Blue Boat of Youth and Young Adult MinistriesStar Wars, Crisis of Young White Masculinity, and UU
!SPOILER ALERT! The following post contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but it’s a month after the movie was released in theaters so it’s not our fault if you haven’t seen it. -Ed. Friends, we are currently suffering a crisis of identity for young white men in America. This crisis of identity is not new, but it has reached a boiling point. For the past 50 years, we have been moving towards a more progressive society and this has led to greater awareness of white privilege, male privilege, and the convergence of the two. As society takes greater strides to bring gender and racial equity, we’ve seen a pushback by white men. I…
Support OWL in the Philippines
You Are Challenged: Make Change Happen Now A message from Lauren Amabile and the Unitarian Universalist Church Council, asking you to respond before the end of this month. Greetings, Unitarian Universalist Blue Boat Friends! I am writing to let you know about a really important and daring step the UU Church of the Philippines (UUCP) is taking towards youth development by offering Our Whole Lives (OWL) sexuality education for all Unitarian Universalist teens and young adults over the span of two years. The initial offering of OWL will be in December 2015 for youth ages 12-16 years old. The total budget for this OWL program is over $33,000, which includes the training for about 20…
Lifting Up Our OWL
This is a re-post of a story of the Our Whole Lives curriculum in action from The Christian Century. You’ll find links at the end of the re-post for more information about OWL – Ed. When Nicole Chaisson teaches fifth- and sixth-graders about sexuality at Macalester Plymouth United Church in St. Paul, she doesn’t have to worry about what the state legislature might say. She is not relying on federal funding, and no organization will ask her to demonstrate the results. But her relative freedom doesn’t make her task simple. On this Sunday evening, the session is about puberty, and the six girls and five boys in attendance are giggling nervously. They seem both comfortable…
Using OWL to Grow Congregations
A thought provoking story from the UU Growth Strategy Blog. -Ed. Sexuality Education As a Growth Strategy Posted in Associational, Spiritual Vitality on March 20th, 2012 by Tandi Rogers – 3 Comments You may have already heard me explain why I am a Unitarian Universalist evangelical. It’s because when I open the news I lament, “If only <insert public figure here> had taken Our Whole Lives…” Many of you may chuckle and assume I’m making a cheeky sexual joke. But take a moment and think about it. Our Whole Lives (OWL) teaches not just the biology of sexual expression but also power, communication, consensual behavior, abuse, boundaries, differentiation, and accountability to something larger than ourselves.” …
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