Slavery has often been called America's original sin. Yet, white American Unitarians, like most white Americans, were slow to speak out against slavery as an immoral institution. The Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) was no exception. Channing was a major voice for American...

Arthur Powell Davies did not start out as a Unitarian minister. He came to the United States in 1928 from England, as a minister in search of a "freer" strain of Methodism. Once he found his home in the Unitarian movement, he became one of the leading figures in the American Unitarian Association...

Margaret Fuller was born in 1810, at a time when women could not attend institutions of higher learning. Although brilliant, she was denied the educational opportunities enjoyed by her father and her male peers. She persevered in her education, on her own terms. She refused to accept the limited...

A retelling of Christian scripture (Luke 10: 25- 37). A lawyer asked Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered, "What is in the law? What do you read there?" The lawyer answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your...

Russell was an amateur geologist, paleontologist, and professional teacher. He took his young charges on an overnight field trip. Sitting around the campfire he brought out a bag, took out five rocks, and held up a round, grapefruit-size rock....

It was the first gathering of a newly formed small group. The eight people who gathered in Ann's living room recognized one another, but had no real connection, except for the two married couples who were there....

From Our Covenant: The 2000-01 Minns Lectures, The Lay and Liberal Doctrine of the Church: The Spirit and the Promise of Our Covenant, by Alice Blair Wesley (Chicago: Meadville-Lombard Press, 2002). Used with permission.Religiously, Unitarians are directly descended from the Puritans and Pilgrims...

This is the story of Theodore Parker, a Unitarian minister who was determined to do whatever he could to end slavery in the United States. His powerful sermons were legendary. This is also the story of Millard Fillmore, whose actions earned him the contempt of Theodore Parker and abolitionists...

"The Wind in Both Ears," by Angus MacLean, in The Wind in Both Ears (Boston: Beacon Press, 1965).Introduce the story by explaining that the author, Angus MacLean was a Universalist, a professor of religious education, and dean of the Theological School at St. Lawrence University. His influence...

Read the story aloud, and ask the questions as they come up to encourage interaction and deeper thinking about the concepts. Or, if you are familiar enough with the ideas, tell the story in your own words, being sure to emphasize the four themes: freedom of thought, or noncreedalism; on-going...

Excerpted from Cathedral of the World. Copyright 2009 by Forrest Church. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston. Imagine awaking one morning from a deep and dreamless sleep to find yourself in the nave of a vast cathedral....

Excerpted, with permission, from an article by Greg Damhorst posted February 15, 2011 on the Faith Line Protestants website. Read the full article online: "Feeding the Hungry: an Example that Compels us Toward Interfaith Work."Just over a year ago I was on a train home to visit my parents in the...

A parent spends time being in the moment with their child.

Five people wearing blindfolds were once brought into a room in the middle of which stood an elephant. Each person was directed to a different part of the animal, and then all five were encouraged to explore and discover whatever they could.

Young prince Siddhartha had been raised in complete luxury. His life had been so arranged that he knew no suffering, no lack, no want. So when he first encountered suffering—in the form of a sick person, an old person, and a dying person—he was determined to find its cause and its solution. For...

Once the great Sufi holy man and wise fool Nasreddin Hodja was walking down the street when a group of women came running up to him. Obviously distressed, they cried out to him, “Help us, Hodja! Help us.”...

2 Samuel 12: 1-10 (New Revised Standard Version) But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, and the Lord sent Nathan to David. He [Nathan] came to him [David], and said to him, "There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor....

A contemporary painter named Debora Jones-Buck has what many consider an unusual approach to her work. She prepares a canvas and then paints a picture on it. Then, when the paint has dried, she paints an entirely different image on top of it. And then another, and another. Eventually she puts the...

One day a Religious Man approached a Mystic and asked, “Does God exist?” “Allow me to go within for an answer,” the Mystic replied.