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.
The children begin their Sunday morning experience in the worship service with their families for about the first 15 minutes. In the worship service, the children ring our Tower Bell 7 times to honor our 7 values. After participating in music and meditation, they are sung out to their Religious Exploration session in Fellowship Hall. 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.
Kindergarten through
6th Grades
Soul Matters
We are part of a wider theme-based ministry network called Soul Matters. This group of over 150 Unitarian Universalist congregations across the country follows the same monthly themes. The themes are shared in worship, music, children's programming and in small group ministries. Bringing us into deeper connection, we are companions traveling a new journey together each month.
Our Monthly Themes
How do these values offer us both challenge and comfort? What might it mean to place them at the center of our living and loving? What promise do they hold for us individually as well as collectively? These are some of questions that will guide and bless our journey in the year ahead.
The Gift of...
September: Invitation
October: Deep Listening
November: Repair
December: Presence
January: Story
February: Inclusion
March: Trust
April: Joy
May: Imagination
June: Freedom
Coming of Age (COA) for
Middle and High School teens
As youth leave childhood and enter their teen years, here at UUCHV we honor this transition with the COA program. Coming of Age is a 2 year program which focuses on helping middle school youth identify their guiding values and unique spiritual beliefs. Rather than asking young people to affirm a creed, we ask them to think carefully about what they hold to be true, and the principles that guide their choices.
The participating youth will be supported on this journey by our minister (Rev Daniel), DRE (Jane) and volunteer facilitators and members from our congregation.
Across religions and cultures, people honor the transition from childhood to youth with ritual (for example, Confirmation in the Christian faith and Bar/Bat Mitzvah in the Jewish faith). This year, we honor this transition with a Coming of Age ceremony.
Social Action
One of the hallmarks of Unitarian Universalism is social activism. That’s because UUs have always believed we must apply our faith to the world we live in. The Religious Exploration program is designed to encourage our children and youth to become involved in social action within our community and the world at large. Social Action is integrated into our R.E. program throughout the year. See some of the good work our children and youth do in the photos below.
UPCOMING
SOCIAL ACTION PROJECT
Middle and high school youth from UU Fellowship of Northern Westchester, Community UU Congregation of White Plains and UU Congregation of Hudson Valley will come together on April 4th at 7:00 PM in partnership with Interfaith Prison Partnership.Interfaith Prison Partnership is a community-based interfaith non-profit organization that exists to increase awareness of the inherent value of incarcerated individuals. IPP's goal is to have those inside the correction system to feel less "out of sight out of mind" and more seen, heard, valued and accepted.We will be creating care packages. As we come togehter to demonstrate a shared humanity, we will remind ourselves that we are all better than the worst thing that we have ever done. We all deserve grace. We all deserve love
Annual Easter Can Hunt
We donate cans of cat & dog food to the Westchester SPCA
Annual Mitten Tree
We collect brand new winter accessories that are given to those in need.
Past Social Action Projects
Food prep for Midnight Run
Our kids work for racial justice
PRIDE in NYC
PRIDE in Yorktown
The great end in religious instruction is not to stamp our minds irresistibly upon the young,
but to stir up their own;
Not to make them see with our eyes,
but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own;
Not to give them a definite amount of knowledge,
but to inspire a fervent love of truth;
Not to form an outward regularity,
but to touch inward springs.
~ William Ellery Channing
