Religious Exploration for Children
We invite all young people to join us to share our time and hearts together!
Sunday Class Information
Sunday Religious Exploration (RE) classes are offered during the 10:45 am service from September 2023 through late May 2024.
Nursery (9:00 and 10:45 am): Ages 6 months–3 years
Children will be supervised in a safe and nurturing environment that encourages creativity and group play. The children who are ready for organized activities will begin group activities and story time to better prepare them for the 4K-1st grade classroom.
Coffee House Service Childcare (9:00 am) Ages 4-10
Children of all ages are highly encouraged to participate in the 9:00 Coffee House service in order to more deeply connect with the members of our community. Childcare is available for young people in grades 4K-5 who are better served in a self-directed play environment.
*Regular RE classes will continue to be offered at 10:45 am.
Sunday Religious Exploration (10:45 am)
Pre-K through First Grade: Ages 4-7
Students are introduced to the rituals and classroom structure of religious education. These include chalice lighting, joys and concerns, UU Principles and Sources. Our goal is to build an environment of safety and curiosity that begins the path to individual UU Identity and spiritual development.
2nd through 5th Grade: Ages 7-11
Students in this group gather to light their classroom chalice and share their joys and concerns before being introduced to a lesson based on our monthly themes. After the lesson introduction, students continue their exploration of the topic by engaging in activities designed to help reinforce concepts covered in class.
6th-8th Grade and Above: Ages 11-13 and Above
Crossing Paths – Click HERE for details.
Children and Youth in Services
The best way to help children feel connected and valued at the Fellowship and to help them love coming here is to bring them regularly. We encourage our children to sit with their family for the first part of the service and to participate in the various elements. It’s ok for kids to be wiggly or make noise, but if they need something to do with their hands, an activity bag can be found outside the sanctuary.
All-Ages Services
These special services are held throughout the year and allow children to stay in the service the whole hour with age-appropriate stories, activities, and songs for the whole congregation.
Adults Are A Critical Part Of Our Religious Education Program
Our Religious Education program is successful because of the wonderful adults who commit their time to support our children and youth, while they also learn and grow in their UU faith! Adults commit to helping one Sunday each month.
Please contact director of religious education Kim Hartman at [email protected] with questions.
Welcome!
Welcome to our Religious Exploration Program. Here at the Fellowship, we are passionate about providing quality programs and educational experiences for all of our young people. We strive to support and enhance whole child development, cultivate a sense of wonder and reverence for the gifts of life, nurture a deeper understanding of those things that go beyond words and foster a deep sense of social responsibility. Our RE program encourages the use of critical thinking skills to help our young people create an understanding of their place in the world.
We work hard to create a culture of connectedness and belonging, and our programs endeavor to cultivate a sense of belonging and community; a community where people of all ages are recognized for their unique contributions and gifts to the larger whole.
We believe that the educational experiences we provide at the Fellowship will enrich the lives of our young people; that the tools and skills that they acquire here will set a pattern of lifelong learning and spiritual growth. It is our desire that the lessons learned in our classrooms will not only cultivate individual growth but that the education provided here will ultimately contribute to the good of the larger world community.
It is a pleasure and privilege to work with the children of the Fellowship. We look forward to working with you and your family!
Kim Hartman, Director of Religious Education
The Fellowship’s Religious Exploration program…
- Offers liberal religious education for children and youth that promotes welcoming, anti-racist and anti-oppression values
- teaches our children and youth about their UU identity, and to question and find their own spiritual path
- increases awareness regarding issues of social responsibility
- provides an emotionally and physically safe, secure, and nurturing environment
Fox Valley Unitarian Universalist Religious Exploration Mission Statement: The mission our religious education program is to grow a community of compassionate young people by:
- Maintaining a safe, welcoming, and developmentally appropriate environment
- Fostering caring relationships
- Exposing them to diverse voices and religious traditions
- Engaging them in critical thinking about values in their world
- Offering opportunities for meaningful social justice work
Religious Exploration Philosophy and Goals
It is our belief that Religious Education is a lifelong process, and we seek to provide programs for all age groups. We also strive to appeal to the interests and concerns of our diverse congregation. Our programs are based on the assumption that young people receive their primary religious education in the home. Our efforts are in support of families who are raising their children with respect for liberal religious values.
We endeavor to provide an educational ministry to our program participants that will enable each person to:
- Feel loved and supported as part of a concerned religious community
- Develop a positive self-image
- Form a Unitarian Universalist identity by learning about our values, heritage, traditions, symbols, and celebrations
- Explore the spiritual wisdom of the world’s greatest religious traditions
- Cultivate life skills of creative and non-violent problem solving, the ability to question and think for oneself, an attitude of responsibility for one’s choices, and the self-confidence and desire necessary to interact socially to create a better world
- Celebrate diversity
- Affirm our interdependence with the universe and our responsibility to cherish and care for the earth
- Experience the lifelong joy of growth in religious understanding.
We look to the sources of the living tradition to inform our choices in curricula and other materials.
The living tradition we share draws from many sources:
- Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life
- Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love
- Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life
- Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves
- Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit
- Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions, which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
