Our fourth UU principle calls us to a Free and Responsible Search for Truth and Meaning.

Adult Religious Education (ARE) “sessions” are 6 weeks each––this means that each class is just a 6 week commitment. These courses coincide with Youth Religious Education classes and take place during the RE Hour––from 10AM–11AM on Sunday Mornings. That way everyone has access to ARE courses. We hope EVERYONE feels welcome to join.

Spring 2021 ARE Course Offerings

Register for ARE courses here!

Session 1: Jan. 3 – Feb. 7

What We Believe: The Credo Class for Adults

Explore your fundamental concerns in a small group facilitated by your fellow congregants, Melissa Vandergriff and David Kantor. Some of the questions we explore are: How do you describe your “ultimate concerns?” How do you view God…or not view God? Heaven and Hell? Good and evil? Regardless of your perspective – humanist, theist, atheist, or something else – you’ll have the opportunity to explore and share your perspective with a small group of fellow searchers. At the close of this seven session workshop, you’ll have the opportunity, at your option, to share your credo during a Sunday service. Whether or not you share publicly, you can expect to increase your awareness of your own beliefs and get better acquainted with fellow congregants doing the same thing.

The Heritage of Grey and the Teal: Unitarian Universalist Hymns

Mike Carney, UUCC’s Music Director, has brought the depth and richness of the UU hymnals in worship services over the past few years. In their spirit, this class will allow him to jump into these extraordinary parts of the UU tradition. Join in with our amazing music director to dive into the soundtrack for the journey of being and becoming a Unitarian Universalist!

Session 2: Feb. 14 – Mar. 21

What We Believe: The Credo Class for Adults

A continuation of the Credo Class Part I offered in the first session.

Religious Resources for Lamentation

One of the most rich dimensions of religious expression has to do with lamentation––a form that is about expressing grief, calling God out, or “raging against the dying of the light.” This is a dynamic part of many religious traditions, including from the Abrahamic traditions, but also in humanistic traditions. It grants important language and important ideas to how we think about religion and how it functions. Dr. Allan Georgia will lead this class allowing participants to explore and contend with what these traditions can teach us.

Session 3 Apr. 4 – May 9

How Religions Create The World

Molly Watkins will facilitate a deep, but brisk, dive into the ways that different religious and mythological traditions describe how the world came to be. This turn to creation stories will allow participants to reflect on and engage the wisdom of the religious traditions of the world––including the ancient Akkadians, the Norse, the Zoroastrians and the perspective of science––when it comes to thinking about what the world is and what it means.

A UU Introduction to Hip Hop and Rap Music

This course comes from a specific congregational request. And while everything in this course will be too cool for its instructor, a sideline interest of Dr. Allan Georgia’s throughout seminary and graduate school is hip hop music and culture. Since this has become an increasingly large part of contemporary discourses of justice and because American society has for so long marginalized this music, this course will attempt to bring together things that are very far apart: progressive religious thinking and the socially-conscious dimensions of hip hop and popular rap music from the last 30 years.