Wow, January 2021. It seems like 2020 was the longest year on record! Some of us thrived in 2020 while many of us learned to adapt to staying at home more, connected digitally with family and friends, and some suffered from COVID-19 or its effects. Although it may seem easy to say that 2021 will be completely different from 2020, we will all still be dealing with the effects of the pandemic for a long time. Even in RE, we will continue to meet digitally well into 2021. However, that does not mean that we should lose that feeling of novelty that the start to another year brings. It may just look a little different!
In the beginning of the year, many people like to reflect on what they need to fix in the coming year. For me personally, I set out with a one-word intention that ideally shapes that coming year. Usually the word comes pretty easily to me, but this year, I am having trouble even trying to think about how the year will unfold. Hopefully I will think of something by January 1! Uncertainty can be worrisome, but it is also exhilarating. So perhaps this New Year will be a bit different, but we can still engage in some of the practices that mark the beginning of the year.
So, in RE for January, we will be thinking about how we want RE to look like as the year unfolds. We will be making a chalice to use in both RE and in our worship services. We will continue to engage in community building efforts together. I hope to have a masked in-person meet up in January too! Let’s welcome in 2021 with hope, even if it is a bit of a cautious kind of hope, and a desire to build an even stronger and meaningful RE program.
1/3 Reflecting on 2020, What We Hope to Learn in 2021
1/10 Making a Chalice Together
1/17 Celebration of the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
1/24 Let’s Read Together: an RE Story
1/31 Show and Tell: Bring your favorite thing to RE!