A CHORUS OF FAITHS
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Youth
WORKSHOP 5: DIFFICULTIES OF INTERFAITH WORK
BY RENEE RUCHOTZKE AND HANNAH MCCONNAUGHAY
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 7:46:29 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
All people and cultures without exception hold myths to be true. Anyone who believes that other—s—less sophisticated—may naively hold myths to be true while they themselves do not, are themselves naive. — Alice Blair Wesley, Unitarian Universalist minister
Interfaith service work is not easy. Interfaith interaction can be challenging and requires us to honestly assess our fears and to keep our humility about our own beliefs and world view. Unitarian Universalists are not immune to fear or arrogance in the face of the "other." This workshop provides space to discuss apprehensions regarding interfaith work and gives participants tools—storytelling skills, for one—to deal with difficulties and awkward moments that can arise in even a great interfaith program.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 15 |
Activity 1: Story — The Jellyfish | 10 |
Activity 2: Unpacking Our Baggage | 15 |
Activity 3: Storytelling — My Interfaith Story | 30 |
Activity 4: Fears and Solutions | 15 |
Faith in Action: Book Club | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Multiple Identities | 45 |
Alternate Activity 2: Planning the Interfaith Service Event, Part 5 | |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Think about your own assumptions and limitations as a Unitarian Universalist leader. Do you have any core beliefs or values that you believe should be universal values? What is your typical reaction when you encounter people who believe your beliefs are wrong? Do you try to change their minds? Do you try to agree to disagree?
WORKSHOP PLAN
OPENING (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to wear name tags. Gather the group in a circle.
Say, in your own words:
Today we will reflect on the difficulties of interfaith service work. As interfaith leaders, we need to be honest with ourselves and with one another about our own assumptions and limitations, so we can be effective in our leadership.
Ask volunteers to read the essay aloud, one paragraph per person. Then, light the chalice. Invite the participants to sit in silence for a few moments and reflect on the reading.
Engage a conversation about the essay, beginning with these questions:
Including All Participants
Be aware that the alignment of participants in the circle will vary from workshop to workshop. If you have observed the same youth having repeated turns to read while others do not, ask now who has not yet read and invite them to start this reading. Of course, participants may pass if they do not wish to read.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — THE JELLYFISH (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
All people and cultures without exception hold myths to be true. Anyone who believes that others—less sophisticated—may naively hold myths to be true while they themselves do not, are themselves naive. — Alice Blair Wesley, Unitarian Universalist minister
Description of Activity
Youth hear a creation story from the point of view of a jellyfish and consider the difference between myth and reality.
Tell or read the story. Or, distribute copies to participants and have volunteers read aloud, taking turns at each sentence or paragraph or acting out the parts. Remind the group that anyone has the right to pass.
Then lead a short discussion with these questions:
Read the quote from Alice Blair Wesley you have posted. Ask participants if they agree or disagree, and why.
ACTIVITY 2: UNPACKING OUR BAGGAGE (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants examine core values and assumptions they may have as Unitarian Universalists and how these might influence their interfaith service work.
Ask, in your own words:
What are some core beliefs or values that you hold as Unitarian Universalists? Name some ideas you might consider universal values—that is, ideas you might assume everyone would agree with—but which actually may be quite different from beliefs or values held by people of other faiths.
After discussing for a few minutes, hand out sculpting materials. Invite participants to choose some clay (or other material) and form it into a belief or value that is important to their Unitarian Universalist identity. Assure them the form need not be perfect, nor do they have to make something identifiable—abstract forms are fine.
Play instrumental music while participants work. After about five minutes, ask volunteers to share about their process and tell what belief or value came up for them. Write responses on newsprint.
When all volunteers have spoken, ask the group what other Unitarian Universalist beliefs or values might belong on the list. Examples might be: UUs are pro-recycling, UUs expect women and men to have equal status and opportunities, UUs celebrate a wide range of BGLTQ identities; UUs believe in the Big Bang theory and evolution. Add new contributions to the list.
Now invite the group to consider how one or two beliefs or values on the list could cause conflict in an interfaith setting, and engage them to discuss how they would handle such a conflict.
For example, you might say:
Many Unitarian Universalists feel really strongly about recycling. What if, during the service project, you saw our interfaith partners throwing their bottles and cans into the regular trash, or littering? You may have an initial gut reaction of "What in the world are you doing?"
How do you deal with your feelings? How can you keep your focus on the shared values and the project at hand?
Ask each participant to find a discussion partner. Instruct them to each take a turn choosing a belief, value, or issue they feel strongly about as a Unitarian Universalist that might be a source of conflict in an interfaith service project. Say:
Role play with your discussion partner how you might deal with the feelings. Keep in mind, the goal is to complete an interfaith service project. After two minutes I will ring the bell. Then, switch roles so the other person has the opportunity to engage with an issue they feel strongly about.
Re-gather the group and ask volunteers to share techniques discussed. Be ready to raise, if none do: using humor, seeking to understand the other person's point of view, walking away if you find yourself angry.
To conclude, say, in your own words:
To do interfaith service work, we must be ready to find the values we share with our interfaith partners and to agree to disagree on other aspects of faith. That is how we will be able to work together on the project at hand. If you feel at a loss, come back to what brought you together in the first place: a shared value in the rightness of serving our communities by helping when help is needed.
ACTIVITY 3: STORYTELLING — MY INTERFAITH STORY (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants practice telling stories as a way to communicate their views and build bridges with others.
Share with participants, in your own words:
As we discussed in our first meeting (Workshop 1), sharing stories is one of the most powerful ways to find common values and build bridges with one another, even when you have significant disagreements. However, it can be hard to tell stories in ways that are helpful, and communicate everything you want to communicate.
Today, you will talk about how to tell a story in a way that helps you communicate your values while promoting healthy conversation. Then you will practice sharing vignettes—short stories—about one moment in your lives. The stories will be called "my interfaith story."
Please take five minutes to think of one, short story from your life about why you value interfaith cooperation. If you are stuck, use the three components of pluralism to help you think of a story. For instance, what is one time you witnessed a lack of respect for religious identity? Who is one friend whose faith is different from yours with whom you have a mutually inspiring relationship?
Give participants a few moments to formulate stories. Then ask one, two, or three volunteers to briefly share their stories.
Distribute Handout 2. Tell the group it shows how the five parts of a story work together. Using your copy of Leader Resource 1, Story Map Cheat Sheet, describe each of the five parts. For each part of a story, ask for examples from the stories participants just heard.
Distribute pens/pencils. Ask participants to fill in the five boxes for their own brief stories. Give them a few moments. Then, form pairs and invite participants to practice telling one another their stories of interfaith cooperation and, in turn, giving constructive criticism. If you have time available, have them find a new partner to share and debrief again. In the last five minutes bring all participants together and discuss any remaining questions they have about stories and storytelling, and refer them to the additional materials for more help.
ACTIVITY 4: FEARS AND SOLUTIONS (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants discuss apprehensions they have about the upcoming service event and together create action steps to reduce their fears.
Say:
We have talked about a few of the reasons interfaith work can be hard, even for people who have been doing it for years. How are you feeling about the upcoming interfaith service event? Do you have any worries? Is there anything you think might be difficult for you?
Encourage participants to share their concerns. Briefly note the concerns on newsprint, pointing out common themes or connections. Leave room to write later comments under the listed fears.
After five or ten minutes, or when the list feels complete, ask participants to brainstorm with the person next to them and see if they can come up with any creative suggestions for how to handle the difficult situations they have named. After they have had a few minutes, take suggestions from the group on how to solve or assuage the fears they named. Write these on the newsprint.
When you have had sufficient time to process, close by sharing with participants, in your own words:
There is never any way to have a totally risk-free encounter with strangers. There may be moments that are difficult, awkward, or even painful. But I believe that the learning, happiness, and good we do will outweigh that, and that all of you are capable of working through any hard times to get the good stuff going. I am proud of you, and excited to see what we can do together.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Say, in your own words:
Today you have engaged with difficulties that might arise in your work as interfaith leaders. Let's take a moment to take long, deep breaths. (Model at least three deep inhales and exhales.)
Let us close this workshop by reminding ourselves what sustains us. I invite each of you to take a stone (or card) and write on it a word of encouragement that you can keep with you to remind you of why interfaith service work is important to you.
Pass out stones and markers. Give participants a few minutes to write their word.
Invite each participant to share their words, with a reminder that they are free to pass.
When all who wish to have shared, lead the group to read together, Reading 698, "Take courage friends... " by Wayne Arnason.
Extinguish the chalice. Distribute Taking It Home. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: BOOK CLUB
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth become familiar with a contemporary story of interfaith work.
Tell the group:
One thing that can be helpful in doing interfaith work is to know how others have dealt with difficulties we might encounter. Greg Mortenson wrote a New York Times bestseller, Three Cups of Tea, which tells the story of his work to build schools with Muslim communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Invite the group to start a short-term, multigenerational book club. Adults and older youth can read Mortenson's original version; older children and younger youth can use the Young Reader's version (Read a sample on Google Books (at books.google.com/books?id=cVUgKxnYvSkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=three+cups+of+tea&source=bl&ots=VCt9tNB2R2&sig=9GkV_GQBYGtWiJ8LU4ap7u7azJw&hl=en&ei=bDcZTPy-FMP7lwew1ZCODA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false).). Children ages 4-8 can read Listen to the Wind.
Bring everyone together to discuss the book. Although younger readers will have an abbreviated version of the story, they can still join in the discussion.
Prompt discussion with these questions:
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
After facilitating this workshop focused on fears, reflect on your own. What apprehensions do you have about doing interfaith work? What apprehensions do you have about being a leader generally and about facilitating this group of young people? Discuss with your co-leader how you might address your apprehensions or any specific challenges you have.
If any particular fears or difficulties dominated the group's discussion, develop a structure to address them further. You may find it helpful to discuss some of these issues with leaders of any groups with which you will partner in interfaith service work.
TAKING IT HOME
All people and cultures without exception hold myths to be true. Anyone who believes that others—less sophisticated—may naively hold myths to be true while they themselves do not, are themselves naive. — Alice Blair Wesley, Unitarian Universalist minister
IN TODAY'S WORKSHOP... We learned about the difficulties of interfaith work, explored our own "baggage," and learned how to use stories as a tool for communicating our values and building bridges. Here are a few activities to continue your exploration:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: MULTIPLE IDENTITIES (45 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants explore their multiple identities and how their personal perspectives could affect their interfaith work and relationships.
Give each participant a marker and one sheet of newsprint. Say:
We have talked a lot about our religious identity and the story of our morals and values. But, of course, we each belong to many identity groups—our gender, race, nationality, and many others. I, for instance, am... (Describe your identity in words you choose; an example is "an African American, female, Unitarian Universalist, human.")
On your newsprint, please list all the identities you have that affect the way you behave or the way you perceive yourself. Use whatever words and order make sense to you.
You might suggest participants begin by drawing a simple self—a stick person or just a head—on the page and represent their identities as rays coming in toward the drawing. On a blank sheet of newsprint, you can model this by drawing rays and labeling them with the self-description terms used earlier.
However, make it clear that youth may represent their identities any way they wish.
Invite participants to work on newsprint for ten minutes. Play music, if desired.
Then, ask participants to post their newsprint sheets around the room and come back into a center circle to discuss their experience. Facilitate a discussion about the existence and importance of multiple identities; you might use these questions:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: PLANNING THE INTERFAITH SERVICE EVENT, PART 5
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants continue work on the interfaith service event.
Review any goals, duties, or activities that happened since the last workshop. Solicit updates and reports from teams or individual leaders. Go through details of any activities that need to happen before the next workshop. Ask if anyone has encountered any obstacles. If so, discuss together how to overcome them, including seeking additional help, if needed.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 5:
STORY: THE JELLYFISH
By Daniel Quinn, in Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit (New York: Bantam/Turner Books, 1992). Used by permission.
This story (Ishmael said) takes place half a billion years ago—an inconceivably long time ago, when this planet would be all but unrecognizable to you. Nothing at all stirred on the land, except the wind and the dust. Not a single blade of grass waved in the wind, not a single cricket chirped, not a single bird soared in the sky. All these things were tens of millions of years in the future. Even the seas were eerily still and silent, for the vertebrates too were tens of millions of years away in the future. But of course there was an anthropologist on hand. What sort of world would it be without an anthropologist? He was, however, a very depressed and disillusioned anthropologist, for he'd been everywhere on the planet looking for someone to interview, and every tape in his knapsack was as blank as the sky. But one day as he was moping along beside the ocean he saw what seemed to be a living creature in the shallows off shore. It was nothing to brag about, just a sort of squishy blob, but it was the only prospect he'd seen in all his journeys, so he waded out to where it was bobbing in the waves.
He greeted the creature politely and was greeted in kind, and soon the two of them were good friends. The anthropologist explained as well as he could that he was a student of lifestyles and customs, and begged his new friend for information of this sort, which was readily forthcoming. "And now," he said at last, "I'd like to get on tape in your own words some of the stories you tell among yourselves."
"Stories?" the other asked.
"You know, like your creation myth, if you have one."
"What is a creation myth?" the creature asked.
"Oh, you know," the anthropologist replied, "the fanciful tale you tell your children about the origins of the world."
Well, at this, the creature drew itself up indignantly—at least as well as a squishy blob can do—and replied that his people had no such fanciful tale.
"You have no account of creation then?"
"Certainly we have an account of creation," the other snapped. "But it is definitely not a myth."
"Oh, certainly not," the anthropologist said, remembering his training at last. "I'll be terribly grateful if you share it with me."
"Very well," the creature said. "But I want you to understand that, like you, we are a strictly rational people, who accept nothing that is not based on observation, logic, and the scientific method."
"Of course, of course," the anthropologist agreed.
So at last the creature began its story. "The universe," it said, "was born a long, long time ago, perhaps ten or fifteen billion years ago. Our own solar system—this star, this planet and all the others—seem to have come into being some two or three billion years ago. For a long time, nothing whatever lived here. But then, after a billion years or so, life appeared."
"Excuse me," the anthropologist said. "You say that life appeared. Where did that happen, according to your myth—I mean, according to your scientific account."
The creature seemed baffled by the question and turned a pale lavender. "Do you mean in what precise spot?"
"No. I mean, did this happen on the land or in the sea?"
"Land?" the other asked. "What is land?"
"Oh, you know," he said, waving toward the shore, "the expanse of dirt and rocks that begins over there."
The creature turned a deeper shade of lavender and said, "I can't imagine what you're gibbering about. The dirt and rocks over there are simply the lip of the vast bowl that holds the sea."
"Oh yes," the anthropologist said, "I see what you mean. Quite. Go on."
"Very well," the other said. "For many millions of centuries the life of the world was merely microorganisms floating helplessly in a chemical broth. But little by little, more complex forms appeared: single-celled creatures, slimes, algae, polyps, and so on.
"But finally," the creature said, turning quite pink with pride as he came to the climax of his story, "but finally jellyfish appeared!"
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 5:
HANDOUT 1: FOUR LESSONS FOR UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISTS IN INTERFAITH WORK
By the Reverend William G. Sinkford, former president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. This article originally appeared the Fall 2008 issue of UU World magazine.
I've always felt that Unitarian Universalism could have a unique role in the interfaith world, but the significance of this calling was made clear to me on September 11, 2001. I was in Washington, D.C., and my first visit the next day was to the American Muslim Council. I was certain Muslims would be profiled in our nation's emotional response. The Rev. Meg Riley, director of the UUA's public witness staff, and I offered and they accepted with profuse thanks the support of Unitarian Universalism.
But our conversation did not stop there. Meg and I shared that Unitarian Universalism holds some views that differ from those of the majority of Muslims: the role of women and of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, to name the most obvious. We wanted them to understand who we were, but we wanted to establish some trust before discussing our differing viewpoints.
Perhaps our support was so readily accepted because Unitarian Universalism explicitly affirms the wisdom of all the world's great faith traditions. We are not tied to one particular religious metaphor, which gives us credibility as conveners and participants in interfaith dialogue. No one believes that we have a particular theological axe to grind.
There are a few lessons I've learned working in the interfaith world over the last seven years.
First, interfaith religious services are really, really long. Every voice must be heard. I remember one of my first interfaith services, at Ground Zero, just after 9/11. There were more than a dozen leaders of various faith communities on the program. Each of us was to speak or pray for two to three minutes. But we were all preachers. The service lasted for more than two and a half hours.
Second, keep showing up. If UUs have not been represented in interfaith gatherings in your community for a long time, don't expect to be offered a leadership position on your first night.
Third, don't trust your Rolodex, or its electronic equivalent. If you only think of the "usual suspects" for partnership you'll be limiting yourself to the past rather than creating the future.
Two years ago, the Evangelical community published a statement on environmentalism that is, from their theological perspective, every bit as good as anything Unitarian Universalism has contributed. And if you want to work on poverty, or immigration, the Roman Catholic Church has been leading far more effectively, for far more years, than have we. Effectiveness, not ideological purity, should determine who you work with.
Among the many changes in interfaith work is the emergence of discernable progressive "wings" of even the most conservative religious communities. This spring, Southern Baptist and Catholic voices joined mine in calling for an end to abstinence-only-until-marriage requirements in U.S. HIV/AIDS relief. A few years ago, I attended the NAACP's religious leaders gathering in Atlanta, where I was amazed to hear the younger generation of black preachers clearly and explicitly preach small-"u" universalism. I was stunned. All people are saved—even Buddhists and Muslims, even BGLT folks, even atheists.
Finally, we need to get over our Christian-phobia. Unitarian Universalists will joyfully chant the Buddhist sutras, delight in midrash of traditional Jewish texts, recite Native American prayers, and sing Gospel hymns. But ask many Unitarian Universalists to join in reciting the Lord's Prayer and you are in big trouble.
This country's dominant faith is Christianity. If you are going to work in the interfaith world, you have to be able to be in the presence of people for whom the Christian message is life-saving Good News. If a Southern Baptist and a Catholic can stand with us to argue for comprehensive sexuality education and birth control, we must be able to respect the Lord's Prayer. Perhaps we simply need to remember that the heart of the Christian Gospel is to love God and "love thy neighbor as thyself."
There you have it. A few lessons I've learned, all in the service of Unitarian Universalism taking its rightful place at the interfaith table.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 5:
HANDOUT 2: STORY MAP
Developed by the Interfaith Youth Core. Used by permission.
Download a high-resolution PDF (at www.uua.org/documents/tapestry/chorus/storymap_ifyc.pdf) for printing.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 5:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: STORY MAP CHEAT SHEET
Developed by the Interfaith Youth Core. Used by permission.
This resource provides a brief description of each of the five parts of a story. Use the cheat sheet to help translate the five parts into your own words, and explain them to participants in the way that is most helpful.
1. History and Details
The History and Details of a story are what helps the listener "hook in" to a story, and really understand it. History is sometimes necessary to understand why the events of a story matter—for instance, it may be important for listeners to know that you grew up in a small town with a tight knit congregation to understand why you were so surprised the first time you met a non-UU, or moved to an urban area. Details are what "paints a picture" for your listener (the purple walls, rough voice, etc.) and helps them imagine what your experience was like and what in their experience is similar to yours.
2. Conflict or Tension
The conflict or tension of a story is what makes the story interesting—it is the question you ask at the beginning of the story to keep listeners invested until the end. For instance, in classic stories the conflict is often, "Will they ever be together? Are they going to get into a fight?" etc. The trick is, you don't need to have actually had a very dramatic moment to create this drama if your story needs it. For example, if you want to share a story about how your completely wonderful, no fighting-for-a-moment relationship with a Hindu made you want to pursue interfaith work, you can inject potential tension by saying "I wasn't sure how we were going to get along" or "We were so different in these ways... " to keep people guessing even though your story ultimately has a happy ending.
3. Aha! Moment
The Aha! Moment is the moment in your story when you realize why your story is important. It connects the questions of your conflict to the answers of your resolution. The Aha! Moment does not have to happen right after the main events of the story—for instance, in Eboo Patel's "This I Believe" story, the conflict was the anti-Semitic thugs and what Eboo would do about it, and he didn't have his Aha! Moment until years later when his friend shared how hurtful Eboo's inaction had been.
4. Resolution
The resolution is the close to the main action of your story. It is what might be called the "moral" in a fairy tale. It describes how the conflict or tension was concluded. If your story is something you are still struggling with, your resolution does not have to be clean and can even be another question—you just have to make it clear that there was some resolution. For instance, if you had an experience that showed you didn't know what you wanted to do with your life and you're still figuring it out, you can say, "So, I am now seriously asking myself the questions of a life—what will I do in my future, and how can I live out my values?"
5. Action
The Action is what takes a literary story and makes it a persuasive or invitational story. It describes how your behavior has changed now that you have experienced your story, and invites your listener to similarly change their behavior in response. In this context, common actions might be "So I joined this youth group at my congregation" or "So I planned an interfaith service activity."
FIND OUT MORE
"Storytelling as a Key Methodology in Interfaith Youth Work (at www.ifyc.org/files/file/Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Vol 43, No 2 Spring 2008.pdfhttp:/www.uuworld.org/issues/117929.shtml)", an article in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies by April Kunze, Eboo Patel, and Noah Silverman, talks about the use of storytelling specifically in interfaith work.
Learn more about effective storytelling from the book by Annette Simmons, Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact (New York: AMACOM, 2007).
Investigate the American storytelling community and hear some great stories on the Storynet website (at www.storynet.org).