Faith Curriculum Library: Tapestry of Faith: The New UU: A Program for Welcoming Newcomers to Unitarian Universalist Congregations

Activity 2: Famous Unitarian Universalists Mix and Match

Part of The New UU

Activity time: 25 minutes

Materials for Activity

Preparation for Activity

  • Make copies of Handout 1, Famous Unitarian Universalists Mix and Match.
  • Print and review Leader Resource 1, Famous Unitarian Universalists Mix and Match Answers.

Description of Activity

Invite participants to work together in small groups to match the name of each famous Unitarian, Universalist, or Unitarian Universalist with a brief description of who they were. Introduce the activity:

Unitarians and Universalists have often held an influence larger than their numbers. You may know of people who were Unitarian, Universalist, or Unitarian Universalist, without knowing anything about their religious affiliation. I'm going to give you a list of well-known Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists. There are also descriptions of what each person did. Your job is to match the names with the descriptions. Of course, you probably won't recognize all of these names, so you'll work in small groups. You'll have fifteen minutes to work together.

Distribute Handout 1, Famous Unitarian Universalists Mix and Match. Invite participants to move into groups of four or five to work on the matching exercise. Help the groups by asking questions such as, "Who knows any of these names?" but do not reveal correct answers at this point.

After 15 minutes, bring the small groups back together. Review the answers by asking for each group's response for each name, and then providing the correct answer from Leader Resource 1, Famous Unitarian Universalists Mix and Match Answers. Encourage discussion as you move through the answers.