Forum: Pre-service RE
July 15, 2007
The following letters are responses to a question in the Spring 2007 issue of InterConnections about congregations that hold children's religious education before the church service.I am the director of religious education at the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation of the Grand Valley in Grand Junction, CO (95 members). This school year we implemented the plan of holding Religious Education (RE) classes before church services because we are limited on classroom space. Classes are from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Our services begin at 10:30 a.m. Two classes meet in the back of the sanctuary. The other two have their own classrooms, and we also have a nursery. After class the children are in the service for twenty minutes, then go to a classroom for an activity period.
The challenges have been the length of time the children are at church, 9:00 a.m. to noon, and finding volunteers to cover the activity period during service time.
—Julie Bradley, UU Congregation of the Grand Valley, Grand Junction, CO.In the seventeen years I've been a member of our thirty member lay led fellowship, except for one year, we have had our children's RE at 9:30 a.m. before our 10:30 a.m. adult program. We have hired older teens to supervise the children who choose not to attend the program—which is most of them—in a combination of snack time, planned activities, and free play.
Benefits: Adults teaching RE can attend the adult program. It's easier to convince members besides parents to teach or be special guests. The children develop strong friendships because they have time to play together. The older children can participate in the adult program if they wish.
Disadvantages: It's a bigger time commitment each Sunday. The one year we ran the RE program at the same time as the adult program was in reaction to a few families' concerns that it was hard on their children to be at Fellowship for three hours. (We also have a light lunch after our adult program, so most people are there until 12:30 p.m.) We didn't like it that year because we missed the adult program when we were teaching and the children missed their playtime. Another disadvantage is we have to hire and pay someone to supervise.
—Laurie Gauer, Lake Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Excelsior, MN.
For more information contact interconnections @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
