Invite in a faith leader

You’ll need

Chairs
Pens or pencils
A4 paper
Specific activity equipment, as needed

Scouts is open to everyone. We don’t identify exclusively with one faith, and we welcome people of all faiths and of none.

We know it’s important for people to learn about each other, including understanding different faiths and beliefs. Scouts always respects people’s beliefs, faiths and cultures, and everyone should be open to learn.

As an inclusive and values based movement, we support our members to engage and learn about different faiths and beliefs in an exciting and meaningful way, even if they don’t have a faith themselves.

Celebrating and understanding differences, including differences in faiths and beliefs, is an important part of our Scout values, which are:

Integrity: We act with integrity; we are honest, trustworthy and loyal.
Respect: We have self-respect and respect for others.
Care: We support others and take care of the world in which we live.
Belief: We explore our faiths, beliefs and attitudes.
Co-operation: We make a positive difference; we co-operate with others and make friends.

Our value of Belief and its exploration helps Scouts to learn from other faiths and beliefs. This encourages them to develop or build their personal beliefs and understand their shared values, whether faith-based on not.

We know that learning about faiths, beliefs and different attitudes can help to break down barriers, helps us all to recognise what we have in common, and teaches us to value and respect other people. It also helps us to build up respect, acceptance and knowledge for each other, leading to a more co-operative and inclusive society.

In our diverse society, people can sometimes feel cautious talking about this sensitive subject. However, it's important that Scouts offers young people safe, exciting and open spaces to explore faiths and beliefs. They should be able to engage in personal reflection, as they question and develop their opinions and understanding of the world around them.

Making time for personal reflection and developing our beliefs means exploring the places, people, communities, celebrations or stories which hold meaning for us, and it may not necessarily mean exploring a faith.

For example, someone’s shared values may be their Scout Values and that person may choose to reflect on them at important times, such as when they make their Promise. Others may choose to reflect at certain times of the year, such as a faith-based festival, birthdays, meaningful events or at New Year. Some people may still celebrate events, such as Christmas, but use it as a time to celebrate family, friends and loved ones, as well as for charity and giving.

Discover more about Faiths and Beliefs in Scouts.

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Take a look at our guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Planning and setting up this activity

Contact a local place of worship and ask if they’ve any faith leaders or members of the community who’d be happy to visit your regular meeting place. If it’s not possible, you could arrange to visit them at their place of worship.
You should plan your meeting around how much time your guest has, and any activities they would like to run. If your guest can only come for half the meeting, you could spend the other half of the session doing the activity.
You could invite your guest to give a short talk as an introduction to the chosen faith and how it has impacted their life.
If your group aren’t familiar with the chosen faith, this is a great chance to talk about the faith’s core beliefs and values. If you’d like the guest to give a short talk or presentation, make sure to give them plenty of notice. You could share Scouts World Faith Activity Badge requirements if you want them to cover specific topics.
You should prepare for the visit by setting out the space as needed and getting everything ready. Be ready to welcome the guest, offer them some refreshments if you can, and introduce them to the group.
All adults involved, including external suppliers and visitors, must have seen and understood the Yellow Card.

Running this activity

Gather everyone together and introduce your guest. You may want to remind younger groups of what good listening looks like.
Let your guest talk about their faith or go through their presentation.
Give out pens or pencils and paper, and ask everyone should write down a question to ask your guest. People could think about:

- how the guest’s faith has impacted their life
- the faith’s core beliefs, values and important texts
- how the teachings of the faith can affect daily life.

Anyone who wants to and is happy to should then be given a chance to ask a question.
Give the guest the chance to ask any questions they might have.
Remember to thank the guest before the end of the session.

Reflection

This activity was about helping to develop beliefs. Everyone had to listen carefully. What did you learn? Did you find out anything new? What really interested you or surprised you? Were there any similarities or differences between this faith and any other faiths you know?

Ask everyone to spend a couple of minutes thinking about their own beliefs, values and attitudes. These could ideas based on their own beliefs and values, such as integrity, care or respect, or on their own faith if they have one. Did anyone notice any similarities or differences between their own values and beliefs, and that of the chosen faith? How do our personal values and beliefs affect the way we act or other aspects of our lives?

This activity was also about learning to communicate. Everyone listened to the guest and thought about some questions they wanted answered. Asking questions can help people to find out more about a topic, and whether our ideas align with it. How did it help your understanding to be able to ask questions?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Visits away from your meeting place: Complete a thorough risk assessment and include hazards, such as roads, woodland, plants, animals, and bodies of water (for example, rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas). You’ll probably need more adult helpers than usual. Your risk assessment should include how many adults you need. The young people to adult ratios are a minimum requirement. When you do your risk assessment, you might decide that you need more adults than the ratio specifies. Think about extra equipment that you may need to take with you, such as high visibility clothing, a first aid kit, water, and waterproofs. Throughout the activity, watch out for changes in the weather and do regular headcounts.