An Overview of RE

We offer Religious Education for children and youth ages 3 through 18 on Sunday morning, as well as social events and special programs. Specific activities are planned by our Director of Religious Education with the support of a volunteer RE Committee, and led by volunteers from the congregation. We strive to partner with parents in raising children who are curious, courageous, and compassionate.

Child care is provided at all worship services and congregational meetings and events.

Our Sunday morning RE is held in three groups, named for famous Unitarians and Universalists:

Beatrix Potter Group (approximately ages 3-6, preschool through first grade)

Christopher Reeve Group (approximately ages 7-12, grades 2 – 5)

Susan B. Anthony Youth Group (approximately ages 13-18, middle school and high school)

Religious Education  is central to UUCGT’s mission of  “creating a better world by nurturing the heart and expanding the mind.”  Our congregation is a place of community building, spiritual learning, and social justice-making for people of all ages. Our RE program builds upon the religious education that our children and youth receive at home. Through activities both lively and quiet, children and youth learn about themselves, their own spirits, Unitarian Universalism, and neighboring faiths. We also take part in service projects. In the words of William Ellery Channing, one of our extraordinary UU forebears, we strive “to awaken the soul, to excite and cherish spiritual life.” Most Sundays, the children and youth attend the beginning of the worship service in the sanctuary, and then proceed to the Religious Education space for their own activities.

Chapel: Once every other month, the young folk come directly into the RE space for Chapel — their own worship service, planned and led by youth, with all kids participating.  Readings, songs, and activities are geared specially for them. Chapel helps children and youth to learn to value their own religious experiences and develop their own religious voices. We use the word “worship” in its ancient sense of  “worthiness.”  A worship service is a time to focus on that which we hold worthy, that which we feel is sacred.

Multigenerational Worship: Every other month, UUCGT holds a multigenerational worship service, when the children and youth remain in the sanctuary, and participate actively in the entire service with the adults.

Pageant: Each December, our children, youth, and adults collaborate in producing a special pageant!  In 2010, we presented “Seeking Holy Light,” an original play that demonstrates how different people seek meaning in the winter darkness. 

Social Action: Even very young children have a sense of compassion and a desire to help others. We nurture that quality in our children and youth by engaging in regular community service and social action projects, such as cooking for our congregation’s lunch program for the hungry; providing toys for children spending the holidays in shelters; working to preserve a local park; and gathering mittens for children in need.

Social Activities: Sometimes we get together just for fun and fellowship, sharing activities like parties, sing-alongs, campouts, sledding, movie nights, coffeehouses, potlucks, bowling, game nights, and more.