Taryn Strauss

Director of Religious Education

REflections

June 2008

I sometimes wonder if everyone is aware that there is a master plan behind our weekly RE Sunday activities. Meaning, when a child enters our program, she is not entering in to a series of disconnected lessons on how to be a generally good person. In fact we have developed a pedagogical arc based on what we know of a child’s faith development stages. In our program, a child will learn about other’s beliefs and his/her own identity as a Unitarian Universalist before beginning to explore and finally define her own beliefs and values. Many of you witnessed the fruition of this process with the Coming of Age credo statements on RE Sunday. After Coming of Age, the youth are challenged to engage in leadership as active organizers and planners of their own activities in our Young Religious Unitarian Universalists program. Many youth get involved in Unitarian Universalism at the district or national level, learning how to support the churches and youth groups in the larger web.

None of this could happen without the dedication and commitment of a large number of creative, inspired RE teachers and volunteers. The backbone of this entire infrastructure, this year serving over 200 children and youth, is our Religious Education Committee. The RE Committee meets monthly to create policies, procedures and events that will strengthen our program and further define how we want to educate our children. This passionate group of church leaders has worked all year to make this one of the strongest and healthiest Religious Education programs around. I have been honored to spend the past year working alongside such dedicated visionaries as: Michael Murray, Maurie McClure, Karen Vernon-Young, Juliana Austin, Bernadette Cranford, Karla Antonio, and Kay Aler-Maida.

This year, the RE Committee has led the way with integrity and creativity, and the results of their hard work are reflected in the engaged faces of our children every Sunday. One significant person has led the entire committee, modeling both grace and commitment every step of the way. I want to especially thank our RE chair, Nancy Patterson, for considering all the details, and for giving her whole heart to a ministry of RE leadership. With deep gratitude, I am grateful to Nancy and the RE committee for a year of spirited collaboration.