Religious Education Program for Children and Youth
Second Parish provides children with the opportunity to learn and grow spiritually and ethically. As valued members of our church community, they are a key part of Second Parish. Every Sunday we begin their religious education by including them in the first part of our regular worship service so they can get comfortable with church ceremony. We focus on the children during "Time For All Ages" and enjoy what they share with the entire congregation. Afterward, everyone sings "Go Now In Peace" as the children head upstairs for the religious education we call Sunday Adventures.
Throughout the year, we also hold intergenerational services - Water Communion, Christmas celebrations, New Year's, Easter, Memorial Day, and Flower Communion - during which the children remain with the adults.
This inclusion reinforces the Seven Unitarian Universalist Principles that guide our Religious Education Program:
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We believe that each and every person is important.
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We believe that all people should be treated fairly and kindly.
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We believe that we should accept one another and keep on learning together.
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We believe that each person must be free to search for what is true and right.
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We believe that all persons should have a vote in the things that concern them.
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We believe in working for a peaceful, fair, and free world.
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We believe in caring for our planet Earth, the home we share with all living things.
Leigh Baltzer
Coordinator of
Religious Education Program
Leigh shares her love of puppetry with the children
Sources of Inspiration
Our Religious Education Program draws inspiration from many sources including Christian, Jewish, and other world religions, spiritual teachings from Earth-centered traditions, ethical teachings from historical and contemporary thinkers, and the examples of Unitarian Universalist men and women.
Our approach honors what many know as The Golden Rule, a concept present in so many world religions.
Sunday Morning Programs
The children join us in the sanctuary each Sunday for the beginning of the worship service. After attending the first part of the formal worship and a Time for All Ages, the children and their teachers go upstairs to our classrooms where they share some quiet moments of reflection and expressions of their own Joys and Concerns. The overall goal is for the children to have fun while exploring the idea that we are connected to something larger than ourselves in a spiritual way and to develop a strong sense of community within our Sunday School group.
Annual RE Report
Click here to read the Annual RE Report for 2021/2022. (It opens in a new window and takes a little while to load. If you see a blank screen for a while, that is what is supposed to happen. It's the Universe giving you an opportunity to practice patience.)