05/16/2018 by Shannon Day

DRE Column for May – Chaplaincy Institute Graduation and Ordination

It is with great joy and excitement that I announce that I have graduated from the Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley and have been approved for ordination as an Interfaith Minister and chaplain.  The ordination ceremony will be held on September 22, 2018 in Berkeley. In the world of Religious Exploration, we DREs are responsible for finding creative ways to encourage, inspire, and support the work of faith exploration and formation at home and at church. As Westside’s RE program evolves to keep pace with the evolution of the needs and availability of children, volunteers, and parents, I am ensuring that

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04/11/2018 by Shannon Day

Poetry and Gratitude – Cynthia Westby, Dir. of RE for Children and Youth

What if you woke up each morning to a poem instead of an alarm?  Poet Naomi Shihab Nye, famous for her poem “Kindness” (you can read it here:  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/kindness), woke her son up for years with poetry from poets all over the world.  Always short, sometimes just a stanza of a poem, that morning’s poem would come up, over time, in the family’s conversations as their son brought up the feelings and ideas evoked in him by the poem of the morning. What would grow in us if we took time each day for poetry?  What would grow in our

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03/21/2018 by Shannon Day

What is in a Name? Cynthia Westby, Dir. of RE for Children and Youth

What is in a name? Great question! I just read a wonderfully provocative book by Rabbi David A. Cooper’s book “God is a Verb: Kabbalah and the practice of mystical Judaism.” His suggestion? That we begin to think of all beings as verbs rather than nouns. So, you would see your child and see “Carol-ing” rather than “Carol,” for instance. This way of naming with verbs captured my imagination and I worked with this as a spiritual practice over the past few weeks. Language and naming are important. They affect how we experience ourselves and other living beings. Consider this

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02/21/2018 by Shannon Day

What is Interfaith? – Cynthia Westby, Dir. of Religious Exploration for Children and Youth

Interfaith ministry is a hot topic these days in UU circles.  Starr King Seminary’s relationship with the Interfaith Chaplaincy Institute and support of double divinity degrees in UU and Interfaith is a powerful example of this keen gravitation to Interfaith.  Knowing I am going to be ordained as an Interfaith Minister many people have asked me what Interfaith means.  Great question!  It is a question each person who is drawn to Interfaith ministry or work will answer differently.  I wanted to give you my current answer, knowing that my understanding is in process and evolving just as all our understandings

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01/24/2018 by Shannon Day

Religious Exploration – Cynthia Westby, Director of Religious Exploration Column for January

The world is made of stories.  We are all storytellers.  Every day we tell stories – to our friends, families and co-workers.  We share our experiences and whether we are aware of it or not, we share what we have made of these experiences in that moment.  Telling our stories we end up reflecting on and exploring what is meaningful to us.  Stories are powerful. They can teach.  They can inspire us – possibly to act. Each Sunday, near the beginning of our service a storyteller offers a story relating to the theme of the sermon and service that day

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01/23/2018 by Shannon Day

4th & 5th Grade RE Class Podcast about Hunger

This “Hunger Podcast” (below) was  created by the 4th-5th Grade RE class who has been learning about fighting for social justice, most recently around the issue of hunger.  They supported a food drive in November-December for the West Seattle Food Bank and now have created this podcast covering the highlights of what they feel are the most important points for our congregants to know about hunger.  

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12/28/2017 by Shannon Day

Religious Exploration – Cynthia Westby, Director of Religious Exploration

Happy New Year!  I am so grateful to all of you for your support of religious exploration for Westside’s children and youth.  Our amazing community’s gifts of teaching, contributions to the classroom supplies, and commitment of financial resources makes RE possible.  Thank you! I wish for all of you a year of blessings, health and resolve … for whatever resolutions you choose to dedicate yourself to this year.  May your faith or credo support you on your path. The new year is a time of both celebration and reflection.  The cold and dark of winter naturally turns our attention inward

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11/15/2017 by Shannon Day

November DRE Column: Spiritual Care in Times of Stress, Cynthia Westby

The holiday season is upon us and with it comes, for many of us, a lot of stress and challenge.  I encourage us to cultivate some form of compassion and/or self-love practice to support us as we move through this busy time of year.  In addition to offering yourself kindness and love, these practices will support extending your compassion and love out into your community. As part of our covenant with each other at Westside, we promise that we will dwell together in peace and love each other.  Believing the best of each other, listening attentively and speaking thoughtfully and

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