Members of the NSUU Youth Group present a service titled "Acceptance: It's Who U(U) Are!" in May 2011. Click on image for more photos.
This is an exciting time of expansion, renewal, and reconfiguration in the Northshore UU Church’s Religious Education Department — now known as the Religious Exploration Department.
From the advent of a new multigenerational religious education program and youth group to a renewed focus on the children as the future of our congregation, religious education has found a new place at the forefront of the Northshore Church community. We are happy to have welcomed two new families into the church during the 2010-’11 church year as well as several visitors throughout the year. We hope to continue and build upon this growth in the coming year, and are excited to return to the thriving program of years past.
Meet Ashley Murphy, our Director of Religious Education
After extensive congregational research, the multigenerational religious education program began in January with three offerings: Spirit of Life, Reflections, and Little Learners. While the Little Learners program struggled, with most children choosing to participate in the Spirit of Life class with their parents, the other two were a wonderful success. Regularly attended by 12 to 15 people each, these offerings were an opportunity to move beyond the worship element of the Sunday service and to consider the ways we as individuals are affected and moved by our world. Strong leadership teams in each group saw that the programs were well run and organized, and congregational surveys revealed widespread acclaim for each offering. In the 2011-’12 year, we will expand upon our existing program with a variety of offerings, old and new. While Reflections will continue in its current format, the multigenerational course will focus on Global Faith: Religions Around the World.
It is my hope to develop a number of teaching teams to serve on a rotational basis for the upcoming church year. This will allow everyone to attend service at some point, offer consistency in leadership to the children, and hopefully introduce a new body of adults to the wonder and wisdom of our youngest members. A weekend training retreat will be held for all religious education volunteers in the fall.
Formed at the end of 2010, the Northshore Church Youth Group is one of the most intimate and inspiring groups at the church. The youth have formed a wonderful connection that can only be likened to a small family through which they are exploring, growing, questioning, and serving. We have participated in several service events this year, including preparing a meal at Lifebridge and hosting the church’s team for the annual Walk for Hunger. The Youth Group is in search of mentors to join us for the coming year. If interested, please contact me directly at your earliest convenience.
I will also be contacting individuals to put together a new Religious Education Task Force for the 2011-’12 year. This team will work with me to develop curricula, attend religious education related district events, and periodically staff the various programs. If you would like to join this group, please contact me directly as soon as possible.
After much deliberation, the task force, teaching team, and Northshore Church staff has joined me in deciding to rename the Religious Education program as the Religious Exploration Department. While an element of our work is education, connecting with our own understandings of faith, deciphering our roles in the world, and developing meaningful practices in our daily lives are not simply facts that can be learned and retained. Religion is not a process of rote memorization, but one of questioning, mingling, and growing — of exploration. It is our hope that this new title, while retaining the same acronym widely recognized by the Unitarian Universalist Association, will help to reconfigure the meaning of religious education within our congregation and beyond. Religion is not something we know, it is something we experience in new and different ways at all times.
On a personal note, I would like to thank each and every member and participant at Northshore Church for a wonderful first year. We have made incredible strides in redefining what it means to do church as well as who we are as a congregation. It is my hope that the Religious Education Program continues to serve as an inspiration to the congregation, encouraging us to look beyond ourselves and what is known/comfortable as we learn and grow together.
Ashley Murphy
Director of Religious Education
northshoredre {at} gmail {dot} com
