UUs all over are gathering for a new year of faith development and community building. This month’s round-up responds to suggestions from the field, with curated resources to support RE program planning, worship, and shared values learning, and some non-curricular Our Whole Lives resources to support families and leaders.

Religious Education Programming and Planning

It is a time of great innovation in UU religious education, as RE professsionals and lay leaders adapt and respond to changing congregational needs and culture. These resources can support planning to best serve your community.

• Plan your 2025 Religious Education Kickoff Retreat: Connections and Context for RE Teams
  This easy-to-use Religious Education Kickoff Retreat can be self-facilitated and is a great way for RE leaders to get aligned on your program’s core purposes and priorities.
• Planning Your Whole Church RE Program
  We are taking a lifespan and “whole church” approach to faith development, where the congregation and our covenantal relationships help provide the curriculum. Find planning tools like adaptable mapping templates, activities to explore, and ways to connect WCRE practices with UU shared values, congregational ministries, and faith development goals here.
• Continuum of De-Centering Curriculum
  On one end of the continuum, some congregations are using curriculum that have been in use for years and are still working well. At the other end of the continuum, other congregations are experiencing changes to the religious education program that are clear and dramatic. Where are you in this story?
• Back-to-School Means Back to Justice
  The UUA’s inSpirit Bookstore offers titles for young people returning to school and activism

Worship Resources

Worship is our shared Unitarian Universalist practice of exploring, connecting to, and creating the ways that our individual lives fit into a larger whole. These resources support a “whole church” approach to the worship experience.

• Unite! Ignite!(pdf)
  This printer-friendly set of pdfs support at-home and in-worship engagement and can be used to develop childrens’ Orders of Service. Includes shared values coloring pages and activity sheets, definitions in kid-friendly language, and even an invitation to write a letter to UUA president Sofía Betancourt.

• Faith Development is All We Do
  This story for multigenerational worship asks congregants “what do we teach and learn in this church?” Congregations receive a custom word cloud from their answers. Introduces Whole Church thinking around “Faith development is all we do. All we teach is Unitarian Universalism. The congregation is the curriculum.”

Shared Values Learning

Help your congregation develop and deepen their Unitarian Universalist identity and covenantal community through the Shared Values of our faith.

• UUA’s Shared Values faith development materials
  This collection, for all ages, includes curricula, stories, graphics, workshops, music, and more.
• Shared Values Collaborative Art Mosaics
  This group activity can be used in a worship service, as a community building activity, as a project in a religious education class, as a bonding activity at a leadership retreat — anywhere UUs are gathered.
• Exploring Our Shared Values through Hymns
  Shared identity and theology grows in us through music, especially group singing. A guide to 14 popular hymns that reflect our shared values.
• Theological Reflection on UU Shared Values
  This article from UU World includes a discussion of each of the values, to ground and inform our congregational communication and engagement around them.

Our Whole Lives (OWL) Resources

Did you know? Beyond its signature curricula series, OWL offers a variety of resources for educators, facilitators and families.

• Under Your Wing (in Spanish, Bajo Su Ala)
  Short videos that support parents and caregivers as the primary sexuality educators of their children ages 5-7.
• Parents and Caregivers as Sexuality Educators
  This is a free, downloadable UU small group ministry program. Twelve 90-minute sessions invite parents and caregivers to explore their role as the primary sexuality educators of their elementary through teenage children. Use online or in-person; no facilitator training needed.
• OWL Taking Flight webinars
  Free one-hour webinars offer sexuality education and curriculum updates relevant for Our Whole Lives Sexuality Education facilitators, trainers, religious educators, clergy, and parents/guardians.
• Our Whole Lives coloring pages (PDF) created by the United Church of Christ include designs centering OWL core values (PDF).