By Heather Melton, UTO Staff Officer
The iconic UTO Blue Box has evolved over time. The Archives of The Episcopal Church has one that is pyramid-shaped and white from the early days of UTO. The box started off powder-blue and small; it then was navy with cartoon images of women at work; there was one with rainbow text; and then the more iconic slightly royal blue boxes. This year, in the spirit of creativity, we’ve collaborated with Illustrated Ministries to create the first Blue Box you can color. While the box starts off in black and white, you can design it however you want. You can color it with all shades of blue, or with realistic colors to the nature scenes on the box; you can color just the parts you want to highlight—it’s completely up to you! If you do it this fall, you can enter it into our coloring contest to win some great prizes because we want to see how creative you are with your UTO box. All the information about the coloring contest, including how to order boxes and submit photos, can be found here. While the materials are available for use at any time, the coloring contest does end in December.
If you want to expand beyond the coloring contest, we’ve also got FREE formation resources and Illustrated Ministries coloring sheets for children and adults that accompany the General Thanksgiving found in the back of your Book of Common Prayer. The coloring sheets are in English and Spanish with a more and less detailed designed to choose from. (View all coloring pages here.) For kids, we’ve got amazing new formation lessons from the Rev. Rowan Larson, and for adults, a journal with weekly coloring sheets and themes to help deepen a gratitude practice or help to create one. You can use the coloring sheets on their own or with the materials, whatever works best for your congregation.