Ralph Waldo Emerson was a leading 19th-century philosopher, father of the Transcendentalist movement. Before he became a philosophical and literary luminary, he was a Unitarian minister and served the Second Church in Boston between 1829 and 1832. In pursuing ministry, Ralph Waldo followed in the...

Pete Seeger decides to build a ship, like the great sailing ships that had traveled the river 100 years ago, back when it was clean and clear.

Permission to use "The Dog at the Well" in this curriculum granted by Marilyn McFarlane, author of Sacred Myths: Stories of World Religions (Sibyl Publications, 1996). One day Muhammad told his friends and followers a story about a thirsty man, a well, and a dog....

Based on information provided by Rev. Mike Young, The First Unitarian Church of Honolulu. Sometimes, the moment you meet someone, you know they will be a very important friend in your life. Other times, friendships start slowly. You might not know how important the friendship is for many years....

Searle-White, Joshua. "… Side Mary" in M… Wanda's Travel Emporium: Tales of Love, Hate and Things in Between. Boston: Skinner House, 2006. Used with permission. In a medium-sized town not far from here, there was a middle school. It was just like any other middle school, except for two things.

Adapted from a Haitian tale.To whom does the water belong? There was once a drought in the country. The streams dried up and the wells went dry. God saw there was no place for the animals to drink. God provided a well with the condition that it must be taken care of so all may use it. God said,...

When you go camping, what do you miss most? Electricity? Or toilets? Only a hundred years or so ago, people didn't have either one. There were no microwave ovens or toasters. There were no light bulbs. You couldn't just flip a switch or push a button to make things happen. For thousands and...

Adapted from "One Flower in a Field" by Joshua Searle-White, in Magic Wanda's Travel Emporium: Tales of Love, Hate and Things in Between (Boston: Skinner House, 2007). Once upon a time there was a field. It had dry grass, brambles and thistles, and high places and low places, and rocks scattered...

Adapted from a version on the 2003 International Year of FreshWater website. One day a long time ago, the elephant acted like a bully. He challenged the Rain God. "You covered the Earth in green," the elephant said, "and I'll bet you feel pretty good about yourself. But guess what!...

Long ago, it is said, there was a mighty flood, and the People left their world, the Fourth World, the Underworld, and came up into the Fifth World, the world we live in today. They found themselves on the shore of a great ocean. The People broke into groups by clan and went out to find new homes.

These letters are excerpted from correspondence between the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). They detail a public controversy between the two organizations over the BSA's policies toward the LGBT community and atheists. For information about the 2016...

Meetings of the Caucus are open to all women and their friends. Mothers and daughters come. Women from other UU churches drop in and have come back. Women with no church affiliation have joined the group. The Caucus usually meets in private homes in a geographical location that is accessible by...

In 1951, the congregation of First Unitarian Church of Cleveland decided to move from its building at the corner of 82nd and Euclid in downtown Cleveland to suburban Shaker Heights. This move was motivated by the economic decline of the Hough (pronounced "how") neighborhood where the church was...

Excerpted from a March 3, 1998 New Orleans Times-Picayune article by Mark Schliefstein as reprinted on the website of the annual D'Orlando Lecture on Social Justice.... The Rev. (Albert) D'Orlando fought racism and segregation for many years and later opposed the Vietnam War. His house and church...

Sermon delivered on October 22, 1967 at Arlington Street Church, Boston. Abridged version; used with permission. A hue and cry has arisen over the sixty young men who burned their draft cards in the chancel of Arlington Street Church. No matter that 280 young men took the more solemn and perilous...

Medieval Jewish story, A Chosen Faith (Boston: Beacon Press, 1998). A rabbi spoke with God about heaven and hell. "I will show you hell," God said, and they went into a room which had a large pot of stew in the middle. The smell was delicious, but around the pot sat people who were famished and...

Brook Farm is probably the best known of the three utopian communities started by Unitarians or Universalists in the mid 19th century....

Unitarian roots in North America stretch back to Puritan New England. Many of the original Puritan congregations, the oldest Protestant churches in the United States, are now Unitarian Universalist communities....

The United States entered World War I in April 1917. Shortly afterward, Congress passed the 1917 Espionage Act. The act made it a crime for people to speak out against the country's involvement in the war or to encourage draft resistance or conscientious objection. As a result of the act, several...

Clara Barton was born on Christmas Day, 1821, in Oxford, MA, into a Universalist family. She was living in Washington, D.C. when the U.S. Civil War landed at her doorstep. She began nursing wounded soldiers in her sister's home, visiting the army camps, and was soon orchestrating the delivery of...