SIGNS OF OUR FAITH
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 9: LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF COMMUNITY
BY JESSICA YORK
© Copyright 2013 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 12:55:22 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured. — Kurt Vonnegut
In this session, participants consider the importance of the communities to which they belong, especially their congregation. They discuss ways to support the congregation and other communities, and learn about the ritual for accepting new members into the congregation.
Activity 3, Find the Simorgh, is a game that is better in large spaces. If there is a space — outdoors or inside — you could use, reserve it and plan to include time to move into and out of the space.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 3 |
Activity 1: Story — Journey of the Birds | 10 |
Activity 2: Bird Art | 20 |
Activity 3: Find the Simorgh | 10 |
Activity 4: Community Rituals | 15 |
Faith in Action: Children As Part of the Congregational Community | |
Closing | 2 |
Alternate Activity 1: Leadership in Action: Welcoming Children of New Members | |
Alternate Activity 2: Leadership in Action: Performing the Story | |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Think back to your first experience with the congregation, even if you have been here since birth. What was your impression of this community? What made you feel you would like to join it? What gifts have you brought to enrich the community? Your leadership in this program is a gift, and it signifies that you are a congregational leader. What does the opportunity to be a leader in this congregation mean to you?
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (3 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Welcome all participants. Gather everyone in a circle around the chalice table. Ring the centering chime. Ask a volunteer to light the chalice, and recite together:
We gather together as Unitarian Universalists and members of the Signs of Our Faith community.
Together we join in a community where we may bring our whole, divine self. Together, we nurture and support this community so it can be a home for us and for others.
Remind participants that in other meetings they have learned about signs of our faith an individual might show by the choices they make and by how they interact with other people. Say that now the group will begin to look for signs of faith that communities of people can show—starting today with the community that is the congregation.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — THE JOURNEY OF THE BIRDS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell or read the story. Then, process with these questions:
ACTIVITY 2: BIRD ART (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children recreate the story "Journey of the Birds" using an artistic medium.
Introduce the project. Explain what the children will do and where their art work will be displayed (or that they may take it home).
Encourage the children to choose a specific bird from the story to represent. Guide them to give their birds the qualities they demonstrated in the story: "How can you show that your owl is smart? That your hoopoe is a hopeful?" Point out that all of the children are making birds, yet each bird is unique.
If you have time after children complete their art work, invite them to retell the story using the items they created.
ACTIVITY 3: FIND THE SIMORGH (10 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children play a game where they move from being alone to finding community.
Invite participants into the open space to play Find the Simorgh. Ask everyone to sit (or stand) in one spot where they are not touching anyone else, and close their eyes. Say:
I am going to whisper in one person's ear, Simorgh. That person is the Simorgh and may open their eyes. Then I will invite everyone to begin moving around, in search of fellow travelers. I ask you to move slowly, and carefully, because your eyes will still be closed.
When you meet (or bump into) someone else, ask "Simorgh?" If they are not the Simorgh, they should reply by asking you "Simorgh?" Since neither of you have found the Simorgh, you must both keep traveling on your search.
If you ask "Simorgh?" and you have found the Simorgh, they will not reply. Then you know you have found the Simorgh. The Simorgh will take the traveler's hand and the traveler who has found the Simorgh can open their eyes. Now both of you are the Simorgh.
Keep playing until everyone has found the Simorgh. When everyone has become the Simorgh, you may all yell "Simorgh!" and raise your hands high in the air.
If there is time and interest, play again.
After the game, ask:
Including All Participants
To fully include children with limited mobility or vision, use a smaller space and have everyone sit closer than arm's length to one another. Have children reach out to find the Simorgh, instead of traveling.
ACTIVITY 4: COMMUNITY RITUALS (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children create a ritual to use in future sessions.
Say:
Our Signs of Our Faith group is a community within the larger community of our congregation. The congregation has many rituals. What rituals does our Signs of Our Faith community have?
Affirm rituals, including your Opening and Closing rituals and the telling of a story at every gathering. Do children have a snack each time they meet? Do they receive a Taking It Home handout? If the children spend time in the congregational worship service each time they meet, perhaps for a Time For All Ages, mention this.
Now say, in these words or your own:
A ritual is an action done the same way every time. However, it is fine for a group to make changes to a ritual. Sometimes a change can help us connect with why we do the ritual in the first place. Sometimes new people in a group have ideas that can make a ritual more meaningful for them as well as for others in the group. Changing a ritual together can make everyone in the group feel even more like they belong.
Lead the group to create a ritual. Solicit suggestions, adding yours if needed. Use newsprint to record ideas. Guide a consensus process. Write the new ritual on paper to share with all co-leaders and the religious educator; make a note of any new materials that will be needed and assign a co-leader to obtain them before the next session. Lead the children to practice the new ritual.
Option 1: Ritual for New Participants in the Signs of Our Faith Group
Children create a simple ritual for new members. It could be signing a scroll and receiving a stole, followed by everyone present introducing themselves and saying, "Welcome." Practice the new ritual by "inducting" all the children who are present. Make sure you tell your fellow session leaders about the new ritual so it will be included in future sessions.
Option 2: New Opening and Closing Rituals
Invite the group to change the Opening and Closing rituals. Remind children that the Opening signals the community coming together and the Closing signals the temporary breaking apart of the community until the next meeting. New rituals need to honor this coming together and going apart. Encourage the children to include their stoles in a new ritual.
Option 3: Ritualizing Snack Time
If the group has a regular snack, brainstorm ritual elements to add. Could they say a grace? Sing a clean-up song? How is the snack usually served? Does one person serve the entire community with participants taking turns? Does everyone serve the person on their right? Would the group like to decorate special plates to hold snack?
CLOSING (2 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute stoles and invite participants to put them on.
Distribute Taking It Home. Tell participants that at the end of every session, they will receive this guide to fun activities they can do with family or friends. Read it aloud to give participants an idea of activities suggested.
Gather everyone in a circle around the chalice table. Lead the group to say:
We end as we began: together.
May we remember to be UU not just when we are together here, but every day and in every way.
Ask all participants to blow out the chalice together. Have them store their stoles in the place you have designated. Stoles should stay at the congregation and not go home with children.
FAITH IN ACTION: CHILDREN AS PART OF THE CONGREGATIONAL COMMUNITY
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants identify ways children participate in the congregational community. They understand pillars as a metaphor for the many, different, individual acts of involvement and engagement that support a faith community and strengthen the faith and connection experienced by the individuals.
Say, in these words or your own:
There are many ways young people can be involved in their faith community—their congregation. Some UUs say there are six ways, and they are sometimes called the Six Pillars. On a building, the pillars are thick posts that help hold the building up. In a faith community, pillars are different kinds of actions individual people do that can help support that community. I think children your age can be involved in some of the pillars in our congregation. Let's see which ones we are already involved with.
Show the children the papers with the names of the pillars (from the Leader Resource) or indicate the newsprint sheets you have posted. Tell the group you want them to find examples of the six pillars in the activities children do with the congregation. Explain the pillars if needed, but try not to give examples! Form teams. Give each team the same number of sheets from Leader Resource 1. Distribute writing implements.
Help all teams finish by making suggestions or playing charades for answers. When all teams have finished—or if you are doing a large group brainstorm—use the newsprint sheets to briefly document the examples they have generated. Note that many activities can represent more than one pillar.
The ways children participate will be unique to your congregation, but may include:
Variation
Collect, or take, photos of children doing a few activities for each pillar in the congregation. Post six newsprint pillars on the wall and invite children to match the photos to the pillars.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Think back to the first meetings of the Signs our Faith group. How has the group changed? Has it coalesced into a community, as you may have hoped it would? Does the group welcome visitors and new members? At this point in the program, how can you help the group feel more like a community? Review the next session for advance preparation. If the children designed a new ritual in Activity 4, decide who will share necessary information with the religious educator and any other co-leaders.
TAKING IT HOME
What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured. — Kurt Vonnegut
IN TODAY'S SESSION... we discussed communities. We identified the communities to which we belong, including our UU congregation, and thought about what makes a community strong. We heard a story, based on an ancient Sufi poem, about a group of birds that discovered that sharing their own individual gifts held them together as a strong community. We played a game called Find the Simorgh and planned a ritual for our Signs of Our Faith community to use.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about... the story, "The Journey of the Birds." Online, you can listen to author Peter Sis (at www.npr.org/2011/11/16/142396491/in-birds-sis-makes-a-dream-world-for-grown-ups) speak with National Public Radio about his emigration from Czechoslovakia and his illustrated book, The Conference of the Birds (New York: Penguin, 2011), which tells a more detailed version of our story. Compare the two versions. How are they different? How are they the same?
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. As a family, choose an intentional action to welcome new congregational members. Invite them to a meal or an outing. Ask if you may sit with them during a worship service. Remember that the congregation is not the building—it is the people who come there to be together.
Family Adventure. How is your family involved in your neighborhood or city? What new ways could your family support and engage in the community where you live? The American Planning Association website for children about communities (at www.planning.org/kidsandcommunity/) includes Crazy City Stories and a scavenger hunt that guides children to explore the place where they live. Find local projects through your congregation or a civic institution such as your city/town hall, community center, or public school district.
Family Ritual. Have you ever meditated on or prayed for world peace? How about peace in your neighborhood? If your family prays, meditates, or says grace, include your local community in meditations or prayers.
Teach your family and friends to play Find the Simorgh (Activity 3).
Leadership Suggestion. It is important for leaders to be well informed. Find out more about Sufism, an aspect of Islam. Start with an article on the History for Kids (at www.historyforkids.org/learn/islam/religion/sufi.htm) website, or with a book of poetry by Rumi (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=1727).
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: LEADERSHIP IN ACTION — WELCOMING CHILDREN OF NEW MEMBERS
Description of Activity
Work with the group to plan a reception for the children (or families) of new members. Children in the Signs of Our Faith group can show new children around the congregation, share memories of their favorite experiences, and pair with new children as worship buddies.
Schedule the welcoming for as soon after families join the congregation as possible. Serve refreshments.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: LEADERSHIP IN ACTION — PERFORMING THE STORY
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite the group to perform the story. Explain the presentation date/time, venue, and audience you have planned—or, present the group with options and lead them to choose.
Share the script you have prepared, and any costumes and props. Cast the parts, and rehearse. Offer "backstage" roles to children who do not want to act.
After the performance, engage the audience in a short discussion with these questions:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: WE ARE THE ONES
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children relate to the story "The Journey of the Birds," through dance.
After children have heard the story, say, in these words, or your own:
The birds realized they had all the qualities they needed to build a strong community. Because of all their different, individual gifts and their willingness to help one another, they were enough—they did not need a leader from outside their community. A song "We Are the Ones" expresses this sentiment.
Invite children to move to the music, by:
Encourage them to dance their own, individual gifts and how they can share their gifts to help others in the group.
SIGNS OF OUR FAITH: SESSION 9:
STORY: THE JOURNEY OF THE BIRDS
Inspired by the ancient epic poem, "The Conference of the Birds," by the Persian Sufi Muslim writer Fariduddin Attar.
Once upon a time, all the birds in the land decided they needed a leader for their community. A leader, they thought, would make their community stronger. Representatives of all the bird species gathered to discuss finding a leader.
"A leader will tell us the right things to do," said the robin.
"Our leader must be wise," said the owl.
"A leader must believe we each are important, big and small," said the sparrow.
"I want the leader to be caring, like a friend," said the dove.
"Yes, the leader help us share and get along better," said the jay.
"The leader must make us feel safe," said the hawk.
"I know where you can find such a leader," said the hoopoe bird. "It is the Simorgh and it lives far from here."
The birds were very excited. They said they were willing to go anywhere to find such a leader. "It might be dangerous," said the hoopoe. A few birds looked troubled, but all the birds voted to go find the Simorgh.
The hoopoe took off and all the birds followed.
They flew at night. They flew in sunshine. Days and days passed. Some birds got tired and left the group. Other birds were filled with doubt. How did they know the Simorgh really existed? Only the hoopoe had ever heard of this bird. Some of the doubters dropped out, but others kept flying.
One valley was filled with fiery mountains. All the birds were afraid.
"I'm too small to make it over that mountain," lamented the sparrow.
"No, keep flying. We can make it together. We will help you." And they did.
The strong flyers helped the weaker flyers. The birds with good vision helped find food for the group. Along the journey, the birds learned how to better respect, share and care for each other. It seemed that every bird had something special and unique to offer that made the journey easier.
Finally, the hoopoe announced, "We are here!"
The other birds look around in anticipation. "Where is the Simorgh? We don't see it!' they cried.
"Come. It is over here," said the hoopoe.
The birds stood beside hoopoe and realized they were on the edge of a lake. They looked in... and saw their own reflections. Then, they understood.
The Simorgh was not another bird. The Simorgh was all of them, and all of them were the Simorgh. They remembered that each of them had something good and strong and special inside of them and that each bird had gifts to bring to the community. They were all that was needed to keep the community strong. They knew now that together they could do anything.
SIGNS OF OUR FAITH: SESSION 9:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: SIX PILLARS
Download a high-resolution PDF (at www.uua.org/documents/tapestry/signs/pillars.pdf) for printing.
FIND OUT MORE
On YouTube, watch this cartoon version (at www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJgNrGoRwT4) of "The Conference of the Birds." The Persian Sufi Muslim Fariduddin Attar's original poem is long, complex, and more spiritual than the story in this session. Read about the poem and the poet at the blog (at wahiduddin.net/mv2/X/X_3_4.htm) of contemporary Sufi author Hazrat Inayat Khan.
An article about the basic beliefs, history, and practices of Sufism, an aspect of Islam, can be found on the BBC Religions webpage (at www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/subdivisions/sufism_1.shtml).
The UUA Bookstore offers Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=1274): A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents by Sarah Conover (2010).