Coming of Age is a core UU program that asks participants to explore what it means to become an adult in a Unitarian Universalist context. A lot of cultures have this kind of event in the life of their congregation or community. Close to home, our Jewish neighbors have bat and bar mitzvahs where young people are asked to learn a language and be able to reflect on a text. In other cultures there are walkabouts, solo experiences in the wilderness, or even rounds of combat. In each of these examples, the community is expressing what is important to it. In Judaism, the importance is put on being religiously literate in the language of the Torah. Walkabouts emphasize the importance of survival in nature, while hand to hand combat points toward the importance of defending the group or surviving a conflict.
In our faith, we ask our members to reflect deeply on who they are as spiritual people, to be able to think metaphorically, and to express themselves as soulful, connected beings, capable of experiencing a spiritual passion and transforming that passion into service and dedication to a common good.
Because we aim, as people of faith, to never stop growing and evolving, UUFC doesn’t stop offering the Coming of Age program just because you’ve become an adult. As part of our core programming, we offer Coming of Age every other year, alternating with OWL (Our Whole Lives, a comprehensive sexuality education), each with a cohort of middle schoolers and a separate cohort open to adults ages 18 to 101! Adult Coming of Age is not a children’s program made available to adults. Instead, it’s a program that asks adults to engage with the same themes, but in a small group that is willing to deeply reflect on the personal history that shaped them, where they are in their spiritual development, and where they aim to go next.
For more information about when the next Coming of Age Cycle begins, contact Skyla at dre@uucorvallis.org
