Activity 4: Creating Blessings (15 minutes)
Materials for Activity
- Bell
- Clock, watch, or timer that shows seconds
- Slips of paper with different instructions for each of five small groups, cut out from Leader Resource 1: Creating a Blessing
- Writing paper for all participants
- Pens and pencils for all participants
Preparation for Activity
- In this activity, participants will work in five small groups to create blessings to share with the entire group. If your workshop includes fewer than ten participants or more than 30, decide how you will adapt this activity so everyone works with at least one other person, and no group is larger than six.
- Review and print out Leader Resource 1: Creating a Blessing. Keep one copy intact for your own use during the activity. Make at least one photocopy to cut into five slips with instructions for small groups.
- Cut the handout on the dotted lines to make the slips.
Description of Activity
Introduce this activity with these or similar words:Just as the Rev. Jurgen Schwing worked with his team to create a blessing of the hands, we are going to work in small groups to create blessings. Rather than bless each of us individually, we will bless ourselves together, as a group.
We'll create a blessing of our hands, a blessing of our minds, a blessing of our hearts, a blessing of our spirits, and a blessing of our community. We'll create and conduct these blessings to support ourselves as a community in responding with our care to the hurt of the world.
In your groups, use a combination of words, movements, and gestures to create the blessing you're assigned. When we share the blessing each group has created with our whole group, we'll present in this order: blessing our minds, hearts, hands, spirits, and community.
Invite participants to count off to form five groups—or more, if you have more than 30 participants. If you prefer, invite participants to choose their own small groups, being careful to keep groups nearly equal in size.
If you have a large group, you can create additional small groups. Keep in mind that later, when participants share their blessings with the entire group, each group will need at least two minutes. If you find you need to form many small groups now, be prepared to adapt Activity 5: Sharing the Blessings. You may wish to extend the time for Activity 5: Sharing the Blessings; reconvene participants into two, separate groups so that all have time to conduct their blessings; or, decide how you will select just some of the small groups to conduct their blessings.
If you have fewer than ten participants, form two or three groups. Assign one, two, or three blessings to each group, so that together your participants will generate all five blessings described in Leader Resource 1: Creating a Blessing.
Distribute the instruction slips for creating the five different blessings that you have cut out from Leader Resource 1: Creating a Blessing.
Explain that groups will have ten minutes to create a blessing based on their assignment. Each blessing should take no more than two minutes to conduct.
Ring the bell to begin the group work. Make yourself available as a resource. Ring the bell again when the ten minutes are up.
Including All Participants
Encourage groups to be sensitive to variations in living situation, physical ability, gender identity, country of origin, or other aspects of life that may exist among participants, and to create blessings that include all.The noise created by group work may interfere with some participants' ability to hear in their small groups. You may wish to help some groups relocate to a quieter room.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
