Opening
Part of Amazing Grace
Activity time: 5 minutes
Materials for Activity
- Conundrum Corner poster/banner
- An empty plate
- Chalice and matches
- Recording of "Amazing Grace" and music player
- Optional: Newsprint, markers and tape
- Optional: Nametags and markers
- Optional: Decorative cloth for Conundrum Corner
Preparation for Activity
- Place the plate on display in the Conundrum Corner.
- Have your recording of "Amazing Grace" ready to play.
- Write chalice-lighting words on newsprint, and post.
- Optional: Prepare and post an agenda of the day's activities.
Description of Activity
Play "Amazing Grace" while participants gather. Use any version you like, bagpipe, voice, or another. As participants enter, greet them. If you have newcomers, greet them warmly and be sure they know others in the room. Give them nametags if others have them. Ask newcomers and old timers alike to look at the Conundrum Corner, but do not say anything more about it. In answer to any questions about it, say you will be talking about it later.
Stop the music, or reduce the volume to a very low background level.
Lead the group in the day's opening rituals-a chalice lighting, a moment of focusing silence, and a moment of sharing.
Light the chalice, or let a youth do so, and speak these words (asking the group to join you if you have posted them):
May this light help us to tell right from wrong.
Ask the group to be silent for a moment as they reflect on the opening words and settle in for the session. End the silence by saying, "blessed be," or other appropriate words.
Ask the youth to raise a hand if they have ever had to make a decision when it was hard to know what was right and what was wrong. Say that you are not going to ask about the situations, but that you hope this session will help them make decisions in the future. Its title is "Telling Right from Wrong."
Extinguish the chalice without ceremony and move the chalice table aside as necessary to allow movement in the room.