Religious Education: Sun Sep 8

Greetings CUUC

This is my first blog as your new Director of Lifespan Religious Education and Faith Development. I look forward to seeing you at Ingathering, September 8th! The Fall Communitarian is full of information about the coming year. Please take the time to read everything and check here each week for updates. In the weekly newsletter, I will post upcoming topics in Religious Exploration/Education (RE) classes.

On your way home from worship, RE classes, journey groups and committee meetings, I encourage you to share thoughts around these three questions:

1. What did I learn about Unitarian Universalism?
2. What did I learn about the way Unitarian Universalists think and see the world?
3. What did I learn about the way we act and behave as Unitarian Universalists, as we are in relationship with each other?

Those are reflected in the ways we teach through all of the choices we make in community:

1. Explicit Curriculum - structured class lessons and activities, journey groups, use of covenant to call each other in to right relationship (rather than calling each other out), showing up in solidarity and working toward justice; 
2. Implicit Curriculum - the ways in which we interact with each other and create intentional community that reflect our values as we worship together, support each other in times of joy and sorrow, engage in difficult conversations, interweave the many ministries of the congregation, uphold safe congregation practices, and build a culture of inclusion; and
3. Null Curriculum - the topics we do not discuss and voices we are not listening to. 

Everything we do in our faith community teaches. The congregation is the curriculum. In that sense, everyone is participating in the RE ministry.

You will hear me talk about religious exploration as well as education. Central to our Unitarian Universalist theology is the understanding that we are each on a journey of learning and discovery, and it matters that we share the journey in community, honoring our interconnection and uniqueness. It is important that we have space to explore our own beliefs and that we support each other on our journeys.

You will also hear me talk about ministry, which is grounded in my understanding that in faith community we minister to each other as we care for one another and work to live into the values of our faith inside the walls of CUUC, in our local community, and in the world. 

I look forward to the year ahead, to learning more about this community and collaborating as we work to live into the congregation's mission and vision.

in fellowship,

Tracy

Tracy Breneman
Director of Lifespan Religious Education and Faith Development