- Our regular programming will begin Sunday, August 25, 2024 and continue through to May 18th, 2025.
- Two worship services are offered most Sundays at 9:00am and 11:30am. Youth Religious Education and Adult Learning are offered at 10:15am.
- Nursery care is provided during both services and the education hour.
Holiday weekends there may be only one service at 10:00am and no education hour. Nursery care will be provided during the service. - Children and Adults attend the Sunday service together. We sing together, share the joys and concerns of our lives, reflect together in silence, heed the wisdom of ancient and modern words, and listen and respond to thoughts from the minister or others.
- In the classroom, the children and youth interact with their peers using age-appropriate lessons that emphasize self-reflection, kindness, acceptance and delight in the mysteries of our world. They are encouraged to create their own spiritual paths based on our seven principles and interaction with parents and peers. We strive to include children as much as possible in every element of church life. We celebrate special seasons and events with a variety of rites, stories and music, together with our children.
- Register your family for Youth Religious Education here and we’ll add you to the distribution list for classroom links and weekly updates.
August – May Sunday Mornings
Pre-School and Kindergarten
Spirit Play
Spirit Play is a Montessori-based program that teaches children about Unitarian Universalist principles, history, and liturgy through storytelling and play. The Spirit Play classroom is a special, child centered place to be together to discover the spirit of love and mystery that some people call God. Children discover their own answers to the existential questions: Where did we come from? What are we doing here? How do we choose to live our lives?
Core stories of our faith are presented with special props. After the stories children are guided towards making meaning through wondering and art. A spiritual community is created that supports multiple learning styles.
1st – 3rd grade
Faithful Journeys & Moral Tales (Aug 2024-May 2025)
Each week children will go on a Faithful Journey or hear a Moral Tale and once a month they will have a Lego based lesson on the Unitarian Universalist Shared Values.
Because ours is a creedless faith, defining what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist can be challenging. Our adults and youth often welcome such a challenge — indeed, a questioning spirit is part of our faith. Yet, our children need to learn who Unitarian Universalists are, what we believe, and how we live in faith. Faithful Journeys & Moral Tales equips them with the spiritual and ethical tools they will need to make choices and take actions reflective of their Unitarian Universalist beliefs and values. Each session has a central story in which participants meet real and fictional heroes and heroines who have displayed moral courage and spiritual greatness. They will hear about characters who have struggled, but who have chosen justice, goodness, and love.
All sessions include hands-on activities to make learning accessible to individuals with various learning styles as well as structured exercises for questioning, reflecting and self-expression. Each session of this program includes rituals such as sharing opening words, a chalice-lighting, centering in silence before hearing a story, and sharing acts of goodness.
4th – 6th grade
Toolbox of Faith (Aug – Dec 2024)
What do duct tape, a hardhat, sandpaper, and a magnifying glass have to do with religious education? They are some of the real tools that we will use in the Toolbox of Faith program as symbols of the tools we use to be Unitarian Universalists. For example, we will use duct tape to reflect on being flexible in our faith; we will use a hardhat to represent being resilient in our faith; and we will use sandpaper to illustrate how to smooth out rough spots with humor in our faith. Welcome to the Toolbox of Faith program! In Toolbox of Faith, you may learn how to play the Cloak and Dagger game, how to make a compass and a duct tape lunch bag, and what Athenian ostracism meant in classical Greece. (It’s like being “voted off the island,” 4000 years ago!). You will hear intriguing, thought-provoking stories about some of the important qualities of our faith, and have Council Circle discussions to reflect on how we live our Unitarian Universalist faith in our everyday lives.
World Religions (Jan – May 2025)
Youth will develop an awareness and sensitivity to other cultures and religions and be exposed to different religious experiences they may use as they shape their own spiritual path.
The lessons illustrate concepts such as the value of wisdom and loyalty in Hinduism, the importance of family in Islam, the practice of compassion for all living beings in Buddhism and an introduction to the life and teachings of the person Jesus of Nazareth.
7th & 8th grade
Neighboring Faiths (Aug 2024 – May 2025)
Neighboring Faiths introduces youth in grades 7 & 8 to the faith traditions and practices of other religious groups in their community. Neighboring Faiths provides a number of processes for engaging participants in a religious journey.
Goals for participants:
– To participate personally in the faith traditions of others.
– To reflect on the unique and universal of religious experience.
– To explore their own values as they relate to many other faith traditions.
– To become more aware of the many connections between Unitarian Universalism and other faith traditions.
– To strengthen commitment to Unitarian Universalist faith and community.
– To increase their understanding and appreciation of religious diversity.
– To build relationships with peers, adult leaders, and their congregation and community.
9th – 12th grade
High School Youth Group
The theme based sessions will be filled with creative, high quality worship, games, meditations, reflections, stories, art engagement, discussion starters, etc. Each session is built around our monthly themes to ensure that your youth are part of the wider theme conversation happening all around the congregation.
Our core youth program for high school students provides experiences in community building and fellowship, worship and congregational engagement, social action, UU values, and youth-led sessions exploring the monthly themes and other topics of importance to our youth and their world. Youth and advisors work jointly to plan and participate in social action projects, leadership development, and opportunities for worship.
Youth Group is a wonderful experience for teens – it broadens their perspectives and gives them a comfortable atmosphere in which to discuss the issues they are dealing with, as they become adults.
High school-age UUs put our faith into action every day by daring to be real, showing acceptance and support, leading with courage, and acting for justice.
After all, what is religion for if it isn’t about changing your life—and changing the world—for the better?
You may contact our Director of Religious Education, Steve Cooper, to learn more about any of our youth programs or how to register your child.