Everything we do is Faith Formation. Everything we teach is Unitarian Universalism. And, the congregation is the curriculum.
Welcome to Our Learning Community!
Our religious exploration program enriches the lives of children, youth, and families. We strive to help one another grow in spiritual practice, to deepen understanding of and respect for our religiously diverse world, and to live UU values in our daily lives, growing to become ever more loving. We encourage parents to ask questions, visit classrooms, and participate in support of the spiritual growth of our young people.
Worship and Religious Exploration
Worship is an important part of who we are and what we do. We offer enriching Religious Exploration available each Sunday, including intergenerational worship services.
Children in Pre-Kindergarten through grade 6 attend the first 15 minutes of service with their families and then are sung out to their classes or all-ages activity.
Junior High and Senior High youth begin their gathering at 10:00 a.m.
Sunday Worship Services & Religious Exploration Offerings at 10 am
- Message for All Ages in Worship every Sunday
- Religious Exploration offerings regularly on Sundays during worship
- Faith in Action events on 5th Sundays of the month
2026-27 Religious Exploration
2026-27 RELIGIOUS EXPLORATION FOR CHILDREN & YOUTH
begins September 20, 2026 and will run through May 16, 2027.
Countryside offers nursery care on a regular basis during Sunday morning worship. The nursery room has live sound from the sanctuary and is available for your use as needed.
Please email our Director of Religious Exploration, Dr. Mary Shelden, at dre@ccuu.org, with any questions you may have about nursery care.
Picture Book UU
This curriculum teaches young children about the love at the center of our faith and how our values of interdependence and transformation can lead us to love. Picture Book UU is fun and friendly with teachable moments that introduce our faith to participants. We will use picture books to introduce UU values and offer opportunities for our young people to ask good questions and begin to explore their own answers. Each lesson includes a sharing circle, a storybook that teaches our values, a creative play activity, and a closing circle – often with some time for supervised free play after the lesson.
Grades 3-6: Flourishing in the Web of Life
Leaning into our UU values of interdependence and transformation, we’ll be exploring nature (outdoors on our church grounds, weather permitting) and what it can teach us about mutuality, reciprocity, and how to love our fellow-beings of Earth. Each session includes an opening sharing circle, a brief wisdom tale, a mindfulness activity, some practice in exploration and/or observation, and a closing reflective circle.
Our Whole Lives (OWL) (Grades 7 – 10)
Our Whole Lives (OWL) is the Unitarian Universalist comprehensive sexuality education curriculum for all stages of life. Parents are children’s primary teachers, but given what we know about what society teaches our children about sexuality, parents can surely use some support. Our Whole Lives (OWL) values: Self-Worth, Sexual Health, Responsibility, Justice, and Inclusivity. Our Whole Lives is an antidote to sexualized media messages, peer pressure, misinformation, and prejudice. Participants are guided by trained facilitators through an engaging curriculum that addresses topics most important to young people, including those typically excluded from sexuality education and health classes. Grounded in a holistic view of sexuality, OWL provides medically accurate facts about anatomy, human development, and sexual health. OWL provides accurate, age-appropriate information, putting sexuality in the context of values and personal responsibility, supporting healthy decision-making, and strengthening social skills. Look for our next offering of OWL in 2027-28.
Becoming: Grades 6-8
Becoming is the Soul Matters Coming of Age curriculum, designed for young adolescents to explore their own identities, beliefs, and faith experiences. The curriculum frames spiritual life in terms of three dimensions:
- Belonging – To whom or what do I belong?
- Becoming – Who am I becoming?
- Beyond – What is beyond me?
It explores these dimensions using five lenses: UUism (our values, sources, and history), popular culture, direct life experience, and beloved others.
Coming of Age is a legacy program and one frequently cited by lifelong UUs as one of the most important in shaping their identity. Working with congregational members as guides, youth explore their own faith, defining it for themselves ,and making it articulable to others. The Coming of Age experience culminates in an opportunity to share with the congregation, in what we call a credo statement, the ideas and resonances they come to over the course of the year. There will also be an opportunity to make a journey to some important location – perhaps Boston! – associated with UU identity.
Senior High Youth Group (Grades 9-12) ~ Sundays at 10 am
SHYG offers a variety of activities, planned for youth by youth. Our youth advisors guide our 9th-12th graders through a series of events based on our youths’ interests and leanings. Youth plan a thing and then do a thing – service projects, group events, even overnighters, sometimes with other UU youth groups. Team-building and leadership development are also important throughlines, as is exploration of putting our UU values into practice in the world outside of church.
A Cooperative Program
The vitality of our program depends on the generous support of many dedicated volunteers. When you register your child, please let us know how you’d like to share your gifts with our community. Helping in the religious exploration program is a great way to get acquainted with church members, especially other parents and families, and to learn more about our living faith. A background check and a signed covenant of ethics are required of all volunteers working regularly with children and youth. If you are interested in teaching Sunday morning religious exploration or even just giving it a try, please connect with our Director of Religious Exploration, Dr. Mary Shelden, dre@ccuu.org.