Your recent article, “Interfaith Families Embrace Holidays,” was heartwarming as it showed people’s acceptance and enjoyment of each other’s traditions, but it left me wishing for more for these folks, that is, the support of a faith community of their own and the challenge of going deeper to explore their values and beliefs.
The denomination I belong to, Unitarian Universalist, is a religion that respects and learns from many faith teachings and traditions while one of its own principles is the “free and responsible search for truth and meaning.”
One of the values for young families in attending a UU congregation is that our youth take part in a curriculum called “Neighboring Faiths,” during which they visit other houses of worship. They also spend a year examining their own belief systems and sharing those beliefs with others.
Along the way, our group of diverse kids bond with each other in a fun, loving and supportive atmosphere that teaches them to care for others and to live moral lives. My own family is long grown, but I myself still cherish being part of a faith community without dogma, that both supports and challenges me.
Donna Koloski
Freehold Borough