Centering (5 minutes)

This is a time to make the transition from the busy world to the group experience. A member of the group may read these words from Rabbi Harold Kushner:

Religion sets high standards for us and urges us to grow morally in our efforts to meet those standards. Religion tells us, ‘You could have done better; you can do better.’ But listen closely to that message. Those are words of encouragement, not condemnation. They are a complement to our ability to grow, not a criticism of our tendency to make mistakes. We misunderstand the message of religion if we hear it as a message of criticism.

Check-in (10 to 25 minutes)

Each person in the group has the opportunity to share something about his or her life. What significant events have taken place recently in your life? Have you accomplished something meaningful to you? Have you experienced any losses or setbacks? Have you had any insights or new ideas?

Group Discussion (45 to 70 minutes)

Our spiritual theme for this month is Accountability. In what ways are you accountable to others? In what ways are others accountable to you? Do you believe that you have a duty or a purpose or a responsibility toward something or someone larger than yourself or outside yourself? Are you accountable only to people in positions of authority, or are you also accountable to people who live on the margins of society? Are you accountable for social injustices engineered by your ancestors?

For group discussion, please consider the questions associated with one or more of the following numbered sections. You need not address all of these sections, and you need not address them in this order.

1. Sometimes we use the words “accountable” and “responsible” interchangeably, thinking that their meanings are identical. However, some people distinguish between these words by saying that in a workplace, one is always responsible for one’s own conduct and one’s own duties, but if one is a manager or supervisor, then one is also accountable for the productivity or effectiveness or outcomes of the department or group or organization that one manages or supervises.

Can you give an example of a situation where you are responsible for your individual conduct and your individual duties? Can you give an example of a situation where you, or someone you know, is accountable for the effectiveness of a group of people or the effectiveness of an organization?

Expanding on this idea, can you give some examples where you feel that you are accountable for the performance of something larger than yourself? For example, do you feel that as a citizen you are in some small way accountable for the performance or effectiveness of the United States? Do you feel that as a member you are in some small way accountable for the performance or effectiveness of your congregation?

2. Unitarian Universalist layperson Paula Cole Jones presented the following exercise at a workshop. In the center of a piece of paper, make a circle and inside this circle make a list of all the formally empowered authorities toward which we typically feel a sense of accountability or responsibility. This list might include judges, police, elected officials, senior leaders of corporations, and so on. Next, at the edge of the paper make another circle and around this circle make a list of categories of people who are powerless or marginalized. This list might include homeless people, undocumented immigrants, children, poor people, and so on. Finally, in the space between these two circles, draw arrows pointing toward the inner circle.

The majority of the people in our society live somewhere between the inner circle and the outer circle and generally feel accountable or responsible toward the inner circle, as indicated by the arrows. How would our society be different if those arrows of accountability of responsibility were reversed? That is, how would our society be different if people in the middle felt primarily accountable or responsible to those who are powerless or marginalized?

3. If you are a white person in the United States, you may never have directly or personally participated in the dispossession or oppression of people of color, for that history may have taken place before you were born. On the other hand, you may enjoy the advantages of “white privilege” that are yours in part as a result of that history.

Though you may not have personal responsibility for social injustices engineered by your ancestors, are you accountable for these social injustices? What does that mean for your life? When will it no longer matter?

Conclusion (5 to 10 minutes)

What will you take away from this discussion? What would have made this time together more meaningful or satisfying to you? What did you enjoy? A group member may share these words from Jim Wickman:

Our time together ends. In the days before we come together again, may our actions match our words, may our thoughts be filled with love, and may we truly make a difference in a troubled world.