scream of death. In this magical space between Winter and Spring, may we be as brave as a child with the urge to claim their life. May we embrace it with fertile minds and bodies to grow what we need this Spring, for ourselves and our communities. May we use this moment to connect with source and manifest. This is my Springtime blessing for us all.
Emmy Galbraith (she/her/hers)
Director of Children and Youth Ministry