Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

From the Asst. Minister of Religious Education

December 6, 2009
Rev. Dan Harper

Someone asked me recently how things are going in the religious education programs at our church. This was not someone who wanted a detailed answer, so I simply replied, “Very well indeed, thank you.” But I’d like to say a little more about our lifespan religious education programs, and what’s been happening in them.

The most important religious education we do takes place in our regular Sunday morning worship services. Beginning this fall, we have invited our children into the first fifteen minutes of the worship service every week. Our children get to see the chalice being lit, they get to sit with the rest of the community, they get to hear wonderful music and spoken words, and they get to sing hymns and songs. (Of course we offer child care during this time for children for whom sitting in worship is not the right thing.) I like to sit in the rear of the church during this time, and all the children I see pay close attention during at least part of the time they are in the worship service: the music grabs the attention of some children, a well-told story grabs the attention of others, and on one Sunday dancers grabbed the attention of nearly all the children. I have also enjoyed watching as the worship associates take the time to explain what they’re doing, so the children can begin to understand why we do what we do in worship — for example, on Nov. 22, Dave Webber took the time to explain where the symbol of the flaming chalice comes from. So far, I think we are doing pretty well at using the first fifteen minutes of the worship service as an educational opportunity.

Turning to our more formal religious education programs, I have been impressed with the adult education our church offers. The Adult Religious Education Committee carefully surveys the congregation to see what sorts of courses people might find interesting, and at the same time they search for people who might have a good course to offer. The result is a rich array of adult courses, ranging from a course on Buddhism to a series of workshops on gay, lesbian, and transgender issues. Our church has more courses for adults than you’d expect in a mid-size church like ours, and the comments I hear indicate that the quality of the courses is generally high.

Moving down to a younger age range, our church has more than one program for teenagers. Our most prominent youth program is the Senior High Youth Group (SHYG). SHYG has about 15 youth on its mailing list. The group meets weekly for community, friendship, and mutual support. Leadership development is an integral part of SHYG — the youth run much of their program themselves, with help from adult advisors — and they also plan and lead worship services once or twice a year, engage in social action, and do some formal learning. In addition to SHYG, high-school-aged youth have a couple of other options for getting involved in our church. We are currently planning a week-long service project for next summer, traveling to New Orleans to help with the ongoing rebuilding efforts there. And other youth get involved as individuals in other aspects of church life — for example, the assistant director of the Children’s Choir is a youth.

The center of our children’s religious education program is our Sunday school. We currently have five age groups meeting during the 9:30 worship service (pre&–K, grades K&–1, 2&–3, 4&–5, and 6&–8), as well as one group meeting during the 11:00 service (gr. 1&–6). Under the guidance of our volunteer Sunday school teachers, our children do quite a bit in the short 45-minute class time they have each week &— they light a flaming chalice, they have a chance to talk about what happened in their lives, they learn from well-written curriculum books, and they get to have contact with good adult role models. In addition to our Sunday school, we have another religious education program, the Children's Choir, which rehearses between the two worship services. The Children’s Choir learn how to sing in a group, they learn songs that communicate important values, and peridocially they sing in a worship service. The Children’s Choir has made good progress musically this fall, and they are really learning what it means to work as part of a team.

So that’s a quick summary of what’s happening in religious education right now. What does the future hold for our religious education programs? We have excellent religious education for all ages right now. Our Adult Religious Education Committee is currently exploring cooperating with nearby Unitarian Universalist churches to expand our adult course offerings. If we wanted to, we could also expand offerings for children and youth if we had perhaps a couple dozen more children and youth. How might we get more children and youth? Perhaps we might invite sympathetic families to participate in our programs. For example, beginning in January our church will begin to offer “Our Whole Lives,” an excellent comprehensive sexuality education program for grades 7–9 — and some church members are inviting families who aren’t now a part of UUCPA to send their children to join this top-notch program. Perhaps we might do this for some of our other excellent children and youth programs.