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Religious Education

Welcome to our Youth Religious Education Program! Here at The First Unitarian Church of Cleveland we offer youth aged 0 to 19 a wonderfully diverse program. We invite participants to test, try, build, search and question as they develop their own religious beliefs.

Including aspects of religious studies, spiritual practice, and putting our values into action, the program is designed to help young people learn what it means to be religious in the broadest sense, and what it means to be Unitarian Universalists. In our Unitarian Universalist tradition, we know that there are many sources of truth; we are open to new ways of understanding, and we take responsibility for our actions in the world.

We hope you will join us and participate. If you have any questions, ask me or any of our volunteers and staff, and we will be happy to help you find the answers.

In faith,
George
Reverend George Buchanan
Minister for Religious Education

The members of the Youth Religious Education Committee are pleased to welcome you to our 2007-2008 church school year. We are very proud to present a diverse, well-rounded and age-appropriate curriculum for all our youth. We provide a place where the children can feel safe and comfortable to express their thoughts and opinions. We strive to create a place where the children can have a sense of well-being and belonging and a forum to learn and live what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist.

We look forward to working with the parents and children for another successful church school year.

Chuck Segall, Chair
Youth Religious Education Committee

Staff

Rev. George Buchanan, Minister for Religious Education - 216-751-2320 Ext. 29

Ms. Kay Kindice, Religious Education Assistant - 216-751-2320 Ext. 28

Sunday Morning Classes

Nursery:

Our youngest children are cared for in the Crib Room during the Sunday morning worship service.

Toddler:

Story Time uses picture book stories and related art activities to illustrate themes such as honesty, love, trust, family, and respect for nature.

Preschool (three-four year olds):

Celebrating Me and My World highlights children's capabilities and the wondrous qualities of the people, animals, and objects around them, providing experiences and opportunities to grow in trust and caring and to develop their self-identity and sense of connectedness with all of life.

Kindergarten:

Around the Church, Around the Year acquaints children with the people, buildings, rituals and celebration of their own Unitarian Universalist community and encourages them to develop their own Unitarian Universalist identity.

First Grade:

Stories About God helps children develop a language to express their thoughts and feelings about the divine in many forms, exploring understandings of God as a oneness, God as love and worth, and God as mystery.

Second and Third Grade:

Holidays and Holy Days celebrates highlights of the festivals and holy days of major world religions and explores some similarities and differences between these religions and Unitarian Universalism.

Fourth Grade:

Timeless Themes is an introduction to stories from Hebrew and Christian scripture as religious literature central to North American culture, exploring such themes as jealousy, forgiveness, and healing.

Fifth and Sixth Grades:

World Religions studies major religions of the world, with guest speakers and visits to houses of worship in the greater Cleveland area. In this upcoming 2007-2008 program year, the youth in this class study the Abrahamic traditions – Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

Seventh and Eighth Grades:

You the Creator is an exciting arts-based curriculum for middle school youth. Following this curriculum, youth engage in arts projects and service projects. And they use the results of these projects to reflect more deeply on what is most important to them.

High School:

Dare to Know helps High School youth become more familiar with the humanist sources of our Unitarian Universalist tradition – the importance of science and learning, the use of reason and discernment, and awareness of possible "idolatries of the mind and spirit."

Evening Programs

Coming of Age

For youth in 8th grade and older, we offer a Coming of Age program with meetings one Saturday night per month during the year. Each young person in this program spends time reflecting deeply on her or his own personal beliefs, and writing a person credo. The Minister for Religious Education directs this program personally, and adult mentors from the congregation also participate. At the end of the year, the young people have a chance to share their credos in a Sunday morning worship service.

Our Whole Lives

Our Whole Lives (OWL) is the sexuality education curriculum used by Unitarian Universalist Congregations. This curriculum offers comprehensive and respectful sexuality training in a safe, welcoming environment. This year OWL classes will be provided to the 7th and 8th graders on one Saturday evening per month.

Youth Groups

For teenage youth, we have youth groups that meet outside of the Sunday morning program. We encourage these groups to involve themselves in community building and socially responsible activities, with as much youth leadership as possible.

Worship

Worship provides an opportunity to celebrate and explore the mysteries of life and to experience and reflect on their connections within their religious community and to the universe.

Our young people's worship is enhanced by music, quiet meditation, stories, singing and sharing. Experiences include worship with the congregation in the Sanctuary and with other classes in the Worship Center.

Teaching

Volunteer teachers from the congregation are the adult presence transmitting our religion to our young people in a caring and knowledgeable way. Each year parents and non-parents alike volunteer to join teaching teams of four teachers. Support for teachers is offered by our Minister of Religious Education and Youth Religious Education Committee and teacher orientations are held annually. Special training is offered for Our Whole Lives and Youth Group leaders.

To volunteer to teach, please contact our Minister of Religious Education or a member of the Youth Religious Education Committee. If you are new to the congregation, we ask that you take the first year to meet other members and have an opportunity to observe our teachers and classes before volunteering to teach. As our teachers will tell you, they have learned as much as if not more than our young people in their classes.

Community Events

Throughout the church year our program includes special occasions for all ages learning and playing together and community building, including parties and social justice activities. We also offer opportunities for parents to learn from and with each other in our church community. Our church newsletter is the most up-to-date vehicle for these announcements and information.

Parents

You, as parents, play a significant role in the religious education of your children. Your active participation is encouraged as this religious community shares this important responsibility. Parents are asked to teach and to support the program in other ways on a regular basis. An adult responsible for each child must remain on the church grounds during Sunday school. The Religious Education Program is paid for by the congregation as a whole through the operating budget of the church, and parents are expected to make a financial contribution to the church. Here are some other ways you can help:

Dress children in play clothes. Our children paint, run, jump, walk in the woods, plant seeds, play games and enjoy our playground. Comfortable school or play clothes are appropriate.

Meet your child's teachers. Introduce yourself and your child to the teachers. If you bring a visitor to attend with your child, please introduce the newcomer to the teacher before the beginning of class.

Arrive on time and come regularly. A sense of belonging develops by attending regularly. Feelings of connection and friendship take time. These feelings nurtured here help sustain our children in their search for meaning. Classes begin at 11:00 am and end at 12:15 pm, which gives our parents an opportunity to socialize with other members of our community.

Help in your child's classroom. Parents are asked to serve as classroom helpers and to bring a snack for the class to share.

Share your religion with your child. Talk with your child about what she or he did in class. Reinforce with them our desire to provide a safe classroom where ideas and questions are welcomed, but unkindness is not. Share with them why you come and what needs of yours are met by our church community. Let your child know your thoughts, opinions and values.

Religious education is a life-long process. We are on a pilgrimage that is nurtured by being in a community of seekers. As companions on the journey, we need each other for sharing our thoughts and wonderings. Your participation enriches us all.

Education Committee

The Youth Religious Education Committee, with the Minister of Religious Education and Religious Education Assistant, plans, supports and evaluates the Youth Religious Education Program. The committee works to provide a structured forum in which children and adults can interact and share their life experiences and faith journeys by clearly defining roles, responsibilities, accountability and expectations. Members of the committee serve as liaisons to teaching teams and also focus on specific areas of responsibility, including youth worship, teacher support, teacher recruitment, curriculum evaluation and planning, social justice, communications and community events.

Chuch Segall, Chair
Carlye Bellamy
George Buchanan (Staff)
Teri Egan
Jane Hill
Kay Kindice (Staff)
Taylor Nash
Margaret Pauken
Natalie Wardega.

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"The great end in religious instruction, whether in the Sunday-school or family, is, not to stamp our minds irresistibly on the young, but to stir up their own; not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own; not to give them a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth; not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs; not to burden the memory, but to quicken and strengthen the power of thought; not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions, but to prepare them for impartial, conscientious judging of whatever subjects may in the course of Providence, be offered to their decision; not to impose religion upon them in the form of arbitrary rules, which rest on no foundation but our own word and will, but to awaken the conscience, the moral discernment, so that they may discern and approve for themselves what is everlastingly right and good."
- William Ellery Channing (1837)

21600 Shaker Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44122

- (216) 751-2320 church@firstunitariancleveland.org
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