Children's Religious Education

The Purpose of Religious Education at Hope

The purpose of religious education at Hope - for all ages - is beautifully expressed in these words of William Ellery Channing:

The great end in religious instruction is not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own;

Not to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own;

Not to give them a definite amount of knowledge, but to inspire a fervent love of truth;

Not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs;

Not to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or peculiar notions, but to prepare them for impartial, conscientious judging of whatever subjects may be offered to their decision;

Not to burden the memory, but to quicken and strengthen the power of thought;

Not to impose religion upon them in the form of arbitrary rules, but to awaken the conscience, the moral discernment.

In a word, the great end is to awaken the soul, to excite and cherish spiritual life.

We do not seek to indoctrinate, but to educate so that the individual can make responsible decisions about religious and ethical issues. To that end we strive to inculcate basic religious literacy about our own Unitarian and Universalist traditions including our Jewish and Christian roots, the other World Religions and Indigenous Religions.

Quotes by Unitarians

Teachers open the door, but you must enter
by yourself.
~Chinese Proverb

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still, I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. ~Edward Everett Hale

We need not think alike
to love alike.
~Francis David

Say what we may,
God has given us a rational nature, and will call us to account for it.
~William Ellery Channing

Question with boldness even the existence of
a god; because if
there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.
~Thomas Jefferson

An unexamined faith is
not worth having.
~James Luther Adams

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