Hello UUCC Members & Friends!

Please register for classes at UUCC this Fall! RE is for all ages, and we have classes for all levels. 

This year, we are shifting the timeframe for our religious education at UUCC. Classes will take place from 9:30 — 10:30 AM, in person, at UUCC. During this time there will be adult RE, the Forums, and other events like adult and youth choir happening, so this will be a very active time at the building, which we hope families will take advantage of! After a quick half-hour, worship for all ages will take place at 11AM.

Please go to the UUCC website (www.uucleveland.org) to register!

Youth Religious Education

Spirit Play (Kindergarten – Grade 3) Our youngest learners receive Montessori-style instruction on the Principles of Unitarian Universalism through play, stories, songs, and arts and crafts activities.

Tools and Adventures for UU Kids (Grades 4 & 5) Older kids are invited into a classroom full of curiosity and exploration as they learn tools, go on adventures and learn the fundamental questions that inform how UUs see the world.

Middle School (Grades 6 & 7) In a time of profound change and new experiences for young people, our middle school classroom is meant to be a community of friends and a group setting in which all the new things (and new ways) our youth are learning can be brought into conversation with their UU community.

Coming of Age (Grade 8) The centerpiece of our entire youth religious education program, Coming of Age, is a time for our young people to synthesize what they’ve learned with their own experience. Students bridge to their adult lives by confirming what they themselves believe about who they are, who God is, and how they will try and live in the world.

High School (Grades 9 – 12) As students and leaders among their peers, our high school youth are invited to take a controlling role in their high school curriculum and activities. Every year the youth set the tone for the year that they will have.

Adult Religious Education

What We Believe: The Credo Class for Adults –– Melissa Vandergriff and David Kantor 

(Capped at 8 students, and takes place over two sessions!)

Credo offers students the opportunity to 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.

Religion on the Radio: Spirituality in Pop Music –– Dr. Allan Georgia and Molly Watkins

Have you ever found yourself singing along with a song you love––maybe while driving, with the windows down, or with headphones in on a long hike––where you feel like the deepest part of you has connected to the universe in a way that only music can? Join Allan and Molly in an exploration for the unexpected ways that popular music of all kinds can tap into our spiritual selves and bring us into a deeper level of connection with the music and with the world around us. This will be a chance to notice things you may not have noticed before, as well as a chance to share music that speaks to your innermost self.

September is about to smack me right in the face. I mean a hard, real, unexpected slap. Because this Summer absolutely FLEW by. So even though I know it’s coming, I am certain that it is going to hit me like a crack across my cheek. I can feel it already.

The upside is that we are looking at an exciting fall with new programs, new ideas, new energy and new people! And now is the time to get it all started!

For YRE (Youth Religious Education) this year, we are going to have a lot of changes on our hands, because we will now be meeting at 9:30AM – 10:30AM, before the Sunday morning worship service. Youth will be invited to come to their YRE classes and to join us for worship as a community that includes all of us. We have exciting stories to share, exciting activities for youth to help plan––we’re hoping to have a full program, beginning in the end of September. 

For ARE (Adult Religious Education) this year, we are going to be flexible and hybridized. Many of our adult learners and congregants are the most vulnerable in times of pandemic, so these classes will be taking place on Zoom -OR- in person and Zoom at the same time. These classes are still being organized, but they will likely include an informal Sunday “coffee chat” that will meet from 9:30 – 10:30 very much in the format of the Zoom chat sessions that we held last year. Others will be in our 6-week course model, and those will begin in October. 

Attached to all of this, there are the programs themselves. And as always we need volunteers AND participants. So, if you are a parent (with young children or with children who’ve grown up, and all ages in-between!) and you’d like to help us with our YRE programming, please reach out! If you are an adult learner who has some things you might like to bring to a classroom as a teacher or facilitator, let’s hear it!

If you’d just like to be involved in RE at any level, there are always lots of things to do. So please reach out, raise your hand and sign up! We need your help and your engagement!

I’m looking forward to a wonderful fall and a great church year!

—

Allan T. Georgia

M.Div., M.T.S., PhD

he/his/him

Director of Religious Education (Lifespan Faith Development)

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Cleveland

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