Workshop 6: Sophia Lyon Fahs

Beautiful orange sunset over a deep blue ocean. — Tapestry is Sunsetting

The UUA is no longer updating Tapestry of Faith programs.

Part of What Moves Us: Unitarian Universalist Theology

In This Section

Introduction to Workshop 6: Sophia Lyon Fahs
From Tapestry of Faith

The emotional impulses that urge [human]kind to be religious are a part of human nature everywhere and apparently always. We truly need to be religious. — Sophia Lyon Fahs This workshop introduces Sophia Lyon Fahs’ Theology of Religious Naturalism. For more than 80 years, Fahs developed and used…
Workshop-at-a-Glance
From What Moves Us

Activity Minutes Opening 5 Activity 1: Recalling Emotional and Religious Experiences 15 Activity 2: Introducing Sophia Lyon Fahs 25 Activity 3: Testing Fahs 25 Activity 4: Religious Experience and Unitarian Universalist Experience 15 Closing 5…
Spiritual Preparation
From What Moves Us

Read Leader Resource 3, Thoughts on the Word God. Use these questions to help you find connections between your own theology and Fahs’. You may wish to write your answers in your theology journal: What does the term God mean to you? To what does the term refer for you?…
Opening
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 5 minutes Materials for Activity Small worship table and cloth Chalice, candle and lighter or LED battery-operated candle A copy of Singing the Living Tradition, the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook Newsprint, markers, and tape Optional: Microphone Preparation for Activity Set up th…
Activity 1: Recalling Emotional and Religious Experiences
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 15 minutes Materials for Activity Newsprint, markers, and tape Participant journals Variety of writing and drawing implements Timepiece (minutes) Leader Resource 1, Sophia Lyon Fahs Portrait Optional: Computer and digital projector Preparation for Activity If participants may need…
Activity 2: Introducing Sophia Lyon Fahs
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 25 minutes Materials for Activity Newsprint, markers, and tape Handout 1, Introducing Sophia Lyon Fahs Handout 2, Learning by Heart — Sophia Lyon Fahs Story, “Fahs’ Religious Education Experiences” Participant journals Variety of writing and drawing implements Timepiece (minutes)…
Activity 3: Testing Fahs
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 25 minutes Materials for Activity Newsprint, markers, and tape Participant journals Variety of writing and drawing implements Timepiece (minutes) Newsprint from Activity 2 with Fahs’ list of five basic impulses, needs, and emotions Optional: Bell or chime Preparation for Activity…
Activity 4: Religious Experience and Unitarian Universalist Experience
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 15 minutes Materials for Activity Newsprint, markers, and tape Participant journals Variety of writing and drawing implements Timepiece (minutes) Optional: Bell or chime Preparation for Activity Write on newsprint and post: Do you call the ways in which your basic emotional needs a…
Closing
From What Moves Us

Activity time: 5 minutes Materials for Activity Small worship table and cloth Chalice, candle and lighter or LED battery-operated candle A copy of Singing the Living Tradition, the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook Taking It Home handouts for all participants Preparation for Activity Review the Tak…
Leader Reflection and Planning
From What Moves Us

After the workshop, co-leaders should make a time to get together to evaluate this workshop and plan future workshops. Use these questions to guide your shared reflection and planning: What have you learned about your own ability to explore personal experiences as part of your own strategy to…
Taking It Home: Sophia Lyon Fahs
From What Moves Us

The emotional impulses that urge [human]kind to be religious are a part of human nature everywhere and apparently always. We truly need to be religious. — Sophia Lyon Fahs What core emotional needs of yours are foundational to your personal Unitarian Universalist faith? Reflect on how these needs…
Fahs Religious Education Experiences

Sophia Lyon Fahs

From What Moves Us

Excerpted from Worshipping Together with Questioning Minds, by Sophia Lyon Fahs. Copyright (C) 1965 by Sophia Lyon Fahs. Reprinted by permission of Beacon Press, Boston. Two first-person anecdotes from Fahs’ experiences as a religious educator, each followed by her analysis….
Handout 1: Introducing Sophia Lyon Fahs
From What Moves Us

One of the creators of modern American theological liberalism, Sophia Lyon Fahs was also the progenitor of American Unitarian religious education as a modern theological science of human emotions. Born in 1876 to Presbyterian missionary parents in China, she embraced progressive educational…
Handout 2: Learning By Heart: Sophia Lyon Fahs

Polly Peterson

From What Moves Us

This story is included in the second and third grade Tapestry of Faith curriculum, Faithful Journeys. “Mama, Mama, why do we just keep going and going and not going anywhere?” asked little Sophie. Her family was crossing the wide Pacific Ocean on a big ship bound for America. Sophie Lyon was an…
Leader Resource 1: Sophia Lyon Fahs Portrait
From What Moves Us
Leader Resource 2: Why Teach Religion in an Age of Science

Sophia Lyon Fahs

From What Moves Us

This was Sophia Lyon Fahs’ 1960 Rufus Jones lecture, published by the Committee on Religious Education, Friends General Conference, Philadelphia, PA, 1960. Used by permission. …
Leader Resource 3: Thoughts on the Word God

Sophia Lyon Fahs

From What Moves Us

No matter how much of a humanist one may be, it would seem impossible (at least to me) for a thoughtful and sincere person who is trying to be a citizen of the world, who knows sympathetically something of man’s religious history, to feel it necessary to discard completely all the ideas or concep…
Leader Resource 4: Fahs Theology in the Congregation
From What Moves Us

This is a 30-minute activity….
Leader Resource 5: Engaging as Religious Professionals
From What Moves Us

This is a 30-minute activity. Materials Newsprint, markers, and tape Preparation Prepare and post a sheet of newsprint with these questions: In what ways do you agree with Fahs? In what ways do you differ? Is “God-talk” an issue in your congregation? How do you as a professional work with a…
Find Out More
From What Moves Us

Sophia Lyon Fahs, Today’s Children and Yesterday’s Heritage (Boston: Beacon Press, 1952). Sophia Lyon Fahs, Worshipping Together With Questioning Minds (Boston: Beacon Press, 1965). Edith F. Hunter, Sophia Lyon Fahs: A Biography (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966) Christopher L….