By Connie Goodbread

We should worship together!

I have this radical idea. I think we should be worshiping with our children. If worship is a  time when we celebrate the things that we find most worthy (upholding our values) then it is the time for us to teach our values to our children.

The question to ask ourselves is, “Why do we want a Children’s Religious Education Program?”

“As we seek to discover the true meaning of ministry… we do well to bear in mind that… we are all in this search for meaning and this struggle for wholeness together…” —Kortright Davis

What is your answer? I have heard, “We need young families to survive.” and “Children are our future.” While these statements are partially true they are not a good enough reason to want children to be part of the congregation. Children need to be part of the now. They are not our salvation. Adults need children. Children need adults. Together we will make a difference. Together we will build the beloved community. Children in the community make the community whole. While children will carry the vision forward, it will be changed into their vision, as it should be. Adults lay a foundation for children to build upon. If we have lived up to our responsibilities to our Unitarian Universalist children they will change us and we will all become more. In order to have this happen we must to be in deep genuine relationship.

We have been handed a model for Children’s Religious Education. It is a model of concentric programming, the center hub being Unitarian Universalism. Children’s Faith Development time happens at the same time as worship. In small congregations, under 100 adults, this presents a particularly difficult problem. There simply are not enough people to do two quality programs. But for all of us, small and large, it is the model we know so we continue to use it. However, I want to suggest that this model has not served us well. Studies tell us that we keep less than 5% of the children who literally pass through our programs. What does this tell us about our future?

I have also heard, “Children can’t sit still through the sermon.” and “Children will be restless and noisy during worship.” Nobody sits still or constantly pays attention to the sermon. If we are saying that our service is too boring for children I might ask, “How many others is the sermon too boring for?” As for restless and noisy, so are adults and we must teach everyone worship manners. It is not the children we don’t want in the service, it is disruptive behavior – from anybody. If we covenant to be together in respectful relationship and we call ourselves and one another back into covenant every time we make a mistake, our healthy relationships shouldn’t be hard to build or maintain.

There are many ways to involve children in worship. In the next couple of articles I will talk more about how to we could accomplish real family worship.

By Connie Goodbread

Covenant

Covenant, Gloucester, MA (modified)
Mindful of truth ever exceeding our knowledge,
Love and compassion ever exceeding our practice.
Reverently, we covenant together,
Beginning with ourselves as we are,
To share the strength of integrity
And the heritage of the spirit,
In humanity’s unending quest
For justice, love and human wholeness.

Eating everything you want is not that much fun.
When you live a life with no boundaries, there’s less joy… -Tom Hanks

A Covenant is a statement of what we hold most valuable, like the example above. Whether your congregation has gone through a formal Covenant writing process or not, every congregation, that is a member of our Association, is part of our covenantal faith community. Look in the front of our hymnal “We the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association covenant to affirm and promote:” the seven principles and the six sources of wisdom. Our UUA Covenant insists on respect, justice, inclusively, responsibility and open-mindedness.

A Covenant is a deep and abiding promise of how we will be with one another. A Covenant says, Continue Reading »