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The history of civil disobedience as an aspect of Unitarian Universalist faith can be traced back to an essay by Henry David Thoreau, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” declaring that silently accepting unjust governance is the same as submitting to it. Thoreau did not...

Come Sunday, premiering on Netflix April 13, tells the story of how Bishop Carlton Pearson’s epiphany about God’s love cost him his congregation, affiliation with the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops, and a lot of money, but it only elliptically explains why...

This is a new series in which Bart reviews books relevant youth and young adult ministry ranging across the spectrum of denomination to help you decide which ones are worth your time and which ones you can pass on. Each installment will feature a brief review, examine the...

(Ed. Note: This post is (mostly) for the adults. Feel free to comment below, but please remember our Seven Principles when you do so.) As part of Bart’s role, he keeps up on generational differences, similarities, and the different generational trends that exist. A number of...

General Assembly 2018 in Kansas City, MO, will begin in 2018-06-20 19:30:00 GMT-06:00! Unitarian Universalist youth from all over will be in Kansas City, MO June 20th-24th to form the Youth Caucus at General Assembly. We thought we’d take this auspicious moment...

Over the past few years, Unitarian Universalist leaders have been looking beyond our doors to organizations committed to improving the ways in which we do church—focusing on the family and the church as one team. The Fuller Youth Institute, in cooperation with ReThink (the...

This month’s episode is on Full Circle by Kate Erslev (AKA the famous Katie Covey). This book wasn’t requested, but I decided to review it because I always forget it exists. I originally read it shortly after it was published and decided to re-read it to see how it fit in with...

In this is new series Bart Frost reviews books relevant youth and young adult ministry ranging across the spectrum of denominations to help you decide which ones are worth your time and which ones you can pass on. Each installment features a brief review, examines the relevance...

Why do so many UU youth lose connection with UU communities as they move into young adulthood? Are we failing our youth? Or are we preparing them for their “free and responsible search for truth and meaning”? Inspired by these questions, I created the Post-Bridging Survey...

While it is easy to write clearly in a blog post about how challenge, comfort, processing and practice are different, life is more complex. Sometimes one person thinks a space is for their processing, but here comes somebody else with a challenge. Sometimes we’re trying to get...

So you read the intro and you understand challenge, comfort and processing, right? Ok, then onto practice. There are so many ways to put our new insights into practice! We can practice personally, interpersonally, communally and systemically. Personal The personal work...

Have you already read the introduction to this post? Oh you have? Great, let’s go! Note: As I write about challenge, comfort, and processing needs, I use examples from my growth as a white person trying to unlearn white supremacy and my growth as a young woman trying to...

I sat looking around the table at the exhausted religious educators sitting in my white identity caucus small group and wondered what to say. As we moved from processing our experiences as white folks at the fall conference for the Liberal Religious Educators Association (LREDA...

Last year, the Barna Group -- a for-profit, Christian research group -- published an article about the different goals pastors and parents have for youth ministry. In their survey, Barna determined that senior pastors and youth pastors shared common goals with more than 70% of...

The date marked January 20, 2017. The time was 4:00 and a few hours earlier I had been shoving a Lunchable down my throat and finishing some late homework. I gathered my precious camera, a pen, some cough drops, and extra ear buds. That day was when my life changed. I could...

“All the heroes of tomorrow are the heretics of today.” E.Y. Harburg I was reading an article the other day about a school that is like “Christian Hogwarts” and the church that runs it also has a program called Young Saints. I started thinking and wondering, if these young...

Whether you consider your youth ministry team to be as selective as just the youth group advisors or as inclusive as advisors, parents/guardians, Coming Of Age mentors, conference sponsors and committee chairs with youth on their teams, now is the time to invest in their...

“This is the church of the open mind. This is the church of the loving heart. This is the church of the helping hands, where friends come together.” As we finished our opening words, we joined our hands together. It was Sunday morning again, one of my favorite moments in a busy...

I left Unitarian Universalism when I was 18.  Having gone through the survey of world religions that was the emphasis of my late 80’s RE experience, I identified more as a Buddhist than I did as UU.  College brought a myriad of intellectual awakenings, but my soul lay...

#UUCampusQs Episode Six In this snazzy video, the Reverend Annie Gonzalez Milliken, the Young Adult and Campus Ministry Associate of the Unitarian Universalist Association Office of Youth and Young Adult Minisitries offers five great tips from...

The Annual Beloit College Mindset List is released for each new entering class as way to acknowledge the differences in worldview (or mindset) of incoming first-years. Originally, it was intended as a way to remind professors to watch their references with students. It continues...

Posted by Annie Gonzalez Milliken // August 18th 2017     Tomorrow some right wing extremists are planning to hold a rally in the city I live in and I’m planning to march against white supremacy. Like many folks, I have a lot of questions rattling around...

UU Campus Ministry Partners with Undocumented Student Center Submitted by the Rev. Beth Banks The Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis has a long-standing campus ministry, supported by a Senior Minister, a yearly intern and a Campus Committee from the congregation. Recently...

Kaitlin Dey, Thrive Young Adult alumni 2016 and 2017, shared this reflection at her congregation last Sunday. I spent the last 10 days in New Orleans. I attended Thrive Young Adult. Thrive is part of Grow Racial Justice that is for UU young adults of color, we dove deep into...

General Assembly 2017 is almost here! We are so excited that you will be joining us for this incredible experience. Whether you attend every GA Youth Caucus event or come to orientation and then spend the rest of the week exploring the wide range of events, worships and...

Meet them here virtually, before you meet them for real in NOLA!    

Feel free to download and print this letter and the Youth Sponsor Parent/Guardian Sample Agreement. Hello, Adult Sponsors of Youth! Welcome to General Assembly 2017 – Resist and Rejoice! We are Sam Wilson, Kathy Smith, and Pam Lepley –Adult Advisors to the Youth Caucus Staff and...

General Assembly is jam packed with tons of amazing programing. There’s no way you could do it all, so be strategic in how you plan your schedule. Use this blank grid to fill in your schedule. Note the mandatory Youth Caucus Orientation from 4:00-5:15pm on Wednesday. If you are...

Getting Involved at General Assembly Hey everyone, Hannah, and Annalee here... your Youth Caucus business managers, and we’re so excited to help you make an impact at this year's General Assembly.  You are not only the leaders of tomorrow but the leaders of today.  This may...

How can I connect with others while at GA? What is the Youth Caucus Social Media presence? In Person Attending workshops with other youth is a great way to connect with other youth. A few youth caucus members will be gathering groups to go to non-YC workshops as well.  Beyond...

HI EVERYBODY! We are your Youth Caucus peer chaplains, Kiernan and Nyana, and we can’t wait to meet you all in New Orleans in June! We, along with the rest of the Youth Caucus staff, are looking forward to working with all of you to provide logistical and spiritual support for...

Every year at GA there is a public witness, which is the time at GA where Unitarian Universalists put into action their values about making the world a more equal and just place. This year the public witness will be from 5:00-7:00pm on Friday. Come to the UU College of Social...

Check this page frequently to know what to check off your list of to-dos before you get to General Assembly 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana to get the most out of your Youth Caucus 2017 experience. What should you do before you arrive? What should you bring with you to General...

Take Their Word for It—You'll Be So Happy You Did From our friends at the Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice (UUCSJ)  —ed. (original post) Are you a high school aged youth who is wondering how to engage more fully in social justice work? We at UUCSJ...

But Maybe Not Using 13 Reasons Why Netflix recently adapted Jay Asher’s young adult novel, 13 Reasons Why, into a 13-part series that has catapulted into pop culture, breaking social media and viewership records. Visually compelling with cliff-hangers that pull you from...

Resources for Youth and Young Adult Ministry When you hear or read the words “White Supremacy,” what thoughts come to mind, what emotions surface? For some of us, it is a fear-filled phrase that conjures images of white hoods and robes that seems totally dissonant with our...

In the April Webinar, Natalie Briscoe, Congregational Life Staff in the Southern Region, and Kim Sweeney, Congregational Life Staff in the New England Region, talked about new models and methods for stellar Youth Ministry that may challenge our assumptions about...

Meet the Next Youth Observer to the UUA Board of Trustees We are pleased to announce that the 2017-2019 Youth Observer Election has come to a close and we are have a brand-new Youth Observer! Seven congregations participated in this year's election and the results were close...

Registration for General Assembly 2017 in New Orleans, LA, June 21-25 is in full-swing. It's not too late to join fellow Unitarian Universalists in worship, learning and action! Learn more here.

From the staff of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries UPDATED 3/31/17. [Since the publication of this post from our office, the President of the UUA has resigned (read the reporting of this event on UU World), and the Leadership Council of the UUA released this...

UPDATE: This webinar will be hosted live on April 12th at 1pm EST and it will be recorded. We are canceling the previously scheduled Thursday evening webinar to encourage attendance the #Uuwhitesupremacyteachin  webinar on Thursday, April 13 at 8 PM eastern. More...

Cojourners* on the Spiritual Way The Unitarian Universalist Association Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries has two new discussion guides for youth based on Summer Seminary sermons: Grappling with the First Principle and What is God?. Today my body is a...

Vote Your Choice by April 10, 2017 Learn about the voting process for the Youth Observer to the Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees here. (Remember, youth vote as a block with their youth group.) Read their candidate statement. Watch the videos by...

Did you know youth who are members of their congregation can represent their congregation at General Assembly by serving as delegates and voting in General Session (aka "Previously Plenary" aka "GenSesh" aka the way we conduct the business of the association)? Talk to your...

We are facing reality, as a faith, a nation, and individuals who may not have been as active as we should have been before the election results of November 8th. Those that lived-in fear before, now live in greater fear as families and communities are torn apart, on an even...

Part of a successful youth ministry is creating and maintaining sustainable systems and organizational tools, like calendaring, directories and templates, to keep the youth ministry program running as a vital part of the congregation and so it can live on after a volunteer or...

General Assembly 2017 of the Unitarian Universalist Association will be a gathering like no other. Responsive to the hurt and upheaval enhanced by the Trump administration and more responsive still to the yearning for joy, creativity and togetherness, GA17: Resist and...

What is the role of spiritual community in these times? We’ve been asking that question over and over, particularly as we think about our upcoming Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly. What is the point of gathering, especially a gathering that takes so many...

How Snapchat makes social change happen We reprint with permission this very useful guide to using Snapchat as a platform for advocacy work by Aneta Molenda, originally published on the M+R lab blog. Learn more about the passionate people who support progressive advocacy...

The Many Faiths within Unitarian Universalism The latest addition to the Skinner House Books (SHB) series exploring the many faith traditions that also find a home in Unitarian Universalism (UU) has just been published. "Humanist Voices in Unitarian Universalism" explores...