Handout 1: Planning the Worship Service

Plan a worship service that inspires participants and allows them to bear witness to one another's commitments to take on the work of building antiracist, anti-oppressive, multicultural communities and groups in all areas of your lives. Use the questions and template below as a guide.

I. QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

  • What stories do you wish to tell as individuals? As a group?
  • What practices did you use or create during Building the World We Dream About that helped you learn and grow? How could you incorporate those methods into your worship?
  • What music, readings, film, poetry, etc. inspired you over the course of the workshops?
  • Have you written journal entries that exemplify your journey?
  • What wisdom or strategies do you want to share?
  • How has your journey transformed how you think about yourself? The groups and communities of which you are a part?
  • What new commitments are required as a result of what you have learned?

II. SUGGESTED ORDER OF WORSHIP

OPENING READING

In my vision of a Beloved Community, I see a dazzling, light-filled, breathtakingly beautiful mosaic, a gigantic, all-encompassing mosaic, where each of us can see, can really see, and deeply appreciate each piece. We know that each piece is of immeasurable value. We know that each piece is part of a larger whole, a larger whole that would not be whole, indeed would not BE, without each piece shining through, and being seen and appreciated as its unique self. — Marla Scharf, First Unitarian Church of San Jose, California

OPENING HYMN

Choose a hymn that speaks to the journey you have undertaken and will continue. Possibilities in Singing the Living Tradition include "I'm On My Way" (Hymn 116) and "Guide My Feet" (Hymn 348).

EXPRESSIONS OF OUR EXPERIENCE

Choose three or four people to share a two- or three-minute reflection on their experience.

MOMENT OF SILENT REFLECTION

HYMN

Choose a hymn that acknowledges how challenging this work has been and will be and expresses a promise to continue—a quieter, more meditative hymn, such as "Spirit of Life" (Hymn 123) or "There Is More Love Somewhere" (Hymn 95).

EXPRESSIONS OF OUR EXPERIENCE

Choose three or four people to share a two- or three-minute reflection on their experience.

MOMENT OF SILENT REFLECTION

HYMN

Choose a hymn that speaks to how joyful and soul-enriching this work has been and will be. Possibilities in Singing the Living Tradition include "For All That Is Our Life" (Hymn 128) and "I've Got Peace Like a River" (Hymn 100).

EXPRESSIONS OF OUR EXPERIENCE

Choose three or four people to share a two- or three-minute reflection on their experience.

MOMENT OF SILENT REFLECTION

COMMITMENTS

Invite participants, as they are moved, to give voice to a commitment they make to continue this work and to light a candle.

CLOSING HYMN

Choose an upbeat hymn that expresses hope, such as "We'll Build a Land" (Hymn 121; consider using the alternate words to the chorus from Workshop 5, Handout 5), "Love Will Guide Us" (Hymn 131), or "One More Step" (Hymn 168; consider replacing the word "step" with "move" to fully include people with mobility limitations).

CLOSING WORDS

If you are who you were,

and if the person next to you is who he or she was,

if none of us has changed

since the day we came in here—

we have failed.

The purpose of this community—

of any church, temple, zendo, mosque—

is to help its people grow.

We do this through encounters with the unknown—in ourselves,

in one another,

in "The Other"—whoever that might be for us,

however hard that might be—

because these encounters have many gifts to offer.

So may you go forth from here this morning [afternoon, evening]

not who you were,

but who you could be.

So may we all. — by Erik Walker Wikstrom (used with permission)