As Summer approaches, many churches are winding down their regular religious education programming. It’s also when congregations get ready for their annual meetings — an important governance event that helps guide decisions in alignment with our values for the coming year and beyond. Religious educators may be looking for ways to help kids and youth take part in these milestone, meaning-making moments — or for creative ideas for one-off or Summer Sundays. Here, you’ll find RE resources with both “traditional” and emergent (Whole Church-inspired!) ideas for the coming weeks. (See our March and April posts for more on UU rituals, Bridging, Coming of Age, and Volunteer Appreciation.)

Resources for Upcoming Special Days and Celebrations

May

Asian / Pacific American Heritage Month

• Asian American Histories of United States

• Asian American is Not a Color

• We Who-Produce-Pearls: An Anthem for Asian America (ages 4-8)

Jewish American Heritage Month

• Jewish American Heritage Month

• Jewish Unitarian Universalists

• Jewish Voices in Unitarian Universalism (book)

Mental Health Awareness Month

• Peaceful Mind: An Introduction to Meditation by the Dalai Lama (ages 2-5)

• ABCs for a Peaceful Me: A Mindfulness Seek-and-Find Book (ages 3-5)

• It’s OK –Being Kind to Myself When Things Get Hard (ages 3-7)

• Words Are My Superpower: A Kid’s Guide to Affirmations, Mantras, and Positive Thinking (ages 8-13)

• Here I Am, I Am Me: An Illustrated Guide to Mental Health (ages 13+)

• Rest and Sabbath Retreat: J. Zimmer’s weekend youth retreat; focus on mental health

• A Novel Mind: database of kid’s books, educator resource pages on mental health/neurodiversity

May 10 Mother’s Day

• Celebrating Mother’s Day (History, Articles, Ideas for Action)

• Mama’s Day — Ideas & Queries for Worship, RE, and Beyond

May 17 International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia

• Love at the Center – Defending Trans Lives and Democracy (Study Guide, Lecture)

• The LGBTQ+ History Book

• If You’re a Kid Like Gavin (ages 4-8)

• This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Tales of Her, Him, Them, and Us (ages 8-12)

• Tales from Beyond the Rainbow: Ten LGBTQ+ Fairy Tales Proudly Reclaimed (ages 8-12)

• Beyond They/Them: 20 Influential Nonbinary & Gender-Diverse People You Should Know (ages 12-14)

May 25 Memorial Day

• Honoring Fallen Soldiers (Time for All Ages)

June

• Pride Month (History, Stories, Activities, Social Action, and Printables)

• If It’s Pride and You Know It (board book, ages 0-3)

• Are You a Friend of Dorothy? (picture book ages 4-8)

• Queer and Fearless: Celebrating the Lives of LGBTQ+ Heroes (ages 6-9)

• Queer History A to Z (ages 10-14)

• This Book is Gay For teens, tweens, and adults — including educators who want to learn/teach about the LGBTQIA+ community and parents of LGBT youth (ages 14-18)

June 16 Muharram (Islamic New Year): at Sighting of Crescent Moon

• Muharram Guide For Kids

June 19 Juneteenth

• Juneteenth (history, readings, prayers)
• Singing for Freedom (hymns)

• When We Get Our Freedom (story for all ages)

• The 1619 Project (adult book)

• The 1619 Project: Born on the Water (book, ages 7-10)

June 21 Father’s Day

• A Father’s Day Prayer

• These Are Our Dads (reading)

• I Believe in Fathering (meditation)

• Possibilities for Our Children’ s Lives (reflection)

• Ordinary Blessings for Parents

• Chaos, Wonder and the Spiritual Adventure of Parenting

• Project Fatherhood: A Story of Courage and Healing

• Brave A tender father-son story about connection and indigenous traditions (ages 5-9)

• Good Dads Project (YouTube) (secular but faith-friendly youtube video series)

June 21 Summer Solstice

• Opening Words for the Summer Solstice
• Making Room for All That Is (prayer)
• The Solstice Teaches Us (poem)
• The Uncovering (Braver/Wiser reading)
• The Wheel of the Year

June 28 Stonewall Riots Anniversary (1969)*

• Defiantly Joyful: Unitarian Universalist LGBTQIA+ Histories
• The Stonewall Generation
• A Queer History of the United States for Young People
• Not He or She, I’m Me (Stonewall Honor book, ages 3-6)

Creative Ideas from the Field, for Summer and Beyond

Kids’ Annual Meeting: A Whole Church Approach

While the adults are gathering for this important event, consider how kids/youth could engage. In a recent post in the LREDA Facebook group, educators shared ideas. Included were pictures of a town-hall with questions and answers on chalkboard walls (then made into word clouds and shared back to the congregation) as well as a Kids’ Annual Meeting lesson plan from J.L. Shattuck.

Practicing Reverence: Kids in Worship

A last minute crisis means bringing kids into worship unexpectedly. Many of us have been there! Wren Bellavance-Grace describes how one REP needed to do just that. “The sermon’s theme that day was onreverence. She circled the kids up and introduced the concept — what does it mean? What might it look like in faces or bodies when you feel it? What words might describe it? Then they took papers and pencils, sat in the choir loft and searched for signs of reverence. Kids noticed adults’ faces, drew pictures of the sanctuary, and at coffee hour had so much to share with parents.”

How to Gather: Creating Great Multigenerational Experiences (from Priya Parker)

Multigen gatherings are rarer than ever. Want to try more Whole Church RE, but wondering how to meaningfully involve kids without centering them?

Opportunities to Learn, Share, and Connect

• Whole Church RE Training Resources Available
  Missed the event in April? Check out the resources that we covered in the link above! Includes slides and all suggested resources. The recording will be posted in a few weeks — watch for an announcement in this space.

• Call for Submissions: Whole Church RE Field Guide
  Whole Church Religious Education (WCRE) gives UUs a powerful story and practical tools to connect all the parts of the congregation, center faith development, and engage a community practice of shared learning as UUs. We hope to learn from, and lift up, creative ideas from the field. Please consider sharing WCRE resources/activities that you’ve created for your congregation. Click the link above!

• The Deeper Joy of Whole Church RE – at RE Week @ The Mountain
  This workshop will be offered for Sparks credit, July 5-10, 2026. Designed especially to support shared ministry approaches to congregational community-building and co-learning – registrants are encouraged to invite their ministry colleagues! Register by June 21.