First Parish Universalist Church--Stoughton, MA--Religious Education Program

	Religious Education	Child care: 10:15 AM to 11:45 AM Worship: 10:30 AM Children's Chapel: 10:30 AM Church School: 10:45 AM Youth Group: TBD
	at First Parish Universalist Church, Stoughton, MA

First Parish Universalist Church
790 Washington St.
Stoughton, MA 02072
(781) 344-6800

Pillars of Unitarian Universalist Religious Education

In 1997 the Religious Education Committee identified five major themes and topics, important to religious people of all ages, that could be called the "Pillars" of Unitarian Universalist religious education and adopted them as the basis for all religious education programming. The Pillars are:

UU Identity
UU Values in Action
Jewish and Christian Heritage
World Religions
The Web of Life

Within each school year, all children in Grades 1 through 9 in the Religious Education Program will be exposed to each of these themes. We have divided the year into 5 segments which last approximately 6 weeks each. Each class will use age appropriate curricula to focus on the same theme for those 6-week segments. The timing of each Pillar varies from year to year to coordinate with the holidays and the holydays of the world religions being studied.

Children have opportunities to learn these important concepts at their age appropriate level every year, year after year. Each year will be a different experience, meeting the children's changing developmental and age levels, providing new insights at each stage of development. This approach allows us to make the best possible use of our very limited Church School time by teaching the essence of each theme, each year.

The “Pillars” approach to curriculum has many advantages:

Time and attention are focused on the most important subjects;
The general topic is clear to everyone - children, parents, teachers, others in the church, newcomers and visitors;
Siblings in different classes have a common topic to talk about;
Key topics are revisited every year, for more learning at a new grade level;
The current Pillar can be the subject of a sermon, bulletin board theme or book display;
Teachers can choose their favorite topic - to teach/to learn about; and,
Special programs, special exhibits, loaned artifacts can benefit all classes.

UU Identity

The criticism is often made that UU children know more about other religions than their own. We don't want this to be the case. Within this pillar, we will talk about what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist, learn about the lives and contributions of famous UU men and women, and explore the principles which form a basis of UU beliefs and traditions.

UU Values in Action

Simply having an academic understanding of UU principles, of famous UUs, or of UU heritage is meaningless unless the children are given examples of how our UU values can and have been put into practice. They will also have opportunities to put these values into action themselves through service projects.

Jewish and Christian Heritage

No matter what our religious beliefs, living in the United States means living in a culture that relies heavily on a Jewish and Christian heritage. This pillar will be Biblically based and will cover stories and characters from both the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament) and the Christian New Testament but from a UU twist and perspective.

World Religions

Unitarian Universalism draws on elements of many faith traditions. As the globe seems to shrink every day, it is important to know about other religions and cultures in our community, country and around the world. In this pillar the children learn about the beliefs and customs of religions around the world.

The Web of Life

Topics covered in the "Web of Life" pillar vary from year to year. All of the children in grades 1 through 9 come together in a single classroom during this pillar. We use this pillar to explore concepts and ideas that are distinctly Unitarian Universalist but which do not neatly fall into the other pillars. Since adopting the use of Pillars we have used this time to learn about :

Native American Religions using the curricula "Honoring Our Mother Earth"
Jesus using Sophia Lyons Fahs book "Jesus the Carpenter's Son" as the basis of the lessons
UU Principles using the letters ROY G. BIV and the colors of the rainbow to remember the primary words in the Principles.
Traditions in earth-based religions
UU-appropriate lessons to be learned from the writings of Dr. Seuss
Creating Circles of Hope and Circles of Peace, acting in non-violent, peaceful ways in our daily lives
Looking at UU Principles and values through Hogwarts School for Young Unitarian-Universalists at Stoughton

This page was last updated on 10/02/2005.
For questions about this Web Site, contact Susan O'Connor at info@uustoughtonma.org.