As a life-long Unitarian Universalist, I have often come to know the summer months as being "time-off" from services on Sunday mornings. Many Unitarian Universalist congregations will reduce their services in the summer months given the likelihood that folks tend to travel. Over the past few years, I have been spending time in thought about what it means to be a "pluralist" amongst a mass of people who celebrate and worship in different ways. With fewer services at my local church in Burlington, Vermont, I decided that the summer months would be well-spent if I visited various churches in the area.

Three weeks ago, I made the decision that I would attend a different church service each week for the duration of the summer months so that I could augment my knowledge set of other religious beliefs and services. Stephen Prothero, author of Religious Literacy, claims that, "religious illiteracy is at least as pervasive as cultural illiteracy, and certainly more dangerous (4)." While there is beauty amongst religious institutions; there is also evil and ugliness. I fully believe that an absence of knowledge about religious difference can directly or indirectly lend itself to challenging circumstances. Alas, over the next few months, I hope that I will have the opportunity to explore, and better understand, the religious backgrounds and beliefs of some of my neighbors in the Burlington area.