Tapestry of Faith: Spirit of Life: An Adult Program on Unitarian Universalist Spirituality

Faith In Action: Sharing with the Congregation

Part of Spirit of Life

Materials for Activity

  • Newsprint, markers, and tape
  • Bell
  • Clock, watch, or timer that shows seconds

Preparation for Activity

  • Think about your willingness and ability to be involved in ongoing support for the participants in Spirit of Life. While you are not obligated to be involved in any way after leading this workshop, participants may ask you to be. What boundaries will you draw on your future involvement? Who else might you invite to become involved in providing support? Planning ahead will help you respond helpfully and honestly to participants' requests.
  • Plan how many small groups you will form for this activity. Prepare several sheets of newsprint, markers, and tape for each small group.

Description of Activity

Introduce the activity with these or similar words:

The word "spirit" comes from the Latin for "breath." The word "conspire" comes from the Latin for breathing together. I want to invite you into a time of conspiring, a time of shared inspiration.

You have heard people name the gifts they've received from this time together and you have heard people say what kind of support they want for their spiritual journeys. What are the gifts this gathered community can bring to the congregation? Is there a ritualized, celebratory way to bring these gifts to the community?

Are there ways in which the participants in our workshop can offer one another ongoing support?

Invite participants to move into groups of four or five to imagine and brainstorm ways this group can share the gifts they've received with the congregation. Invite each group to appoint someone to take notes with a marker on newsprint.

Groups may suggest leading Spirit of Life workshops again; leading a Sunday service on Spirit of Life; forming spiritual partnerships or triads for speaking, listening, (and holding the space); starting a spiritual journal writing group; creating a prayer circle; creating a monthly Circle of Support for participants; offering more adult programs from the UUA's Tapestry of Faith series, such as the Spirit in Practice program by Erik Walker Wikstrom.

After ten minutes, invite small groups to return their focus to the large group and present their ideas. Invite each group to share their ideas with the large group, and post their newsprint notes on the wall.

Invite comments from the whole group after each small group shares. If there seems to be significant energy around any of the ideas in particular, discuss them further as a whole group. If the group wants to go forward with follow-up, be sure to delegate tasks. You can use these questions as guidelines:

  • What other people in the congregation should be involved in the decision-making around this?
  • Who will be the "point person" to follow up with those people and report back to the group?
  • Who is willing to take responsibility for making this idea happen?