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Our Sunday morning RE Program seeks to facilitate the exploration of how each of us can be a better person through learning, deepening our spiritual selves, and by reaching out to make in difference in our community. All classes, except the Nursery, are staffed with volunteer teaching teams on a rotating basis.
The Nursery has a single regular care-giver each Sunday at both services. Sometimes, if more children are in attendance than expected, parents may be asked to assist with childcare. Location: Room 4
Curriculum For the curricular portion of our Sunday morning program, our RE groups will be learning about our Unitarian Universalist (UU) heritage and developing their own UU identity. Grades Kindergarten through High School will explore change and loss in our lives as we participate in our 3 week, bi-annual of Lessons of Loss curriculum.
Faith-in-Action Sundays Throughout the year, our children and youth have an opportunity to do direct service for our church, our Long Beach community and our world through hands-on projects and learning. Facilitated by Tricia Gagna. (9/26, 11/7, 12/5, 1/2, 2/6, 3/6, and 4/3)
Spiritual Practices Workshop Sundays Fifth Sundays (November, January and May), these are times for our children and youth to experience and learn about the benefits of spiritual practice and to get a taste of three different practices each Sunday.
Intergenerational services (Animal Service, Water Service, Christmas Eve Worship, etc.) Our children and youth are important members of our faith community. They learn by doing and experiencing firsthand. A primary aim of our religious education program is to cultivate a sense of pleasure and respect for worship experiences. There are several Intergenerational Services during the year. These services take the place of Religious Education classes.
Young people are welcome in our worship services. Regardless of whether they understand everything that happens, we believe that they will absorb information little by little, as well as develop a sense of identity as a Unitarian Universalist.
Summer Religious Education Program Our RE Program runs through the summer adding FUUN in Faith days, continuing religious exploration. Then in August, our children and youth, work month-long on our annual Faith-in-Action project to collect backpacks and back-to-school supplies for Long Beach's Mary McLeod Bethune Transitional Center for Homeless Students. We provide more then 120 filled backpacks each year to aid children and youth who are homeless in our area.
Religious Education Calendar The schedule on Sunday mornings vary. Our Religious Education program has many supplemental activities. Click here to learn what is going on now, and for the next few weeks.
Children and Youth RE Curriculum
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Preschool—Two-year-olds to four-year-olds
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Chalice Children The focus for this group will be on providing a nurturing environment and beginning to build friendships through stories, songs, snacks and play time.
Room 6
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Kindergarten-First Grade
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Creating Home This program helps children develop a sense of home that is grounded in faith. By Christy Olson and Jessica York
Wonderful Welcome In this program, children identify intangible gifts central to Unitarian Universalism such as friendship, hospitality and fairness, and share these gifts with others. By Aisha Hauser and Susan Lawrence
Room: Chalice B
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Second-Third Grade
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Moral Tales Provides children with spiritual and ethical tools to make choices and take actions that reflect their Unitarian Universalist beliefs and values. By the Rev. Alice Anacheka-Nasemann and Elisa Davy Pearmain
Faithful Journeys Equips children with language and experiences to develop and articulate a strong Unitarian Universalist faith identity. Through historic and contemporary stories of Unitarian Universalist faith in action. By the Rev. Alice Anacheka-Nasemann and the Rev. Lynn Ungar
Room: Chalice A
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Fourth-Fifth Grade
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Toolbox of Faith Invites participants to reflect on qualities of our Unitarian Universalist faith, such as integrity, courage and love, as tools they can use in living their lives and building their own faith. By Kate Tweedie Covey
Windows and Mirrors The metaphor of windows and mirrors represents the dynamic relationship among our awareness of self, our perceptions of others, and others’ perceptions of us.
By Gabrielle Farrell, Natalie Fenimore and Dr. Jenice View
Room: 5
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Middle School
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Amazing Grace: Exploring Right and Wrong This program guides sixth graders through ways to determine right from wrong with a Unitarian Universalist perspective, and act on their new understandings. By Richard S. Kimball
Riddle and Mystery The purpose of Riddle and Mystery is to assist sixth Graders in their own search for understanding. Each of the 16 sessions introduces and processes a Big Question. The first three echo Paul Gauguin’s famous triptych: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? The next ten, including Does God exist? and What happens when you die?, could be found on almost anyone’s list of basic life inquiries. The final three are increasingly Unitarian Universalist: Can we ever solve life’s mystery? How can I know what to believe? What does Unitarian Universalism mean to me? By Richard Kimball
Rooms: 2-3
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High School
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Living Out Our 7 Principles in the Community
Room: Lounge
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