Recently I’ve been looking at our Unitarian Universalist rites of passage. Our official ones, Child Dedication, Coming of Age, Bridging, are obvious. But we also our OWL (Our Whole Lives) program is in a way a right of passage, with various stages (k-1, 4-5, 7-8, 10-12). Many societies and religious traditions have rites of passage; think of First Communions or Barmitzvahs. This isn’t just for fun or parties; they are distinct societal rituals that mark growth into adulthood.
Outside our religious institutions, we have more rites of passage. For some, it is our first baseball glove or broken bone.
These communal rituals are essential to both our children and our own community. They signify developmental benchmarks that are known and understood by the community. They are anticipated and celebrated.
But once our children have bridges or graduated, our communal celebration of growing up stops until our young people enter back into a family model at marriage or starting a family. Young adulthood lacks excitement. We often lack support for them.
But as we understand adolescence to continue well into people’s 20s and that Millenials are delaying marriage and family starting later (if at all), we need to continue to pay special attention to our recent bridgers and folks in their 20s and 30s.
All this is to say that we are developing some young adult groups and programs. Not to exclude them from the greater Fellowship, but offer them a place to be (or stay) plugged into our community.
We invite all young adults (the UUA designates young adults as folks aged 18-35) to join us for a virtual coffee hour on the first Sunday of the month at 12:30. We hope that as we move into warmer weather, we can meet outside. Our first meeting will be on February 6th. Some of our young adults will be leading. I hope to see you there.