All high school youth who have not yet taken Coming of Age are invited to join this program, which will begin in October 2022. Students must complete a separate application for participation. Please return the application to Sarah Ahrens, DRE.
The Coming of Age (COA) program is done throughout the UU denomination with 14 – 17 year-olds as a way to acknowledge the transition from child to adult. COA is currently being conducted every other year.
The goals of COA programs are:
To encourage youth to explore what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist;
To help youth move into the adult role of identifying and acting on personal beliefs and values;
To recognize and publicly honor the movement of a youth from childhood to adolescence within the Unitarian Universalist tradition.
Through mentoring and classes, the COA program:
Encourages youth to discuss, reflect on, and clarify their personal religious beliefs as part of lifespan faith development;
Provides opportunities for independent thinking, assuming responsibility, decision-making and exploration of values;
Encourages youth to put faith into action in their own lives and community.
Components of COA usually include youth being paired with a mentor to work on above stated goals, planning and implementing a service project, and presenting a credo (statement of faith) as part of a Coming of Age ceremony. The program can include a trip to a site of UU heritage, such as Boston to visit the UUA and other historical UU places.
Please check out our Religious Exploration Programming Schedule for 2022-2023 for the most updated schedule.
Students & guardians need to OPT IN to this system each year in order to receive notices.
This highly recommended system provides the most current event & program info to participants!