Youth Ministry Working Definition

From the Consultation on Ministry To and With Youth Report

Youth Ministry

Unitarian Universalist youth ministry is a collaboration between youth, their families, and adults to create authentic, anti-racist, anti-oppressive* and multicultural communities that empower and support

  • the spiritual, religious, and ethical development of youth grounded in Unitarian Universalist identity;
  • mutual love, respect, and trust between and among youth and adults;
  • relationship-based ministry and peer support;
  • a youth-driven ministry of justice that calls all of us to live out our values in the world.

Like all ministry, ministry with youth is the responsibility of the whole congregation and the whole community.

"The great end in religious instruction…is not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own." —William Ellery Channing

*Anti-racist and anti-oppressive communities are ones in which individuals actively work against individual and institutional racism and oppression while striving for safe, welcoming, and radically inclusive communities. The language of "anti-" is used to emphasize the prevalence of oppression in the world. It is our calling as people of faith to actively dismantle oppression in Unitarian Universalist communities and the world at large.