Learning

Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church provides children and youth an opportunity to explore, reflect, and learn in a nurturing spiritual community. HUUC Religious Education offers the following for kindergarten through senior high ages:

Ethical growth – internalizing enduring values like justice, equity, and compassion, and gaining tools to act on them in everyday life.
Social growth – connecting with peers and people of all ages on a deeper level. Finding acceptance among people who see beyond the superficial.
Spiritual growth – feeling a connection with the sacred within, among, and beyond us.

Our 7 Principles:

1st Principle: We believe that each and every person is important.
2nd Principle: We believe that all people should be treated fairly and kindly.
3rd Principle: We believe that we should accept one another and keep on learning together.
4th Principle: We believe that each person must be free to search for what is true and right in life.
5th Principle: We believe that all persons should have a vote about the things that concern them.
6th Principle: We believe in working for a peaceful, fair, and free world.
7th Principle: We believe in caring for our planet Earth, the home we share with all living things.

Our Sources:

The living tradition we share draws from many sources including:
Direct experience of mystery and wonder;
Words and deeds of prophetic women and men;
Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;;
Jewish and Christian teachings;
Humanist teachings using reason and science;
Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions.

Religious Education programs include more than classes. On a Sunday you might find the preschoolers exploring kindness through the Spirit Play program we utilize, the 2nd graders engaging with a story about loss and bereavement, the 5th graders cooking a meal to deliver to shut-ins or exchanging mail with a congregational penpal , the 7th graders learning about various world religions or participating in Our Whole Lives (the UU sexuality training program), and the high-school youth working overnight with City Reach in Boston to minister to the homeless. Many programs incorporate social justice activities, worship opportunities, service trips, fellowship, and fun.

Our Director of Religious Education and volunteer teachers lead our Religious Education programs. Parents and other members of the congregation serve as volunteer teachers and assistants in the programs. Teaching can be a very fulfilling way to deepen one’s own faith.

Children’s religious education programs are typically offered on Sunday mornings, and high school youth programs are usually offered on Sunday afternoons or evenings.

We invite you to explore these pages and contact our Religious Education Director to get connected.