First Parish was officially back up and running after a summer hiatus last week. I sometimes wonder - if mormons took the summer off from church activity – would they come back in the fall? Our usual suspects and newcomers were all in place.

From now until October 24 I am the adult leader for a group of 10 8th grade students. This means that while those over 18 attend the worship service, the 8th graders meet with me and a co-teacher during the hour or so that is our allocated time.

Starting on October 24 I will begin teaching the course know as Our Whole Lives (OWL), a program in sexual education, for this group. That will run for 2.5 hours 3 Sundays a month until March.

It is nice to have these few weeks to get to know the students and let them become a cohesive group before diving into the important topics covered in OWL. This will be my second time teaching this program and it is one of the most spiritual experiences I have encountered at First Parish.

First Parish’s hot issues of the day include committees researching how and if we should move to holding 2 separate services. Youth programming is running out of room. Indeed, my OWL program has to be run in a private home nearby. These first few Sundays we don’t actually have a classroom available. We meet by the elevator downstairs. If the weather is OK we move to the nearby common (our location for the last two weeks). Foul weather plan is to meet at the coffee house across the street.

If we had 2 services, we don’t think we have the volunteers available for 2 youth programs so youth programs might be connected to one service only, but then that does nothing about the lack of classroom space. Someone at coffee hour suggested that I “teach OWL to the grownups to slow the pace of reproduction.” Growth is a good problem to have. I am not on the committee to figure this out so I hesitate to complain lest I be roped in!

Thanks for letting me share my completely not mormon religious life here