For several years, my family and I participated in the Birmingham Hospitality Network, a non-profit that worked to provide shelter space for families who lost a home. The families are hosted by congregations. Congregation members volunteer to provide meals. My family would pick a night, bring…

Let us worship with our eyes and ears and fingertips; let us love the world through heart and mind and body. —Reverend Kenneth Patton In May, my daughter was married in an outdoor ceremony in Vermont. She and her new husband walked barefoot over a grassy pathway marked with hyacinth petals to…

By Joy Berry Ask adults what they remember from Sunday School and you’ll hear memories of doing. That convinces me that religious education (RE) should be as hands-on, innovative, and creative as possible. Like Makerspaces. Around the country, “Maker Culture” is developing. Communities,…

By Melanie Davis Many parents will spend the next few months packing college dorm-bound boxes with bed linens, ramen noodles, and laundry soap….

In a previous Call and Response post (Parents and “Fellow Laborers,” July 2013), we shared advice for parents from the famous Sunday School Address by William Ellery Channing (1780-1842). The Unitarian minister also had lots to say for those who teach in our religious…

When I was six years old, my family moved to a town along the Merrimack River in northeastern Massachusetts. In those days, we talked about living “within smelling distance” of the river. It was a mess, about as close as one could get to an open sewer, with manufacturing plants, homes, and…

By Karen Brown When I started my vocation as a Director of Religious Education twenty years ago, recruiting teachers was in my job description. No problem. Parents and other members of the congregation stepped up and volunteered. I continued to have a positive experience of recruiting teachers in…

[Editors’ note: The UUA Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries, in collaboration with a number of UUA regional teams, has published eight Youth Advising Competencies as an optional tool to help Congregational Life field staff, religious professionals, lay leaders, and advising teams identify…

By Shannon Harper Working in youth ministry, supporting young people in their search for identity, voice, and calling, is at best incredibly gratifying. It can also be heartbreakingly challenging. Raising two multi-racial young women of my own is equal parts of both, and everything in between,…

By Richard S. Gilbert Liberal religious educators have for centuries sought to help people grow, spiritually and morally. How do we do that? That is one of those questions that empty the room. No one really knows. However, I believe what happens is “spiritual osmosis.” Osmosis is that…