If money weren't an issue....

Religious Education

from Sonja Lamicela, DRE

If money weren't an issue....

I've been asked before “If money wasn't an issue what would you do in your RE program?”

I think to myself...hmmm...

·         I'd hire a consistent well trained child care provider for the nursery so that new parents could go to the service and revive their spirit for the hard work of parenting.

·         I'd have a team of at least three people trained for every level of OWL(Our Whole Lives), our comprehensive Unitarian Universalist Sexuality Education Curricula for K-1, 4-5, 7-8, High School, Young Adult and Adults.

·         I'd have the most up to date curricula available to our teaching teams

·         Maybe I'd even take our teachers on a team building cruise to Bermuda each fall

·         I'd send our Youth on Short Term Mission trips so that they can have transformational  experiences that affect their long term social action visions.

·         I'd bring in trainers for our RE teachers to learn more about including children with special needs and Unitarian Universalist history.

·         I'd buy a Star Trek  food synthesize so that every child could have a perfect snack that tastes like cream puffs but is as nutritious as kale.

·         I'd provide transportation to families who are struggling for gas money or a functioning car to get to church.

·         I'd hire sign language interpreters and teaching aids for our special needs children to ensure inclusion for everyone in our Sunday School.

·         I'd build on a “Children's Chapel” so that all of our children could worship in one space several times per year.

·         I would expand our  lending library of spiritually based parenting books to help parents through the sticky parts of raising UU children.

·         I'd have several classes every week for adults to explore their UU faith in a study or discussion format so that everyone could find something that fit their schedule and their needs.

·         I'd give every child a copy of each of our hymnals so that they can explore our music at home.

·         I'd set up a fund to send all of our Youth and/or families to UU camp each summer.

·         I'd send all of our graduating Seniors to General Assembly to claim their voice in the larger movement.

·         Maybe I'd even take all of our middle school children on a World tour to Boston and New Jersey to see our headquarters and where we started in the US and Transylvania and India to see UU churches in other parts of the world.

These are a few things that come to my mind.  What would you dream if Money was not an obstacle?

Making a Home for Multiracial Multiethnic Youth.

In reading Nurturing Children and Youth by Tracy Hurd, I came upon a section in the chapter on Young Adolecents that underscored that "This can be a particularly sensitive time for transracially adopted, multiracial, or multiethnic adolescents.  navigating multiple identities, they may feel the need to choose with whom they will identiry. "  and "Early adolescence is the time when youth seek to be with others who seem like themselves, a challeng for youth who are under-represented in many Unitarian Universlist congregations. "  " In the process of identigying who they are, multiethcnic and multiracial adoclescents are likely to reject all that they are not.  Mutliracial youth often report feeling that they must choose one racial identity in order to fit in somewhere." 

I am exploring how we as a congregation might be able to provide a safe space for youth with mulitracial multiethnic and transracial adoptive experiences.  Perhaps a peer group of other youth who experience the same challenges.  While I personally don't have experience navigating these identity issues, it might be very helpful to seek out an adult in the congregation who might be willing to take up this mission.  To provide a youth group meeting once a month or so when youth with mulitple racial identities can come together to share their experience and the means they use to synthesize their identities, so that no one has to go through all of that alone. 

Being in a multiracial multiethnic community with a fair amount of transracial adoption, I think we are well poised to start this kind of work.  Is there anyone reading who feels that you have the experience to step up to leadership in this area?  If not, do any of you have thoughts on how this work can be undertaken by someone who is essentially white while still making a safe space?