Religious Education

(Emerson’s formal Religious Education program is currently on pause during the pandemic.)

Our children’s religious education program encourages children to think for themselves while they learn about, experience, and develop respect for the values and beliefs of the larger community. It promotes basic values of love and respect for ALL people and teaches the responsibility to make the world a better place. The life of the child is emphasized, along with his or her experiences, beliefs, fears, and family relationships through discussion, historical perspectives, drama, and other creative experiences. We work hard to make our religious education program relevant to the times in which we live.

What We Offer Through the Lifespan

The curricula, produced by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), draw heavily from the world’s great religions and the Unitarian Universalist Principles. This year’s curriculum revolves around monthly ministry themes shared by the rest of the congregation, and includes games, crafts, and discussions that allow children of many different ages to access and explore the month’s worship theme in their own way.

We provide children, youth, young adults, and adults an opportunity to explore, reflect, and learn in a nurturing spiritual community. Unitarian Universalist religious education programs offer all ages, inspiring:

  • Ethical growth – internalizing enduring values like justice, equity, and compassion, and gaining tools to act on them in everyday life.
  • Social growth – connecting with peers and people of all ages on a deeper level; finding acceptance among people who see beyond the superficial.
  • Spiritual growth – feeling a connection with the sacred within, among, and beyond us.

Our Program (currently a work in progress due to the pandemic)

Usually Emerson runs a “one room schoolhouse” on Sunday mornings, where toddlers through teenagers are invited to explore deep spiritual themes and try out crafts, games, or activities that connect with them.

All ages begin service together in the sanctuary.  Following the welcome, children are invited to help collect donations of groceries that congregants have brought for the food pantry and bring them forward to the baskets on the chancel, and then take a seat on the chancel steps to hear a story connected to that day’s worship theme.  After the story, children and adults recite the “Children’s Affirmation” together, and sing our children’s recessional song, as the young ones leave the sanctuary to head off to their Religious Education Class.