“What does God look like?” was the first of seven questions asked by a group of fifth grade children. Sophia Lyon Fahs had invited the editor of The American Scholar, William Shimer, to meet with the class and answer tough questions. Dr. Shimer said: “Whenever we look at anything in the world we are really seeing God: that is, we are seeing God’s body, we might say. We might call everything in this universe God ’s body. The same energy that is in the earth and the sky is also in our bodies. So we think that God must be something like us. Each one of us, then, is a small part of God.”

While Dr. Fahs was directing children’s programs at Riverside Church in New York City, she was also teaching religious education at Union Theological Seminary, as well as pioneering a new Beacon curriculum for the American Unitarian Association for 27 years, from 1937 to 1964. Her goal was nothing less than to “build a nobler religion than has as yet been embodied in any tradition.” The fruit of her effort was the creation of some 45 volumes used not only in church schools of various denominations and different faiths but in day schools, nursery schools, and homes. Children now could not only hear stories about water and the Great Giver of water, but they could look at a drop of water under a microscope.

Religious education deals not only with events of the past but with the immediate experience of the child in relation to water, wind, and fire; the growth of seeds and the birth of animals; the growth of human beings though walldng, running, climbing, writing, playing. In just such experience, children become directly acquainted with the actual—potential Power within and without them everywhere always. Among other things, they become aware of the amazing miracle they carry with them everywhere: a pair of hands.

In this new approach to education, children learn not only about Abraham, Moses and Jesus but also about the Egyptian Pharoah Ikhnaton, the Buddha, Confucius, and Socrates. Moreover, they visit synagogues, other churches, denominations, and sects. They learn about the various families of faith and ponder Questions that Matter Most Asked by the World Religions.

When this educator was honored with a degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by St. Lawence University, the citation read: You have attained an eminence almost without any rivalry in your chosen field of service.

The editor of Parents Magazine, of which Dr. Fahs was a member of the Advisory Board, spoke of her: “She has helped millions of parents in their own search to find ways of nourishing their children’s spiritual development”.

Another special tribute came when Fahs was in the fullness of years. Many years ago she had earned her Bachelor of Diviniy degree, but she had never taken the opportunity for ordination until the Unitarian Church of Montomery County, Maryland requested the privilege of ordaining her. At the age of 82, the Reverend Dr. Sophia Lyon Fahs said:

I have accepted the incongruity of my personal ordination in the later years of my life, when my own ministry is nearing an end, in order that I may join my voice with yours in pleading that we put the children in the very midst of us.