Hello and welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Hudson Valley’s Religious Exploration community! We are happy to have you with us.
Here at the UUCHV, we offer a safe space where children and youth can ask big questions, where curiosity and wonder are encouraged and the ideas of children and youth are valued. It is here where our children begin their life-long process of spiritual discovery. It is here where our children discover the meaning of beloved community.
I look forward to getting to know you and welcome your questions as you seek a spiritual home for your family.
In beloved community,
Jane Podell, Director of Religious Exploration
Our Religious Exploration Philosophy for Children and Youth
We value our children and youth because of their own innate worth as people and because they are the future of our community and our world. As Unitarian Universalists, we do not seek to provide our children with ready-made answers to life's questions in the form of a fixed creed or doctrine. Instead, we seek to provide our children and youth with an environment in which they may grow up with a strong sense of values, morals, religious understanding and identity as set forth in our UU principles . To this end, we are committed to offering a Religious Exploration (RE) program which will enrich the lives of our children and youth, helping them to recognize and realize their full potential and build firm foundations for meaningful, ethical lives, always with a holy curiosity.
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
You cannot help but be in awe when you contemplate the mysteries
of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.
It is enough if you try to merely comprehend a little of this mystery every day.
Never lose a holy curiosity.
A Holy Curiosity, Albert Einstein
Worship in Children's Chapel
The word “worship” is derived from the Olde English word “woerthship,” meaning “worthiness” or “worth-ship.” In its simplest concept, worship is to give worth to something.
When you hear us speak of “worship,” we speak of “that which is of worth,” giving the children a sense of community, a feeling of at-oneness with each other and the world, an affirmation of what we believe and a feeling of inspiration, wonder and awe.
Every Sunday, the children meet in Fellowship Hall while the adults gather in the sanctuary. Here the children light their own chalice, share “joys and sorrows,” hear stories related to questions of importance, followed by discussion and art projects or music.