Cultivating Symbiosis: The Nature of God’s Kin-dom is a youth curriculum that uses the idea of symbiosis to explore relationships with others and with God. Youth will examine different kinds of relationships and understand them as an ongoing journey toward the kin-dom. There is a symbiosis between our relationships to each other as humans and our relationship to God. By drawing closer to one another, we can draw closer to the kin-dom. By drawing closer to one another, we can collectively move, step by step, toward creating God’s kin-dom on earth as it is in heaven.
Through eight one-hour sessions, youth and their facilitators will more deeply explore what it means to live into the kin-dom of God through the lens of symbiosis. Youth will first explore what symbiosis means and that it exists on a continuum. They will examine their personal relationships and how they mirror or contrast what God desires, understanding that to love God is to love your neighbor and to love your neighbor is to love God. Youth will then move outward in their understanding of relationships and God’s kin-dom by looking at economic injustice and how they can collectively work toward social justice.
Author Nica Sy is a third-generation member of United Women in Faith and is a Seattle-based organizer who works within The United Methodist Church and in her local area to envision and create life-giving community.
