Teaching Children. Raising People. Growing Souls.
Our Religious Education Program
At UUCY children and adults come together to share in exploration of our liberal religious heritage, our common values, and our individual journeys toward truth. Our goal is to cultivate and sustain in our young people a love of the spiritual life, a foundation for a personal theology, and a life-long yearning to belong to our liberal faith tradition. We may be teaching children, but we are raising people. When our children’s journey with UUCY is over, if we have done religious education skillfully, they will know they are whole and complete, integrated into all that is, and worthy and capable of unconditional love.
Children & YouthUUCY broadly follows a pillar model, interspersed with special activities, age-appropriate social action, and multi-generational worship opportunities. We serve from nursery through senior high school. There are currently 80 registered and attending children and youth. Average Sunday morning attendance is around 40. UUCY has ranged as high as 120 and 60/Sunday, enrollment and average-Sunday-attendance respectively. There are eight fully furnished classrooms, four of which (5th-12th grades) have comprehensive multimedia suites. Beginning 2015, UUCY will move to a thematic church model; our RE program may transition over time as this initiative unfolds.
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Adult Faith DevelopmentJan 2014 marked the first year that UUCY had a staff-driven adult faith development program. Currently, theology, spirituality, and social justice issues predominate programming. There is a strong New UU program. New to UUCY has been the successful and well-received Wellspring Wednesday program initiative. In addition to our several curriculum-based serial offerings, we try to intersperse these with periodic single evening, short duration "solo" offerings to present a more balanced program and accommodate busy personal schedules. Beginning fall 2015, much of our adult faith development will take place via Soul Fire, a thematic church, small group model.
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Our Campus
Settled on the outskirts of York city, we enjoy a beautiful seven acre campus with a new sanctuary (2001), an historic carriage house (1895), one of largest walking labyrinths in North America (2006), and the site of our very active community garden (2010). Our campus is open to our neighbors.
Sanctuary Building
Upstairs, our Sanctuary has bountiful natural light and space, and offers a space for up to 200. This is our place for worship, ceremonies, workshops, concerts and other social events. A commercial-grade kitchen is co-located with our sanctuary lobby. Our lower level, accessible also by elevator, contains our Religious Education lobby, nursery, and four other elementary grade, child-friendly classrooms. |
Carriage House
Our Carriage House building dates from 1895, when the property, known as Springdale, included a mansion, formal gardens, and a swimming pool, owned by Grier Hersh. The “stables” were converted to a residence in the mid-20th century, using materials saved from the demolition of the mansion. The Carriage House contains a parlor, dining room, sun room, our administrative offices, and three classrooms for middle and high school youth. |
Photos of our sanctuary building and religious education rooms. Click on a picture to scroll through the gallery and view enlarged pictures with captions.