What do we do together and why? How do we teach and what?
Over the years the staff and leaders of Peace UCC have engaged in both formal and informal conversations about not simply how we will teach but more fundamentally what we will teach. In educational parlance, we have been asking about our “core standards” upon which we might build our curriculum.

A decade ago, a study group from our community known as the “Not Quite Round Table” offered a first attempt at some core standards or value statements. This work was then later used as our Governing Body identified Mission, Vision and Values statements (adopted by the congregation in 2007). More recently on a summer’s evening, our Worship and Learning teams met together. After a few years in our community, we wondered aloud, what would we like both children and adults to have learned? The answer this time came more quickly: compassion.

More specifically, we identified the depth of compassion described in the Charter of Compassion as the core standard for our work. Gifted with Karen Armstrong’s subsequent publication “Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life”, we realized we had the core standards upon which we could build our curriculum.

Compassion is why we gather, how we gather, and what we practice. Along the way, we’ve discovered that compassion is not only worthy, it is lots of fun. Join us — you’ll see!