Tapestry of Faith: A Place of Wholeness: A Program for Youth Exploring Their Own Unitarian Universalist Faith Journeys

Taking It Home: A Journey of Faith

I was humbled, I was confounded, I saw clearly, that I had been all my life expecting good fruit from corrupt trees, grapes on thorns, and figs on thistles, I suspected myself, I had lost my standing, I was unsettled, perturbed and wretched. — John Murray (founder of American Universalism) on first listening to a sermon about universal salvation

In Today's Workshop...

We explored faith as a developmental process that we all engage in. We did this by looking at two developmental models and acting out a scene from the life of John Murray.

Explore the topic further with family and friends...

  • Take both of the handouts from today's workshop home with you. Share what you have learned and show the handouts to your family and friends. Have they ever thought of their spirituality or faith as a process? What stage of faith development do they think they are currently experiencing? Where do they hope to be in ten years?
  • Write your own spiritual autobiography and share it with friends and family.
  • Imagine your spiritual journey so far in your life as being laid out on a map. Now draw your spiritual journey using a big piece of paper, markers, colored pencils and other drawing materials. What are the major "locations" for your journey? What do the paths between those locations look like? Has your journey been linear or more like a web of places you have been to with multiple paths? Once you have finished your map think about sharing it with friends and family. See if they would like to make a map as well.
  • Do you have a Facebook or MySpace profile, blog, website or other social networking account? Did your group make a video of the John Murray play? If so, post the video of the play on your account and tell your friends and family more about what you learned about John Murray. You will need to seek permission from everyone filmed.