Learning Exercise

Religious Scavenger Hunt



Directions: using the worksheet, locate at least one local worship community (i.e., church, synagogue, temple, mosque, etc.) for each religion listed. For each group:

1) write down the name, address and phone number of the communities that are closest to you and

2) indicate how many other such communities there are in the area.

In some cases, you may need to look beyond your immediate local area, extending your search to include nearby counties or nearest major city.
But do NOT use too large an area (generally speaking, a search within a 25 - 50 mile radius should suffice for most Urban areas though you may need to go a bit further to find a few less common religions). For the sake of good demographics, try to be consistant in your search area.



You can begin with the yellow pages of the phone book (under "churches" and "synagogues"). You can also do an Internet search for places of worship: using a search engine, enter key words for geographical location (e.g. your town, your
county, nearest major city, etc.) and the name of the religion you wish to locate (you may want to narrow your search by also entering terms such as
"temple" or "worship"). A good on-line directory can be found at "The Pluralism Project Directory of Religious Centers" (http://www.pluralism.org/directory/index.php) Students have also had success using the "yahoo yellow pages."



Religions to locate:


Non-Christian religions:

Jewish

Muslim/Islam

Hindu

Buddhist

Sikh

Jain

Baha'i

Other Non-Christian


Christian:

Catholic/Roman Catholic

Eastern Orthodox (Greek, Russian, etc.)

Episcopal/Anglican

Lutheran (all kinds)

Methodist (all kinds)

Presbyterian

United Church of Christ

Baptist (all kinds)

Pentecostal (Assembly of God, Holiness, etc)

Brethren

Mennonite

Friends (Quaker)

Seventh Day Adventist

Jehovah?s Witness

Christian Science

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon)

Unity

Unitarian Universalist

Other Christian (non-denominational,etc.)



Once you have located various places of worship, write an evaluation of your findings: What did you learn from this exercise? Were you surprised by the results? Why or why not? Which of these groups were new to you? What sources did you use to locate the information? How far did you have to look to find some of them?