Religion in Life for Older Girls
A Program for Unitarian Universalist Cadette, Senior, or Ambassador Girl Scouts
In this program, you grow spiritually by exploring your Unitarian Universalist faith, values, and heritage, your Girl Scout values and heritage, and areas where these intersect. The program is organized into six parts:
- Religion and Spirituality
- Religions in Our World
- Unitarian Universalism, Past into Present
- Religion in Everyday Life
- Issues for Girls and Young Women
- Wrapping It Up
Each part has a few numbered requirements, sometimes with a choice of ways to complete the requirement. There are also 12 “Girl Scout Links” embedded in the program; these ask you to think about your Girl Scout experience in the light of your Unitarian Universalist faith. To complete the program, do the numbered requirements plus any five of the 12 Girl Scout Links. Many requirements ask you to do some research using printed sources, the Internet, and interviews with people in your community. Through this research, you not only gain more knowledge, but also expand your sense of curiosity and wonder and strengthen your ability to search for religious and spiritual truth and meaning. Unitarian Universalism and Girl Scouting are indeed two important influences in your spiritual journey. In this program for Unitarian Universalist Girl Scouts, as you think about points where the two intersect, you can draw from the power of both.
Use the Religion in Life for Girl Scouts Requirements Checklist to keep track of your progress. You can keep track on your computer or another electronic device, or print a paper copy of the form and keep it in a safe place. You can also print the paper version of the program (Word or PDF) and use the checkbox before each requirement as a check-off box and/or to scribble in dates as you plan.
Religion in Life “Journal”
As you work your way through Religion in Life for Girl Scouts, it is important that you have some way to capture your research, explore your ideas, and express yourself. You may want to have a journal with unlined pages (for drawing). You may want to keep a folder on your computer as your “journal.” You may want to use different kinds of paper and writing/drawing materials and keep all of your materials in a portfolio or file folder. You may prefer to speak your thoughts in an audio recording or video, create art (music, photography, collage, drama, sketching, sculpture etc.), or have an ongoing conversation with others in person, over the phone, or through social media (e.g. email, texting, or Facebook), and some of these pieces will be part of your journal. Some requirements will make special reference to recording in your journal, and some will just ask you to do things (e.g. look up something) that will be easier to do if you use your journal to collect and organize information. Feel free to use any of these methods (or to combine them)—the important thing is to build a collection of pieces of work that show your progress.
For example, a girl might list a few ideas or sketch something in a journal notebook, then discuss her thoughts more fully with her advisor or others working on this program with her. She can then add notes of ideas that come up during the conversation. She might take notes on her research or simply print material from a website, then draw a picture, write a paragraph, or have a conversation in response to what she learns, collecting any papers she produces in a folder just for Religion in Life for Girl Scouts. Each girl can use the method that works for her and for the situation (the time she has that week or the specific needs of the requirement). However you decide to “journal,” remember that these are not formal assignments to be turned in like in school—there’s no pressure for perfection!
Girl Scouts of the USA has a program called My Promise, My Faith with a pin that can be earned each year by a Girl Scout. Girl Scouts of the USA encourages you to do your own religion’s program (Religion in Life) alongside the My Promise, My Faith program.
Sometimes you may complete a requirement for Religion in Life for Girl Scouts that can also meet one of the requirements for My Promise, My Faith. It is fine to take “credit” in both programs. The Religion in Life for Girl Scouts program points out places where this is likely to be the case. Watch for My Promise, My Faith buttons on the program pages.
