Tapestry of Faith: Exploring Our Values Through Poetry: A Program for High School Youth

Alternate Activity 2: Finding Faith

Activity time: 25 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Journals and pens or pencils

Description of Activity

Prompts that you read to participants spark individual explorations of faith concepts.

Make sure each participant has a pen/pencil and paper or a journal. Instruct participants to write an immediate, stream-of-consciousness response to each prompt that you will read, numbering each response. If they have no response, have them write NA for not applicable.

Tell participants that for this activity, the word "faith" is not necessarily connected to religious beliefs. It refers to your belief that something is true, whether or not you have hard evidence. One can have faith in a god, his/her own potential, the allegiance of a friend, or the ability of a particular baseball team to win the World Series.

Read each prompt, allowing time for participants to respond in their journals.

  • I have faith in...
  • My faith is really tested when...
  • My faith is really strengthened when...
  • I use my faith to...
  • My faith abandons me when...

Invite participants to share their responses to the prompts. Ask the group to find trends and differences among responses, as well as any answers that sound surprising. Encourage the group to make connections where they can. The following prompts might help the discussion:

  • Do you think any of the similarities the group found could be attributed to age? To our common UU faith?
  • Does being part of a UU congregation affect your faith?
  • In what ways is your congregation a "faith community"?