Reflections on Children and Youth RE
My favorite moments here at UUSM are spent in children’s classrooms. I have taught Coming of Age, OWL, the program formerly known as Neighboring Faiths, and children in almost every age group. After the service on March 30, 2025, I felt compelled to tell everyone how much it meant to me to see our children so involved in a presentation crafted by our Director of Multigenerational Religious Education, Jessica TenHave-Place, MDiv.
Children from 2 to 12 doing readings and helping with blessings and present everywhere in the sanctuary. What a joy!!!
The force of the message was the inherent worth and dignity of every child, but I would frame it as the inherent worth and dignity of children of all ages, including 75-year-olds like me who have never given up being a child at heart.
I strongly recommend that if you did not get a chance to either be at the service in person or to view it online, that you take the opportunity to watch the video below. I will watch it again because it was so full of hope and goodness.
Here is one of my favorite quotes:
“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”
— Forest E. Witcraft, teacher, scholar, Boy Scouts executive
We are currently in the process of rebuilding our Youth RE program for Middle and High Schoolers and I hope you will consider being part of that process. We can also use help with our younger children’s programs. Please reach out to Jessica at dmre@uusm.org if you can see yourself helping in any way.
Photos by Carol Ring and Roy Patience
