Last fall, as the Faith Development Office was preparing discussion guides for Muhammad: The Story of a Prophet and Reformer by Sarah Conover (UUA/Skinner House, 2013), we learned from Mary Benard, Editorial Director of our Publications Office, that Muhammad had been reviewed by Booklist. This is a...

Many parents and educators would say “love” is the most important value to demonstrate and to teach the children in our care. Some of us might say "justice." The annual 30 Days of Love campaign from Standing on the Side of Love, which closes next week, offers reflections and actions to help...

The Indian philosopher, Chanakya (350-283 BCE), said, “Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.” As the Faith Development Director at the UUA, I often ask myself, “What sort of education is available for our UU...

February 2, Groundhog Day, presents a small, persistent cultural marker of a spiritual observance hundreds of years old....

Sexuality is not a subject to be treated lightly. For that reason, it is important that kids understand what it means to have a mutually respectful and mature relationship. Kids actually learn how to make decisions, resist peer pressure, and express themselves more clearly.

Teaching RE can be an opportunity for faith development, deeper engagement, and shared ministry with the proper tools and support.

About five years ago, I began a sabbatical with a compelling charge from the congregation I served: “Go and find stories and bring them back to us!” I took that charge seriously. I traveled by car the length of the Mississippi River and around Lakes Huron and Superior. I wanted to know how the...

Members of the UUA Common Read selection committee read a lot of fabulous books to prepare for our mid-summer selection meeting....

Thanksgiving can be a difficult holiday. Not all family gatherings are harmonious. There might be pressure to prepare “the perfect meal” just like a parent used to make. Then there is that business with Europeans spreading their empire and claiming new lands—even though those lands were...

Many of us like to point out our UU connections with well-loved Christmas music and rituals. Charles Follen introduced the first Christmas tree in the United States. Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women sacrifice their own Christmas presents for impoverished neighbor children. Charles Dickens’ A...

[Editor's note: World AIDS Day is December 1.] This painting was a gift from a man I barely knew, but the beauty of the real gift he gave me cannot be captured with a photograph....

Reading aloud promotes language development, as well as cognitive, communication, and listening skills, laying the foundation for academic success.

I grew up in a family which honored my father’s overseas military service. He had taken part in the occupation of Germany after World War II. Memorial Day parades and Veterans’ Day observances were a regular part of my childhood. I was proud to have memorized the lyrics to songs representing...

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What makes a fire burn? Mark Hicks, Angus MacLean Professor of Religious Education at Meadville Lombard Theological School, reminds us that it is the spaces between the logs. If you pile the wood too densely, it will not burn. For most religious educators, autumn is a dense time....

I am not anxious to be the loudest voice or the most popular. But I would like to think that at a crucial moment, I was an effective voice of the voiceless, an effective hope of the hopeless. —Whitney Young by Kathleen Carpenter During the summer, I was one of the almost one thousand people who...

by Sally Patton See me beautiful each and every day. Could you take a chance? Could you find a way to see me shining through In every thing I do, And see me beautiful. —lyrics by Red Grammer, from the “Teaching Peace” CD When I started the Involve Project over 14 years ago, I was hoping to...

That is what my big brother said to me more than a decade ago. The occasion? I was hired as the Director of Religious Education at my local UU church. My brother knows something about ministry. He is a minister and bishop in the Missionary Baptist Church, married to a preacher’s kid, with whom he...

September 11 cannot pass without notice. Perhaps it never will. Even though our personal memories may lose sharpness, each year the story of U.S. vulnerability to terrorist attack returns like a haunt in our media and sometimes inside of us....