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Do a virtual tour of a place of worship

Learn about different religions around the world as you take an online tour of local or international places of worship.

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You’ll need

  • Device with access to the internet

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.
  • This activity is designed for you to run during an online session. Take a look at our advice on using Zoom and other popular digital platforms, as well as guidance to help everyone stay safe online.
  • Staying safe online: You should supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our guidance on Scouting online safely. 
  • Online safety activities: You could run some of our online safety activities before this event.

Planning and setting up this activity

  • This activity’s all about visiting a local place of worship or sacred space virtually.
  • Choose where you may want to tour ahead of the session. You could do this by discussing it with the young people ahead of the session or by understanding the religious backgrounds of your group and choosing a place that would be new to them.
  • There are multiple platforms that offer a wide variety of locations and religions. Cumbria Development Education Centre or RE Hubs are both great resources.
  • Test out your chosen delivery platform and how best to share your chosen tour ahead of time. 

Running this activity

  1. Everyone should join the video call, ideally with their cameras on, if comfortable. 
  2. Start by thinking about different communities. To learn about the things which are important in different communities, you have to ask why, so you can start to see the world through someone else’s eyes. Learning isn’t just about words, it’s about getting stuck in – see what the clothes feel like, hear the beat of the music, and taste the flavours of the food.
  3. To begin exploring a faith, think about its key beliefs, important practices such as fasting or wearing special clothes, and important dates. If you choose a culture, explore traditional arts and crafts, dancing, clothes and music.
  4. For occasions, discover which dates are significant to different people and how they mark them.
  5. Explain to the group that they are going to do a virtual tour of one or more sacred spaces or places of worship. Just as you would in person, everyone needs to always be respectful of others’ beliefs. 
  6. You may want to explore places all together or have the young people rotate around breakout rooms and have a different location in each room.
  7. Take as long as the group needs or the tour allows for exploring the space and learning about the religion.
  8. You could complete the reflection section after visiting each space or after visiting multiple spaces and completing the activity.

Reflection

This activity was all about exploring places of worship or sacred spaces connected to religions you may not be familiar with. This visit helped you to value and trust others for who they are. What did you learn about the faith or culture? Do people who go to the place you visited have any things in common with you? Did you do anything to show that you respected and valued people and their place of worship (or cultural centre)?

This visit also reminded you that you’re a local, national and international citizen. What did you expect the place to look like, and what did you think would happen there? What was it like – was it a big colourful hall with a lot of art, or a small quiet room? Was it like you expected? Is it a good thing that citizens are diverse and different? What do local, national and global citizens share? What responsibilities do we have to other citizens (whether they’re the same or different to us)?

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.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Online safety

Supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our online safety or bullying guidance. The NSPCC offers more advice and guidance, too. If you want to know more about specific social networks and games, Childnet has information and safety tips for apps. You can also report anything that’s worried you online to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command. As always, if you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card to make a report.

You could use still images instead of videos if people’s internet isn’t strong enough to support video streaming, or if anyone is not comfortable being on camera. This could include photos, screenshots, or virtual gallery images that participants can explore at their own pace. You could also share a slide deck or images for young people to print and view, either during the session or beforehand.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Beavers Faith Activity Badge
Cubs World Faiths Activity Badge
Scouts World Faiths Activity Badge

Everyone should have the opportunity to take an active role in choosing the faith or culture to explore, and in helping to plan the visit.