Six New Things – Week of October 09, 2023

It’s Autumn! It’s Halloween! It’s Thanksgivingt! Here’s a little something for upcoming festivities – infused with three versions of ‘climate care’ that’ll empower youth, inform education, and, well, care for the climate.

ONE

First: Halloween in the Orchard (Beaming) is the third of Phyllis Alsdurf’s Countryside Holidays series; it includes a ‘scarecrow find’ and a free make-your-own-trick-or-treat-bag guide: pretty sure a savvy leader or volunteer can turn this into a worthwhile children’s or youth gathering!

Find additional resources for Reformation, All Saints, and Día de Los Muertos in our lib guide.

TWO

For kids ready to take off the mask and be themselves – without fearing bullies – Kiki Kicks (Beaming), is ‘about reclaiming strength, confidence, and peace through martial arts’; it includes personal notes from the author about how martial arts helped save them when they were bullied as a child.

Religion can be used as a very particular form of adult bullying. Holy Runaways: Rediscovering Faith after Being Burned by Religion (Broadleaf), ‘speaks to people who are feeling ignored, oppressed, or rejected by their religious community and church, offering a path forward built on speaking truth, deep listening, and acting with compassion’.

Cultivate a bully-free climate with additional Bullying & Friendship and New Good News resources in our lib guides.

THREE

Create a more welcoming climate by supporting theological inquisitiveness at an early age: Girl/Friend Theology: God-Talk with Young People (Baker), ‘is an invitation into enlivening spiritual practices and meaning-centered conversations’ that ‘draw us into a world where faith is a mode of liberation, true connection and joy’.

Interrupt adults’ fatigue and loneliness with ‘a daily waterfall of grace, a cascade of revelation, a ray of intimacy’, via Drinking Pure Light: Daily Poems of Courage, Compassion, and Surrender (Pilgrim).

Further a climate of personal and group Spiritual Growth/Practices with resources from our lib guide.

FOUR

The realities of our global climate underlie significant emotional distress in adults and young people, alike. We live in a whole new era of awareness, anxiety, and despair. Teaching at Twilight: The Meaning of Education in the Age of Collapse (Cascade), ‘invites all educators to take an unflinching look at the rapidly deteriorating state of the earth’s life-support system, become aware of its implications for human civilization, and rethink their responsibility in light of that awareness’.

If your congregation is ready to do something about climate change, consider joining the 31 Denominations and Faith Groups [Nation-Wide] Co-Signing Commitment to Creation Care. One Home. One Future. is a ‘multi-faith campaign to strengthen vitality, relevance, and community connection across generations in local congregations nationwide’.

FIVE

One helpful step toward appreciating God’s good creation – and relieving anxiety, despair, and anger – is a practice of gratitude. Preparing for Thanksgiving is a great time to begin such a practice. We’ll write up a Great Idea about this next week – for free! – but if you want to get a jump start, Traci Smith (of Faithful Families at Home), has a Gratitude Every Day in November kit that’s 25% off this week only.

Kick off the practice with an all-ages reading of Little Mole Gives Thanks (Beaming): beloved author Glenys Nellist is back with her equally beloved Little Mole, whose friends turn disappointment into gratitude. A free, downloadable Activity Kit helps kids plan their own Fancy Forest Feast.

Find additional Gratitude & Thanksgiving resources in our lib guide.

SIX

Because it’s on everyone’s mind and congregations will want to create a safe space for conversations and lament, please find a short list of resources on Israel & Palestine, and more abstractly on War & Genocide in our lib guides. We’ll continue to build on these as resources become available.

Send us an email if we can support your community conversations.