Tapestry of Faith: Building Bridges: A World Religions Program for 8th-9th Grades

Faith In Action: Finding Faith

Materials for Activity

  • Optional: Video camera

Description of Activity

Participants gather stories about finding faith.

Remind participants of McCarthy's story. Through one lens, it is a story about losing faith. Through another, she found her true beliefs. Our stories are important: they are uniquely ours and hold our truths.

Invite youth to launch a project to gather stories from the congregation of how people "found" their current faith: Unitarian Universalism and current beliefs-Atheism/Agnosticism, Christian, Buddhist, etc. Gathering the stories face-to-face would be best. If your congregation holds a regularly scheduled potluck, seek permission to set up a table where congregants can come share their stories. Consider videotaping them. The group could compile the stories and use them as part of a worship service (see Workshop 23) or post them on the congregation's website. Remember to get release forms signed if youth plan to share the videotapes.

After the group has viewed all the videotapes, discuss the stories. How are they different or similar? What themes exist in the stories? Do youth hear their own stories echoed in these? If not, they might want to videotape their story for the collection.