Each year The Congregational Church of Weston, UCC, takes three weeks out of their regular church school curriculum to focus on one theme using the workshop rotation model.

This year's theme was the environment, specifically what the Bible has to say about our role and responsibility as Christians.

"We wanted to make the children aware of how all of creation is linked together, how humans depend on each other, and how other life depends on humans," said Catherine Liddell, Director of Faith Discovery for Children at the Weston church.

"Children study the environment in school and we did not want to just duplicate what they do in school. Instead, our goal was to give the children an understanding of the Biblical underpinnings that support the need to protect the environment."

Not finding a ready-to-use set of lessons or ideas that were appropriate for their age groups, Liddell and Paul Schendel, a member of the church, wrote up three workshop lessons, along with ideas for others. The lessons included messages, Bible verses, discussions, and activities. The first workshop -- "In God's Image/God's Creation was GOOD! -- focused on creating a newsletter about the world God created, how its parts are interconnected and where humans fit within those parts.

"We wanted the children to learn what the Bible has to say about humans' place in creation, to begin to form an idea of what it means to have dominion over something/someone, and to gain an understanding of the complexity of creation and how everything in it depends on everything else in it," explained Schendel.

The children's contributions to their environmental newsletter took various forms, including a book report on Psalm 8, a "Rap" poem, illustrations, and word games.

The second workshop focused on "Love thy Neighbor." The goal was to expand the children's ideas of whom their neighbors are -- including those far away and those not yet born -- and to connect their choices with the effects of those choices on others. For this workshop, the children composed a Rap poem that conveyed the thoughts discussed during the workshop. The third workshop -- "God Has No Hands But Ours" -- confronts head-on the complaint that 'if I didn't make the mess why should I have to clean it up?'

"Children can especially relate to that feeling," said Liddell, "so we wanted them to realize that we clean it up because we honor God when we do."

For this workshop, the children were involved in a scavenger hunt and energy audit. They created a checklist of ways the church could become better caretakers of the environment, then they wandered around the church building inside and out, looking for ways the church was being environmentally sensitive and for ways the church could improve. The children then came up with a list of recommendations.

The children were also encouraged to take their checklist home and do a tally there as well. The children found that, while most of the light fixtures had compact fluorescent light bulbs, there were offices where lights were left on when no one was in them. They made a sign for each switch plate that says 'Please turn out the light when you leave.'

"The sight of the K-2 kids running around the church looking for the "good" light bulbs was just too adorable for words! And didn't they just LOVE putting up signs telling the grown-ups what to do!" Liddell said.

The children's work became the theme for Children's Sunday, interspersing Bible readings from Genesis and Psalm 104 with statements of their own about their experiences of the world God created and what they can do to keep it going forever.

In their own words, "I have a neighbor who lives in Africa and we're pen pals. We are good neighbors to each other by sharing stories about our lives."

For the final regular Sunday before summer, the children became "activists" and wrote letters to their state representatives asking them to support passage of two different environmental bills.

"It was gratifying to listen to the children as they put into their own words why their representative in the state legislature should support a particular environmental bill," said Liddell.

"And perhaps this statement from their sermon best sums up what the children learned: 'My neighbors are children who aren't born yet. We can be good neighbors by not using up all the water and resources so there will be enough left for them.'"

Liddell continued: "It's never too young to learn that God needs us to set things right, that God cannot do it without us - no matter what our age."

Would You Like To Use These Workshop Materials?
In the spirit of A Still More Excellent Way -- of fostering connection and communication among our churches -- the Congregational Church of Weston, UCC, is offering their materials for use by other Conference churches. The materials can be found on www.congwestonucc.net. Click in the left side column on "Downloadable Documents" and look for "Environmental Curriculum."

You may reprint this story by including the following line in your article:
"Source: Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ, www.macucc.org/spotlight"

Each year The Congregational Church of Weston, UCC, takes three weeks out of their regular church school curriculum to focus on one theme using the workshop rotation model.

This year's theme was the environment, specifically what the Bible has to say about our role and responsibility as Christians.

"We wanted to make the children aware of how all of creation is linked together, how humans depend on each other, and how other life depends on humans," said Catherine Liddell, Director of Faith Discovery for Children at the Weston church.

"Children study the environment in school and we did not want to just duplicate what they do in school. Instead, our goal was to give the children an understanding of the Biblical underpinnings that support the need to protect the environment."

Not finding a ready-to-use set of lessons or ideas that were appropriate for their age groups, Liddell and Paul Schendel, a member of the church, wrote up three workshop lessons, along with ideas for others. The lessons included messages, Bible verses, discussions, and activities. The first workshop -- "In God's Image/God's Creation was GOOD! -- focused on creating a newsletter about the world God created, how its parts are interconnected and where humans fit within those parts.

"We wanted the children to learn what the Bible has to say about humans' place in creation, to begin to form an idea of what it means to have dominion over something/someone, and to gain an understanding of the complexity of creation and how everything in it depends on everything else in it," explained Schendel.

The children's contributions to their environmental newsletter took various forms, including a book report on Psalm 8, a "Rap" poem, illustrations, and word games.

The second workshop focused on "Love thy Neighbor." The goal was to expand the children's ideas of whom their neighbors are -- including those far away and those not yet born -- and to connect their choices with the effects of those choices on others. For this workshop, the children composed a Rap poem that conveyed the thoughts discussed during the workshop. The third workshop -- "God Has No Hands But Ours" -- confronts head-on the complaint that 'if I didn't make the mess why should I have to clean it up?'

"Children can especially relate to that feeling," said Liddell, "so we wanted them to realize that we clean it up because we honor God when we do."

For this workshop, the children were involved in a scavenger hunt and energy audit. They created a checklist of ways the church could become better caretakers of the environment, then they wandered around the church building inside and out, looking for ways the church was being environmentally sensitive and for ways the church could improve. The children then came up with a list of recommendations.

The children were also encouraged to take their checklist home and do a tally there as well. The children found that, while most of the light fixtures had compact fluorescent light bulbs, there were offices where lights were left on when no one was in them. They made a sign for each switch plate that says 'Please turn out the light when you leave.'

"The sight of the K-2 kids running around the church looking for the "good" light bulbs was just too adorable for words! And didn't they just LOVE putting up signs telling the grown-ups what to do!" Liddell said.

The children's work became the theme for Children's Sunday, interspersing Bible readings from Genesis and Psalm 104 with statements of their own about their experiences of the world God created and what they can do to keep it going forever.

In their own words, "I have a neighbor who lives in Africa and we're pen pals. We are good neighbors to each other by sharing stories about our lives."

For the final regular Sunday before summer, the children became "activists" and wrote letters to their state representatives asking them to support passage of two different environmental bills.

"It was gratifying to listen to the children as they put into their own words why their representative in the state legislature should support a particular environmental bill," said Liddell.

"And perhaps this statement from their sermon best sums up what the children learned: 'My neighbors are children who aren't born yet. We can be good neighbors by not using up all the water and resources so there will be enough left for them.'"

Liddell continued: "It's never too young to learn that God needs us to set things right, that God cannot do it without us - no matter what our age."

Would You Like To Use These Workshop Materials?
In the spirit of A Still More Excellent Way -- of fostering connection and communication among our churches -- the Congregational Church of Weston, UCC, is offering their materials for use by other Conference churches. The materials can be found on www.congwestonucc.net. Click in the left side column on "Downloadable Documents" and look for "Environmental Curriculum."

You may reprint this story by including the following line in your article:
"Source: Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ, www.macucc.org/spotlight"