ACTIVITY MINUTES Opening 5 Activity 1: Ruby Slippers 25 Activity 2: Mystery and Faith 25 Faith in Action: Fun and Fundraising 30 Closing 5 Alternate Activity 1: Faith Poetry 20 Alternate Activity 2: Find Faith 25 Alternate Activity 3: Journal Review...

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....

I have raged for thousands of years. I was on the other tree in Eden and I escaped Greece unexploited by the Gods. I never was fruit of fantasy for seers and bards, nor the food of tales for old wives. For I am not so red, not so self-contained, no so easily held or thrown. Never have poets said...

Materials for Activity Journals and pens or pencils Description of Activity Participants review their journals and finish incomplete work. As the date for the Poetry Slam approaches, encourage participants to use whatever time remains at the end of the workshops to review the writing in their...

Activity time: 15 minutes Materials for Activity Newsprint and markers Description of Activity Youth debate the merits of apples versus pears, for fun. Only use this activity if you are also doing Activity 2, Fruity Whine. Divide the group into two teams....

Activity time: 10 minutes Materials for Activity Handout 2, "Bladder Song," by Leonard Nathan Preparation for Activity Photocopy Handout 2, "Bladder Song," one for each participant. Description of Activity Ask one or two volunteers to read Handout 2, "Bladder Song," aloud....

Activity time: 15 minutes Materials for Activity UU jokes, at least as many as the number of participants you expect to attend A bowl or other container Preparation for Activity Write UU jokes on slips of paper or print them off the Internet and cut them into slips....

Activity time: 10 minutes Materials for Activity Handout 1, "Pear's Complaint," by Greg Youmans Preparation for Activity Photocopy Handout 1, "Pear's Complaint," one for each participant....

Activity time: 15 minutes Materials for Activity Newsprint or a dry erase board and markers Preparation for Activity Be prepared with several apple allusions in case participants need help. See Find Out More or Handout 1 for examples. Description of Activity In this activity, participants play a...

"Pear's Complaint" is from the anthology, FromTotems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry across the Americas, 1900-2002, edited by Ishmael Reed (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003). You can find "Bladder Song" in A Book of Luminous Things: An Anthology of Poetry, edited by Czeslaw...

Review today's workshop with your co-leader. Did participants have fun? Fun can be a strong bonding experience. The next few workshops will ask youth to share in a deeper way. Do you think the group is ready?

Activity time: 5 minutes Materials for Activity Chalice Copies of Singing the Living Tradition, one for each participant Description of Activity Use the Closing designed by your group or the one provided below. Recite together Reading 712 from Singing the Living Tradition: Do not be conformed to...

Activity time: 30 minutes Materials for Activity Journals and pens or pencils Information about how to be a good ally. See Description of Activity for suggestions....

Activity time: 5 minutes Materials for Activity Chalice and lighter Description of Activity Use the Opening designed by your group or the one provided below. Gather around the chalice. As a volunteer lights the chalice, ask the group to focus on the word "funny" in silence. After about fifteen...

Humor is such an individual characteristic. We do not all find the same things funny. Luckily, most of us find humor somewhere. Humor can be an effective tool for dealing with some of the challenging situations you discussed in Workshop 7, Difficult Times....

ACTIVITY MINUTES Opening 5 Activity 1: Apple Acting 15 Activity 2: Fruity Whine 10 Activity 3: UU Humor 15 Activity 4: The Kiss Off 10 Faith in Action: Allied in Humor 30 Closing 5 Alternate Activity 1: The Great Debate 15 Alternate Activity 2: Journal Review...

The gods, too, are fond of a joke. — Edward Albee, from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf This workshop gives participants a chance to have fun, and it comes at just the right time. In the next three workshops, youth examine the fairly solemn topics of faith, identity, and transformation, and after...

Other than a chickadee which I bought from a pick-up truck vendor many, many years ago I had never purchased a live animal Today I went to Chinatown and parked on the south end of Grant I walked down the street combing the poultry shops for a live duck Most of the old markets had been shut down...

Samih Al-Qasim (1939- ), translated by Abdullah al-UdhariFrom the window of my small cell I can see trees smiling at me, Roofs filled with my people, Windows weeping and praying for me. From the window of my small cell I can see your large cell.

Activity time: 15 minutes Description of Activity If you have time for a longer workshop, extend the topics discussed in Activities 1-4. One way to do this is by noting Unitarian Universalists who have worked to alleviate society of the ills addressed in the poems in Handouts 1-4....