Alternate Activity 1: We'll Build a Land

Activity time: 20 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Singing the Living Tradition, the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook, enough for participants to share
  • Handout 5, Pirates, Boats, and Adventures in Cross-Cultural Engagement
  • Optional: Singing the Journey, the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook supplement, enough for participants to share
  • Optional: Keyboard or other musical accompaniment

Preparation for Activity

  • Copy Handout 5 for all participants.
  • Optional: Arrange for an accompanist or song leader.

Description of Activity

Invite participants to sing the first verse and chorus of "We'll Build a Land," Hymn 121 in Singing the Living Tradition.

Distribute Handout 5 and explain that this article was posted on the UUA website as part of the event coverage at General Assembly in 2009. Invite participants to read the handout. Then, invite questions, comments, and observations.

If you have copies of Singing the Journey, invite participants to sing Hymn 1064, "Blue Boat Home," bearing in mind the perspective voiced by Sofia Bettencourt.

Ask:

  • What ideas and perspectives in this story are new to you?
  • How might you incorporate "tell me more" as a practice when in relationship with people whose culture, ethnicity, or race differs from your own?

Sing Hymn 121, using the "We'll Build a World" lyrics offered by the Council on Cross-Cultural Engagement.