Activity 2: Planning the Closing Worship Service

Activity time: 40 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Handout 1, Planning the Worship Service
  • Newsprint, markers, and tape
  • Copies of Singing the Living Tradition, the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook

Preparation for Activity

  • Copy Handout 1, Planning the Worship Service.
  • Optional: Recruit a guest musical accompanist and invite them to arrive near the end of your planning time so you can orient them before the worship service begins.

Description of Activity

Introduce the activity using these or similar words:

We are going to plan a worship service to create a sacred space for us to share our reflections about the experience of this program with one another and to bear witness to each of our commitments to move forward with the work of building the world we dream about.

Distribute Handout 1, Planning the Worship Service. Invite participants to consider their own journal entries as well as the questions on the handout. Ask:

  • Which questions resonate most deeply with your own experience?
  • What story would you like to tell about your participation in this program?

Invite everyone to work together to plan a service that will run less than 30 minutes. Use the suggested order of service in Handout 1 as a guide. Encourage participants to record the plan on newsprint. Decide whether to establish an order for reflections or to let people speak as the spirit moves them. Choose the music for the service, referring to Singing the Living Tradition as needed. If the group includes musicians, ask if they have musical selections they would like to offer. If you have recruited a guest musician, prepare to welcome and orient that person as to your plans.