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ALL8 Photography Exhibit: A2 Values Through the Eyes of UU Youth 

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ALL8 Photography Exhibit: A2 Values Through the Eyes of UU Youth 

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ALL8 is a series of workshops, a body of curricula and a spiritual practice that explores Unitarian Universalist principles and values through the lens of a camera. In the ALL8: Widening the Lens Exhibition Spring 2024, two youth (15 & 16 yrs old) present original photos taken over the course of a 10-week online workshop using the lenses of justice, equity, transformation, pluralism, interdependence and generosity. Rooted in love, the workshop facilitates both visual and conversational processing of complex and layered concepts and fosters connection between youth everywhere aligned in UU values and creative vision.

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Shared Values Songbook: Guide and Videos

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Shared Values Songbook: Guide and Videos

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CLICK HERE FOR SHARED VALUES SONGBOOK. We sing our theology. That means singing is faith formation for everyone of every age.

As we consider the affirmation of our living faith into seven values, we can turn to our hymns to see how those are reflected in the songs we already sing together.

The hymns in this resource (with links to YouTube videos from around the denomination) have been ours for at least 18 years - or decades more - and reflect the values that have remained core to our faith. In addition to commentary on each of the selections below, we have added some guidance for selecting other hymns to reflect these values.

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For ALL ages! Use in worship, small groups, or RE classes.

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A2 Padlet landing page image and buttons drafts

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Collaborative Art Mosaics for Our Shared Values

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Collaborative Art Mosaics for Our Shared Values

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Consider using these in worship, coffee hour, RE classes, or anywhere UUs are gathered. Especially good for multigenerational settings! The UU values are great conversations starters: “share about a time when you experienced or helped share the blessing of generosity (transformation, equity, etc).”

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Collaborative Mosaics & Coloring Book by Jenn Blosser

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Jenn Blosser’s collection of collaborative mosaics features the proposed Article II values. They can be used in worship, RE, team building, and more.

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CLICK HERE for an in-depth compendium of Core Concepts and Values, with readings, videos, music, and more

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Conversation as Covenant: Agreements for Meaningful Conversation

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Conversation as Covenant: Agreements for Meaningful Conversation

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Are We Fluent in Faith? Congregational Practice Using "Language of Reverence"

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Are We Fluent in Faith? Congregational Practice Using "Language of Reverence"

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CLICK HERE for the Fluent in Faith Congregational Activity resource

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Faithful Conversations are authentic, messy, awkward, surprising, difficult, compassionate, compelling - and REAL. As UUs, living our values means learning how to be more faithful, even in hard conversations.  The Faithful Conversations project offers resources to support healthy congregational discussions and engagement,  in ways that bring us closer together, and help us grow in faith. 

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Faithful Conversations are authentic, messy, awkward, surprising, difficult, compassionate, compelling - and REAL. As UUs, living our values means learning how to be more faithful, even in hard conversations.  The Faithful Conversations project offers resources to support healthy congregational discussions and engagement,  in ways that bring us closer together, and help us grow in faith. 

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This is an invitation rather than a destination. It is not a traditional curriculum or discussion guide. The invitation into Faithful Conversation is also an invitation for us to slow down and engage these ideas with our whole selves. Often, we can interact with others and ideas in ways including those that may not be our most common or most comfortable approaches.

If what we think something is about comes from a faith tradition we have left (or a worldview we have chosen to challenge) it can be helpful to find ways to spark different perspectives.

Sometimes, when people disagree in congregational and community life, part of the challenge is because we have a thought and then believe that thought, rather than wondering and sharing and listening with love to other perspectives. Those conversational "roads less traveled" may encourage and inspire us to deeper consideration of our own feelings and ideas. This page offers avenues to bring curiosity; to rest and reflect rather than energetically enter a fray.

We hope you will follow the path along each entry, taking time to breathe, invite wondering questions, check your thoughts, and ponder. This won't happen by accident.

We must intentionally carve out time for a good ponder in a world of immediate communication.

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Wait a Minute! Discussion and Practice for Building Beloved Community 

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Wait a Minute! Discussion and Practice for Building Beloved Community 

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Click the above image for a short video conversation with the developer of the Wait a Minute! program. It was designed by a member of the Tennessee Valley UU Church to provide a space for deep listening, respectful discussion and inspiration to work together to build the Beloved Community. CLICK HERE for access to all Wait a Minute session materials.

A Note from Patsy:
I apologize for inflating the impact of Rev. Duncan Teague’s first UU congregation in the video above. That congregation was very healing, saw him for who he was, and let him
become who he needed to be; it was indeed where his ministry was first recognized outside of mainline Christianity. However, his ministry had already been recognized, valued, and nurtured in prior Christian congregations. While this may seem small and
nuanced, I have a growing awareness that this kind of mistake results from my white culture socialization to ignore/minimize nonwhite, non-UU influences. I continue trying to build a more inclusive mental map.

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Not sure how to make sense of or move through all that you see here?  Start here for tips on exploring and using this guide.

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Not sure how to make sense of or move through all that you see here?  Start here for tips on exploring and using this guide.

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Click here for discussion guide/video. In order for our movement to hold together in these times, today’s Unitarian Universalists are challenged individually and collectively to find their faith anew. This single session in the small group ministry format invites Unitarian Universalists to consider their personal faith—their spiritual needs, understandings, and gifts—and how that faith is, or can be, honored, expressed, restored, or amplified in Unitarian Universalist community.

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Faithful Conversations offers a range of resources that engage UUs to think, talk, and create together about our values in expressive, embodied, and heart-centered ways.

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Sometimes, we need deeper and wider wisdom than our minds can reasonably grasp but which our hearts call us to. Sometimes, we need to broaden our perspective by listening heart-to-heart to fellow congregants. Sometimes, love begs us not to marginalize anyone by turning them into the "minority opinion." Sometimes, we need to re-remember and recommit to our mission and values. Sometimes we need to pause and wonder together.

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In our experience, most Unitarian Universalist congregations are not culturally predisposed to using discernment as a way to determine direction, focus or action. Our congregations generally use "the democratic process" in which group decisions are made by majority vote. The vote is taken after one or more opinions have been debated with arguments for and arguments against. Arguments may be persuasive if well-reasoned, well-articulated and/or stated with passionate conviction. Once cases are made, a choice is offered to voters: Yes or No; option A or B (and occasionally C).

It's no coincidence that the words decide and homicide share a common root: caedere meaning "to kill or cut down."

Making choices in this way happens routinely in board, committee, and congregational meetings. It also happens in business meetings of the UUA. It is promoted in the 5th Principle: "The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large."

Of course, decisions need to be made. There's nothing wrong with making them using the democratic process. But that isn't enough. In times calling for faithful risks to change or resist prevailing culture in the service of love and mission, democratic process can't be the only way we find our way together.

Sometimes, we need deeper and wider wisdom than our minds can reasonably grasp but which our hearts call us to. Sometimes, we need to broaden our perspective by listening heart-to-heart to fellow congregants. Sometimes, love begs us not to marginalize anyone by turning them into the "minority opinion." Sometimes, we need to re-remember and recommit to our mission and values. Sometimes we need to pause and wonder together.

In situations where no options seem clear, or stakes feel high and choices feel risky, group discernment is a way we can wonder together. Through group discernment, we can sort out what risks might be the faithful ones to take. In the Claiming Our Spiritual Leadership course we offer through UU Institute, the NER team claims, "For a risk to be faithful, its hoped-for outcome must advance your mission and vision. It must lead to more love, more grace, more justice. We take the risk because the mission and vision are so important that we are willing to lose money, lose members, lose momentum." In the long run, our mission, vision and values make the risk worth taking.

There's nothing easy about group discernment for any group, let alone Unitarian Universalists. In traditions with discernment practices, a key component is "listening to God or the Holy Spirit." That works for some UUs. Others will have to translate that into their own experience. (We might suggest "listening for/to the transformative power of love.") Group discernment also requires that we release attachment to particular outcomes. We don't come with an agenda and we don't push for one. We trust deeply that all others have also released their agendas and come wholly open. For most of us, that means doing some deep inner work. Group discernment takes willingness to be changed - a huge challenge for those of us programmed to seek control, yet also a fundamental purpose for a faith-based life seeking alignment with values and mission.

And it takes time. Open, spacious time that we usually think we don't have. Yet, imagine how much ease and effortlessness may result when a trusting community is aligned, engaged purposefully together, intentional, willing to take losses for the sake of something greater, and collectively enlivened by a courage that wasn't there before.

Imagine how much time and energy and grace that would free up! Just imagine.

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If you would like to learn more about this practice, please review the materials generated for the March gatherings of Spiritual Leadership for Culture Change which can be found on this resources page.

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In our experience, most Unitarian Universalist congregations are not culturally predisposed to using discernment as a way to determine direction, focus ...

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This resource is an ongoing project! Expect improvements and additions from the authors as Faithful Conversations continues to grow.

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2024-06-17 - 14_14_15 - A2 Padlet landing page image and buttons drafts - 24 x 18 in

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faithful conversations let us explore our shared values in congregations

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faithful conversations let us explore our shared values in congregations

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faithful conversations keep LOVE at the center

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faithful conversations keep LOVE at the center

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This is a collage that reads Living Our UU Values Everyday

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faithful conversations help us grow together in faith

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faithful conversations help us grow together in faith

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deep talk blocks

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Although we placed alt-text for all images, the Padlet platform itself is still not optimized for WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance, so screen readers may not navigate the site properly at this time. We ask congregations to be intentionally inclusive of the needs of all who participate. We will update the Padlet as soon as their accessibility upgrade is complete.

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We regret that this project may not be fully accessible to those who require a screen reader. It is important that this shortfall is noted by the authors, who are committed to developing resources that are as inclusive as possible.

As we work with imperfect systems on the administrative end, we ask congregations to be intentionally inclusive so that any participant access issue can be addressed individually in the way that works best for each person and community.

One solution: View this page as a slideshow via the toolbar on the right side of the screen. From there, pressing the share button will give one the option to download the entire page as a PDF, which IS accessible to screen readers.

As this resource and platform both continue to develop, the authors are prioritizing access for all. Please visit the above link for more information on this continued effort.

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Experiential Learning for 4th-8th Graders

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Experiential Learning for 4th-8th Graders

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This curriculum (DOCX, 47 pages) is designed for active, neurodiverse 9-14 year olds who benefit from more experiential learning. Rev. Caitlin names as the guiding question for the curriculum: “How do our Unitarian Universalist Values challenge us - and what tools do they call and guide us to create, as we take on life’s challenges?”

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This curriculum (DOCX, 47 pages) is designed for active, neurodiverse 9 to 14 year olds who benefit from more experiential learning. Rev. Caitlin has developed a range of such engaging sessions and exercises, to be used sequentially or combined with other curricula throughout the year.

Rev. Caitlin names as the guiding question for the curriculum: "How do our Unitarian Universalist Values challenge us - and what tools do they call and guide us to create, as we take on life's challenges?"

The curriculum contains eight unique sessions: the first two are focused on "Love", and the following six explore each of the proposed values. Each session offers a variety of elements that can be adapted to meet your group's specific learning and accessibility needs. The document also includes a four-part adaptation for a 24-hour overnight junior youth group retreat.

Get a print-friendly version of Article II Learning Resources, including all sub-pages.

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This A2-values inclusive curriculum is designed for active neurodiverse groups of 9 to 14 year olds who benefit from experiential learning opportunities.

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Building UU Identity for 1st-5th graders

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Building UU Identity for 1st-5th graders

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New Children's Curriculum Has Love, and LEGO®, at the Center

The 17 sessions in this curriculum introduce the Article II values (pluralism, interdependence, generosity, equity, justice, transformation, and love, plus kindness) through storybooks, discussion, and play activities. Each session includes an opening circle with an opening question and centering exercise, a story with discussion prompts, and a choice of play activities that carry out the theme of the day (including at least one simple LEGO build). Three appendices include a list of the centering exercises used in the curriculum, a crowd-sourced list of books for each value, and a list of materials needed to implement the curriculum. This curriculum is intended for elementary grades (1st-5th).

The author, Kathy E. Smith, CRE, (she/her) has been a professional religious educator since 2006. She currently serves as Director of Family Ministries for the Unitarian Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She previously served as religious educator for congregations in Fort Worth and Plano, Texas, and as Coordinator of Youth Activities for the Joseph Priestley District. She frequently writes curricula for her congregation and is delighted to share this LEGO® ValUUes curriculum with the broader denomination.

Get a print-friendly version of Article II Learning Resources, including all sub-pages.

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New children's curriculum introduces Article II values through storybooks, discussion, and play activities.

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UNITE! IGNITE! Kids Activity Packet for GA 2024

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UNITE! IGNITE! Kids Activity Packet for GA 2024

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This activity and resource packet, created by Jenn Blosser and Sam Wilson, was designed to complement the virtual program offered for children and youth at GA 2024 - but can be used by anyone! With A2 coloring pages, definitions in kid-friendly language, activity sheets, a template to write and illustrate a story, and even an invitation to write a letter to UUA president Sofía Betancourt, this packet can be used by young folks independently or jointly with an adult to dive deeper into the Values of A2 and the sacred work GA.

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The content on this page can be used in a variety of ways: for personal reflection, as prompts for covenant groups or other small congregational groups, as resources for crafting worship or faith development opportunities within the congregation, etc.  We invite you to consider how engaging in contemplation of these concepts might help us live faithfully and authentically in our personal lives, within our church communities, and in the world.

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The content on this page can be used in a variety of ways: for personal reflection, as prompts for covenant groups or other small congregational groups, as resources for crafting worship or faith development opportunities within the congregation, etc.  We invite you to consider how engaging in contemplation of these concepts might help us live faithfully and authentically in our personal lives, within our church communities, and in the world.