Lifespan Religious Education
2019 Youth Heritage Trip - Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church Bell Tower
We all are on a journey of meaning-making in our lives, whether we choose to engage with that process consciously and intentionally or not. We all have maps of some sort in our heads, ethical maps, moral maps, religious maps, which we use in our day-to-day decision making processes, which we use in our day-to-day interpretations of what is happening in the world around us. Whether you are atheist or theist, secular or deeply religious, we all have our mental map that helps us navigate life’s many shades of grey, a map that helps us make meaning out of what can sometimes seem incomprehensible. When we are young those maps are forming, and they never stop getting updated over the course of our lives. I would call this life-long process of meaning making a process of faith development.
Faith development is central to leading an intentional religious life, or at the very least, central to my understanding of leading an intentional Unitarian Universalist religious life. Our fourth principle states that we are on a “free and responsible search for truth and meaning,” and this statement is at the heart of what it means to me to be Unitarian Universalist. One of the main avenues through which we pursue faith development is through religious education. Doing religious education well is thus critically important – this means our classes, programming and workshops expose us to new ideas, new experiences, new ways of being. This is why I prefer to call it religious exploration - ideally, we are not "educating" in the traditional sense by imparting information in a top-down model. Ideally, while sharing some information, we are focused on helping members of every age in our congregations figure out explore their own experiences and beliefs. When done well, religious exploration encourages us to examine our own positions and challenges us to articulate exactly what it is we ourselves believe.
I also believe there is still meaning to be found in the traditional terminology of religious "education" in the sense that everything we do in our congregation informs or educates us. As Maria Harris writes in her book on religious education curriculum, “the congregation does not have a curriculum; the congregation is a curriculum.” The basic point being that everything we do teaches our children, and one another, in some manner, shape, or form. This, combined with the understanding from Parker Palmer that we “teach who we are,” leads to me to believe that it is vitally important for all of us, children, youth and adults alike, to be engaged in the work of spiritual growth and faith development.
Faith development is central to leading an intentional religious life, or at the very least, central to my understanding of leading an intentional Unitarian Universalist religious life. Our fourth principle states that we are on a “free and responsible search for truth and meaning,” and this statement is at the heart of what it means to me to be Unitarian Universalist. One of the main avenues through which we pursue faith development is through religious education. Doing religious education well is thus critically important – this means our classes, programming and workshops expose us to new ideas, new experiences, new ways of being. This is why I prefer to call it religious exploration - ideally, we are not "educating" in the traditional sense by imparting information in a top-down model. Ideally, while sharing some information, we are focused on helping members of every age in our congregations figure out explore their own experiences and beliefs. When done well, religious exploration encourages us to examine our own positions and challenges us to articulate exactly what it is we ourselves believe.
I also believe there is still meaning to be found in the traditional terminology of religious "education" in the sense that everything we do in our congregation informs or educates us. As Maria Harris writes in her book on religious education curriculum, “the congregation does not have a curriculum; the congregation is a curriculum.” The basic point being that everything we do teaches our children, and one another, in some manner, shape, or form. This, combined with the understanding from Parker Palmer that we “teach who we are,” leads to me to believe that it is vitally important for all of us, children, youth and adults alike, to be engaged in the work of spiritual growth and faith development.
“Seth is a person of integrity, dedication, responsibility and kindness. He has a nice, gentle sense of humor, but he is a very serious person. Seth is strong in each of the areas of ministry that I value. He is an intellectual, pursuing new ideas and thinking critically and analytically, who will share stimulating ideas and perspectives with his congregation and community. The real energy behind Seth’s intellectual inquiry and his social action seems to be his heart. He is deeply religious, with a need to experience and nurture in others a spiritual life.”
- Judith Frediani, UUA Director of Curricula (retired)