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In Unitarian Universalist congregations, values often transcend generational divides. Take, for instance, UUs’ commitment to social justice—a lifelong process of growth, reflection, and action.
A 2024 United Way survey showed 51 percent of Gen Z respondents have participated in rallies or protests. UUs who want to see their faith lived out through action want a faith community that doesn’t just preach about justice, it actively equips them to live it. But it isn’t just young people who care about justice.
In 2024, after a multiyear process of discussion and study, delegates to the UUA General Assembly voted decisively to approve a new statement of Shared Values and Covenant for Unitarian Universalism that includes justice as one of its core components.
Just like UUs’ justice work, faith formation is increasingly a multigenerational endeavor.
Just like UUs’ justice work, faith formation is increasingly a multigenerational endeavor.
Programs like Beloved Conversations: Meditations on Race and Ethnicity and multigenerational retreats are reshaping what faith formation can look like—shared spaces where all generations can engage in spiritual deepening and justice work.
This marks a cultural shift that Joy Berry, Children and Families Faith Development specialist in the UUA’s office of Lifespan Faith Engagement, says invites every generation to participate meaningfully in congregational life. A religious educator for over sixteen years, Berry has been a champion of lifelong faith development. She has led efforts to sunset outdated curricula in favor of a “whole church” approach that centers justice, ethics, and spirituality as lifelong, collective practices.
The whole church model, where faith formation is a shared congregational culture, encourages spiritual deepening, ethical reflection, and justice work across every age group—one in which actions, not just intentions, align with values.
“Our communities are often fragmented by several factors,” Berry explains, “with the most prominent silo being age, where religious education is often defined—and segregated—as a program ‘for children and youth.’”
Whole Church RE gives both a foundation and tools to “connect and learn together in new ways, times, and places, so the whole church can benefit from RE’s uniquely powerful practices of identity, community, and faith development.”
Berry stresses that overlooking adult education in churches can create long-term, generational divides. The whole church model, where faith formation is a shared congregational culture, encourages spiritual deepening, ethical reflection, and justice work across every age group—one in which actions, not just intentions, align with values. This includes how power is shared, how decisions are made, and how justice work is resourced.
Whole Church Model Embraces Faith for All Ages
Whole church is an emergent model, emphasizes Shannon Harper, Lifespan Faith Engagement co-director. It is not complete and prescriptive but continues to be developed and expressed in different ways.
The Unitarian Society of New Haven, in Hamden, Connecticut, is just one of the UU congregations that has embraced the shift to a whole church approach. Jesse Greist, director of Lifespan Religious Education and a lifelong member of the congregation, recalls being “immediately diverted downstairs” as a child, and thus never experiencing worship services. When he returned to the congregation in 2012, he insisted on integrating children into worship from the beginning.
“All generations are in the worship space together for the first five minutes,” he says. “We also changed the ‘message for children’ to a ‘message for all’ and allowed children to remain seated with their families.”
And at some congregations, children stay for the entire worship service and religious exploration classes for all ages happen at a separate time (see: “Serving Families Helps Congregations Thrive”).
Greist notes that these multigenerational conversations have deepened relationships and strengthened the congregation’s justice work.
The New Haven congregation also created “Your Wild and Precious Life,” an annual intergenerational program inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day. Members from each of the six living generations reflect on the poem and share their hopes, regrets, and wisdom.
The congregation also hosts cross-cultural storytelling programs that expand the scope of this dialogue. Greist notes that these multigenerational conversations have deepened relationships and strengthened the congregation’s justice work.
Cultivating ‘Deeper Joy’ Through the Whole Church Model
Berry clarifies that embracing Whole Church RE doesn’t mean having to change everything you’re doing.
“There are multiple places in every church where faith development is already happening,” she says. “Where is the energy for growing UU identity, covenant, and community in your church? Is it in coffee hour, the community care or social justice committee, or worship? Faith development is already happening there; when we can collaborate in those places to include the unique gifts and practices of RE, we benefit the whole church—not only the one we belong to now, but the future church that we can become good ancestors to.”
Faith development is already happening there; when we can collaborate in those places to include the unique gifts and practices of RE, we benefit the whole church—not only the one we belong to now, but the future church that we can become good ancestors to.”
One powerful resource for congregations interested in the whole church model is Deeper Joy, created in recent years by the UUA’s Lifespan Faith Engagement team. Deeper Joy is a compilation of games, songs, activities, and practices for anyone interested in fostering inclusive, multigenerational communities. It is based on Deeper Fun, a compendium of games and activities for community building that emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s from UU youth conferences and rallies.
“When I think of whole church, I think of having explicit time for people of different generations, or affinity groups, or peer groups to be together, and time for mixing across groups. And there are faithful themes or topics flowing throughout and being considered by the entire congregation,” says Jennica Davis-Hockett, a member of Lifespan’s Youth and Emerging Adult Ministry staff who helped develop Deeper Joy. “We don’t just do faith formation or religious education for young people; it’s for adults as well—and we like to think about how the wisdom of young people can impact older people’s way of doing things in a beneficial way. That’s the exact intersection where Deeper Joy comes into play. It shares the wisdom from the generation of youth to groups of adults wanting to learn more about how to build community.”
Among its tools are the Map to Deeper Joy, a full-color map available at the UUA bookstore, a Deeper Joy role-playing game, and a deck of Deeper Joy playing cards that will soon be available. In the works for next year is an interactive option where anyone can upload games or songs to Deeper Joy.
“One part of Deeper Joy that I love is that it recognizes joy as resistance,” Davis-Hockett says. “It’s not joy and fun and play as avoidance but as tools to fortify ourselves to do the hard work we need to do, and to build relationships to do the hard work we need to do.”
“The goal of Whole Church RE,” says Berry, “is to create vibrant and thriving UU congregations and communities with love—and faith development—at the center.”
Additional reporting by Elaine McArdle