Category: Misc

Someone asked about the story I told in the water communion service this past Sunday. Here it is:

Each year we do this water communion service. When we share our water in the common bowl, it symbolizes that while we are separate people, we are also part of an interdependent community.

You probably know about the water cycle. When it rains, water falls from clouds onto the ground, and eventually it flows into a river, and all rivers flow down to the ocean. Water evaporates from the ocean and forms clouds, the clouds drift over the land, it rains, and the cycle begins again. You’re in the middle of this cycle because you drink about 2 liters of water every day, and then you sweat or urinate and put water back into the water cycle. So water is constantly on the move.

You probably know that water is made up of molecules, and that each water molecule is made up of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. Water molecules are incredibly tiny, so tiny you cannot see them. If you had 18 grams of water, or a little more than half an ounce, that would be about 6 x 10^23 (pronounced: “six times ten to the twenty-third”) molecules. The molecular weight of water is approximately 18, and therefore 18 grams of water should have a number of molecules equal to Avogadro’s number, or 6.02 x 10^23.

I just watched a trailer for the film “Race to Nowhere.” This film is about the dark side of America’s achievement culture. The film seems to argue that our achievement culture and the standard definitions of success for middle- and upper-class kids is stressing our kids, reducing the number of kids who love learning, and creating a lot of sleep-deprived, anxious and unhappy youths. I recommend watching the trailer and talking about it with other people.

This film seems to parallel Denise Clark Pope’s book, “Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students.” There is a podcast on iTunes by Denise Clark Pope at a Stanford event that is worth listening to.

Just in case you haven’t seen this video of the the groundbreaking and construction of the church main hall and buildings, I’ve reposted this link. This film was shot by Donald Borthwick and William Kellogg from March to July 1958. In 2007, Rae and Elton Bell had the 8mm film digitized and transferred onto a DVD to show at a UUCPA celebration.

Here is a place for CRE teachers at UUCPA to share experiences of what happened in Sunday School and other religious education events. Each week, teachers have a chance to reflect on questions like:  What worked well today? What do you wish went better? What would you do differently next time? In addition, we get to read each other’s thoughts and respond if we wish.

Please post your thoughts in response to the blog entry for each Sunday. In general, please use first names only, initials or pseudonymns when mentioning people, especially children.

Note: some comments may be moderated and take up to 24 hours to appear.

If you prefer, you can write a note and send it to Rev. Dan using this Microsoft Word template.