THE Question.

Quote du jour

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

As we near the end of the first - somewhat tumultuous - month of the church Religious Education year, I’m grateful for your questions, your compassionate as well as critical eyes and most of all, your willingness to minister in this very special way to the youngest members of our faith. You’re all an inspiration to me.

So if the first question someone asks is 'Where do you go to church?" Chances are that the second question will be THE question, the one that’s really hard to answer "What do you believe in?" It's a particular challenge - for adults and for kids - to clearly and briefly describe our beliefs and practices in a non-creedal faith. A number of years ago, someone clever – not I- came up with a rainbow pneumonic to help children remember the 7 principles of Unitarian Universalism. I think you've had DRE's use it here.

Since it was unwieldy carrying around my Popsicle stick principle prompts I also committed this one to my memory. I’ve used it with rainbow bracelets made out of pony beads, with rainbow candles, or rainbow crayons or the oft planned but never executed rainbow vegetables and fruits (Apple, carrot, corn, spinach, yes, blue Peruvian potatoes, blueberries, eggplant.) But I never got further than donuts, snow peas, pop tarts. . . pop tarts. As you think ahead to future teaching moments with the children and youth of our congregation, perhaps this will come in handy.

Rainbow for Remembering

One strategy that is useful in recalling the principles is to use theacronym Roy G Biv and connect a color of the rainbow to each of the sevenprinciples.

They are assigned a color in the order in which the colors appear in the rainbow.

One - Red: Respect the importance and value of all beings

Two - Orange: Offer fair and kind treatment to all.

Three - Yellow: Yearn to learn throughout life.

Four - Green: Grow by exploring ideas and values together.

Five - Blue: Believe in your ideas and act on them

Six - Indigo: Insist on peace, freedom and justice for all

Seven - Violet: Value our interdependence with nature.

So when we encounter THE question, or our children do, we can give an answer of colorful principles, but as the quote above reminds us, let us also live these colorful principles.

See you in church!

Rebecca