RESISTANCE AND TRANSFORMATION
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults
WORKSHOP 16: IS THERE MORE?
BY BY REV. COLIN BOSSEN AND REV. JULIA HAMILTON
© Copyright 2011 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 11:26:25 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 come to a time when we realize that the faith we have inherited is inadequate for what we are facing...at such moments we have three choices: We can hold to our religious beliefs and deny our experience, we can hold to our experience and walk away from our religious tradition, or we can become theologians — Rebecca Parker, in Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now
This concluding workshop looks back, into the stories told in this program, and forward, into ways contemporary Unitarian Universalists do and will seek to transform society. Participants apply the models of prophetic, parallel, and institutional social justice leadership, introduced in Workshop 2, to historical Unitarian Universalist stories of resistance and transformation and to our contemporary justice work. Where are we resisting unjust or oppressive social structures and patterns? How are we engaging issues of environmental justice?
To ensure you can help adults of all ages, stages, and learning styles participate fully in this workshop, review these sections of the program Introduction: "Accessibility Guidelines for Workshop Presenters" in the Integrating All Participants section, and "Strategies for Effective Group Facilitation" and "Strategies for Brainstorming" in the Leader Guidelines section.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 15 |
Activity 1: Parallel, Prophetic and Institutional | 20 |
Activity 2: Inspiration | 25 |
Activity 3: Is There More? | 15 |
Faith in Action: Sharing Inspiration | |
Closing | 15 |
Alternate Activity 1: Finding a Way Forward | 30 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Since this is the last workshop of Resistance and Transformation, take time reflect on your experience as a workshop facilitator. What did you learn about yourself? About Unitarian Universalism? Will anything from the program change the way you lead your daily life? Approach social justice work? View your congregation?
Before you lead the workshop, take time to complete this sentence: "At the end of this last workshop, I hope the participants leave feeling... "
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As participants enter, invite them to sign in, put on name tags, and pick up handouts. Direct their attention to the agenda for this workshop.
OPENING (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite a participant to light the chalice while you lead a unison reading of Reading 449 from Singing the Living Tradition, "We hallow this time together by kindling the lamp of our heritage."
Lead the group in singing the hymn you have chosen.
Make sure that each participant has their journal and something to write with. Then, post the newsprint you have prepared. Invite participants to take ten minutes to respond in their journals. After ten minutes, ring a bell or a chime and read this quote from Isaac Newton:
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
Remind participants that this is the last workshop. Say they will use their time together to synthesize material from previous workshops, consider where Unitarian Universalist work for social justice is moving today, and identify where their own work fits in the ongoing Unitarian Universalist history of resistance and transformation.
ACTIVITY 1: PROPHETIC, PARALLEL, AND INSTITUTIONAL (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute the handout. Lead a conversation to reacquaint participants with the three models for social justice work that were introduced in Workshop 2. Ask:
Post the newsprint on which you have sketched the four quadrants. Lead the group to brainstorm social justice leaders, actions, and movements from past workshops. As each is named, invite participants to suggest the quadrant into which each one's leadership style fits. If there is not consensus, enter the name in more than one place. Invite observations and discussion, using these questions to guide the discussion:
ACTIVITY 2: INSPIRATION (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to form small groups of three or four to share their reflections on which workshops, events, or people they found most inspiring.
After ten minutes, ring the bell and invite people to form new groups, mixing participants as much as possible. In their new groups, invite participants to briefly share the common themes that emerged from their previous small groups.
ACTIVITY 3: IS THERE MORE? (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Acknowledge that no program can include everything. Invite the group to brainstorm the themes, issues, and historical events this workshop series has not explored. Ask: Are there justice themes that are important to this congregation or to you personally that were not part of this workshop series? Are there areas not included in this program in which Unitarian, Universalist, or Unitarian Universalist individuals or congregations have done significant justice work?
Record the brainstorm results on a sheet of newsprint. Participants may name some themes that are in workshops you did not offer or themes that are not part of program at all.
Invite the group to consider using the workshops in this program as a model for bringing the congregation's own history of resistance and transformation into focus.
CLOSING (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Ring the bell or chime and invite everyone into a moment of silence to reflect on the most important thing they are taking away from program. Tell them it can be anything: a story, a song, a sense of connection, a new learning, or a curiosity for further study. After about a minute of silence, invite each participant in turn to share briefly, reminding them that they may pass.
Distribute Handout 1 and lead participants in the responsive reading; invite them to respond to your reading of the plain text by reading aloud the text in italics.
Invite a participant to come forward and extinguish the chalice as you say these words: "As we extinguish this chalice, may we let the light of our tradition kindle our hope for a better world."
Encourage participants to continue to use their journal for reflection.
If you have made copies of Handout 2, Social Justice Resources, distribute it along with Taking It Home.
FAITH IN ACTION: SHARING INSPIRATION
Description of Activity
Share with other members of your congregation the parts of the program you found to be most inspiring. You might do this through conversation during coffee hour, a worship service, newsletter or website articles, or a presentation as part of an adult religious education forum.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Take a few moments right after the workshop to ask each other:
TAKING IT HOME
We come to a time when we realize that the faith we have inherited is inadequate for what we are facing...at such moments we have three choices: We can hold to our religious beliefs and deny our experience, we can hold to our experience and walk away from our religious tradition, or we can become theologians. — Rebecca Parker, in Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now
Share with friends or family members your reflections about who or what you encountered in this program that has inspired you. How has the program influenced or shifted your perception of justice work? How has it connected your Unitarian Universalist faith more fully with your justice efforts in the world? Perhaps you had a conversation that would not have otherwise happened, gained a new awareness regarding a certain issue, or experienced a personal revelation about a justice issue with which you were already engaged. Perhaps you have begun or deepened a commitment to a particular social or environmental justice cause. Tell your story, and invite others to tell theirs.
Research a social or environmental justice topic important to your congregation that was not covered by the program. Lead a workshop or forum on the topic.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: FINDING A WAY FORWARD (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Present your findings about the congregation's justice work. Invite participants to consider how the congregation's work is connected to the larger Unitarian Universalist history of resistance and transformation:
Allow fifteen minutes for this part of the activity.
Then, post blank newsprint and lead a brainstorming activity using these questions:
Allow three minutes for this brainstorm.
Now, post new newsprint for a second brainstorming activity. Ask: What are the needs of our surrounding community? Record contributions.
After three minutes, lead a large group discussion asking participants to consider how their congregation's gifts relate to the needs of the surrounding community. Ask the group what it might do to learn if its assessment of community needs is correct. Which community leaders might they talk to?
Finally, ask the group if they are interested in continuing to meet to discuss possible social or environmental justice projects to do together. Distribute Handout 2, Social Justice Resources and set a time to meet again.
RESISTANCE AND TRANSFORMATION: WORKSHOP 16:
HANDOUT 1: RESPONSIVE READING
Benediction from Telling Our Stories, Celebrating Ourselves by the Women and Religion Task Force. Published by the Pacific Central District, UUA, 1998.
May the truth that makes us free,
And the hope that never dies,
And the love that casts out fear,
Lead us forward together
Until daylight breaks
And shadows flee away.
While we toil amidst things as they are,
May our vision of things yet to be —
Strengthen and inspire us.
May faithfulness to the good of each —
Become the unfailing virtue of us all.
May our experience be enlightened by understanding —
Our love ennobled by service,
And our faith strengthened by knowledge.
Blessed be.
RESISTANCE AND TRANSFORMATION: WORKSHOP 16:
HANDOUT 2: SOCIAL JUSTICE RESOURCES
Books and Study Guides
The Arc of the Universe is Long: Unitarian Universalists, Anti-Racism and the Journey from Calgary (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=1044) (Boston: Skinner House, 2009) by Rev. Leslie Takahashi Morris, Rev. James (Chip) Roush, and Leon Spencer tells the recent history of the UUA journey toward becoming an antiracist, anti-oppressive, multicultural movement. Beginning with the 1992 passage of the racial and cultural diversity resolution at Calgary, Canada, the book traces developments through General Assembly 2006 using interviews and written records. The authors bring to life voices and stories of many perspectives, all addressing issues of race and ethnicity in our congregations and our Association.
Blessing the World: What Can Save Us Now (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=547) (Boston: Skinner House, 2006) by Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker, a Unitarian Universalist Christian theologian, offers essays on how to face the "legacies of injustice that characterize our current world order."
Call to Selma: Eighteen Days of Witness (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=557) is a first-hand account by Rev. Richard D. Leonard (Boston: Skinner House, 2001). In 1965, Rev. Martin Luther King appealed to clergy across the nation to come join protestors in their struggle for voting rights. More than 200 Unitarian Universalists responded. Rev. Leonard, age 37, was minister of education at the Community Church of New York at the time he answered Dr. King's call. Leonard's journal, along with the recollections of others who shared the journey, presents Selma as a pivotal point in the advancement of civil rights, and a defining moment for Unitarian Universalism.
Common Fire: Leading Lives of Commitment in a Complex World (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=243) (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002) by Laurent A. Parks Daloz, et al. A landmark study reveals how we become committed to the common good and sustain our commitments in a changing world. Online study guide. (at www.beacon.org/client/uu_guides/2005dg.cfm)
Leader's Guide to Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North (at www.uua.org/documents/idbm/traces_trade_guide.pdf), a documentary film that chronicles the journey of nine descendants of the largest slave-trading family in the United States, as they probe the history of their New England ancestors and confront the legacies of slavery. This guide includes plans for a single-session program and for a four-part discussion series.
The Prophetic Imperative: Social Gospel in Theory and Practice (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=663), 2nd ed. (Boston: Skinner House, 2000) by Richard S. Gilbert explores the role of social justice work in the Unitarian Universalist denomination. In a historical review of justicemaking in Unitarian Universalism, explores the connections between spirituality and social action, with practical guidance to help congregations mobilize for justice work. Online study guide. (at #guides)
Soul Work: Anti-racist Theologies in Dialogue (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=14) (Boston: Skinner House, 2002). Papers and discussion transcripts from the Unitarian Universalist Association Consultation on Theology and Racism held in Boston in January 2001. Addresses such questions as: What theological or philosophical beliefs bind us together in our shared struggle against racism? What are the costs of racism, both for the oppressors and the oppressed?
Study Guide to Milk (at www.uua.org/documents/belletinimark/milk_study_guide.pdf) by Rev. Mark Belletini, in the UUA's Tapestry of Faith family of online curricula and resources. This guide for the 2008 film biography of Harvey Milk includes background information, discussion questions, and resources for putting faith in action. Milk, a leader of the 1970s Gay and Lesbian Rights movement, as an elected member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors was the first openly gay politician in the United States. Milk and San Francisco mayor George Moscone were assassinated in November 1978 by Dan White, also a member of the Board of Supervisors.
There is Power in Union: A Unitarian Universalist Guide to Supporting Worker Justice (at www.uua.org/documents/mcemrysaaron/power_union.pdf) by Rev. Aaron McEmrys. Why should Unitarian Universalists support worker justice and union organizing efforts? What are some ways they can do so? This practical guide tells how congregations can connect with the union movement and the broader struggle for worker justice. The author is a Unitarian Universalist minister and a former union organizer.
What Is Marriage For? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=218) (revised) (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004) by E.J. Graff. Will same-sex couples destroy "traditional" marriage, soon to be followed by the collapse of all civilization? E. J. Graff shows that marriage in the West has always been a social battleground, its rules constantly shifting to fit each era and economy. Online study guide. (at #guides)
ORGANIZATIONS
Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (at www.uujec.com/). The UUJEC is a dynamic, independent grassroots affiliate of the UUA. Their mission is to engage, educate, and activate Unitarian Universalists to work for economic justice, recognizing that as people of faith in the struggle for justice, we are supporting and renewing our spiritual lives.
Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministries. Currently (2010) legislative ministries exist in California (at www.uulmca.org/), New Jersey (at www.uulmnj.org/), Florida (at www.uulmf.org/), Maryland (at www.uulmmd.org/), Massachusetts (at uumassaction.org/), Michigan (at www.uujustice.org/), Minnesota (at www.muusja.org/), New Hampshire (at www.uuactionnetworknh.org/), Washington (at www.uuvoiceswa.org/) and Pennsylvania (at uuplan.org/). Legislative ministries seek to organize Unitarian Universalists to lobby elected officials on issues on which they have taken a moral stand.
Interfaith Worker Justice (at www.iwj.org/template/index.cfm). A network that calls on our shared religious values to educate, organize, and mobilize people of faith in the United States on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and conditions for workers, and give voice to workers, especially workers in low wage jobs.
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (at www.uusc.org/). A nonsectarian organization that advances human rights and social justice in the United States and around the world. UUSC engages Unitarian Universalists and congregations with two experiential learning programs, JustWorks (at www.uusc.org/justworks) and JustJourneys (at www.uusc.org/justjourneys), which introduce participants to the work of our domestic and overseas partners on the front lines of addressing social justice issues.
Unitarian Universalist Ministry for the Earth (at www.uuministryforearth.org/). UUME's purpose is to inspire, facilitate, and support personal, congregational, and denominational practices that honor and sustain the Earth and all beings. Visit their website to find resources about ethical eating/food justice, global warming, and the Green Sanctuary program.