Faith Curriculum Library: Tapestry of Faith: A Place of Wholeness: A Program for Youth Exploring Their Own Unitarian Universalist Faith Journeys

Welcoming and Entering

Materials for Activity

  • Journals for new participants
  • Newsprint, markers and tape

Preparation for Activity

  • Have journals for visitors or participants who do not have one. Set out some supplies for them to personalize the journals during the Welcoming and Entering time.
  • Write the Welcome Words and question on newsprint and post.

Description of Activity

The Welcome Words are meant to set the stage for the workshop and spark conversation before the workshop begins. The Welcome Words for today are a quote and a question.

A covenanted free church is a body of individuals who have freely made a profoundly simple promise, a covenant: We pledge to walk together in the spirit of mutual love. The spirit of love is alone worthy of our ultimate, our religious loyalty. So, we shall meet often to take counsel concerning the ways of love, and we will yield religious authority solely to our own understanding of what these ways are, as best we can figure them out or learn or remember them, together. ---Alice Blair Wesley, Unitarian Universalist minister

Question: In what ways is a congregation a covenantal community?

As participants arrive, invite them to decorate a journal or add to their journals based on the Welcome Words posted, or informally discuss the Welcome Words. Orient visitors and first-time participants to the program and get a sense of what brought them today.