It’s here! One of our regular educational programs for middle schoolers is Neighboring Faith Communities, a mix of experiential and discussion-based learning about a few of the many religious communities of our area. This year, we are pioneering an intergenerational version, and the first adult session is this Wednesday evening, September 18, to be followed by our first faith-community visit, Sunday, September 22. I’m really excited to be teaming up with Rev. Cat Boyle, and with middle-school teachers Linda Henigin, Jane Correia, and Sean Hansen, to create this new version of a program that was innovative when it first hit Unitarian congregations in 1946 (as The Church Across the Street); was then developed by the Unitarian Universalist Association as the more expansive Neighboring Faiths; and was further honed and adapted to our area by teachers and the Rev. Dan Harper through a few iterations. Now the five of us are taking it up to the current day and adding a version particularly geared to the needs and learning style of adults. I hope you’ll join us.
While the middle schoolers will have their discussion sessions on Sunday mornings, the adults will meet for theirs on eleven Wednesday evenings. The groups will combine for the six faith-community visits we’ll make over the course of the program, together attending the service and talking with a leader of the community afterwards. We will visit the UU Fellowship of Redwood City, University AME Zion, St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Congregation Beth Am, and a Sikh gurdwara and Hindu temple to be decided.
On a Wednesday shortly before each visit, we learn about what to expect, how to be a polite and engaged visitor, and some of the broader context of that particular tradition. On a Wednesday shortly after each visit, we talk about what we observed and what questions arose for us.
Facilitator: Amy Zucker Morgenstern
Date/Time/Place: Eleven Wednesdays, 7:30-8:30 pm, Hamaker Library and Zoom
and
Six Saturdays/Sunday mornings, exact time and place TBA; meet at Room A
The full schedule is here, with the dates for the adult program in the goldenrod column.
If you plan to participate, please fill out this brief form.
Before September 18: We won’t usually have homework, but please allot an hour before the first session to watch this video from Harvard University’s Pluralism Project. As it happens, the city chosen to illustrate the United States’ burgeoning religious diversity is right here in the Bay Area.
See you there!
Amy