Adapted from a Jataka tale (Buddhist). Once upon a time on the outskirts of a big city in Japan there stood an old temple. From a young age boys who wanted to study Buddhism would come to live in the temple and to learn from the master teacher, a Buddhist monk....

Joshua 1: 1-3, Joshua 2:1-7,15-18, 21, Joshua 6: 1-25 (New Revised Standard Version) ... The Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun... saying, "... Now proceed to cross the Jordan [River], you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, the Israelites. Every place that the sole of your...

Abby always liked school, but she was especially excited about today. Her class had earned a reward: a game day! Their teacher, Dr. Liu, promised they could spend most of the day playing games. Abby's best friend, Kamal, hoped they would play his favorite board game. Abby hoped they would play...

When Wangari Maathai was a little girl growing up in central Kenya in Africa, the land was green, the streams full, and the trees grew thick and lush. To help her family with meals, Wangari gathered firewood from the trees around her village. On her first day gathering, her mother told her "Don't...

Trout Are Made of Trees by April Pulley Sayre, text copyright 2008. Used with permission by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.Read the story dramatically and have fun with the sound effects! Trout are made of trees. In fall, trees let go of leaves, which swirl and twirl and slip into streams....

In 1789, Hosea Ballou attended the Baptist revival held in his hometown of Richmond, New Hampshire. Moved by the preaching during this event, which was touted as "The Great Reformation," Ballou, age 19, stepped forward to be baptized....

Based on Aesop's "The Belly and the Other Members of the Body."Once upon a time, the various parts of the brain got together to discuss their contributions to the uniqueness of the human being....

Attributed to Aesop, Greek fabulist, c. 620-564 BCE. A shepherd boy, watching a flock of sheep near his village, grew lonely. He devised a way to get some attention and companionship by playing a trick on the villagers. One morning he yelled: "Wolf!...

On July 27, 2008, people gathered in the sanctuary of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville to watch the children and youth of the congregation present the musical Annie Jr. Suddenly, a shot rang out. At first, many thought the noise was part of the musical, but they...

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...

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 "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!...

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...

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....

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...

Juliette Hampton Morgan was the only child of Frank and Lila Morgan of Montgomery, Alabama. Her white skin and family pedigree gave her entrance to the finest shops, restaurants, galleries and concert halls. For much of Juliette's life, her privilege meant someone else did her laundry, cooked her...

Once upon a time, there was a small village on the edge of a river. Life in the village was busy. There were people growing food and people teaching the children to make blankets and people making meals....

By the Rev. Gordon McKeeman, reprinted from Out of the Ordinary with permission of the author. Copyright (C) 2000 by Gordon B. McKeeman. Published by Skinner House Books, an imprint of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Sometimes I enjoy cooking. I've discovered that one of the greatest of...