September through May, our congregation is organized around monthly themes to help provide a shared focus. Members of our Worship Team introduce the themes on the first Sunday in services and offer further insight on our blog, beyondbelief.online. In addition, themes are explored in Touchstone Circle groups and in our children’s and youth programs.

This summer, we’ll explore our Peace Practices through our monthly themes.

• June: Inclusion
  Everyone gets to Play

• July: Respect
  Respect for yourself, others, and the environment

• August: Kindness
  Kindness in word & deed

Children and Youth will begin in the Sanctuary for each service before being excused to their programs. Please check in at the Family Table when you arrive. Pre-register your children by emailing qscoggins@allsoulschurch.org. 

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to
man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless
as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and
shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies
between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his
knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an
area which we call the Twilight Zone.
~ Opening Narration – Season 1 – Rod Serling

This summer, our middle and high school youth will experience “The Fifth Dimension,” a curriculum based on Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone.

About the Curriculum

Goals
Competing for a youth’s attention can be difficult today. Widespread
television viewing, video game playing, and internet surfing has created an environment where youth need visual stimulation to maintain interest. Pop culture can help to channel this environment into a learning opportunity, allowing youth to examine ethical and theological issues, while having fun.

In addition, pop culture can help youth to discuss important social issues
with peers. Talking about social issues with peers can be daunting,
particularly if the youth lives and goes to school in a conservative
atmosphere and knows that their viewpoint is not necessarily shared by the majority of their peers. Referencing a television show, a movie, a song, or a website can help youth express their opinions to others.

This curriculum seeks to help participants:

• Consider social issues and the ways in which our faith can help us
  understand our values.
  
• Understand ways in which the right of conscience calls us to do
  what’s right, even if there are possible negative consequences.
  
• Examine how our choices affect others around us, as well as
  ourselves.
  
• Explore how taking a stand is related to perspective and point of
  view.
  

Rod Serling
Rod Serling was one of American television’s most prolific writers and is
best known for his science fiction television series, The Twilight Zone. He
believed that the role of the writer was to “menace the public conscience.” Throughout his life Serling used radio, television, and film as “vehicles of social criticism”, often clashing with television executives and sponsors on issues ranging from censorship to racism to war.

Serling, who converted from Judaism to Unitarianism in college, began
work as a television writer in the late 1940s. The early years of television
often found sponsors also serving as editors and censors, and Serling was
often forced to change his scripts after corporate sponsors read them and
felt something was too controversial.

Serling believed “that of all the media, TV lends itself most beautifully to
presenting a controversy.” He realized that he needed to create scripts
that contained controversial messages and dialogues to get a point across. 

However, corporate sponsors had no desire to have their products matched with messages that might be viewed as negative or offensive. In 1959 Serling expressed his frustration: “I think it is criminal that we are not permitted to make dramatic note of social evils that exist, of controversial themes as they are inherent in our society.”

Frustrated by seeing his creative efforts divested of political statements and social issues, Serling began to consider the advantages of writing science fiction and fantasy. He learned that advertisers would routinely approve stories if they took place on fictional worlds, even if the story involved a controversial situation. Out of this realization came the  television series The Twilight Zone. This series, which ran from 1959-1964 gave Serling, and other writers, unprecedented artistic freedom. The show’s science fiction format would prove to not be controversial with sponsors, network executives, or the general public, and largely escaped censorship. 

The series won Serling three Emmy Awards, with Serling writing more than half of the 156 episodes produced. The Twilight Zone incorporated Serling’s liberal social views on racial relations, war, gender roles, addiction, extremism, violence, ageism, consumerism, industrialization and other social issues of the time.

The Twilight Zone gave voice to people who were often at the margins of
society. The show questioned power and who holds the power, with
corruption commonplace and no group immune to criticism. Viewers were asked to consider who had the power in society, whether power was used to help or oppress others, and how society might empower those who were shut out of power.

In 1967 Serling said, “I happen to think that the singular evil of our time is prejudice. It is from this evil that all other evils grow and multiply. In almost everything I’ve written there is a thread of this: a man’s seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself.”

Each Spring we celebrate our 9th graders with this special Sunday service. As Unitarian Universalists, we give our youth the power and responsibility of sharing with us what they believe. Throughout the year, the 9th grade Coming of Age class learn to identify their values, understand their beliefs and learn more about themselves. The Coming of Age class culminates in the youth delivering their credo—their own, personal statement of belief that they want to share with the world. Be a part of this experience and support our youth in taking authority of their own spirituality and theology. You may even be inspired to better articulate your own beliefs!