Notes from the Grove – Religious Education News

Spring is in the air!  Can you feel it coming?  The March wind is certainly blowing today!  We are back in the meetinghouse and back in our RE classes.  Here is an overview of what is going on…

During the Sunday service, the children are meeting with their teachers to resume their curriculum classes in their Groves – Greenwood for children ages 3-6, Maplewood for children 7-11, and Pinewood for children 12-14.  If you haven’t been with us in awhile, welcome back!  Everyone starts together in the worship service with the grown ups, and then we go to our classes after Time for All Ages.  We are mostly indoors for now, but bring weather-appropriate clothing because we will begin spending more time outside.  All of the teachers are vaccinated and will wear masks indoors/vaccinated children may choose whether to wear a mask or not.  The curriculum topics are listed weekly here in the messenger, in case you’re wondering what we’re doing. Thank you to our great teachers – Ursula Roxin-Dixon, Nick Allis, Sara Allegretti, Tim Harter, Caitlin MacDonald, and Jen Corey for all that they bring each week to the children! 

Care for wee ones is resuming in our Acorn Nursery for little people birth to 3.  Thank you to Holly Magadieu for faithfully remaining on-deck while we were away from the Meetinghouse and taking up her work as caregiver this spring. 

Our OWL (Our Whole Lives) class for 7th and 8th graders resumed last week.  We will have another class on March 20th at the Sharon church. Many thanks to Kat Kassay, Jon Weismoore, and Glenn Rivaud and the RE team at Sharon for their great work!

Our Junior High Fellowship group, the Chalice Club, enjoyed a fun afternoon at the movies last month with Laura Cerier and Bo Kinney.  More events are in the works thanks to these awesome group facilitators – stay tuned for what’s coming up in the spring.

It seems like January and February sort of drag on…and then March comes, and suddenly it’s May!  So here’s a head’s up about events that are in the future – but coming fast!  We will have a special Easter celebration on April 17 during the worship service – hunting for eggs (and maybe other things?), and making some Easter crafts.  April 24 will be the final day of our curriculum classes, and then we will be engaged with outdoor, “Faith Among the Trees” classes for the remainder of the church year.  Be sure to register for our Church retreat at Ferry Beach if you have not already done so.  It’s the weekend of May 14/15.  We will have a bridging service to honor our High School seniors on June 5 – I will be in touch with those families soon, but save the date!

I am looking forward to a joyful spring with all of you!

Warmly, Diana Tesni

Director of Religious Education