WHAT WE TEACH AND WHY
At UCE, we engage in religious education as a
community. Some of our programs are adults leading
children, some are adults accompanying children and youth on their
journey, some are for adults only. In all cases we all grow in love
and understanding of one another. Our religious journey is part
content, part individual spiritual growth and part learning to
worship and live in community together.
Living in community. Each year as
we plan the next we ask ourselves: Why do people bring their
children to UCE? Why do they bring themselves? The easy
answer is that they bring their children for a Religious Education.
But we come back to “What does this mean?” Parents
and others have said it means “... feeling part of a community,
answering kids’ questions, getting support for being me…” It is all
of these things.
During the past several years as we have focused
on mission/vision we asked – “And what can we do together?” Religious growth and learning is not a solitary activity. It needs
community. There are solitary aspects of a spiritual journey, but
it takes place in community: family, UCE itself, Evanston, the
planet or all of the above. It is the community that helps us seek
and understand that which brings meaning to our lives.
When we ask you to assist with Religious
Education, we mean your religious growth as well as our children and
youth. The ‘education’ takes place through action, re flection and
dialogue. Children want to know what you believe and how you arrived
there.
We may do things in community we might not be able
or ready to do by ourselves. We host Soup Kitchens; we help at
Hilda’s Place; we put up a banner supporting civil marriage as a
civil right for all people; we travel to Boston to see our history
and we go outside with the 3 & 4 year olds and discover, “the world
has birds.”
As a child progresses through the program, parents
are asked to learn beside them in 3rd & 4th grades as they hear
stories from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures; make field trips
with them in 5th & 6th grades as they learn the ways others worship;
plan fundraising and so- cial action projects with the Junior High
as they experience the power of giving to others. A great joy in
Religious Education is that adults accompany the children and
youth, sharing the past and glimpsing the future as we all seek
meaning and purpose and peace and joy. When we call and ask how you
want to help, remember this is for you too.
• • • • •
On Sunday mornings during the regular church year (September - early June) we offer:
9:30 a.m. Family Worship
10:00 a.m. Class groups for children in kindergarten through sixth grade, nursery care; child-care for pre-schoolers; book circle; young adult group, Cracker Barrel (discussion group), Parents’ Café (discussion/learning group).
11:00 a.m. Worship service (after the first 15-20 minutes children in kindergarten through sixth grade may go to activity groups), class group for seventh and eighth grade children, nursery care, child-care for pre-school children.
After the service: High school group meets until 1:30 p.m.
Many other opportunities for engagement come through special or seasonal events, such as the CROP Hunger Walk in October, ornament-making in December, Family Winter Retreat in January, soup kitchen participation, and on-going peace and justice endeavors.
The Summer Religious Education Schedule (now through August 31) includes a class on August Sundays (3, 10, 17, 14, and 31) 10 to 11 a.m. for Kindergarten through 6th grade children. Nursery care and care for three- and four-year-olds is available all summer. |
FROM THE REVEREND NANCY SHAFFER
Interim Minister for Religious Education . . .
Religious Education for all Ages
Unitarian Universalists understand religious education as something we can engage daily, all our lives long – if we but see with eyes that notice such possibility, and if we invite it for not only the young but for all ages. In one of our hymns we sing, “Revelation is not sealed” – meaning that what is true and just and good continually reveals itself. We learn new ways of understanding our world not just once but again and again. One way of saying this is that we engage in life-span religious learning – or life-span faith development, where we understand faith not as a set of beliefs that all of us must agree on, but a way of being in conscientious, caring relationship with the web of life.
We understand each one of us as teacher, each one as learner. Some for a time take on a formal role of teacher, as when they teach Hebrew or Christian scriptures to third and fourth graders, or guide fifth and sixth children on visits to neighboring churches, synagogues and mosques. But all of us, we understand, teach our young people and each other about our values simply by how we live the details and large picture of our daily lives.
We directly teach values, stories, traditions, and thinking skills – rather than one set of beliefs about what is sacred. Of primary importance for us is “walking together in love” – to use terminology of our ancestors in this tradition. Thus, how we do what we do is primary to us. We seek to learn ever more respectful and caring ways of being together, while bringing the varied beliefs we each responsibly test and cherish.
A Word About this Interim Time
The interim period between the departure of one valued minister of religious education and the arrival of the next called minister of religious education is focused in large part on relationships – making space in which to notice and say thanks for all the good brought by the previous minister; making a space in which the next called minister may be fully his or her best self. The interim’s role is intentionally short-term, focused on this work of making ready. I am here to walk with you a short way, to be in close relationship with you during this time – and then, with love, to relinquish the congregation to new leadership. This is a rich, bountiful time.
Rev. Nancy
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