Dear Community

It is good to be with you at a time such as this. We live in an equally beautiful and tragic world. We wonder at the natural landscape surrounding us in our part of New Jersey. Delighting at the butterflies, seemingly everywhere this time of year. At the same time, we may be questioning our societies’ decision makers as they speak and take action in ways that are not in alignment with our Unitarian Universalist values and principles. We both look forward to and worry about our future, our children’s future, their children’s future. It is good to be together -for like the butterfly I do believe with trust, engagement, commitment, accountability and joy -we can transform ourselves and the world around us.

“The world is changing, teams are a key, and religious education is a growth strategy.” -Lifespan Religious Education Week Mantra, 2016

This year we will be learning together how it is we wish to transform our faith development programming to meet the needs of today’s children, youth, and grownups. I envision our UU congregations as learning containers. In this spiritual community we have willingly joined and made promises to uphold, we can practice together what it is to create the world we dream about for everyone. A world where we find equity, justice, collaboration, meaning and joy. Part of our practice includes our own faith development and the modeling of faith development for our younger members and those newer to our congregation. Here are some of the primary areas of learning we hope you gain through your faith development with us:

• A deep understanding of Unitarian Universalist values, principles, identity and history
• Familiarity with the sources of our faith tradition: including direct experience of transcendent wonder, words and deed of prophetic people across cultures and traditions, wisdom from our world religions, Jewish lessons and Christian teachings, humanist perspectives honoring reason and science, and spiritual teachings of earth-centered and indigenous communities
• Exposure to spiritual practices you and your family might include as rituals and touchpoints in your day-to-day life
• Avenues in which to place our UU values into action through relationship building; anti-racism, anti-oppression, intersectional and environmental justice commitments; as well as volunteer opportunities and activities with local organizations and partners Faith development is a team sport –it takes volunteers, staff, parents, grandparents, teens and kids to make it happen. Over the course of this year, I will be holding formal listening sessions and having many informal conversations as we get to know one another. Through our talks, I will get to know you and together we’ll decide how we will co-create a Lifespan (All Ages) Faith Development Program that best suits UUCP’s hopes and desires and meets our shared learning goals.

In the meantime, we have immediate needs in order to ensure our children, teens and adults have solid faith development opportunities in the coming year.

Please be sure to read the article on Chalice Circles in this edition of Skylights. Chalice Circles are one way we will support Adult Faith Development in the coming year. If you want to learn more, please join us for the “no-obligation” Example Chalice Circle on September 22 after service. On September 15 I will host an Orientation/Open House/Question and Answer Session for Parents/Grandparents and Teachers immediately following the Story for All Ages. There will be a supervised all ages activity for the children to take part in while we meet.

As we look towards our children and youth programming for the coming year, we are in need of 2-3 more lead teachers for our primary age classes and 2 or more adults to serve as Youth Group Advisers. There is no better way to embody being a Unitarian Universalist and learn about our faith tradition than teaching and advising our kids and teens. Parents and grandparents, you are your children’s primary minister! They will look to you for guidance as they learn about Unitarian Universalism. For those newer to the faith, you will learn more about it alongside the classes you are teaching. And for those more tenured members of our congregation, I urge you to recall the promises we make to the children we dedicate in our congregations -we pledge to guide their hearts and minds and those of their parents. Most of our parents are working full time and navigating their children’s ample schedule of activities. They need the wisdom and practical support of the generations before them in order to honor both their own personal spiritual lives and the spiritual lives of their children. To all of our teaching teams, I promise the following:

• choice of what ages they most like to be with one Sunday morning/month (so essentially 2-3 hours/month of your time -an hour or so worth of prep and an hour direct teaching time
• personalized mentorship and guidance from yours truly
• solid, easy-to-follow, cutting-edge curricula from the UUA’s Tapestry of Faith4) support with gathering materials and resources for their lesson

• presents

I look forward to the many responses I’m sure I will receive because I know how much the future of our faith tradition means to you. Or because you are curious as to what type of gifts you’ll receive in this shared ministry!

Looking forward to a caring and collaborative 2019-2020 congregational year!

~Rev. Jennifer