Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.

Rabindranath Tagore

"Faith," a word we use in religious language, can have many different meanings. Within this workshop, participants explore faith in terms of the definitions "confidence or trust in a thing or person" and "making meaning out of life's experiences." Participants might know other definitions of faith. Try to be inclusive of everyone's idea of what faith can mean, but do not get caught up in semantics. Let participants use their own definitions to explore how faith plays out in their lives. You do not need to reach consensus on a definition.

Goals

This workshop will:

• Introduce the concept of a spiritual journey
• Explore the role of faith in a spiritual journey
• Use poetry to explore what it means to have faith in something larger than ourselves, and to have faith in our own innate wisdom
• Decipher what two poets have to say about faith and prayer
• Optional: Inspire participants to write poems about faith
• Optional: Provide time for participants to review their poetry in preparation for the Poetry Slam

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• Decipher elements of a spiritual journey
• Think about their own spiritual journey
• Understand our relationship to our faith within the context of Unitarian Universalism
• Discover connections between spiritual journeys and faith
• Optional: Explore an opportunity to utilize individual and collective energy toward fundraising for a good cause
• Optional: Review their writing from previous workshops