Tapestry of Faith: Families: A Jr. High School Youth Program that Explores the Diversity, Commonality, and Meaning of Families

Opening

Part of Families

Activity time: 5 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Chalice and matches

Description of Activity

Gather participants in a circle and welcome them.

If a youth was assigned to lead the chalice lighting then simply defer to that person. If not, choose chalice lighting words or try composing them together. Again, invite volunteers to lead the chalice lighting.

To create chalice lighting words, give the group a prompt and then invite each participant to use the prompt in turn. For example, the leader of the chalice lighting might say, "We honor our families as we light this chalice." Then she/he could invite others to say, "I honor ___, who is part of my family." A group could also create a chalice lighting by sharing hopes or wishes. For example, the leader of the chalice lighting might say, "We come with many hopes as we gather together." Then she/he could invite others to share a hope. The leader might close by saying, "We bring these hopes to our time together."