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I am a parish minister currently serving the Eliot Church of Natick MA. Eliot Church is a Community Church affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ. Any statements made and postions held in "Unity," however, are solely mine(of course, they may be used with appropriate atribution). Therefore if you disagree, please do not blame the church!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Parenthood

Last Sunday was "Children's Sunday". This is the final big day on our church calendar until after Labor Day. It was, as usual, a blast. The theme (selected by the students and teachers) was "Peace". All the kids had some contribution to make. I, however, had little to do!

Actually, I have two specific tasks. The first is to commission the High School (and Jr. H. S.) kids who will be going down to West Virginia as a part of our housing ministry. This is a prgram we share with other Natick churches and we always send a significant delegation.

That having been done, all I had left to do was hand out the Bibles to our graduating 2nd Graders. This year we have enough of them that they will form their own class next year! They, of course, were giddy. My son (Son #1) is one of these kids, so there is very little mystery surrounding the pastor. They have been to the house. I have been to theirs. I'm just a Dad. So I am not sure that they helped themselves in the teacher-recruitment department when--led by my son--they started making goofy comments (My son tried to rub my head!). This culminated with one of them pounding his fist in the air and yelling, "Yankees Rule! Red Sox Stink!" (oh my). Seriously, though, they were cute.

After the annual Sunday School Picnic, Son #2 and I did our penance by heading over to Fenway Park where, sadly, the Sox lost in the second game of a double-header. However, we did manage to eat some baseball food and enjoy the day with one of his little friends and little friend's Dad. A good time was had by all!

This Sunday I am preaching about Parenthood. I do this every year on either Father's Day or Mother's Day. This year I was out of the pulpit for Mom's Day, so here it is, time to figure out what to do. If you have any thoughts, please let me know, really. The introduction of Son #3 has given me ample material, of course, but very little sleep.

Being a parent is a challenge and, of course, a tremendous responsibility. Certainly those of us with school-age kids are preparing for a period of increased contact with the little ones as school finally runs its course. I, for one, am looking forward to this time. What to do, however, always requires a certain amount of thought. I hope that all is going well with all you parents out there. Enjoy the summer. It will be over all too soon.