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UU Principles – Children’s Version

We believe that each person is important.

We believe that all people should be treated fairly.

We believe that we should accept one another and keep learning together.

We believe that each person must be free to search for what is true and right in life.

We believe that all persons should have a vote about the things that concern them.

We believe in working for a peaceful, fair and free world.

We believe in caring for our planet earth, the home we share with all living things.

 

 

Welcome to religious education at UU Church of Savannah!  We offer year-round Sunday programming for children ages 3-18, a nurturing nursery, and opportunities for adult enrichment. Children’s RE classes are held each Sunday morning at about 11:15, after the congregation sings the children out of the sanctuary. Classes end at 12:30.    

Curriculum

Our religious education classes are based on four pillars:  Unitarian Universalism, World Religions, Judeo-Christian Heritage, and Social Justice and Peacemaking.   Each year, we study a different pillar.  The pillar that we are studying for the 2011-2012 church year is World Religions.  We offer the following curricula: 

 

  • Age 3 through Grade 5:  Holidays and Holy Days, Spirit Play Version

  • Grades 6-8:  Traditions With a Wink

  • Grades 9-12:  Neighboring Faiths

 

This year, we are excited to introduce the Spirit Play teaching method to our youngest UUs.  Spirit Play is a Montessori-based teaching method that has been used successfully in many UU churches throughout the country. This program sees the purpose of religious education as helping children in living into their own answers to the existential questions that we all struggle with as human beings. Questions such as: Where did we come from? What are we doing here? What is our purpose? What are our gifts? How do we use them? Giving our children an existential toolkit that can help them navigate their lives using Unitarian Universalism as the container for their spirituality is our collective purpose.

In addition to regular Sunday programming, we are proud to offer Our Whole Lives, a sexuality education program. 

Service

Our children’s involvement in the life of the church goes beyond Sunday morning.  Once per month, they make sandwiches for Inner City Night Shelter.  They also participate in Savannah’s annual Martin Luther King Day parade, and they raise money for the church by having book and bake sales. 


Fun!

Religious education at UU Savannah is FUUN!  The Mountain, a UU retreat near Highlands, NC, provides opportunities for our children to meet and bond with UU children and teens across the nation.  Last winter, our high school youth group went to an inspirational and fun youth conference (YouthCon)  at The Mountain.  They also raised funds to help send one of our middle school children to Mountain Camp this past summer. Our youth groups have also teamed with other UU youth for fun-filled parties and game nights. 

Thank you for your interest in the religious education program here at UU Church of Savannah.  We look forward to seeing you and your children on Sunday morning!

Larry Whiteside
Director of Religious Education

Larry Whiteside

Since 1981 Larry Whiteside has worked in the field of education in both private and public settings. He has taught secondary social sciences and worked with special education students, including those with development delay and emotional behavior disorder. Desiring to move beyond his work in schools and other institutions in 2001 he he took a position as a parent educator in the community working with families in their own homes. He had been preparing to working clinically with individuals and groups for the past few years.

By 2003 he began a Master of Arts program in professional counseling. He is currently working toward licensure as a Professional Counselor in the State of Georgia.

Larry has taught religious education in the past: 7th and 8th grade students in a private Catholic school. However, he is a lifelong student of religious studies. He finds the Unitarian Universalist setting an excellent ground for continuing this work and is pleased to have a position that will allow him to grow in this area.

Born and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Larry spent many years working in the field of education in Atlanta. With five grown children and one grandchild distributed among several states, he now makes his home here in Savannah.