What We Offer Through the Lifespan

We provide children, youth, young adults, and adults an opportunity to explore, reflect, and learn in a nurturing spiritual community. Unitarian Universalist religious education, which is called spiritual development at USG, offers to all ages:

• Ethical growth – internalizing enduring values like justice, equity, and compassion, and gaining tools to act on them in everyday life.
• Social growth – connecting with peers and people of all ages on a deeper level. Finding acceptance among people who see beyond the superficial.
• Spiritual growth – feeling a connection with the sacred within, among, and beyond us.

Spiritual development programs include more than classes. On a Sunday you might find the preschoolers singing songs about kindness, the 2nd graders engaging with a story about loss and bereavement, the 5th graders talking with a Muslim couple about Islam, the 7th graders learning about responsibility in a lesson from our progressive sexuality education program, and the high-school youth raising money for the local homeless shelter. Many programs incorporate social justice activities, worship opportunities, service trips, fellowship, and fun.

Our Director of Spiritual Development and Minister lead some of our congregation’s lifespan programs. Parents and other members of the congregation lead them, too. Teaching can be a very fulfilling way to deepen one’s own faith.

Children and youth spiritual development programs are typically offered on Sunday mornings, and adult programs are usually offered on afternoons or evenings.

We invite you to explore these pages and contact Director of Spiritual Development, Rev. Kevin DeBeck (Rev. Kev) at dsd@usguu.org and/or our Adult Spiritual Development (asd@usguu.org) or Child Spiritual Development (csd@usguu.org) chair people to get connected.