I often hear non-church-goers say derisively, “People just go to church for socializing.” Underlying this is the belief that the meaningful practice of religion and the development of social connections are two entirely separate things. But within Unitarian Universalism, the creation of deep connections is part of the process of creating the Beloved Community, and it is central to our faith.

The pandemic strained those ties we worked so hard to build, and we been working all year to restrengthen them. We think this is such important work that we plan to devote our summer to continuing it.

While the adults in the sanctuary are going to be doing “Popcorn Theology” all summer, our Religious Education program will spend the summer doing “Popsicle Theology” – enjoying the lazy days of summer, sharing popsicles, having fun, playing together, making friends, and building community. I cannot imagine more meaningful spiritual work for the children of our community.

– Jamila Batchelder, Director of Religious Education

How do you do religious education in a pandemic? It is a question we have never had to answer before, so we don’t have an easy answer to turn to. We all have different needs and capabilities in this time, and so the R.E. Team has tried to put together a variety of different programming with a variety of ways to continue to engage our children and continue their spiritual development in this year. One thing is certain: we will not be meeting in person for a while yet. All programming is designed to be engaged with from home. Below are our list of programs:

Home Spirituality Kits: Receive a kit every two weeks with a new spiritual practice for your family to try out at home, from guided meditations to creative practices to nature connection and much more, these practices are designed to be accessible for children of all ages (and adults!). These boxes will circulate between houses, but if requested, can be quarantined at the church for four days before arriving at your house. To participate in this program, please contact Jamila, as there are a limited number of kits.

Service Sundays: Service projects are an important part of our R.E. program. Each month (usually on the first Sunday) we will plan a Service Sunday Project that families can register for. If you register, we will drop off supplies at your house in the week before the Service Sunday. Families can join us on Zoom on Sunday at noon to get directions, and can stick around to socialize while working on their projects. 

Crafting Sundays: Once a month, we will do a craft project together, just for fun! If you register, we will drop off supplies at your house in the week before the Crafting Sunday. Families can join us on Zoom on Sunday at noon to learn how to do the craft project. If you have a craft project you would like to lead, we would love to hear from you! Please contact Jamila.

UU Treasure Hunt: Once a month, a new treasure box (with a story of an inspiring UU inside) will be hidden along a trail or in a park somewhere in Columbia, and directions will be posted on where to find it. If you would like to hide a box, let Jamila know!

Sunday Morning Tea Party: Is your child eager to see some familiar faces? We will be meeting Sunday morning at 10 am via Zoom to say hello each other, and share a story. And no tea party is complete without dressing up and treats! We will send out a muffin recipe and a dress-up suggestion in the week before for those who want to get fancy. This program is open to everyone, but particularly targeted to our youngest UUs.

Family Movie Night: On the first and third Friday of the month, we will be screening a Pixar short film for families over Zoom. Each film comes with discussion questions, which you can stick around to discuss together as a group, or can go offline to discuss together as a family. There are also crafting ideas to go along with each film. This program is targeted at kids from Kindergarten through 4th grade.

Twilight Zone Class: On two Sundays a month (usually the 2nd and 4th), our 5th and 6th graders will be meeting at noon to watch an episode of the Twilight Zone, and then to discuss the big ideas and interesting questions that the episode raises. 

Junior High Collaborative Journal: If there is one age that doesn’t need another Zoom class, it is our junior high kids. So instead, we will be creating a collective journal that they can add to over the year, with silly and serious prompts to respond to.  We will be using the Padlet platform for our journal. Stay tuned for more information for how to get started with this.

Junior Youth Group: What junior high kids do need is more fun in their life! And more time to connect with their peers. So we are expanding our usual Junior Youth program to two Friday night meetings per month (2nd and 4th Fridays from 6:30-8 pm), where we will play games, watch crafts, do crafts, karaoke, or whatever other goofy ideas the youth come up with. We will be sharing ideas at our first meeting on Sept. 11. All 6th-8th graders welcome.

YRUU High School Youth Group: Our high schoolers will be meeting from 4-6 pm on Sundays. We will most meet via Zoom, though if case counts are low enough, we may occasionally do socially distanced outdoor gatherings. Our youth will determine the content ofour programming in our first meeting (via Zoom) on Sept. 13

Do you want more resources to use at home? If so, please contact Jamila. There are many online resources, as well as UUCC resources that can be loaned out. And join us for Library Days at UUCC, where we will have an outdoor lending library for you to borrow church books and materials.

I have never been much of a photographer, but I always get so much joy seeing the photos you all post of your children enjoying themselves at church. So in this new year, I want to post more pictures to share with you all so you can joy seeing what your children are up to when you are upstairs in worship service. I can’t promise they will be good photos, but I will do my best! See more photos.

Sincerely,
Jamila 
Director of Religious Education

One of the programs we are most proud of at UUCC is the Our Whole Lives (OWL) curriculum, the comprehensive UU sexuality education curriculum that provides thorough information about healthy relationships and sexuality to young UUs (as well as other young people who wish to participate).  OWL seeks to provide accurate, developmentally appropriate information that empowers young people to make decisions that are right for them about sexuality and relationships. OWL is body positive, sex positive, and LGBTQIA affirming. We currently offer Junior High and High School OWL in alternating years.

 This weekend (January 13-15), people will be coming from all over the country to participate in a training to become certified to teach the OWL curriculum. We are very excited to be hosting this training, and to have eight of our church members getting certified. We are very grateful to the numerous church members who have supported this training by providing meals and hosting participants in their homes during their time in Columbia.

This training is our first step in revamping and expanding our OWL program. We have to decided to take a one-year hiatus in our usual schedule so that we have time to begin planning with our new team of OWL teachers. That means high school OWL will be offered again beginning in January of 2019, and junior high OWL in January of 2020.

We are also planning to begin offering OWL for younger ages. A team is getting certified to teach a Kingergarten-1^st grade OWL curriculum, and also a 4^th-6^th grade OWL curriculum. I feel more than ever the importance of introducing such essential topics as consent and boundaries and body positivity as early as possible and I can’t wait to get started. After the training, the Elementary OWL Team will begin making plans of when we will offer it. Stay tuned for announcements about that in the year ahead.

I am so proud to be part of a faith tradition that believes in healthy sexual expression, in an empowered relationship to our own bodies, and in deep care and consent in our relationship with others. I look forward to continuing to build this program with all of you, and in sharing these values with our children.

Virtually every religion tradition creates sacred altars, from Buddhist shrines to Pagan nature altars to Catholic offrendas – each with their own unique set of sacred objects that hold fascinating symbolic meaning. There is something about a physical space with objects that can be experienced through the senses – that we can see, and touch and listen to and smell – that lets people experience religion beyond the level of abstract ideas and as something within their body that becomes real and immediate. It helps people connect with their sense of wonder and reverence.

Most children, whether they believe in a higher power or not, deeply feel this sense of wonder and reverence toward the world they live in. Many children naturally discover their own sacred objects that hold special meaning – a striped rock found on a river bank, a small box with all its power to hold, a ring that once belonged to a relative.  These objects, gathered on a shelf or in a corner, become that child’s very own sacred space, a space that can provide comfort, peace, a focal point for the imagination. Honoring this sacred practice of childhood is a wonderful way to help a child begin to develop their inner spiritual life that will serve them throughout life.

This altar will be our communal sacred space for all the children of UUCC. Any child who wants can give an object to Jamila Batchelder, our director of religious education, and it can be placed on our altar and be shared with our community for a time. The space will change seasonally.

We will also be sharing a different deity each month. Whether we ourselves believe in a god or not, the many deities from world religions can be meaningful symbols that allow us to visually imagine the abstract ideas that these deities personify. We are open to suggestions if you have a favorite deity that you would like to share.

Please treat this space with respect and reverence, and please enjoy!  

As we gear up for another intergenerational service this weekend, I want to share some thoughts I have been having recently about what I hope you and your children get out of these services. One of my goals as DRE is to support your children in developing a strong sense of their identity as Unitarian Universalists, to think of not just what we aren’t, but what we are. This means learning about our principles and our history, but I think another critical component is having a rich and meaningful participation in the ritual practices of our church, to have ways of engaging our spirit and connecting with the sacred.

That to me is the purpose of intergenerational services. And I think knowing how to participate in these services is something that takes time to learn. That learning process may at times be challenging to our children, pushing them and us a little outside of our comfort zone, and I think that is okay. However, as with any learning process, the goal is to challenge just enough, and not too much. All of our children are at different stages of development, and capable of different levels of engaging with services. We want children (and their parents) to have a meaningful experience with intergenerational services, and that means different things to different children. I have been reaching out to many families in our church, particularly of the youngest children, to hear how intergenerational services are working for their families and what improvements can be made. For some families, intergenerational services are working out great, and for some it is extremely difficult, and many are somewhere in between. Most families felt that their children were getting something worthwhile out of intergenerational service. I want to share some thoughts that might help you get the most out of intergenerational services.

First, I know many of us, particularly those with young children, find it challenging keeping children quiet and still for the whole service. I know many of us come from childhood experiences where those were the expectations for children in church, and are mortified if our children are not behaving this way. I want to reassure you that that is not the expectation or the goal at our church. I remember the first intergenerational service my family attended, and the only seats left when we got there were front row center (this was before we had the rugs for the children to sit on). Let’s just say my kids were not still and quiet! They were hopping up, bopping around, shouting things out. Ruby did a lot of dancing. I felt like I survived the service more than attended it. And then later that day on the UU Facebook page, someone posted a note saying how much joy they got from watching Ruby dance. This helped me let go of the expectation that my children be perfect – now every time my kids are acting up in service I try to tell myself that they are helping reassure all of you that it is okay if your kids aren’t perfect! And I want to tell you how often in the last few months people have told me how much having the children’s energy and joy in the services has renewed their spirit. The church culture we are trying to create is one that is warm, energetic, and family friendly. Thank you all for contributing to that!

Another point to keep in mind is that there is no requirement that children stay for the entire service. If you feel your child is not ready for a full hour, have them do 20 minutes and then head down to the nursery or for a walk around the church together. You can work on building your children’s ability to participate in services incrementally instead of all at once. Remember to think of it as a skill they are learning, not something we already expect them to know how to do. And if you feel your preschool age age kid really is not ready to start learning this skill, we are happy to care for them in the nursery. We have adapted our intergenerational service nursery care to be more accommodating to preschool age children, letting the older kids spread out into the Potter Classroom to play with the toys there.

I would also love it if you keep giving me feedback on ways to improve intergenerational services. Like I said, I see these services as a very important part of your child’s spiritual development and it is something I really value working on.  If there is a part of intergenerational services that is always particularly challenging for your children, I would love to hear about it and do some brainstorming of ways we could make it work for them. One child shared they would love if we could sing more upbeat hymns and songs in intergenerational services, and I think that is a great suggestion and one we are working to incorporate. My goal is to make it so that no part of the service is entirely above the heads of children. Ideally, each component of the service should have elements that are meaningful to people of all developmental stages.

I am very much looking forward to this Sunday’s intergenerational service, which will use a different format than usual, allowing people to move between a variety of stations and take part in different activities (very little being still and quiet!). I think our children will really enjoy it.

Sincerely,

Jamila Batchelder
Director of Religious Education, UUCC