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Religious Medals


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We hold the meeting in place of a regular Den meeting on a God & Country night. The first couple of times we ran it straight through (4 weeks for God & Me, 6 weeks for God & Family, plus a review night). The majority of the comments from Scout families was that it was too much bible study and not enough Scouts. The last few times we replace one meeting a month with a G&C meeting. This has worked out great for us. First off, it doesn't shut out any Scouts not wanting to participate for two months. Secondly, it lets Scouts stay active Scouting.

 

The reason that we run it every two years for Wolf-Webelos, no Tigers, is twofold. First although Tigers can do God & Me, the Tiger program is very stuctured on a monthly system. Secondly, this gives each Scout a chance to earn both the God & Me and the God & Family award without repeating any of the programs.

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  • 1 month later...

I am a Webelos leader and have been the leader of my group since Tigers. I am very confused about the religious emblem requirement? Im trying to figure out if I have to have my Webelos complete the P.R.A.Y. (or equivalent) program in order to get the religious emblem pin.

 

My boys earned their faith badge (the kind you sew on the red vest) during their Wolf year. We have done all the faith 8a, b, c requirements and two of e. Im not sure how to complete 8d (earn religious emblem of your faith)? The fine print at the bottom of the handbook says completion of 8e does not qualify a youth to receive the religious emblem of his faith.

 

If what we have done is sufficient, where do we order their pins from? If they do need to complete the P.R.A.Y program, is it a requirement of all scouts for their Webelos badge/Arrow of Light or only if they want to wear the pin into Boy Scouts?

 

Thank you in advance for any clarification.

 

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tdorr,

 

The religious award is not a BSA award, It is an award independant of BSA, but recognized by BSA.

 

Each religion sets it's own requirements and agenda.

 

8e doesn't qualify because of the above reasons , but also because it is an alternative to meeting a rank requirement in leu of earning the religious award.

 

You do not order the awards, rather, they must be presented by the religious group itself.

 

ACM's can act as a liason for teaching it, but that is dependant upon the approval of each religious CO.

 

Think of it this way: Suppose the rank requirements say you must earn a 4-H award, boys club award, or some civic award from your state, county or town government. Maybe you have to earn a state or federal parks award.

 

All the requirements, objectives and the final granting of the award would be covered by, controled by and awarded by that group, not BSA or the unit itself.

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todorr - you stated : "We have done all the faith 8a, b, c requirements and two of e. Im not sure how to complete 8d (earn religious emblem of your faith)?"

 

 

The requirements to complete #8 for the Webelos ran award state that items #8 a, b, and c, must all be completed, and that EITHER #8 d, OR #8 e, must be completed. The requirement to complete #8 e states that only 2 of the 6 items must be completed.

 

From your post, your Webelos have finished all of the required parts, and have completed Webelos requirement #8-Faith. There is no need for them to earn the religious emblem of their faith.

 

Of course, if any of them should wish to do so on their own, you can have their family contact their religious organization (church/pastor/etc) for information, and assistance.

 

 

 

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AK

We did the 'God and Me' (Bear) and 'God and Family' (Web I). I taught it myself and modified the curriculum to suit our particular type of faith. (The books say that this is fine.) Protestantism has such a wide spectrum of beliefs that you might want to make sure that all your boys are on the same page before beginning.

 

No one else in our church was doing the program and I was not going to ask a busy priest to teach one kid -- but the priest did the final interview and sign-off and also presented the medal during a regular church service.

 

I got the student book and the counselor book, skipped the parent book. For the God and Family program, I have to say that at first I thought it was close to blasphemous -- a pizza!!! But my son, who was not initially enthusiastic, loved the pizza concept and learned a lot. So, in the end, I felt it was incredibly well targeted for the age group. (Felt the same way about God and Me.)

 

We skipped some of the group activities and games, but had a great time with the projects, like the mezuzah. BTW, check the helps on the website -- there was a great way for learning the Ten Commandments that was not in the book, as far as I remember. Also you will have to do some advance prep with supplies (pretty simple) and pre-reading/marking passages, etc.

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Thanks Ezra for your time in responding. I'm pretty confident that I have a handle on how to coordinate this. I really like the praypub materials and wish I had done the earlier God and Me program with my boys.

 

look in your email, I'll send you a pm.

 

AK

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Thanks Ezra for your time in responding. I'm pretty confident that I have a handle on how to coordinate this. I really like the praypub materials and wish I had done the earlier God and Me program with my boys.

 

look in your email, I'll send you a pm.

 

AK

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  • 3 months later...

Hello all, just an update on this topic.

 

Our group (subset of my Web den) completed the 7 week God and Family program. We were hosted by a church that I attend, boys attend other churches. I facilitated with support from the Children's Education coordinator. Parents attended as mentors for their sons. Home church pastors were informed.

 

One boy was totally new to any church experience. All in all a good experience that I highly recommend. Boys were very motivated by the group setting, the medal, and pizza party at the end. Church was happy with new folks coming in the building (even if they are not staying).

 

FYI, the God and Family program is very generic and mostly focuses on what happens in 17 bible readings and how it relates to scout's family life. They have a nice over all theme of Pizza to create interest. Easy to do in such mixed setting.

 

-- AK

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Our pack is chartered through our public elementary school, so we have kids of all faiths. Another pack in the are with whom we are friendly is chartered through an Episcopalian church and their priest runs the PRAY program. We let out web parents know about it and they can sign up on their own if interested. My son and 3 other webs did it last winter and they loved it.

 

I don't know the faith make up of your den, but if say half of them belong to some flavor of Christianity (Baptist, Methodist, Protestant, Episcopalian, Presbytarian and the like), I would suggest contacting some of those churches in your are and ask if some friendly pastor would be interested in running it and coordinating it with you. Although I do know the Catholics use an entirely different program so that might nor work for them.

 

It really is a great program and it is very much designed for boys. Hint: the God and Family program (for webs) is based on pizza! What boy could resist that!

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My son's Pack completed the God and Me program last year at the church that sponsors our Pack. My son could not take part due to the time the pastor was able to lead the program. We chose to wait until this year and recruited his sunday school teacher (a great friend of ours) to be his leader. Our son met with our pastor last week and he signed off on the application....mailed it off to PRAY.

 

Looking forward to the medal presentation at our chuch in a couple of weeks.

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We just started this with those interested in our Webelos den. We are meeting Sunday afternoons. We are not affliated with a church, but working with the church one of the families attend. The pizza theme seems to be a hit. Did have one boy try to compare Jesus with a zombie however for the first lesson. Quickly explained Jesus was resurrected, not re-animated like a zombie.

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*LIGHTBULB*!!

 

Our Pack is chartered by the church I happen to attend (how do you think I ended up CM???) :0) But only my Cub and 1 other attends there. The rest either *don't* attend, or go somewhere else.

 

I might could offer a God & Me class on Sundays during Children's Church.

 

How many weeks do you think you could stretch this out without being torturous? We'd only meet 3 Sundays a month, because of Commnunion Sundays when there's no CC. And CC is only about 30 minutes, so...

 

Maybe this could be an option for the 3rd-5th grade boys. How many lessons can you eke out, do you think?

 

 

 

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Check to make sure that your church would be using this program, and not another.

 

Get the material and take a look at it. Girls can do this too. There is a program for 3rd grade kids that would fit them better.

 

In my experience, 7 one hour classes with some adjustments to lesson plans and more homework.

 

-- AK

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