SING TO THE POWER
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 6: THE POWER OF PRESENCE
BY REV. LYNN UNGAR
© Copyright 2012 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 2:40:39 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
We convince by our presence. — Walt Whitman
The power of air is the power of openness, presence, and silent witness. Participants hear the story of a Unitarian Universalist who met public hatred by organizing a group to stand witness wearing giant angel wings that blocked the view of offensive signs. Although we tend to think of expressing power in terms of "doing"—pushing and acting—sometimes we express power most effectively by simply being present and bearing witness. Participants play a game in which they try to sense the presence of another, They create blankets to give someone as an offering of supportive presence.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — The Presence of Angels | 10 |
Activity 2: Angel Presence Game | 8 |
Activity 3: Tied Together Blankets | 25 |
Activity 4: Prayer as Presence — Holding in the Light | 7 |
Faith in Action: Planning Our Air Power | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Sharing Joys and Sorrows | 10 |
Alternate Activity 2: Mirroring | 10 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for several minutes, perhaps repeating a word or phrase to separate yourself from the activities of the day. When you feel settled and relaxed, consider:
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The opening ritual for this program invites children to practice leadership and experience the power of a group coming together in sacred space.
Gather the children in a circle around the chalice. Invite them to take a deep breath, release it, and create a deep silence for a moment.
Invite the day's opening worship leader to select a reading from the Opening Words Basket and read it aloud (or, to read aloud the reading they prepared after the previous session).
Place the air symbol on the cloth—or invite the volunteer opening worship leader to place a symbol they have brought. Say, "I bring this symbol of air, the atmosphere which gives us life, although we never see it."
As needed, assist the worship leader to light the chalice.
Sing "Sing to the Power." Include the zipper words from previous sessions and add today's zipper words, "our presence here."
Invite participants to hold hands in a circle. Explain, in these words or your own:
Each time the group meets, we focus on ways we find and express our power. As part of each opening circle, we send a pulse of energy, or power, around the circle.
Begin the power pulse by squeezing the hand of the person to your left, who will then squeeze the hand of the person to their left, followed by each person in rapid succession. Send the power pulse around the circle several times.
Conclude the power pulse. While still holding hands, ask the group to take a deep breath together, bringing their hands up as they breathe in, and bringing their hands down as they breathe out.
Return the reading to the Opening Words Basket and extinguish the chalice.
Including All Participants
Some participants may be uncomfortable being touched. Offer the opportunity to opt out of the circle during the time when participants are holding hands for the power pulse.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — THE PRESENCE OF ANGELS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read or tell the story to the group.
After the story, invite the group to be silent for a moment to think about the story.
Then, ask participants to recap the story in their own words. What they recall indicates what they found most meaningful or memorable.
If you have a computer with Internet access, show the photos.
Say, in these words or your own:
When people see or hear about others doing something they think is wrong, many think their choices are to ignore the problem or to fight. Kat Sinclair took a different approach, one more like the passive resistance taught by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr , and Henry David Thoreau, whose ideas shaped theirs. Like those two great leaders and their followers, the Tucson protesters prepared to meet hatred with the power of simply being present and refusing to go away.
Lead a discussion using these questions:
ACTIVITY 2: ANGEL PRESENCE GAME (8 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Choose one participant to be the first "angel." Have the others spread out, and stand with their hands at their sides and their eyes closed or covered. The "angel" chooses one person and quietly moves to stand behind them, stretching their arms over the person's shoulders without touching them. At any time, if a participant believes the "angel" is standing over them, they say "I feel an angel." If they are correct, they become the next "angel." If they are incorrect, the current "angel" continues. If an "angel" stands over a person for 10 seconds without being noticed, the "angel" taps that person on the shoulder and they sit down until a new person becomes the "angel." If one person remains as "angel" for too long, have that person select the next "angel." Play until everyone has a chance to be the "angel."
After the game, invite participants to reflect on the experience with questions such as:
Including All Participants
If any participant uses a wheelchair, have everyone sit rather than stand. If a participant uses an electric wheelchair or crutches which make it impossible for them to approach silently as the "angel," have participants form a semi-circle at arms' length around the seated "angel," extend their arms, then close or cover their eyes. Instruct this "angel" to become present to one participant by hovering their hands over the arms of the person they select.
ACTIVITY 3: TIED TOGETHER BLANKETS (25 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants create an item to use for a ministry of presence. The polar fleece blankets created in this activity are perfect as gifts for people who are ill or in the hospital, in need of loving support, or simply beloved and far away.
Invite each participant to choose two pieces of same-size polar fleece in a color/pattern combination that pleases them. Give these directions:
1. Lay one piece on top of the other so they matches up exactly.
2. Use a yardstick or ruler and a washable marker to draw a line about 5" in from the edge of the top piece of fabric, on all four sides. How far in the line is will determine how long the fringe on your blanket is. Each person can choose the length of their fringe, but the finished blanket will probably look best if the length is the same on all four sides.
3. Make cuts from the edge of the fabric to the line. Space your cuts about an inch apart to create fringe. It is fine to make the cuts wider. The blanket will look best if they are spaced evenly apart.
4. Tie each piece of fringe on the top piece of fabric to its counterpart piece on the fabric below. As you go around all four sides, the two pieces of fabric will be attached together. Tie each knot double, to make sure it will stay. Continue all the way around, until every strip of fringe is tied to its counterpart.
Demonstrate, assist, and repeat instructions as needed.
While participants are working, invite them to decide how they might use these blankets to create a ministry of presence. Suggest they may give their blanket to someone who needs the gift of presence. Prompt reflection with questions such as:
Distribute small squares of fabric, and permanent markers. Invite participants to create a tag for their blanket, by writing their name and drawing a chalice symbol on the small square of fabric and attaching the small square to the blanket with a safety pin. Explain that the tag will tell the recipient the source of this present of presence.
Including All Participants
Be ready to modify the activity to accommodate participants' various levels of dexterity and patience. Some may wish to make a one-sheet blanket, and cut fringe but not tie it. Others may benefit from assistance with cutting and tying.
ACTIVITY 4: PRAYER AS PRESENCE — HOLDING IN THE LIGHT (7 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
People encounter many painful situations that are beyond our ability to fix, from friends' and family members' health and relationship issues to violence and natural disasters around the world. Children experience prayer as a way to offer compassion and care—a ministry of presence—whether or not there is any action we can take to change difficult circumstances.
Ask participants what they think prayer is. Use these questions:
Say in these words, or your own:
Prayer can be a way of expressing caring and good wishes for someone, offering your caring presence, whether you are in the room with them or not. One way of praying for a person is a Quaker tradition called "holding in the light." When you hold someone in the light you picture them in your mind and imagine that they are surrounded by a warm, glowing, healing light. You can think of this as the light of God, or the light of love, or the light of hope and good wishes.
Gather the group in a circle. Explain that you will now hold those you love in the light. Ask participants to think of someone or a group of people who might be going through a hard time and whom we can hold in the light. Suggest: It might be a family member who is ill, a friend with a difficult family situation, or someone who has been treated unfairly. Say it is fine to choose someone we do not even know—for example, someone in another country where there has been a natural disaster or a war.
Give the group a moment. Then explain that each person in the circle will have the opportunity to say who they are thinking of. The group will then repeat together "We are holding [person's name] in the light," and then share silence in which everyone imagines that person (or their name, if they don't know what they look like) surrounded by warm, healing light.
Say that if they prefer not to say a name aloud, participants may say "Someone" when it is their turn. The group will repeat "We are holding someone in the light," then share the period of silence.
Have a volunteer begin. Lead the group to respond "We are holding (person's name) in the light." Wait 20-30 seconds, then sound the bell or chime and invite the next person to share a name, until everyone in the circle has had the opportunity to choose someone whom the group holds in the light.
To conclude, invite participants to reflect on the experience with questions such as:
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain that the session is almost over and the group will now work together as a community to clean the meeting space. Ask everyone to clean their own area and put away the materials they were using, then clean another area or help someone else. No one should sit in the circle until the meeting space is clean.
Gather the group in a circle. Tape the "presence" circle outside the "Air" quadrant of the Circle of Elements mural, in the position shown on Session1, Leader Resource 3. Say:
Air power encourages us to be fully present to others, and to offer our support through attention and listening.
Invite each participant to take a bead and string it on the elastic and, as they do so, to take a deep breath and then let it out.
Ask the day's closing worship leader to choose a reading from the Closing Words Basket and read it aloud (or, to read aloud the reading they prepared after the previous session).
Ask for (and record) volunteers to lead the opening and closing readings for the next session. Offer the volunteers a copy of Session 1, Leader Resource 1, Opening Words for Basket or Session 1, Leader Resource 5, Closing Words for Basket that they may take home to choose and practice their readings. Tell them they are also welcome to choose their reading from a basket when they come next time.
You may wish to invite the volunteer to bring a symbol of air for the centering space as well.
Invite participants to put the bracelets in the Closing Words Basket. Distribute Taking It Home. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: PLANNING OUR AIR POWER
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This Faith in Action activity follows the Session 5 Faith in Action activity, Exploring Ways to Exercise Air Power, as the second step in a four-session process that leads the group through (1) identifying a way to exercise air power, (2) planning how to exercise air power, (3) engaging in the planned activity, and (4) reflecting on the experience. After selecting an air power activity, the next step is to plan exactly how the project will take place: Who will take part? Who needs to be invited, and who will invite them? What supplies will you need? How much time do you anticipate the project will take? When is the best time to work on the project? Who needs to be contacted for the project to move forward? What resources do you have available? What resources will you need to bring in?
Define the steps to bring the project to completion. Make plans as a group. Identify and assign action items for co-leaders or participants to complete before the next session.
After the session, follow up with your religious educator to determine how to communicate the project details to families and, if needed, the wider congregation.
Including All Participants
Make sure the plan is as inclusive as possible of the differing needs and abilities in your group.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on and discuss with your co-leader(s):
Approach the director of religious education for guidance, as needed.
TAKING IT HOME
We convince by our presence. — Walt Whitman
IN TODAY'S SESSION... the children heard about Unitarian Universalist Kat Sinclair, who organized a peaceful protest in which participants blocked potentially hateful signs and speech by wearing giant angel wings. We talked about air power as the power of presence, our power to offer our attention and listening as well as our physical presence. In a game, the children tried to sense the presence of another person. They created blankets which can be given as gifts, to offer a tangible expression of loving presence to another person. The group also explored the Quaker practice of "holding in the light," offering prayers in the form of envisioning individuals surrounded by warm, healing light.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. In what situations it is particularly difficult to be fully present to members of your family? What are situations in which your family is best able to offer one another their gift of presence? How do members of your family offer the gift of their presence to people beyond your family? Discuss with your child who they would like to give the blanket they made, and help them arrange to get the blanket to that person.
FAMILY GAME. With at least three people, you can try a game the children played, and practice becoming keenly aware of another's presence without using one's eyesight.
Choose one member of the family to be the first "angel." Others spread out, and stand with their hands at their sides and their eyes closed or covered. The "angel" chooses one person and quietly moves to stand behind them, stretching their arms over the person's shoulders without touching them. At any time, if a participant believes the "angel" is standing over them, they say "I feel an angel." If they are correct, they become the next "angel." If they are incorrect, the current "angel" continues. If an "angel" stands over a person for 10 seconds without being noticed, the "angel" taps that person on the shoulder and they sit down until a new person becomes the "angel." If one person remains as "angel" for too long, have that person select the next "angel." Play until everyone has a chance to be the "angel."
FAMILY RITUAL. A ritual of presence can be a wonderful grounding experience for the family. At a time when everyone can be together, such as just before dinner, hold hands while each person takes the time to catch the eye of each other person in the family. Take a deep breath and release it together. You may wish to conclude by saying "Thank you for your presence."
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: SHARING JOYS AND SORROWS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Say:
Our community is like a bowl that holds all of our lives. The joys and sorrows which affect each person's life send ripples through all of our lives.
Invite participants, as they are moved, to pick up a stone, drop it gently (!) in the bowl of water, and share aloud a joy or a sorrow which has affected their life in recent days. Say they may drop their stone in silence, instead; tell them it is okay to keep their joys or sorrows private, especially since this is the first time the group is doing this activity. You might go first, to model.
Once all who wish to have shared, affirm all the words people have spoken and the thoughts and feelings that remain inside each person's head and heart.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: MIRRORING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Paired participants focus entirely on one another, becoming fully present to one another in the attempt to match their movements exactly.
Form pairs. Explain that in each pair, one person will be the mover and one person the mirror. Ask the partners to sit on the floor, facing one another, with their hands almost touching. The person who is the mirror attempts to follow the movements of the hands and arms of their partner so closely that someone watching can't tell which person is starting the movement and which is following. This goal can only be achieved if the mover is choosing to move in such a way that it is possible for the mirror to reflect their movements. Both partners must be fully present and attentive to each other.
After a couple of minutes of this activity, ring a bell or chime to draw the attention of the group, and ask the "movers" and "mirrors" to switch roles.
After both members of each pair have had a turn at each role, invite the group back together. Lead a discussion with questions such as:
Variation
If you have time, repeat the exercise with participants standing and allow full body movements, not just the hands and arms.
Including All Participants
If any participant may have difficulty standing or balancing during this activity, or if any uses a wheelchair, have all pairs do the exercise seated.
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 6:
STORY: THE PRESENCE OF ANGELS
It was a shock to the whole nation when a gunman opened fire on a group of people who had gathered at a supermarket to meet with their U.S. Representative, Gabrielle Giffords. In mere moments, six people, including nine-year-old Christina Taylor-Green, were killed, and many more, including Representative Giffords, were seriously wounded. Yes, it was horrifying to the whole nation. But the shock was especially terrible for the people of Tucson, Arizona, where the shooting took place.
So it's hard to even imagine how people felt when Fred Phelps, minister of the Westboro Baptist Church, said he and his followers were going to picket young Christina's funeral. Fred Phelps said Christina "was killed for your rebellion when God sent the shooter to deal with idolatrous America." Who knows what exactly that meant, or why a man known for protesting against gay people would bring his followers to hold signs at the funeral of a murdered child. But the last thing the troubled community needed to see was brutal words from a man who has made himself famous by promoting hatred.
Kat Sinclair was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson who had seen Fred Phelps and witnessed his angry protests before. Never one to sit by and watch people get hurt, Sinclair got to work right away organizing a peaceful response to Phelps's demonstration. She knew it would do no good to reason with Phelps and his followers, and that a shouting match would only make everyone feel worse.
No, Sinclair was ready to meet hatred with silence. Not the silence of ignoring a problem, but the silence that comes from bringing a strong presence when and where one is needed. Sinclair knew about the African Americans who had sat down at lunch counters in the South during the Civil Rights Movement, letting their physical presence declare that they had just as much right as white people to be served there. She knew about Julia "Butterfly" Hill, who had spent months sitting in an ancient redwood tree, so her presence would keep loggers from cutting that tree down. Only a few months before, Sinclair herself had been arrested for being a peaceful presence in defense of immigrants in Phoenix, Arizona. She knew about the power of presence, and she had a plan.
Before Christina's funeral, Kat Sinclair and a bunch of other folks got together a work party. They brought long poles of white PVC plastic, and yards of white fabric and used them to make giant angels (at www.examiner.com/unitarian-universalism-in-national/angel-wings-workshop-and-silent-vigils-at-memorial-services-for-tuscon-victims-picture?slide=28422051#main), whose wide wings would block the protestors' nasty picket signs from view. Instead of seeing cruel words on their way to Christina's funeral, mourners would pass a gathering of angels, silently offering loving support.
Fred Phelps and his followers did not show up that day. Maybe because they learned their picket signs would not be seen. But the angels were there—very human angels, with broad wings hanging from plastic poles—offering a silent ministry of presence, as they tried to bring healing to a shattered town.
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 6:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: "PRESENCE" CIRCLE
FIND OUT MORE
An article on the Examiner website (at www.examiner.com/unitarian-universalist-in-columbus/uus-give-silent-support-to-mourners-of-tucson-victims) describes the Tucson angel protest and has a link to pictures of the angel wings and the people who constructed them. Listen to a podcast (at www.uuctucson.org/index.php/sermons/letters-from-a-phoenix-jail.html) (approximately 25 minutes) of Kat Sinclair speaking at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson about the night she spent in jail for protesting on behalf of immigrants in Phoenix.
Unitarian Universalist Dr. Nick Gier, professor emeritus at University of Idaho, has posted an article "Three Principles of Civil Disobedience: Thoreau, Gandhi, and King," (at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/civil.htm) which draws connections among three philosophies of resistance through non-violent presence.