Download a PDF version of the Religious Education handbook.

Welcome to Religious Education

In our child dedication ritual, we ask the parents, teachers, and other adults in the congregation to promise to help our children grow up to be fearless, impartial, and reverent seekers after Truth, Beauty, Love, and Goodness.

We hand them a rose in the hope that their lives unfold in beauty. We bring them near fire, encouraging them to know the spark of the Divine that dwells within them.

These symbols aptly describe a Unitarian Universalist religious education, only parts of which you’ll find in the following paragraphs. It is not just a Sunday program, but a promise lived out every day between child and adult, that each may find the flame within and bloom into beauty like a flower.

Welcome!

Register your children for Sunday groups

All participating infants, children, and youth must be registered each year by the third week of the church year; without registration, your child's place in a class cannot be guaranteed. Online registration is preferred. Children must be registered for one or the other service times: 9:30 or 11:15.

Please note that we can't process your child’s registration until we receive a parent-helper sign-up form (please download and return to the RE office). We randomly assign parents without forms.

When placing young children, we follow the public school guidelines:

We include, to the best of our ability, all children. We want everyone seated at our table! Knowing in advance your child’s special needs can help us plan appropriate supports. It may be that we are unable to accommodate every need, but please note any special needs on the registration form and speak with Nikevia Thomas.

The registration fee is $20 for each child, including those cared for in the Nursery. Payment online facilitates the process and information gathering so that we can stay in touch. If you cannot pay the fee, please contact Ms. Thomas to request a waiver, no explanation necessary.

This fee covers only a small portion of the total cost of the program; the remaining costs are covered by congregant pledges to the church's annual fundraising campaign. We expect each participating family (members or not) to pledge annually.

Please register your children through the appropriate links below.

Nursery Care

Two professional caregivers provide childcare and supervised play for infants (0-23 months) in the Nursery (lower level in the room at the rear of the Dining Room). Parents should remain with their children until they are comfortably settled. Parents are scheduled to help in the Nursery twice each year. Remote hearing devices are available in the Nursery and Pre-K 2/3 room to allow parents to listen to the entire service. Vibrating pagers are available to enable the RE staff to silently contact parents in the Sanctuary.

Register for Nursery 9:30

Register for Nursery 11:30

Very Young Learners (two- and three-year olds)

This story‐based class, which meets in the Hamele Wing (#2), engages in small‐group activities in learning centers and individual interaction. Music is an important component of this experience. Very Young Learners do not attend Children’s Chapel but are included in monthly Story for All Ages.  Parent helping at least two times a year is required to support our cooperative religious education program.

Register for VYL 9:30

Register for VYL 11:15

Young Learners (four- and five-year-olds)

Spirit Play—a multi-sensory approach of wondering , learning centers, stories, and a community of children, teachers, and parents—provides a place where Young Learners can, at their own pace, ponder the abiding questions of life: Why are we here? What matters to me? What is important to others? How can I be the best person I can be? Children are also introduced to worship in the classroom as well as Story for All Ages.

Register for YL 9:30

Register for YL 11:15

Primary and Intermediate Learners

Classes are grouped across six grade ranges in an effort to model multiage learning communities. Primary classes include Kindergartners through 2nd graders while Intermediate classes include 3rd through 5th grade. These multiage classes help develop different skills for children, including leadership.

The morning typically includes a story from the world’s religious traditions in Children’s Chapel or Story for All Ages with the children then separating to discuss and “play with” the story through a UU lens. The stories, gathered to relay the arc of UU faith-in-action, convey ultimate inclusion—or, in children’s language—“you can’t say you can’t play.” Children learn concepts and language through a multiracial, multicultural lens. Children are encouraged to articulate their developing individual faith.

Service learning and social justice projects are also introduced as the year progresses with children actively involved in developing the project.

Register for Primary 9:30

Register for Primary 11:15

Register for Intermediate 9:30

Register for Intermediate 11:15

Middle School Learners (at 11:15 am)

After attending the first 15 minutes of the service in the Sanctuary, Middle School Learners move to their classroom to engage stories and lessons about the world’s major faiths. This learning includes monthly visits to different houses of worship (and often a bite to eat afterwards). Parents are invited to participate. Social justice learning centers on hunger issues, working with Martha’s Table to support their work in our local community, and being introduced to the recovery and racial issue work associated with the church’s New Orleans ministry.

Register for MS 11:15

High School Learners (9th through 12th graders; 11:15 am only)

This group, advised and taught by adults, meets Sunday morning for learning, fellowship, worship, and social justice work, including a weeklong New Orleans recovery work trip.   Integration with the adult community is encouraged and promoted. Participants are encouraged to direct their own learning. Activities include, but are not limited to, an overnight retreat, paintball or team challenge, a canoe trip, rock climbing, meditation workshop and socializing with another youth group. The group will participate in the spiritual focus reflection each first Sunday of the month and begins each Sunday in the Sanctuary service. 

Register for HS 11:15

Chapel Choir

Every second and third Sunday, for one hour (10:30-11:30 am) in the Longfellow Room, Cheryl Ann Jones teaches the children anthems and hymns from our religious traditions to present during Chapel services once a month. Twice each year (including the Christmas Pageant), the Chapel Choir performs in the Sanctuary, and at least one off-site performance is planned. To participate, children must be able to read lyrics and attend rehearsals regularly. Parent support will be needed.

Register for Chapel Choir

Our While Lives Sexuality Learning (9th graders and older—open to 8th graders as space allows—meeting on selected Sundays at 9:30 am, plus two Saturday all-day workshops)

Beginning in January, participants learn how to make informed and responsible decisions about their sexual health and behavior. It equips participants with accurate, age-appropriate information in six subject areas: human development, relationships, personal skills, sexual behavior, sexual health, and society and culture. Grounded in a holistic view of sexuality, Our Whole Lives not only provides facts about anatomy and human development, but also helps participants clarify their values, build interpersonal skills, and understand the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of sexuality. This class is open to 9th and 10th graders who have not yet taken it; and then 8th graders as space allows. Participants must be registered in the Religious Education program. An additional fee is charged to cover the costs of training facilitators, Saturday workshop meals, and a parent orientation (scheduled for the fall). For more info about the course, see www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/ourwhole/.

Register for OWL

Parental Responsibilities

Involvement. RE is a cooperative venture. The community expects you to volunteer by:

Support. Registration fees account for only 25% of the RE program budget (which does not include staff salaries). The program therefore depends on the financial pledges of its members and friends. All families are encouraged to contribute during the church’s Generosity Campaign.

Attendance. The religious development of your child depends largely on simply being here. Regular attendance creates a relationship to the church integral to spiritual growth. Belonging is paramount. All children, at some point and for various reasons, express reluctance to attend. When you demonstrate an “attitude of cheerful expectancy” and steadfastness about weekly attendance, your child learns what is important to you about their growth. We encourage your family to make church attendance a priority.

Religious Education Committee

The Religious Education Committee embodies congregational responsibility for the religious education for children and youth by articulating directions and supporting the professional and volunteer staff in realizing the goals of the program.

Meeting once a month with the Religious Educator, Family and Lifespan Ministries and the Children’s Religious Educator, committee members articulate the direction and design of the religious education program by listening to parents and congregants, planning and implementing religious education events, supporting training sessions and working with other adults in the wider congregation to build a religious community. We offer you a glimpse of the program here but encourage you to download a full brochure for more complete listings and information.