10/25/2017 by Shannon Day

Religious Exploration – Cynthia Westby, DRE October Column

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 re-imagining the offerings of our RE Programs.  In addition to RE Classes this year, we are experimenting with offering more Chalice Chapels and a few more all generation services.  As I create these programs, I am conscious of asking myself, our parents, our children and our

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09/27/2017 by Shannon Day

Welcome to the 2017-18 RE Year! -Cynthia Westby, DRE

The new RE year is upon us!!  Woohoo!  Several themes will run through this RE year: social justice, diversity, and inclusivity.  We are also working with an evolving reality for religious exploration, for both WSUU children and within the UU world.  Some of the evolutionary forces are discussed in a thought provoking article in the UUA Bulletin about the “Death of Sunday School and the Future of Faith Formation.” I don’t agree with everything in the article by any means but the article is an important contribution in a larger discussion about the ways religious exploration is evolving in UU

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05/31/2017 by Shannon Day

Diversity Within The Pages of the Westside Children’s Library- Cynthia Westby, Director of Religious Exploration

On Sunday, May 21st Westside held a service with guest speaker Dr. Jabali Stewart called “We Will Keep Moving Together.” He explored the painful reality of white supremacy culture in America with music and story, looking at our cultural assumptions from a place of curiosity and solution. As part of that service, our story for all ages was about an 11 year old black girl named Marley Dias who loved getting lost in a book but wanted books where black girls were the main character. When she didn’t find those books at her school or in her library, she started

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04/26/2017 by Shannon Day

Aligning the Heart – Cynthia Westby, DRE

To what do you align your heart?  Ultimately, that is the quest of religious exploration.  The formation of our children’s spirituality comes through story, art, lessons, wondering, questioning, and discussions.  Exploring their feelings and understandings of UU, their personal expression of this faith, develops and evolves. Children and youth are accompanied on the journey of spiritual formation and spiritual self-awareness by our RE volunteer teachers and RE staff.  Together we grow and mature our faith.  Relationship building and involvement with the broader church community help our children appreciate Unitarian Universalism, and discover what it means to be a member of

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02/22/2017 by Shannon Day

Religious Education – Building Our Future – Cynthia Westby, Dir. Religious Exploration for Children and Youth

Religious Exploration at Westside matters to all of us whether or not we have children.  We are growing lifelong UUs through our RE programming.  Our children – and they are our children – are the future leaders, volunteers, congregants, and members of UU churches.  Perhaps they will remain at Westside when they reach adulthood.  Perhaps they will land in some other congregation.  Wherever they go they will have been nourished by our Unitarian Universalist sources and principles. Our children and youth are learning from the curriculum, from each other, from the teachers, and from the many intangibles (love, concern, attention,

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02/15/2017 by Shannon Day

Photographer/Slideshow Creator Sought

June 11th is the RE Celebration service and we’d love to find a creative soul to work with us to create a slide show of photographs of all Westside’s volunteers, RE classes (and children and teachers).  Are you interested in either creating a slide show (with music) or taking photographs or both parts of this project?  I’d love to talk with you!  Please contact me at dre@wsuu.org.

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02/15/2017 by Shannon Day

March 12 Multi-generational Service – Seeking Volunteers

“Greed” is the Topic for Sunday, March 12, 2017 Multi-generational Service. All children will be in service except for the Nursery and Story Time children. We are looking for children in 5th grade or older to act as Greeters, and help with collecting the offering (in the baskets).  For this service we encourage children to bring non-perishable food as offerings for the West Seattle Food Bank. Adults are also invited to bring food March 12th for the West Seattle Food Bank.  Please contact Cynthia at dre@wsuu.org if your child can be a Greeter at the door to the sanctuary that day (we

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02/06/2017 by Shannon Day

“Sharing the Islamic Sufi Faith” Chalice Chapel and Follow up Conversation, Sunday Feb. 12

Children ages 5-14, will go from service after the story for all ages, into Chalice Chapel, our Sunday Children’s Worship Service held instead of RE classes that day.  Only the Nursery and Story Time classes will be offered.  Sally Jo Gilbert de Vargas will lead this Chalice Chapel.  She has studied and practiced Islamic Sufism under Imam Jamal Rahman from Bangladesh for over 12 years.  She has been ordained as a Cherag (Universal Worship leader) with Sufi Order International.  Sally Jo has been a public-school teacher for over 30 years. She actively promotes interfaith understanding and social justice issues at

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01/26/2017 by Shannon Day

The Mindful Journey and Religious Exploration – Cynthia Westby Dir. Religious Exploration for Children and Youth

What is spirituality? Answering this question helps guide me in my work. For me spirituality is about nurturing relationships with mystery, self, others and the world to experience and realize our interconnectedness. It is also about nurturing love and kindness; as we appreciate our interconnectedness, our oneness, we understand that what happens to one person or part of the world, affects us all. Teaching, storytelling, walking in nature, are all spiritual practices that cultivate awareness of these relationships and our interconnectedness with all of life. Spiritual practices like these, ‘wake up’ our awareness of our relationships. Mindfulness, wondering, questioning, and

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