Children’s Religious Exploration (CRE) and Childcare

Children’s Religious Exploration (CRE) and Childcare includes stories, games, crafts, sexuality education, a spotlight activity, and time for playing freely. The program offers classes every Sunday for children from kindergarten to eighth grade, with childcare and preschool stories and activities available for the very youngest children. During summer, Children’s Religious Exploration moves to one all-ages class with activities and lessons appropriate for all children.

• Ages: 0–13 years old
• Schedule: Classes are held concurrently with the 10:00 AM service from September to June, with childcare for toddlers and preschoolers offered on Sunday mornings from 9:45 to 11:30 AM.

All classes are taught by trained professional staff and assisted by volunteer church members, and background checks are required for all Children’s Religious Exploration staff and volunteers. The childcare program is staffed by experienced adults and teens, and children in childcare have the option of participating in a spotlight activity or playing freely. Families are welcome to visit any religious education classes, but children may not be dropped off until an enrollment form is filled out, and information collected on the enrollment form is used to help keep children safe.

Children’s Religious Exploration uses the Unitarian Universalist curricula Soul Matters to encourage children to think about their relationships with self and others, their place in the world, and to begin to articulate the values that inform the Unitarian Universalist faith tradition. The K through fifth grade elementary program is active, creative, and story based, and upper elementary classes explore other faith traditions using the UU curricula Neighboring Faiths and studying World Religions. Sexuality education for children and youth is offered through the UU program Our Whole Lives (OWL), a developmentally appropriate program with curricula for kindergarten through adulthood.

Worship for adults and classes for children follow the same theme-based ministry, with past monthly themes including Expectation, Belonging, Awe, Integrity, Resilience, Liberation, and Play. Children are taught progressive Unitarian Universalist values to encourage a lifelong spiritual search for truth and meaning, and they are familiarized with the spiritual practices of the world’s great faiths to foster religious literacy. The congregation affirms and promotes Unitarian Universalist Principles and shared values including Interdependence, Pluralism, Justice, Transformation, Generosity, and Equity, and the living tradition of Unitarian Universalism draws from many sources, including direct experience, prophetic words and deeds, wisdom from world religions, Jewish and Christian teachings, humanist teachings, and spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions.

The Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara was founded in 1876 and describes itself as a thriving community of all ages that engages the mind, heart and spirit. It strives to live with integrity, nurture wonder, and inspire action, and works for justice in the world with many outreach and volunteer opportunities, with its campus used by many groups in the wider community. Worship services are available both in person and online.

Last updated August 1, 2026.