Activity time: 10 minutes

Materials for Activity

• Chalice, candle, and lighter or an LED/battery-operated candle
• A chime or a small bell
• Newsprint, markers, and tape
• Optional: An object to pass from speaker to speaker during discussion
• Optional: Refreshments

Preparation for Activity

• Place chairs in a circle.
• Set a small center table with chalice and lighter.
• Write agenda for this workshop on newsprint, and post.
• Optional: Set out refreshments.

Description of Activity

Welcome people into the circle. Sound the chime and invite participants into quiet reflection as you prepare to enter into a time of centering and sharing.

Ask a volunteer to light the chalice as you share these words by Rev. Dawn Skjei Cooley:

We light our chalice, grateful for the love that we experience in this beloved community. May the flame light the way for all who seek such abundance.

Tell participants this workshop focuses on the ways money flows through our personal lives and our congregational lives and how this flow influences our choices. Invite participants to reflect silently for a moment or two on a time when money came into their lives unexpectedly (for example, a gift or a bonus). How did it feel? Now reflect on a time when you gave a monetary gift to someone else. Did you have expectations about how the recipient would use the gift? Would you be disappointed if they use it differently than the way you imagined it? Allow a few moments for reflection.

Say:

May our time together be made holy by the sharing of stories, the gift of good listening, and the joy of being held in community.

Sound the chime to signal the end of the centering time.