Stefania's Story
From A Stepping Stone Year by Margaret Gooding

Explain that the story is about a girl the children's age who had a hard decision to make. Then read or tell the following story.

Back in the early days of this century, a young schoolgirl and her family moved from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to a small town in the same province. Her name was Stefania. Her father had bought a general store in the town and sold groceries and candy, buttons and boots, paint and hammers, and all manner of useful and interesting things. He and Stefania's mother and her brothers and sisters were considered important people in the town because of the store.

It was summer when the family moved to the town. Stefania found it easy to make new friends in her neighborhood. For one thing, she was a friendly person. For another there was the store with the bins of cookies and the penny candy in the glass case, and she was allowed to treat her friends when they came to the store with her.

When September came and it was time for school to start, Stefania did not feel like a new pupil at all, for she already had friends who would be at school with her, and she looked forward to making new ones. She also looked forward to going to the little Unitarian church on the edge of town. It had been closed all summer. Her family had been members of the Icelandic Unitarian Church in Winnipeg and Stefania had gone to Sunday school.

At recess on the first day of school all the pupils went outside to play. Soon they were busy with their games and Stefania was finding new friends. In a little while, though, she noticed a girl about her age in a dress that looked like a hand-me-down standing apart from all the others, not joining in the games.

"Why doesn't that girl over there play with us?" she asked. "Oh, we couldn't play with her," someone said. "She's a Unitarian." It didn't take Stefania even a second to decide what to do. "Then you can't play with me either," she said, "for I'm a Unitarian too." And she walked away from the group and introduced herself to the other girl.

This is a true story. It happened at a time when some people didn't like Unitarians because Unitarians believe that the search for truth is important in religion and don't believe that Jesus was a God. Some people didn't like Universalists because Universalists believe that love toward others is the most important part of religion and don't believe that anyone will go to hell forever. It was sometimes very hard to be a Unitarian or a Universalist.