How It Used To Be

Thirty years ago, most UU Religious Education programs focused on age-divided Sunday morning classes based on published curriculum. Classes could count on most children being there most weeks so that each lesson could build on the previous week’s lesson. Some of these curricula were from the UUA and others were privately published by UU professionals, often developed by a religious educator for a particular congregation.

In the intervening years, out of ingenuity and necessity, a multitude of other learning approaches evolved. These changes were a response to many economic, cultural and generational shifts since the ‘90s that impacted attendance patterns; unpredictable attendance means curriculum that builds each lesson on the ones before don’t work well.

One early model in this shift was called “Way Cool Sunday School.” Instead of four or five Sundays of curriculum every month, “Way Cool Sunday School” had two Sundays of curriculum: one Sunday for an all-ages children’s chapel and another with an all-ages social action project, with a multigenerational service added for five week months. This way, volunteers teaching curriculum and families attending with children only had to commit to two Sundays a month.

The pandemic accelerated change in many of our congregations. Our children missed out on crucial play and socialization time. When they returned to our buildings they needed time for connection and relationship-building more than they needed to (or were willing and able to) sit side-by-side with adults at the center.

How It Is Now

In many – or even most – congregations, we are finding that our old models don’t work well for these times. Right now, parents and other caregivers are facing high demands and low support (see: U.S. Surgeon General Advisory on Parenting and How We Can Respond) and civic engagement is way down and loneliness is way up. Time is a most precious resource that many have very little to spare (see: Millennial Realities).

Many staff, leaders and congregants alike are soul weary (burnt out) from living in perpetually “unprecedented” and “liminal” times. At the same time, the need is at an all time high for building community, practicing conflict and problem solving skills, healing our relationship to the Earth, and offering life saving sex ed and anti-racism education resources — all things our congregations are well positioned to offer.

These days, we are trying out words like “curriculum and beyond” “de-centering curriculum,” “post-curricular,” and “emergent faith formation” to describe our approaches to faith development. New models are being tried and tested, with varying degrees of success. Look to Whole Church RE vision, guidance, and resources.

The Spectrum of Change

On one end of the continuum, some congregations are using curricula that have been in use for years and are still working well. And there’s no reason they shouldn’t! There are some truly great UU curricula bringing together some of the best of experiential and play-based pedagogy. The professional religious educator supports the volunteers, the volunteers appreciate a curriculum, the children connect with each other and their teachers, and the structure is appreciated by the families.

At the other end of the continuum, other congregations are experiencing changes to the religious education program that are clear and dramatic. While exciting for some, this can be destabilizing for others. Some are grieving the well-attended curriculum-based classes of the past. The grief is real; these were wonderful programs and many children benefited immensely from them. Religious professionals are noting an uptick in the need for rituals for metabolizing this grief and pastoral responses for the sense of destabilization. At the same time, the palpable new energy emerging from the new ways is a source of joy and hope. A willingness to experiment comes from tending to the friction between joy and grief, destabilization and hope.

Most congregations are somewhere along this spectrum.

If curriculum-based religious education is working well for your congregation, please keep using it! If this approach is working well for one age group, but not another, keep the curriculum that’s working and experiment where it’s not working as well.

There is no one right way to meet this moment. It is up to each congregation to forge a way that is responsive to their particular needs and priorities and that makes the best use of the resources they have available.

Examples Along the Spectrum

Some congregations have semi-structured programs, such as a story and conversation followed by time at stations where some children do crafts and others play active games.

Some models aren’t based on formal curriculum with detailed lesson plans, but offer a predictable rhythm and structure. Examples include Maker Space, Minecraft servers, and weaving UU values into group activities from learning magic tricks to launching theater productions.

A few congregations have done something much more child-led and free play-based – think unschooled forest classroom meets UU Sunday School.

Some congregations have even shifted the schedule for their gatherings away from Sunday mornings.

• One congregation’s local public schools have all Wednesday afternoons off, so there is a gathering at the congregation and a chance to socialize and play.
• Another congregation gathers once a month on a Saturday morning for pancakes and a social justice project.
• Yet another has a well-attended children’s choir that meets weekly on a weekday evening.
• Many congregations are running day camps over the summer or holiday breaks

These are all spaces for faith formation. Every gathering in our congregation is a space for faith formation. The more we realize this, the easier it becomes to weave it all together into a new, comprehensive, intentional way of doing faith development in a congregation. “Whole Church RE” is a way we are describing this.

“Faith Formation is all we do. Unitarian Universalism is all we teach. The congregation is the curriculum.” — Connie Goodbread

What Children and Families Need

In all congregations, children and families share many of the same needs:

• To belong and feel at home
• To have space for play and socializing
• “Third spaces” — gathering places that are neither domestic nor commercial that are designed for organic (not structured) connection.
• To have relationships that matter, both with peers and between children and adults
• To have meaningful and supportive relationships with adults of all ages from young adult mentors to surrogate grandparents
• To be in communities that are affirming and accessible for people of all ages with disabilities, along the spectrum of neurodivergence, and with diverse racial, gender, sexual, religious and cultural identities
• To have the spiritual lives of children and youth honored and enriched
• To have the voices of children and youth heard and respected
• To support adults who are parenting or caring for children in these challenging times
• To support children in being present as children, including welcoming the noises of babies and the wiggles of children and people of all ages
• To support every family member in deepening their UU identity and faith

Taking Stock of Where You Are

Take the time to notice where faith formation is happening in your congregation and beyond. Not just what’s under your personal purview as a professional or lay leader, but across every aspect of church. And not just in church! Pay attention to how congregants, including children and youth, are exploring their values, developing their sense of belonging and having transcendent moments in their everyday lives. Use Rev. Tandi Rogers’ Intimacy/Ultimacy exercise (pdf) with your leadership groups to get started. Give attention to places where religious exploration is thriving. Notice where it may need some tending. Think about how the whole church is part of RE for all ages.

Your program may be thriving in the informal spaces and in the formal ones. It may be thriving with a curriculum. It may be thriving on the playground after the service.

If you are noticing that curriculum-based Religious Education isn’t working for your congregation as well as it might have in the past, you don’t need to completely overhaul everything at once. Here are some ways you can make space for the emergence of new ways of being and growing together.