A 15 year old student says, “Ever since I was 7 years old we’ve been attending this church. I’m 15 now and have lots of friends here. Each class we tell what happened during our week”.
An 11 year old says, ” I liked making pinwheels after we read a story about the Wind.” On Sundays, most of the younger children stay in the sanctuary for the first part of the service then go their classes. The adults enjoy having the children included and they can be kids too! We always have a children’s story.
This is from an 18 year old student, We are about 40 kids between two and eighteen who attend weekly classes. The curriculum is continually updated so as not to bore us! “We get to decide on many of the subjects we feel are important to us!” Our Religious Education Handbook has more details about the following:
- Sunday social action projects
- Unitarian Universalist principles
- Building our own services
- Spirituality and the arts
- Coming of Age
- Our Whole Lives (OWL) classes
This young lady is 14 years old, “In the past the Social Action Project involved learning about the local animal shelter, baking and selling “pet cookies” and donating the proceeds to the shelter during our first-ever “Blessing of the Animals” Sunday. On animal Sunday, pets came to church in all shapes and sizes! This shows that we shouldn’t care just about ourselves but also our four legged friends!”
This young woman is 17 years old, “I like singing in front of the congregation because they are so supportive and appreciative, and tell me how proud they are of me! I enjoy meeting together in class because we all get along even though we are all so different. We can say what we want because we are all friends, respectful of each other’s ideas and thoughts.”
This young man is 17 years old, “We have really interesting conversations in our class.”
A 15 year old says, “I enjoy debating in class about other religions. Sometimes we go to people’s houses just to have a party or go swimming.”
This young fellow is 13, “We get to make food and eat it!”
And this young lady is 15, “My favorite adults are so supportive in a different way because they relate to us at all levels. At church we can hang out with our friends and do good things which are community oriented.”
Thanks for listening to our youth. Religious education has been an important part of our congregation since our founding in 1955. We feel a deep commitment to the growing number of children who grace our congregation. In turn the children teach us, as children always do, lessons of patience, love, joy and hope. There is someone at every service willing to talk to newcomers about our facilities and programs. Please come visit!
