This month, our new Junior Youth Group (JYG) will begin meeting.  JYG is for youth in 6th-8th grade. The group’s focus will be primarily social with opportunities for social justice and service-oriented activities.  Our first meeting will be Friday, October 7th from 6:00 to 9:00pm. We will start by joining in on the Fellowship Friday potluck and then do some fun activities to get to know each other better. Activities this year may include: skit in a bag, sleepovers, bowling, arts and crafts, game nights and movie nights. Lots of fun will be had!

Our high school youth are participating in the Neighboring Faiths program on the first and third Sunday of each month.  The program introduces youth to the faith traditions within the larger community and actively engages them in exploring the ritual practices of other religious groups. Our Neighboring Faiths year will conclude with a trip to Boston to explore and learn about our own Unitarian Universalist heritage.

A vibrant youth ministry is vital to our congregation and our denomination. We continue to look for opportunities for our youth to participate in the life of the congrega-tion in meaningful ways.  Several of our youth have joined our RE teaching teams and committees at UUCMC. As a denomination, we have learned that there is no one-size-fits-all youth ministry.  For this reason, our Religious Education Committee is in the process of forming a Youth-Adult Committee.  The function of this group will be to help support our youth programs and development of new programs to meet the needs of our youth here at UUCMC.

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

In service,

Michelle