Tapestry of Faith

Visionary Generosity Brings UU Religious Education into the Twenty-First Century

Lindy and David Anderson

Barbara Marshman and daughter Lindy

"The experience each person will have with these materials is unique. They will be able to interact with what they find on the web, and learn from it, and be changed."
—David and Lindy Anderson, stewards of UUA's new Tapestry of Faith curriculum

Religious education is essential to the well being of our children, families and adults and integral to the growth and vitality of Unitarian Universalism. While many would resonate with such a view, few people have made a commitment to support it in the way that Lindy and David Anderson have. The Andersons, residents of Biddeford, Maine, have made a visionary commitment to the UUA's new lifespan faith development curriculum series which will be available on the UUA website, beginning in late 2006.

You could say it was in their bones. Lindy (Melinda) Anderson is the only child of the late Rev. Dr. Barbara Marshman, visionary religious educator and co-author (along with the late Rev. Ann Fields and Charlene Brotman) of such curricula as "Holidays and Holy Days," "How Can I Know What to Believe?," and "The UU Kids Book," among others. Lindy and her husband, David, wanted to find a way in which Marshman's legacy as a religious educator and curriculum developer could be honored using contemporary publication methods and values. This commitment comes not only from the Anderson's life as Unitarian Universalists but as the parents of four children and grandparents of four.

David Anderson said, "The UUA had a vision for a new religious education curriculum that was (at the time we began to discuss it) being finalized as a print medium. We began to think, 'what would happen if we put this on the web, made it much more available to people and congregations, and minimized the cost of distribution?'"

People got excited. Quickly. The idea began to take shape as conversations with Judith Frediani, Director of the UUA's Lifespan Faith Development Staff Group; Rev. Beth Graham, Associate Vice President for Stewardship and Development and Senior Advisor to the President; Mark Steinwinter, UUA IT Services Director; and the Andersons, continued. The conversation had been fueled by an anonymous grant of $250,000 to begin work on the new curriculum. That visionary donation provided the impetus for taking the new curriculum further and making its delivery methods more immediate.

David Anderson reflected, "This approach to religious growth and learning is going to expand the ability of people to access curricula using any of the technologies that are emerging. A student can download audio or video clips to an iPod; a teacher can assemble lessons directly from materials on the web; the Director of Religious Education can review this program to see what is most appropriate to their church. This kind of availability means that people can access the material in a way that's appropriate for their particular needs. For example, churches with internet access in classrooms can have multimedia materials that they play directly off the web, and a static curriculum won't allow this. Or students who are housebound or live in remote locations could use the materials online. The vision is to make this curriculum as flexible as possible so accessing and using the information—in many forms—is key."

Lindy Anderson, who looks a lot like her mother and reflects Barbara Marshman's values, said, "This project feels appropriate because Mother's contribution to UU religious education curricula was providing the creative elements. She also brought her extensive teaching experience to each project. Mother's realm was knowing how to get children to relate creatively to materials. And I think we are advancing what she was doing using contemporary media. By giving children images to remember, direct access to the material, and helping them to participate in an activity in a way they can understand and internalize it—we are applying to this age the same guiding principles."

The Tapestry of Faith Curriculum will be an evolving one, with components beginning to appear later this year. In 2006, the following elements are scheduled: a Junior High curriculum entitled "Families"; a High School curriculum entitled, "Exploring our Identities Through Poetry"; a new Junior High Coming of Age program will be beta-tested (that is, the curriculum will be released on the web and then evaluated, revised, and updated). In addition, the schedule for 2006 calls for field testing of the adult curriculum "Principled Commitment"; release of a new "Our Whole Lives" curriculum for Young Adults; and with it, field testing of the new "Sexuality and Our Faith" supplement for Young Adults.

An equally challenging and comprehensive release schedule is planned for each year following, from 2007 through 2011, until the entire Tapestry of Faith project is completed. Lindy Anderson said, "I think my mother would be excited by this...it is an extension of the way she liked to do things—to make religious growth and learning exciting and real for children, to give them ways to become involved in what they are doing, and to provide ways in which children can go far beyond the places they have been before. The potential for individual use of this curriculum is huge, and that's wonderful." David Anderson added, "the Tapestry of Faith project would have been a natural extension for Barbara...I believe she would have been involved in this. She and her co-authors were always very avant garde in developing curriculum...and their materials are still being used twenty five years later. They were far-sighted in how they imagined things, and built things to be somewhat timeless."

The Andersons talked about their vision for the program and how it made them comfortable with donating funds to support this effort. David Anderson said, "The UUA's new content management system allows materials to be updated regularly, and provides teachers with the option to contribute their materials, meaning the project becomes much more than a series of static pages. We have been working on this with the UUA staff for about a year, and we now want to start providing materials for people to review. So we offered a challenge grant on top of our initial contribution, to try and inspire others to step forward and support this vision." The challenge grant is meant to help raise money for operating costs for the UUA to support this initiative, which is an essential component of the successful launch of Tapestry of Faith.

Judith Frediani, Director of Lifespan Faith Development at the UUA and Project Director for Tapestry of Faith, has her energies focused squarely on bringing Tapestry of Faith to life. She said, "I had the privilege of knowing and learning from Barbara Marshman, and she always struck me as ageless. She was ahead of the curve methodologically in what we would now call 'thinking outside the box,' and prophetic in her great interest in and openness to a multicultural approach to religious education. Now more than ever, we need to bring Reverend Marshman's creativity and passion for a new generations of UUs, and the Anderson's vision makes it possible to deliver a curriculum that is as creative and prophetic as the 21st century demands."

David Anderson added, "A huge part of the impact of this project is that it will have a broader reach in the wider world. People are increasingly thinking about how they define their lives and what matters in life. These are big questions, and this curriculum will help people open themselves to new possibilities by making these materials available to anyone on the web...not just UUs, but anyone. This provides the UUA with a more enduring knowledge base. Maybe someone very far away will be touched by these materials."

Barbara Marshman, the Andersons point out, loved snow flakes. "They are only water crystals, but every one of them is unique and special," said Lindy Anderson. And the same thing is true of Tapestry of Faith and the possibilities it holds for Unitarian Universalist children, and for influencing religious growth and learning in a modern time. "The experience each person will have with these materials is unique," said David Anderson. "They will be able to interact with what they find on the web, and learn from it, and be changed." In this way, the legacy of Barbara Marshman lives on, growing and changing lives of children and adults, and reaching far beyond the realm of print materials, across the world, bringing Unitarian Universalist values to illuminate our lives.

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