UU Children’s Religious Education: Passport to the World of Faith

UU Children’s Religious Education: Passport to the World of Faith
Julie Caran
5/26/13

Good morning. I want to start by addressing the title of this service. “UU Children’s Religious Education: Passport to the World of Faith.” In a way, saying that UU RE provides a passport to the world of faith implies that we are not part of that world. Is Unitarian Universalism a faith? I had difficulty answering that question until I became immersed in UU religious education.
When I began attending a UU church as a young adult in 1999, I, like many of you, had the experience of discovering a faith and a community that echoed my personal theology – my ideas about God – as well as my principles – the behaviors I saw as right and true. As with any new discovery, this one was exciting! I shared my interest with a protestant coworker and friend. Brian had a strong Christian faith, was very smart and had strong convictions, and was willing to agree to disagree when necessary. I enjoyed engaging in conversations with him about theology, faith, and religious institutions, but he simply could not wrap his mind around Unitarian Universalism.

“How can it be a church,” he asked me, “if you’re not all worshipping God together? Isn’t that the definition of church? A place of worship?”

I was stumped at the time. With Methodist, Jewish, Catholic, and Episcopal institutions in my background, I had been immersed in many religious communities, and they all had one common quality – the people gathered together to worship with those who shared their faith in God.

What is a church? Isn’t it a gathering of people of faith? The refrain of a song I learned in Sunday School circled through my brain: “I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together. All who follow Jesus all around the world – yes, we’re the church together!” My definition of church no longer seemed to fit, since I knew Jesus was not the primary focal point of my new faith community. In fact, neither was God.

Yet I did see TJMC, my new UU church, as a faith community. I recognized this immediately, but without a background in UU religious education, I lacked the vocabulary to explain this.

Initially, I told my friend, “Well, we don’t really worship a specific god at our church, because people from a lot of different faiths come together. But we do agree on 7 basic principles – or at least most of us agree on most of them. The principles are things you’ll find in most of the world’s religions – to treat people kindly and fairly, to take care of the earth, to support one another’s spirituality, that kind of thing…” I tried to explain, “so everyone in the church shares a similar belief system in that sense.”

My answer didn’t satisfy Brian. “It sounds more like a philosophical society,” he said.

He was right. My answer didn’t really satisfy me either.

The following year I volunteered for the first time as a UU Sunday School teacher. I did this partly because my roommate was involved in teaching RE, and partly because I thought if I started with PreK RE, I would be able to learn along with the kids about my new religion. I would start from the bottom up.

In fact, I became so interested in what I learned in PreK RE that I dabbled with the idea of becoming a Director of RE at a UU congregation. At my first professional development weekend for DREs – which did convince me to pursue a career as an RE professional – I learned about leading Worship with children. I heard a definition of “worship” that was completely new to me.

“To worship,” the leaders taught us, “means ‘to consider things of worth.’”

Ah, that made so much sense. This is what we do together on Sunday mornings as a religious community. To worship is not simply the act of praising a deity. To worship is to consider things of worth. We gather with people who share a similar system of beliefs, a similar faith, and we worship together.

I was onto something here.

And that word faith — was I right, that it meant a system of beliefs? While one definition of faith describes it as “a belief in and loyalty to God,” its other definitions make more sense in a UU congregation. Two definitions precede the god-centered definition of faith. Faith is “allegiance” or loyalty. Faith is “fidelity to one’s promises” and “sincerity of intentions.” We do try to act intentionally and with principle. Each of us takes pride in loyalty to our own credo, even as it evolves. We are a community of faith.

So what do I mean when I say that UU RE provides a passport to the world of faith? The title of today’s service came into being as I considered the way some faith communities expect you to stay close to home, theologically. Within that circle (think of it as a Venn diagram), there are communities that could be termed theologically xenophobic, ascribing negative stereotypes to people of different faiths. There’s an implicit – and sometimes explicit – message to children that they should “keep to their own.” People in those other faiths – or even just in other denominations within the same faith – are weird people, confused people, evil people, or people who need to see the light to find the “one true way.”

In contrast, Unitarian Universalism belongs in the other circle – that of inclusive faith communities. Unitarians and Universalists have historically encouraged followers to “live among the people” of different faiths and cultures. Through this experience, the hope is that we come to respect and understand different beliefs. I know this isn’t always the reality of our “faith immersion” experiences, but we do try. And once we have those experiences, we take what we’ve learned back to the theological home we’ve created for ourselves. Like bees returning to the hive, the experiences we collect and share become the honey of our inclusive faith community. With this, we feed each other. It is our diverse theologies and faith experiences that make each UU congregation so unique.

Here in UU Religious Education, we hand our children passports and tell them, “We’re here to guide you. You will always be welcome here. Please, now, go out into the world and explore!” UU Coming of Age programs include a curriculum called Neighboring Faiths, in which the children (about middle school age) do step out of the church building. They visit a mosque, a Buddhist temple, a synagogue, and a variety of Christian churches. They gain firsthand experience in a variety of faith communities, and debrief with one another and adult guides so that they can understand these faiths within the context of their own UU religion and principles.

This year the kids at HUU experienced another aspect of faith exploration through the Faithful Journeys curriculum. The curriculum is described in these words:

Participants embark on a pilgrimage of faith, exploring how Unitarian Universalism translates into life choices and everyday actions. In each session, they hear historic or contemporary examples of Unitarian Universalist faith in action. Stories about real people model how participants can activate their own personal agency – their capacity to act faithfully as Unitarian Universalists – in their own lives, and children have regular opportunities to share and affirm their own stories of faithful action. Through sessions structured around the Unitarian Universalist Principles, Faithful Journeys demonstrates that our Principles are not a dogma, but a credo that individuals can affirm with many kinds of action. Over the course of the program, children discover a unity of faith in the many different ways Unitarian Universalists, including themselves, can act on our beliefs.

Every day, our children go out into a world called school where they are immersed in a multicultural, interfaith culture. In that world, they carry their passport of faith with them. They hold their UU identity and principles in their open minds, helping hands, and loving hearts, and they make choices to act in ways that align with their faith. Each footprint and wheelchair track on this wall represents an example of a child’s Unitarian Universalist faith in action. From taking time to play with a little brother to smiling at a kid who doesn’t fit in, the children in our RE program are taking concrete steps to live out their principles.
Thank you for providing the religious home that will be the launching pad for our kids. Thank you for being the house of worship where they may return to reflect on their journeys, to contribute what they’ve learned, and to consider things of worth. And mostly, thank you for supporting the religious education program so that we can provide the children of our community with the support and guidance that will give them the courage to explore the expansive and diverse w