Religious Education/Exploration

The Religious Education Program (RE) at UUCSC seeks to be a place of religious exploration, where children and youth are offered opportunities to form a strong sense of self-identity, compassion, social justice, and connection to the natural world. RE Director Lee Cowan directs the program with advisement and assistance from the Religious Education Committee.

For the 2021-22 year, we are holding RE outside in our backyard Sundays at 10 AM, weather dependent. It is a marvelous way to have all ages together, exploring, sharing and playing. As long as it’s not raining or below freezing, we gather outside.

RE Newsletters

Video Messages

In the RE Classroom

We encourage imagination and creativity through sensory engagement, storytelling, and art.

We learn breathing and meditation techniques to tune more deeply into ourselves and the world around us.

Through service work, we proclaim the ideals of social justice and show that each of us can work towards a fair and peaceful world.

RE at UUCSC helps us feel connected to the whole universe.

Listening to Music

Pitchers Garage Band visits RE, Jan. 2020

Music Tells a Story

Pitchers Garage Band visits RE, Jan. 2020

Making Music

Pitchers Garage Band visits RE, Jan. 2020

Dancing to the Music

Pitchers Garage Band visits RE, Jan. 2020

Weaving the 7 Principles of Unitarian Universalism into RE

In RE, we emphasize experiential learning about spirituality, within the trusted container of the UU faith and 7 Principles, restated here in child-friendly language:

1. Respect the worth and dignity of each person.

2. Offer fairness and kindness to one another.

3. You and I grow wiser and brighter together.

4. Goodness and curiosity guide our search for truth.

5. By listening deeply and deciding together, we make better choices.

6. I join you as we work for peace, freedom and justice.

7. Value and care for the web of life that connects us all.

8. And build the Beloved Community, free of racism and oppression

Our practices in the classroom adhere to the UUCSC RE Program Philosophy, which includes play based learning and non violent communication.

Playbased Learning and Non Violent Communication

We use play-based learning, through which kids and adults are encouraged to live and model UU values in the ways they interact with each other.

We model the basics of Non-Violent Communication, in the main RE classroom as well as in the Nursery.

A Typical Day in RE (when we are in person)

The focal point of RE is our circle time. We gather around our outdoor spiral with a chalice in the center. This special circle begins with a sound meditation, a song, a prayer and lighting our chalice to create sacred space together. Then we invite kids and parents to share joys and concerns, just as the adults do upstairs. In RE, we refer to these sharings as Roses/Buds/Thorns, meaning we invite kids to share something joyful and exciting in their life (a rose), something they are looking forward to (a bud) or something they are worried or upset about (a thorn).

Aside from our circle time, we also introduce a project or idea for the day. Sometimes this is a craft project, an exploration, a community-building project or a presentation or sharing from a guest. Kids are encouraged to follow their curiosity and explore the options during our time together. We have different options to engage their curiosity and their exploration. If they are excited about the project for the day, they can do that. If they’d like to explore something else or have free play time, they are encouraged to do so. We love watching as they make their own decisions and explore and play together!