Today we will hear about two girls from long ago, who both had the last name of Brown. As you hear the story, see if you can notice other things they had in common, besides a name. Let's go back in time together, about 200 years, to meet Antoinette Brown....

Based on a Santerian story. Special thanks to Lesley Murdoch for her insights to Afro-Caribbean religions. The Orisha are gods that came originally from Nigeria, in West Africa, as part of the Yoruba religion....

Adapted from "Amrita's Tree" in The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales by Dawn Casey and Anne Wilson (Cambridge: Barefoot Books, 2009). Used by permission. Amrita leaned back against her favorite tree and rested. After the glare of the desert sun, it was cool and green in the forest grove. Sometimes,...

Several years ago, I spent an evening discussing Covenant Groups with members of a New England church who were interested in starting a small group ministry program....

In July 2003, I went on an eight-day spiritual retreat at a Benedictine monastery in Wisconsin. The night before I left Chicago to drive to the monastery, as preparation for the journey, I made a series of decisions about what kinds of clothes I would need while on this retreat. I was thorough. I...

Excerpted from Some Remarkable Passages in the Life of Dr. George de Benneville, translated by Rev. Elhanan Winchester (Germantown, PA: Converse Cleaves, Publisher, 1890), with material to explain the context for each.George de Benneville was raised by his godmother, Queen Anne of England....

From "UU Convicted of Littering While Supplying Humanitarian Aid" , UU World, June 15, 2009. Used with permission. The subject of the story is a White Unitarian Universalist who currently uses the name "Emrys Staton." Next fall, Walt Staton will be starting divinity school to become a Unitarian...

The Highlander Research and Education Center is an 80-year-old popular education center in the mountains of East Tennessee, which serves as a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement-building in Appalachia and the South....

A wisdom tale from Japan. On the top of the hill lived the village curmudgeon. No one knew why the farmer was so ornery, yet he never seemed to have a kind word to say. No one knew why he was so inhospitable, yet he would not even open his door to visitors....

In September 1965, Filipino grape workers in Delano, California, went on strike for more pay and better working conditions. A week later, the predominantly Mexican American National Farm Workers' Association joined the strike....

In 1977, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man elected to public office in the United States. Milk grew up in New York, quiet about his homosexuality. He studied mathematics and graduated from New York State College for Teachers in...

Originally published in Stirring the Nation's Heart: Eighteen Stories of Prophetic Unitarians and Universalists of the Nineteenth Century (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, 2010). In the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the year 1858, a young woman entered a...

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.

Activity time: 25 minutes Materials for Activity Handout 3, Southern Unitarian Universalists in the Civil Rights Era - Small Acts of Great Courage Preparation for Activity Read Handout 3 and copy it for all participants. Optional: If possible, distribute Handout 3 in advance of the workshop.

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...