Our Philosophy

Our Philosophy of Religious Education

for Children and Youth

We value our children and youth because of their own innate worth as people and because they are the future of our community and our world. As Unitarian Universalists, we do not seek to provide our children with ready-made answers to life’s questions in the form of a fixed creed or doctrine.  Instead, we seek to provide our children and youth with an environment in which they may grow up with a strong sense of values, morals, as well as religious understanding and identity as set forth in our Unitarian Universalist principles.  To this end, we are committed to providing an R.E. program, which will enrich the lives of our children and youth, helping them to recognize and realize their full potential and build firm foundations for meaningful, ethical lives.

Our Mission

Unitarian Universalists believe that the search for truth and meaning is a life-long process.  The purpose of religious education at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Briarcliff, Croton and Ossining is to promote spiritual, moral, intellectual and personal growth in our community by offering to both children and adults diverse and inclusive educational opportunities that support our Unitarian Universalist Principles.

Our Philosophy of Religious Education

For Adults

Our Fellowship understands religious education to be a project for a lifetime; faith develops and deepens across the lifespan. Adult R.E. seeks to nurture the individual person addressing intellectual and spiritual needs.  Adult R.E. also serves the community at large by educating for congregational health.

“Religious education is a lifetime process; the quest for meaning, significance, self-actualization.  It is much more than a mastery of subject matter; it is learning of the heart, the striving to find one’s highest and finest relationship to the universe.  It is not confined to Sunday morning or to a Biblical tradition. Religion is not a way of looking at certain things; it is a certain way of looking at everything.”

Rev. Ann B. Fields