Coming of Age

The Coming of Age program is designed to provide a substantive spiritual program for youth in transition from childhood to adolescence and young adulthood. The program will:

Help youth clarify their beliefs and values.
Underscore Unitarian Universalist identity.
Provide experiences and exposure to community service.
Give recognition and support to youth in a time of physical and emotional change.
Give mentoring adults the opportunity to be role models and friends to youth.
Create rituals to mark the transition from childhood to young adulthood for the whole congregation.
Give youth an opportunity to develop a meaningful relationship with an adult other than his or her own parent or guardian. ( Mentoring)

Program components usually include: mentoring, community service, group meetings and written work with religious leaders, Coming of Age retreats, movie nights and other community activities, events, special rituals and worship. The families and mentors will have a special role in the ceremony. Youth, mentors, and their families will declare their intention and readiness to participate and sign a covenant witnessed by the entire congregation.

Often each Coming of Age candidate will choose an object symbolic of his or her childhood and give it back to his or her parents and guardians.

Bridging

The passage from teenager to young adult is profound. Leaving childhood behind means leaving home, beginning a career or college, and discovering exciting new freedoms and daunting responsibilities. This transition can be as difficult for parents as it is for the new young adults. Letting go and living in an empty nest can be as liberating and as frightening as graduation from teenagehood. A Bridging Ceremony symbolically walks the young person out of a circle of teenagers and into a new and independent life. This ceremony publicly acknowledges that the individual is no longer a child, but an adult with all the rights and responsibilities that accompany this stage of life. The Bridging Ceremony also ritually confirms that the new adult will have continuing support from teenage friends, parents, and other adults, but in a new and more mature context.





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