“RE is an essential ministry in a congregation and must be tended carefully and enthusiastically.” Yes, exactly!

What a good idea about having conversations sometimes instead of always a story; I went to a seder recently where the rabbi engaged the children in conversation about the religious topics and I was impressed with the depth of their insights in response.

UUMomma,

Oh good, we’re getting each other’s writing work done! :-)

My sense is that children can get a lot out of worship when it’s an intentionally intergenerational worship service, with activities, music and words geared to be accessible on a multiple levels. And, as you note, it models the expectation of community involvement and worship attendance early on.

However, most of the UU Sunday morning worship services I’ve been to are not intentionally intergenerational and operate on the assumption that children will be in a separate space for most of the service, so I imagine that’s a challenge for the few children that do attend the service. It’s nice that your congregation offers the option of children attending both RE and worship, so that families can choose to worship together.

In our congregation, we don’t send the children out during worship. This became problematic recently and we are addressing it for the summer, but I’m finding that children as young as six can get something out of the service. Can. Not often do, but can. More importantly, we feel it introduces our children to what it means to be in community, in church, together. My girls twitched and moaned about going yesterday, but once there, had a blast during the hour of RE before the worship and in the hour-long congregational meeting after the service. They had fun with each other, with the babies and toddlers, and even with the adults who hung out with them.

Thanks again for the shout-out. I look forward to hearing more from you on this.

In our congregation, we often have conversations with the children before they go to their classes, rather than a story. Yesterday, our sermon theme was Science and UUism and the conversation, led by a layleader, was about how Science influences our spirituality, using the image of flat earth and sun’s orbit as being old theories that religion clung to but science disproved. And the kids got it. It was remarkable.