RE Main Page 2004-2005

Registration Forms for 2009-2010 Children’s Church Program
(Please click to open PDF format, and return to the church when completed.)

What is “Tapestry of Faith”?

Tapestry of Faith is a series of programs and resources for all ages that nurture Unitarian Universalist identity, spiritual growth, a transforming faith, and vital communities of justice and love. The UUA has developed these curriculum out of a broad series of conversations that articulated a future direction for Unitarian Universalist religious growth and learning and denomination-wide focus groups which helped shape a program that would offer a variety of resources—downloadable, printed, viewable, interactive, and more—a religious growth and learning program for the twenty-first century.

To find these online go to www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith

Church School Program and Curricula

Preschool Age 4 and Kindergarten:
Wonderful Welcome
Written by Aisha Hauser and Susan Lawrence

In this program, children identify intangible gifts central to Unitarian Universalism such as friendship, hospitality and fairness, and share these gifts with others. The gifts explored in Wonderful Welcome are all components of welcome, itself a core Unitarian Universalist value. Children are encouraged to think about the intangible gifts they bring to the world, and intangible gifts they receive. Children find safe, positive and intentional ways to relate to one another, their families, and the world around them as they investigate how they use gifts they cannot see or touch to welcome others in their lives.

Grades 1 & 2: Faithful Journeys
Written By Rev. Alice Anacheka-Nasemann and Rev. Lynn Ungar

Defining what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist can be challenging. Our adults and youth often welcome this challenge; a questioning spirit is part of our faith. Yet, our children need to learn who Unitarian Universalists are, what we believe and how we make decisions and act on our faith. Faithful Journeys equips children with language and experiences to develop and articulate a strong Unitarian Universalist faith identity. Through historic and contemporary stories of Unitarian Universalist faith in action, participants grow in their own personal agency – their capacity to act faithfully as Unitarian Universalists in their lives. Throughout the program, children have opportunities to share their own stories of faithful action and represent them with footprints or wheelchair tracks on a Faithful Journeys Path.

Grades 3 & 4: Toolbox of Faith
Written By Kate Tweedie Covey

Toolbox of Faith invites participants to reflect on qualities of our Unitarian Universalist faith, such as integrity, courage and love, as tools they can use in living their lives and building their own faith. Each of the 16 sessions uses a tool as a metaphor for an important quality of our faith such as reflection (symbolized by a mirror), flexibility (duct tape) and justice (a flashlight). Reflecting on the qualities (tools) of our faith, children and leaders gain insight into what makes our faith a faith for life.

Grades 5 & 6: Amazing Grace -
Exploring Right and Wrong
Written by Richard S. Kimball

This program guides fifth and sixth graders through ways to determine right from wrong and act on their new understandings. Its purpose is to equip them for moving safely and productively through the middle- and high-school years, when they will be continually tugged toward both ends of the ethics continuum. Through Amazing Grace, youth come to depend on their Unitarian Universalist identity and resources as essential to their movement toward understanding, independence, and fulfillment of personal promise. Includes the game "Ethics."

Grades 9-12 - Young Religious UUs (YRUU): Exploring Our Values Through Poetry
Written by Karen Harris

This program uses poetry as the medium to explore participants’ values in the context of their UU faith. With contributions ranging from Tennyson to modern Chinese poet Shu Ting to Ishmael Reed, timeless themes such as "beauty," "love," "faith" and "surviving difficult times" are explored. Yet this is not just about sitting and reading poetry. Multiple learning styles are utilized as youth are encouraged to express themselves in art, song and Faith in Action projects. The program includes instructions to help youth sponsor a poetry slam in their congregation or community.

Religious Education Philosophy

The Religious Education Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester recognizes the need to provide a safe, nurturing environment for children and youth to explore their spirituality, their commitment to social justice and action, and their relationships with themselves, family, community, and the larger world.

The Committee selects age-appropriate curricula that encourage self-esteem, respect for each person’s individuality, environmental responsibility, appreciation of our religious practices and traditions, and tolerance of the opinions and differences of others. Consistent attendance over the years will expose our young people to the full range of benefits to be obtained from the liberal religious education process.

Our young people are a valued and important part of our church community. We support them as they put their faith into action, and we encourage everyone to show them the way.

Our Whole Lives (OWL)
Grades 7 and 8

Our Whole Lives helps participants make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. It equips our youth with accurate, age-appropriate information in six subject areas: human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture. Our Whole Lives provides not only facts about anatomy and human development, but helps participants to clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality.

The OWL program is by parental consent-only, and once sessions have begun, the classes are not open to new attendees (this is for the purposes of group-building and confidentiality). Young people in this age group who come to UUCM after the program has begun are invited to attend worship with their parents, or to volunteer in the church school program with younger ages.

More information about the OWL program is available on the UUA website at http://www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/ourwhole/.

Multigenerational Services

Several times during the year, the congregation’s worship services are fully multigenerational. In these services, the children and adult communities join in a worship service for the entire congregation.

Staff and Volunteers

Rick Carkin is our Director of Religious Education (DRE), responsible for the week to week operation of our Religious Education program. Rick trains classroom teachers, leads chapel worship and sees to the smooth running of the classrooms on Sunday mornings.

However, this program could not exist without the support of the entire church community and more specifically, without our wonderful volunteer staff!

We have 30 volunteer Teachers and Youth Advisors exploring with our children and youth on Sunday, supported by the Religious Education committee —again all volunteer—to plan activities and oversee the program.

UUCM Religious Education Committee

CoChairs: Ann Butenhof and Belinda Nerl
Committee Members: Maura Barber, Don Beecy, Pam Hoskins, Alisa Macone, Rebecca Nelson-Avery, and Ann Norton
RE Music Advisor: Don Beecy

Statement of UU Purposes and Principles

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote:

Each and every person is important;

All people should be treated fairly and kindly;

We should accept one another and keep on learning together;

Each person must be free to search for what is true and right in life;

All persons should have a vote about the things that concern them;

Working for a peaceful, fair, and free world;

Caring for our planet earth, the home we share with all living things.

-As used in We Believe

Sunday Morning Schedule


9:30	OWL Classes start. Teachers arrive to prepare classrooms.
9:45	Nursery opens for ages up to 4
10:00*	Children start their classes in classrooms.
11:00	Parents pick up children from the Nursery.
11:15	Church School ends. Parents pick up children from their classrooms. Please do not interrupt the children's activities before they are ended.
12:00	OWL Classes end.

* Once a month, children join the adults in the Sanctuary for the first part of the service and then go to their classrooms for the remainder of the morning.