Rarely do we think of middle school religious education as a place of beauty and in that we would be wrong. Along with the chaotic energies that comes with this age are creative energies striving for a place in the world and a place as a UU. In this we are blessed with the teachers and students of our middle school RE. The outer part, what the congregation sees, is a beautified bulletin board with cockatrice, the holiday giving tree, and the December art assembly. The inward grace is a community ecosystem that learns and explores together.
Partly it is Elise Turner, young enough to remember this age and her own path to adulthood. Partly it is Jamie Jorgensen whose engaged patience models a spiritual practice in and of itself. And partly it’s the kids themselves finding outlets for their innate creativity and a desire for meaning within a heavily academic curriculum. And over all is the commitment to being open to each other and open to possibilities. In this they model what it means to cocreate the beloved community and from them we can learn a great deal.