SPIRIT OF LIFE
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults
WORKSHOP 9: COME TO US: CLOSING AND CONTINUING ON
REVISED
BY REVEREND BARBARA HAMILTON-HOLWAY
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 9:28:40 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
We covenant to affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.
The living tradition we share draws from... humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support. — Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association
This workshop is designed for people who have participated in several of the Spirit of Life workshops. Activities help participants recognize and claim the fruits of the workshop series, and name the support they need for ongoing spiritual development. The group will consider ways they might share their gifts with the congregation as well as ways they might offer one another ongoing support.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | |
Opening | 10 |
Activity 1: Fruits of the Spirit | 50 |
Activity 2: Responding to the Spirit of Life Program | 15 |
Faith in Action: Sharing with the Congregation | |
Closing | 15 |
Alternate Activity 1: Personal Chalices | 50 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Reflection. Leaders may wish to set aside some time to reflect on their own spiritual moments and senses of the sacred in advance of the workshop, either individually or together. You can use the workshop activities to help you explore your own spirituality. Doing so will also prepare you to explain and lead the activities.
Practice. Setting aside some moments to pray, to meditate, or to envision your good intentions for the workshop can help to center you before you begin leading. A centered leader who is present and responsive while facilitating is likely to lead an effective workshop.
Review Workshop 1, Leader Resource 1, Accessibility Guidelines for Workshop Presenters, for general tips to make your workshop welcoming to people with physical disabilities and sensitivities.
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As participants enter, invite them to sign in and create nametags.
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Welcome the group with these or similar words:
Welcome one final time to Spirit of Life. Today we celebrate the time we have spent together and the continuation of our spiritual journeys. Our faith is held together not by common creeds but by covenantal deeds. We are interdependent and we offer one another our mutual trust and support. Together so much more is possible. I'm so glad you are here!
Invite a participant to light the chalice, inviting them to wait to kindle the flame until the conclusion of the reading.
Distribute Handout 1. Indicate the unison chalice-lighting words and lead the group in saying them aloud. Invite participants to take turns so that each participant reads aloud one sentence of the reading. Say that it is fine for a participant to pass if they do not wish to read.
After participants finish the reading, the volunteer kindles the flame.
Invite participants to read silently along with you as you read aloud the Unitarian Universalist Principle and Source that this workshop highlights.
Begin name sharing with these or similar words:
Please speak your name into the gathering. As we listen to one another's names, let us hold one another in gratitude. In doing so, may we create a common spirit of generosity and community.
Invite participants to take turns saying their names clearly.
Invite participants to rise in body or spirit and sing "Spirit of Life" by Carolyn McDade, Hymn 123 in Singing the Living Tradition.
ACTIVITY 1: FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT (50 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants into quiet individual reflection and responding to the questions that are posted or displayed. After three minutes, read aloud the questions.
Invite participants to move to table(s) where they are able to draw or write. Distribute paper and writing and drawing implements. Tell participants they will have fifteen minutes for reflection and to write and/or draw some of their responses.
Watch the time and ring the bell after fifteen minutes.
Invite participants to remain at the drawing/writing table(s) and engage them in a large group conversation, responding to these questions:
What are some of the fruits you identified? And some of the gifts?
Hear a few responses, then distribute fruits to participants. Invite participants to write with markers on the fruit, using words or short phrases to describe the fruits and gifts they identified during their time of reflection. After five minutes, ask the group:
What are some of the ongoing needs you identified?
Hear a few responses, then distribute leaves to participants. Invite them to write with markers on the leaves, using words or short phrases to describe the needs they identified during the time of reflection. Allow five minutes for writing.
Invite participants to decorate the posted tree together, adding fruits and leaves. Depending on your space, you may wish to lay the tree down on a table or post it on the wall for decorating. When the tree is decorated, ask participants to look at it together and reflect. Engage the group in conversation using these questions as a guide:
Thank participants for their thoughtful reflections and conclude. You may wish to post this tree somewhere public within the congregation—if so, ask for the group's assent.
ACTIVITY 2: RESPONDING TO THE SPIRIT OF LIFE PROGRAM (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants' to provide feedback on the Spirit of Life workshop series by completing the evaluation on Handout 2. Show participants the box for their completed evaluations. Allow fifteen minutes for participants to complete the evaluation.
Including All Participants
If any participants have disabilities that make writing difficult, encourage them to speak with you instead of filling out the evaluation.
CLOSING (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Add the bowl of stones to the altar or centering table. Gather participants around the table. Affirm the good work that participants have done in this workshop.
Say:
As we prepare to leave this space, I invite you to select a stone from the common bowl. If you like, you may name some ways this series has been a stepping stone on your spiritual path. Or, you may select a stone in silence.
After participants have each taken a stone, and have spoken if they wish to, you may offer your thanks and blessings with these words, or your own:
Thank you so much for your attentive listening, open sharing, and creative expression throughout this workshop. My deep wish is that our congregation can be for you a place to continue to grow, and a place where you will encourage growth in others.
Blessings for your journeys!
Invite the group to join in singing "Spirit of Life," with body movements as participants are willing and able. Before leading the song, demonstrate the body movements described in Leader Resource 1.
Lead the song slowly so participants can follow your movements. Sing the song twice, with the movements. If the group seems to be learning the movements well, invite them to repeat the movements in the quiet without singing the song.
Ask participants to form a circle, join hands, and move toward the altar or centering table. Extinguish the chalice together. Close with these words:
This is only the beginning.
Including All Participants
Be sure to adapt body movements to "Spirit of Life" to suit the needs of members of your group. Invite participants to participate in the "Spirit of Life" body movements as suits their willingness and ability.
FAITH IN ACTION: SHARING WITH THE CONGREGATION
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
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 (at www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith/spiritpractice/index.shtml) 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:
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
You've done it! You've completed the teaching of Spirit of Life. Even though your congregation's series is complete, it is still quite valuable for co-facilitators to get together and evaluate the experience of this final meeting. Use these questions to guide your shared reflection and planning:
TAKING IT HOME
We covenant to affirm and promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.
The living tradition we share draws from... humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support. — Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Discuss the "fruits" of this workshop with friends, family, co-workers, and housemates. Enlist one or more of them as people who can support you on your continued journey of spiritual growth.
Create an altar or centering table at home that will remind you of the things you want to hold on to from the Spirit of Life workshops. Return to your altar regularly for meditation, reflection, and prayer.
If your group did the Faith in Action activity, Sharing with the Congregation involve yourself in some of the projects your group identified in the activity.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: PERSONAL CHALICES (50 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain to participants that they will create personal chalices which will represent aspects of their spiritual lives. Invite participants to drawing/writing table(s) and begin by reflecting on personal spiritual experiences. Read aloud the reflection questions that you have posted.
Allow two minutes for quiet reflection, then distribute paper and pencils. Invite participants to take five minutes to draw in response to one or more of these questions. Explain to participants that drawings can be as abstract or representational as they like, and can include words.
After five minutes, explain the chalice project. If you have made your own chalice or drawing in advance, show it now. If you have not made a chalice as an example, demonstrate how a flower pot upside down with a right side up saucer on top can create a chalice shape. Use these or similar words of explanation:
You are invited to plan some designs, pictures, or words to include on your personal chalice. You may wish to depict aspects of your spirituality or spiritual journey and things that have influenced you spiritually. After you have decided what to include on your chalice, place the saucer upside down on the table, center the flower pot base on it,and trace around the pot with a pencil so as to indicate to yourself the area which should remain free of paint. Then, decorate the flower pot and saucer using acrylic paint. After the painting is done, use the hot glue to attach the saucer to the flower pot.
Suggest that in addition to the reflection questions posed before, participants might consider depicting one or more of the following:
Invite participants to collect their flower pot, saucer, and paintbrushes and begin painting as soon as they are ready. Explain that they will have a half hour to do this project.
When all participants have assembled their chalices, distribute a candle to each participant and invite participants to place them inside their chalices. Invite several participants to share briefly with the group something they represented on their chalice. Thank participants for sharing and invite them to place their chalices in a designated area so they can dry during the rest of the workshop.
Close by pointing out that these chalices can serve as a reminder of the spiritual growth participants have experienced through the Spirit of Life workshops as well as a new ritual object for participants' future spiritual lives.
SPIRIT OF LIFE: WORKSHOP 9:
HANDOUT 1: COME TO US
UNISON CHALICE LIGHTING
We are here young and old, male, female, and transgender; gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning, and straight (but not narrow!) people.
We welcome all the colors of the human race.
Our life experiences have led us to a rich variety of outlooks and a beautiful diversity of perspectives to which our life experiences have led us.
We are agnostic, humanist, atheist, theist, pantheist, questioning and affirming.
We learn from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist teachings, from earth centered religions, from science and nature, from personal experience, and from the poetic and prophetic words and deeds of women and men.
Not only is there room for all of us; there is room for all that is within each of us.
Our confidence in the goodness of inclusion leads us to keep widening the circle of our welcome and our care and concern.
We are people with doubts and convictions.
We have failings and frailties, possibilities and promise.
We know the violence, pain and suffering we humans cause, and we trust our actions for goodness and justice are significant beyond our knowing.
We each have a part of the truth and we need one another to be more whole.
There is always more to know, and we keep open to learning and more sources for understanding.
The truth we search for will always be beyond our reach.
Our reaching and our searching keep us vital and alive. The measure of our searching and our learning is the lives we live, the deeds we do, the love we give.
This community constantly invites us to be who we are. In this community may we receive healing, caring, support, inspiration, challenge, momentum, and increased strength. To this community, we bring the gifts of ourselves.
Both our individual sense of meaning and purpose and our individual actions for love and justice expand and multiply in community.
Together let us marvel at the mystery and wonder of life and the universe.
We light this chalice for the Spirit of Life.
PRINCIPLE AND SOURCE
This workshop is grounded in the following Principle and Source from the Purposes and Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association:
... The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.
... Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit
From Our Statement of Principles and Sources:
... As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support.
SPIRIT OF LIFE: WORKSHOP 9:
HANDOUT 2: RESPONDING TO THE SPIRIT OF LIFE PROGRAM — EVALUATION
Please take a few minutes before leaving to write out some thoughts about our time together.
The Spirit of Life workshop series was ...
The best thing about it was...
I wish we had...
Something I'd change is...
Another thing I'd like to say is...
I came here wanting...
I leave here... .
Overall, the Spirit of Life program was...
Please circle the number that indicates your position on the following statement.
Spirit of Life helped our congregation create loving community, inspire spiritual growth, and encourage lives of integrity, justice, and joy.
1 - Strongly disagree
2 - Disagree
3 - Neutral
4 - Somewhat agree
5 - Strongly agree
Please include any additional comments or suggestions on the back of this page.
Thank you for your participation!
SPIRIT OF LIFE: WORKSHOP 9:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: BODY MOVEMENTS FOR SPIRIT OF LIFE
When you sing the phrase "Spirit of Life," lift both your arms above your head and then make a big encompassing circle with one arm curving down one side, as the other arm curves down the other side.
When you sing "come unto me," bring your hands together over your heart.
As you sing "sing in my heart," lift your hands out and up into the air.
When you follow that with "the stirrings of compassion," lower your arms, have the palms of your hands facing up and open and move your hands in a circular motion parallel to the floor.
For "blow in the wind," lift your arms above your head and sway them.
As you sing "rise in the sea," lower your arms and then rise them up like a wave. For "move in the hands," move your arms and hands outward in gesture of giving.
When you sing "giving life the shape of justice," extend your arms and hands out to either side and move them up and down like balancing scales of justice.
As you sing "roots hold me close," bend down and extend your arms and hands like roots into the ground. For "wings set me free," bend your arms out to the side like wings to make a flying motion.
As you sing "Spirit of Life," lift both your arms above your head and make a big encompassing circle with one arm curving down one side and the other arm curving down the other side.
Close with "come to me, come to me" with your hands coming one at a time onto your heart.
FIND OUT MORE
The ten-workshop series Spirit in Practice (at www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith/spiritpractice/index.shtml) by Erik Walker Wikstrom is an excellent follow-up to Spirit of Life. Its workshops focus on specific practices that Unitarian Universalists can use to develop their spirituality.
Other Unitarian Universalist programs for spiritual growth include:
Thoreau as Spiritual Guide (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=637) and Emerson as Spiritual Guide (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=586) by Barry Andrews; Building Your Spiritual Home: A Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Curriculum (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=304) by Caitlin Anderson and Mary Ann Macklin; Lifelines: Holding On and Letting Go (at www.beacon.org/client/uu_guides/2723dg.cfm) and Lifecraft: The Art of Meaning in Everyday Life (at www.beacon.org/client/uu_guides/7713dg.cfm), both by Forrest Church (Beacon Press; Evensong for Families (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2), Evensong: Volume 1 (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=4) and Evensong: Volume 2 (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=618), by Barbara Hamilton-Holway; Gatherings: Small Group Ministry for Men (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=1) by Tony Bushman and Bill Hamilton-Holway; Parents as Spiritual Guides (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=738) by Roberta and Christopher Nelson; and The Force of Spirit by Scott Russell Sanders and a discussion guide (at www.beacon.org/client/uu_guides/6297dg.cfm) by Sophia Betancourt.