Tapestry of Faith: Faith Like a River: A Program on Unitarian Universalist History for Adults

Opening

Activity time: 5 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Chalice, candle, and lighter or LED battery-operated candle
  • Optional: Decorative cloth

Preparation for Activity

  • Set up a worship or centering table with the chalice and (optional) decorative cloth.

Description of Activity

Light the chalice and share these words of Rabindrinath Tagore, a Bengali (Indian) poet who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Tell participants that Rabindrinath Tagore was a member of India's Brahmo Samaj religious movement, which was influenced by Unitarianism in the 19th century and retains connections to the Unitarian Universalist Association today.