Religious Education
We need to examine and try to understand our world and all of the interacting and interrelating forces that flow around us. The church is a necessary institution for examining many areas that the society at large is either unable or unwilling to examine. Morality and ethics and values in our lives is often ignored, on the one hand, or shoved at us in a rigid authoritarian manner, on the other. Each of us must examine, for ourselves, what is meaningful and valuable in our goal to live more meaningful, compassionate lives.
We have also come to some common understandings about what is important to impart to our children. Values such as the embracing of pluralism, being enriched by diversity, discussing with others the challenges of growing up, understanding our sexuality and examining issues critically and in an informed manner are issues that our society either does not address at all or may even provide misleading information about.
The Unitarian Universalist Church has been at the cutting edge of Religious Education since William Ellery Channing advised his congregation,
"The great end in religious instruction is not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own…Not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs."