Adult Ed Curriculum | Emerson UU Church

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Religious Education	RE for Children & Youth	Adult Ed
Mission \| Curriculum \| Calendar \| Programs \|

Men are brothers
in good deeds
regardless of their
different creeds.
PHILIP M. LARSON

**A Gift for Judy**

Ken Salzman presents a journal to Judy Richardson with our thanks for the Living Our Faith Series.

Unitarian Universalism Adult Religious Education Basics

As members and friends of Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church, we have among us fellow congregants from many faith traditions and none at all: the deists, the theists, the humanists, the atheists. What other names can we call ourselves? Certainly “unique” is appropriate. And yet, as Unitarian Universalists we come together as a community to grow, to learn from one another, and to advance side-by-side along our individual journeys of faith.

While Unitarian Universalists embrace a wide diversity of theological opinion, we nonetheless share common principles, quite importantly the history and heritage of our faith tradition and a respect for the wisdom of other religions. Over the past few months, we have introduced a lecture series on the Old and New Testaments given by our own Laura Emerson, as well as Sunday guest speakers on a number of different religions and faith traditions. The increased attendance for these Bible and World Religions presentations have convinced us that a more formal cycle of offerings in some primary areas is vitally important and will be well received.

To that end, the Committee, with the assistance and support of our ministers, has developed a new Core Curriculum. The five core course areas (UU History, Personal Theology, Spirituality, Bible, and World Religions) will be presented in a three-year cycle, so that every Emerson adult who wishes to may gain knowledge in all of them within a reasonable period of time. The Adult Education Committee believes that every Emerson member and friend should have the opportunity to explore these areas and to develop a personal theological perspective. We trust that this body of knowledge can only help us as we strive toward growing our souls. You can expect to see more announcements about upcoming presentations in the near future.

Core Curriculum

• Unitarian Universalist History

"Who's Who in the UUs -- UU History through the lives of those who made it" is a Third Sunday Adult Ed on UU History during the 2009-10 church year.
Copies of the presentations: The Beginnings; UU History in Europe; Beginnings in America; The Universalists; The Transcendentalists, Darwin, The Civil War and the Westward Movement; Civil War to WWI
Co-minister Becky Edmiston-Lange led a four-part series in the spring of 2008.

• Personal Theology

Planned for 2010, Rev. Becky Edmiston-Lange will teach a course in "Building Your Own Theology."

• Spirituality

Parents as Spiritual Guides, a series especially for parents and led by Judy Richardson is part of the Third Sunday Adult Ed curriculum.
Living Our Faith series, led by Judy Richardson, was featured each month from September, 2008 until June, 2009. Living our Faith affirms the religious diversity in our congregation while seeking unity in our communal quest for meaning.

The series was predicated on three fundamental ideas:

• The "free and responsible search for truth and meaning" that we affirm in our UU principles is a spiritual quest.
• This quest is more effectively and evocatively carried out if we have some guidance and practice that helps us attend to and value the depth of experiences in our lives.
• There is nothing in our lives that cannot serve as a tool for our faith enrichment.

• Bible

Series by Laura Emerson: Bible Stories for Liberal Adults presented fall of 2009 (Bible Quiz from that series); Liberal Bible 101 (Old Testament) was offered Fall 2007; Liberal Bible 201 (New Testament) was offered in the Spring of 2008

• World Religion

World Religious Symbols at Emerson: Do you know what they are?

The most public and prominent religious symbols at Emerson are of religions around the world as exemplified by the Gathering Place sculpture and the sanctuary's pulpit cloth, chalice and kneeling bench. In May, Laura Emerson refreshed our knowledge of the religions these symbols represent and the ideals they convey. As she reminds us, our Emerson community showcases the world's religious symbols in order to remember to draw fruitfully from all of them. Notes from Laura's talk, including pictures of the symbols, are available here: Religious Symbols Talk Notes

Speakers in the past have covered these topics in World Religions:

January 27, 2008: Hinduism
February 3, 2008: Yoga Asana
February 24, 2008: Black Religion
April 20, 2008: Women and Islam
May 4, 2008: Buddhism
May 11, 2008: Taoism
Summer, 2008: Native American Spirituality, Islam
Spring, 2009, a series of lectures on World Religions, co-sponsored by the Boniuk Center for Tolerance at Rice.


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