Lifespan Religious Education

Adult Religious Education

Literature and Theology:

Zora Neale Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain

When: 9/17, 10/1, 10/8, and 10/22 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Board Room

In four class meetings, we’ll discuss Hurston’s humorous and wise retelling of the Moses story. Using ideas from Black Liberation Theology, we’ll respond to Hurston’s vernacular account of a stubborn people in need of leadership. Many readers treasure Hurston’s once forgotten but now famous novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. In the Moses novel, Hurston again employs her knowledge of Black American anthropology to examine the politics of freedom and social dissent. In this 2008 election season, the story has particular relevance and even allegorical meanings. Most important of all, though, will be the chance to enjoy together a novel by a writer who “once was lost, and now is found,” the incredible (and prophetic) Zora Neale Hurston. Copies of the book will be available for borrowing in the church office. For the first meeting, read through chapters I-IX. You’ll smile or laugh as you read. If you have suggested topics for discussion, contact nancyhuse@augustana.edu.
 

Movie and Potluck:

A View from the Underside

When: September 5th
Where:

Come and join fellow UUs as we view and discuss a movie entitled: A View from the Underside: The legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In this movie, Bonhoeffer is in a prison cell, awaiting execution and he shares with his audience his struggles with evil, injustice, and God. He expresses outrage against the Nazi treatments of Jews and explains how he became involved in the resistance. Al Staggs, who visited the Unitarian Church in Davenport, plays Bonhoeffer in this 50 minute movie.
Bring a plate to share.
A movie will be shown in another room for the children.
All are welcome.

Unitarian Church Spirituality Retreat:

About 10 congregants and Rev. Butts are planning a spirituality retreat for September or perhaps October. Please look out for details in the following places: order of service, qcuu-all@yahoogroups.com and http://progresspq.blogspot.com/.

 

Please print and post our new flyer. <View flyer>

Class and Discussion Meeting Times

• Grades Kindergarten thru 6th
  Children’s Chapel: 11am Sundays (Worship and Workshop)
  Children’s chapel is a new offering at the Unitarian Church. Three weeks out of the month, this group will meet downstairs in the new Children’s Chapel and have a worship service dedicated to them. After the service, the children will move into the workshop area which will be focused on activities related to our Judaic-Christian heritage. Activities will include: singing, sculpting, painting, pottery, drama, games and much, much more! The final Sunday of the month, the group will participate in an intergenerational service in the Great Hall and share what they have been doing in the previous weeks! Good times for all involved!!
• Jr. High (7th & 8th grades)
  R.O.P.E. Rite of Passage Experience. 10am Sundays (please note the time change)
  This group will also be participating in OWL education from November 6th – December 18th and also from February 26th – April 9th. Our Whole Lives (OWL) is sexuality education designed specifically for this age group. Parental/Guardian permission is required. More information will be provided soon.
• High School (9th – 12th grades) 10am Sundays
  This group meets weekly to discuss important issues and to participate in a service designed for and by the HS group.

Sunday 10:00 AM - Sunday Forum - Adult-level Presentations

Wednesday 5:45 PM - Wonderful Wednesdays (A Simple Supper, Vespers, and Adult Level Classes)

Religious education is a political activity with pilgrims in time that deliberately and intentionally attends with people to our present, to the past heritage it embodies, and to the future possibility it holds for the total person and community. -Thomas Groome

Welcome from Rev. Roger Butts

We are, all of us, religious educators.

Everything that happens at the Unitarian Church - musical concerts, Sunday morning worship, small group Connection Circles, Sunday School—all of it provides an understanding of what and who we are as a people called Unitarian Universalists.  We claim to be people who live the questions, who love diversity, who seek justice and peace. Our children learn about that through how we are together!  The task before us—to walk with our children and others as they develop spiritually—is a huge and energizing task.  When it comes to faith development and religious education for our children and young people, we have a terrific heritage. John Murray, early Universalist minister, reminds us that our mission is to give people hope, to give them courage, to share with them the everlasting love of God.  Sophia Lyon Fahs, a giant of the 20th century, described religious education this way: Instead of helping children on Sunday to think about religious things, we need to learn how to help children to think about ordinary things until insights and feelings are found which have a religious quality...the religious way is the deep way, the way with a growing perspective and an expanding view.. .the way that dips into the heart of things.. .that touches universal relationships.

While all of us are involved in the life of religious education, some have been called to teach in the Sunday morning classroom, or in the Wednesday evening classroom. Those teachers are wonderful volunteers attempting to teach, not just from curriculum, but from the heart.

Our Lifespan Religious Education program is a centerpiece of our community.  It may be the most important thing we do as a community. Our church is a laboratory for what it means to be human and to develop into a religious human being.  The opportunities to come and be a part of the learning is before you. 

Jump in. Enjoy and grow! 

Rev. Roger Butts