Religious Education News, February 2022

It is an icy, snowy, freezing cold weekend – but there are birds singing outside and the sun didn’t set until 5PM yesterday!  Spring is definitely on its way.  On the first of February we pass the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, so we have turned a corner of sorts in the dark half of the year and are beginning to climb back up towards the light of summer.  

For gardeners, this is the time of year to begin thinking about what to plant.  It’s a time for making plans, designing, deciding.  We are the architects of the future. This doesn’t mean that we have absolute control over outcomes, but a great plan is a much better step towards a great outcome than no plan at all.

I have recently discovered the plan that the UN made back in 2012 to address many of the important issues facing our world – the sustainable development goals.  These 17 goals have become something of an obsession for me.  They are big-picture, integrated, cross-disciplinary ideas that tackle the big issues – climate change, education, gender equity, peace and social justice, food security, poverty, energy.  Each of these areas of focus is identified and organized and clearly articulated.  The strategic thinker part of my brain loves this stuff.  

Get this – every single one of these goals is in alignment with our UU principles!  I’ll be speaking to the congregation on this topic on March 6, so I won’t tell you too much about this just now.  But I will say that it was exciting for me to discover a group (the UN!) working at a global level on the same kinds of issues that we are working on at the local level right here in Franklin – food insecurity, climate justice, equity.  

Schools around the world are incorporating the sustainable development goals into their curriculum.  (Check out Green School Bali if you want to be inspired).  Could we incorporate them into our Religious Education Program?  Could our children feel that they are the architects of their future? How can we help them stay connected to the world and to life at a time when so many of your young ones have turned their hearts away in fear and despair? 

It is a cold, icy world out there.  There is  loss and letting go in the darkness of winter. Nothing is certain.  But we can envision a future, and strive to create it together as we walk toward the coming spring and toward all the springs that will come. 

Onward and Upward!

Diana Tesni

Director of Religious Education