[printprofilepic]Summer is upon us and of course gardens are blooming. When I think of religious education in our Unitarian Universalist congregations I don’t usually think of desks, chairs, books and lessons. But I do dream about cultivating the spirits of children and youth in the sense of preparing the site; planting seeds of relationships, ideas, support, and nurturing; and then harvesting friendships, wisdom, compassion, and maturity.
As I recently re-read Transforming Liberal Congregations by Roy Phillips, I noted that William Ellery Channing, the ‘father’ of American Unitarianism also used the metaphor of a garden, saying that Self-culture (or cultivating the spirit, soul or Self) was our purpose in life and was the purpose of religion. He said, “I do not look on a human being as a machine, made to be kept in action by a foreign force, to accomplish an unvarying succession of motions, to do a fixed amount of work, and then to fall to pieces at death, but as a being of free spiritual powers, and I place little value on any culture but that which aims to bring out these, and to give them perpetual impulse and expansion.”
Channing, who also influenced Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalists, rejected Calvinism’s idea that we are born sinful and depraved. Channing said that humans have a sacred potential for growth that is positive and in constant process. Phillips suggests that the role of any congregation is to prepare the soil or cultivate the environment in which such growth is possible. As a gardener I learned just that—feed the soil, not the plant—which I take to mean you plan, you find the right tools, you invite others to help, and you supplement with just the right nutrients. I hope that’s what we can do here at this church.
Late spring and summer are the times when the RE committee and DRE start the important planning (planting?) and dreaming for the coming church year. We decide on curricula to use. We invite people like you to be the gardeners of spirit (RE teachers and youth advisors). We find ways and resources to supplement growth and formation. Please consider that holy service of teaching in RE—consider how nurturing others will influence your growth.
It is as William Ellery Channing so eloquently wrote: “The great end in religious instruction is not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own; Not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own; Not to give them a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth; not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs.”
Have fun gardening and see you in church,
Benette Sherman
Interim DRE
RE News
Summer Childcare—There are no regular RE classes during the summer but childcare is offered after Time for All Ages for children in preschool-6th grade. The nursery is available for infants through 4 years.
Summer Day Camp—Me and The Universe is the theme of the day camp (for K-6th grades), which will be offered from August 9-13 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the church. Deadline for registration is July 15th. Contact Benette Sherman for more details at dre@uulosalamos.org.
Fall RE start up—September 12th
