LOVE SURROUNDS US
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 9: LOVE SURROUNDS US IN OUR SEARCH
BY LYNN KERR AND CHRISTY OLSON
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 5:38:43 AM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Be ours a religion which, like sunshine, goes everywhere. — Theodore Parker, 19th-century Unitarian minister and abolitionist
The theme of this session is "Our search for beliefs comes from sources of love." Children learn that Unitarian Universalists have the freedom to build our own theology; we affirm our UU Principles, yet we are not required to believe any one thing.
Unitarian Universalism is unique in that it does not have one creed, but invites us to examine many sources of wisdom to find those which ring true for us personally. By encouraging spiritual growth in this way, our congregations attract people from many different religious traditions who hold a variety of religious beliefs.
The story is presented as a short play and the activities in this session invite participants to think about what is sacred to them and others.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — Many Paths to God | 10 |
Activity 2: Personal Symbols | 20 |
Activity 3: Chalice Sand Painting | 20 |
Faith in Action: Photos of Our Sacred Space | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Calling the Directions | 5 |
Alternate Activity 2: Basket Game | 10 |
Alternate Activity 3: Poster — Fourth Principle | 10 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Members of our congregations may be in a continual search for what is right and true for themselves. You may have been on a spiritual journey for many years or are new to developing your own religious values. Think about how you might respond if a child asks you about your own beliefs. Will you be comfortable answering questions? Would you like to be able to articulate your faith in just a few words or sentences?
Think about your current values and beliefs. What faith traditions have the most influence on them? Now reflect on the participants and how this may be the first time they will be asked to think about their personal beliefs. In what ways can you help them find what is symbolic of their own faith? Relax and make yourself ready to help the children begin their lifelong spiritual journey.
SESSION PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Use this activity when children arrive individually—that is, straggle in—before the session begins. Welcome each child as they enter. Invite them to take their ribbon stick from the container by the door and move to the large group area. Invite each child to draw and/or color a picture of their bedroom or another place in their home that is personally special to them.
Including All Participants
Give a ribbon stick to any new child or visitor and write their name on it.
Provide wrist ribbons for children who are physically unable to wave a ribbon stick. Help attach wrist ribbons to wrists, legs, or fingers according to the mobility of the child.
Provide a space at a work table for any child who is unable to sit at a chair.
Offer to draw an outline of a room for a child to decorate and color, if needed.
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite children to find their ribbon sticks and then come sit together. Welcome the children.
Optional: Lead the group to sing the song "Love Surrounds Me."
Have each child say their name and wave their ribbon stick above their head. Remind them that they will learn all the UU Principles and that each Principle will have a different color. Tell them green represents the fourth Principle. Have them find the green ribbon and say the Principle together: "Each person is free to search for what is true and right in life."
Ask participants if anyone can remember the first Principle (Each and every person is important). Ask if they remember what color we assigned to the first Principle (red). Ask if they remember the second Principle (We believe all people should be treated fairly) and its color (orange). Ask if they remember the third Principle (We accept all people and we learn together) and its color (yellow).
Do the opening chant together:
Group chants "Love surrounds us everyday. The Principles show us the way."
Leader says "______ please, put your ribbons away." (Child named returns their ribbon stick.)
Guide children, as they are named, to return their ribbon stick to the container and then return to the circle. This is a way to acknowledge the presence of each participant. If the group is large, say only several names, then direct the others to put away their ribbon sticks all together.
When all ribbon sticks are returned and the children are in the circle, light the chalice. Lead the group to say together:
Love surrounds the chalice and we are included by the light of the chalice.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY, MANY PATHS TO GOD (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This story demonstrates that people of many different religious may talk about God, or "the holy."
Gather participants so they can see and hear the leader telling the story. Read or tell the story. If you are using a different puppet for each character, give each character a different voice. Move puppets slightly as they speak to focus children's attention.
At the end of the story, lead a discussion with these questions:
ACTIVITY 2: PERSONAL SYMBOLS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants make collages of the symbols they think represent them.
Explain that many different religions have symbols that people recognize. For instance, we have a chalice, Christians have the cross, and Jews have the six-pointed Star of David. Tell the children they may look through the magazines and cut out pictures of things that they care about and value. For instance, you may love animals and believe everyone should take care of them. Find a picture of animals and paste it to the construction paper.
Explain that in a collage, we do not need to leave spaces between the pictures. Each picture can overlap another slightly. Invite the children to find and use enough pictures so the only construction paper left showing is the part around the outside of the collage; show them how the remaining construction paper will then frame their collage.
Distribute materials and invite children to begin.
Once everyone is finished, invite participants to explain briefly what they chose for their personal symbols. Ask the group: Did everyone have the same symbols? Why or why not?
Including All Participants
Invite children who need help cutting pictures to select pictures for a co-leader to cut out. Be sure all participants can reach the materials they need. If any participants finish earlier than others, invite them to offer their help to others who are still working.
ACTIVITY 3: CHALICE SAND PAINTING (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants make a chalice symbol wall hanging that they can take home.
Ask each participant to draw a simple chalice on their circle. Encourage them to use simple shapes—for example, triangles for the base and the flame—rather than small details.
Invite them to choose colors for the chalice's base, flame, and background. Show them how to use a paintbrush to paint glue on one section of their painting to fill it with one color, and then use a spoon to sprinkle the colored sand onto the wet section.
Give each sanded section one or two minutes to dry. Then, shake excess sand onto newspaper. Do not shake excess sand back into cups.
Optional: Guide children to color their circles, one section of the chalice picture at a time.
To be sure the sand is securely attached, allow pictures to set until the next time you gather.
Ask participants:
Including All Participants
Children may find it difficult to paint with glue or to sprinkle sand in a small, detailed area. Be prepared to draw chalices in glue for participants who are unable to do so. Engage co-leaders or other children to help fill in detailed sections according to a participant's specifications.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
Invite everyone to gather in a circle and hold hands. Start by squeezing the hand to your right and saying: "Today I found love, today I gave love." Lead the group to move the hand squeeze around the circle until everyone has had a chance to say the words.
Then, invite the group to unclasp hands lead them to say the closing words in unison:
Be good to yourself.
Be excellent to others.
Do everything with love.
Including All Participants
If participants do not want to hold hands, invite them to just say the words to the person to their right. If needed, repeat the words aloud with each child.
FAITH IN ACTION: PHOTOS OF OUR SACRED SPACE
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Look for religious symbols around the congregation, photograph them, and display the photos.
Step One. Take participants on a tour around the congregation outside and inside and invite them to identify symbols they see. Photograph the symbols the children discover.
Step Two. Print the pictures in a uniform size to fit on the branches of the tree or on the mountain paths on your bulletin board.
Step Three. Cut construction paper frames an inch or so bigger than the photos you have printed.
Step Four. Give participants the pictures and the construction paper frames and have them attach photos to frames with rubber cement.
Step Five. Attach the pictures to your prepared bulletin board with push pins or staplers. Invite participants to tell you where they would like you to put the photos they have framed.
Look at the finished bulletin board together and process with these questions:
Including All Participants
Make sure the areas you will tour and the location of the bulletin board you will use are fully accessible for your group.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Think about the children in the session today. Did they understand what symbols are? Were participants able to choose their personal symbols? Did they understand that everyone has their own thoughts about religion and all of them can be right? Does anyone need assistance in crafts? Are there participants who could help others? Reflect on your effectiveness in presenting this week.
TAKING IT HOME
Be ours a religion which, like sunshine, goes everywhere. — Theodore Parker, 19th-century Unitarian minister and abolitionist
IN TODAY'S SESSION... children learned about the Unitarian Universalist Principle about being free to search for what is true and right. A play, "Many Paths to God," showed that many people have different beliefs that meet the same spiritual needs. We made a collage of our own personal symbols and played a game with our Unitarian Universalist symbol, the chalice. Children experienced that everyone is free to develop their own beliefs and that the differences each brings are celebrated.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Ask your child to retell the story "Many Paths to God." Then invite family members to talk about their beliefs. Does everyone in the family have similar beliefs? Do adults in the family have beliefs that differ from the beliefs of their parents?
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Children thought of symbols that represent who they are. Explore your home. What symbols are in your home? What do they represent? Do you have symbols from many different religions? Identify the religions that are represented in your home.
A Family Adventure. Visit and worship in a denomination of friends or relatives. What symbols do you see? What do the symbols stand for? How do their beliefs seem to differ from yours? Their values?
Family Discovery. As a family, choose another religion to study, perhaps one you are not familiar with at all. At a local library or in your congregational library, find age-appropriate books on the religion.
A Family Game. Guess the Symbol: Ask each person to find a small object they think symbolizes them. Have everyone secretly bring their symbol to a central place. Then, re-gather and try to guess which family member has chosen each item as a symbol.
A Family Ritual. Find a book of prayers or meditations from many different religions. Read a different one each night at the dinner table or at bedtime. Vary the religious traditions as much as possible.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: CALLING THE DIRECTIONS (5 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity demonstrates a way that people who believe the Earth is sacred conduct worship. It recalls our connection to the whole universe.
Explain that you are going to worship the elements of life symbolically by calling the directions. Say:
There are four elements in the world: air, fire, water, and earth. Each one has a direction associated with it. Air is east, fire is south, water is west, and earth is north.
Have everyone stand and face east. Lead a chant of your own or have all participants say "I am air, of the east" several times. Ask participants what things in the world symbolize air to them and invite them to call out those symbols; they may say words such as birds, wind, or leaves.
Next, have everyone make a quarter-turn to the right (south) and repeat the chant using "fire" and "south" several times. Ask participants to call out symbols of fire (sun, flames, candles).
Next, have everyone turn to the west and repeat the chant using "water" and "west" several times. Ask them to call out symbols of water (fish, swimming, oceans).
Next, have everyone turn to the north and repeat the chant using "earth" and "north" several times. Ask them to call out symbols of earth (plants, dirt, mountains).
End by leading the children to repeat, "Air, fire, water, and earth, I am," three times, while walking together in a circle.
Afterward, ask:
Including All Participants
Participants who have mobility limitations can remain seated in the circle and turn themselves or be turned by a partner or co-leader to each direction.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: BASKET GAME (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell the children, in your own words:
We are going to play a game that comes from the Native American Zuni tribe. The Zuni would use symbols common in their surroundings, such as animals, the sun, and trees. We will use the chalice symbol to remind us of our tradition's symbol.
Distribute the squares and ask everyone to draw a chalice on one side of their square with color markers. Tell them to leave the back of their square totally blank. Remind them that a chalice can look any way they like; it just needs a cup and a flame.
When children are done, place five of their squares in each basket. (Make sure five are in each basket, using chalices you have drawn.)
Assign five participants to a basket and have each group of five go to a different area of the room. Each player throws the squares up from the basket and tries to catch them all in the basket. The object is to gain points by having your throw with the most chalices facing up. Allow each participant to keep track of their own score. Participants take turns throwing until someone reaches ten points. Score as follows:
5 chalices face up = 10 points
4 chalices face up = 4 points
3 chalices face up = 3 points
2 chalices face up = 2 points
1 chalice face up = 1 points
After the game, re-gather participants and ask:
Including All Participants
Invite a child who is physically unable to toss the basket of squares to keep track of the score for a group of five players, and/or have a partner toss up the basket for them.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: POSTER, FOURTH PRINCIPLE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute the handout. Invite children to think about an example they can draw of the fourth Principle. Say the fourth Principle together: "Each person is free to search for what is true and right in life."
LOVE SURROUNDS US: SESSION 9:
STORY: MANY PATHS TO GOD
Adapted from "Many Paths to God" in Hide and Seek with God by Mary Ann Moore (Skinner House Books, 1994). Used with permission.
Narrator:
Once upon a time, four travelers from different lands met near a mountain. The travelers had been told that if they climbed the mountain, they would find God at the top. Around the bottom of the mountain were many paths to choose from. The travelers had each been told beforehand which of the paths to take. They also had been told that only that path would bring them to God.
The travelers met each other at the bottom of the mountain and told each other of their search for God.
Puppet Number 1:
I am trying to find God. I have been told that of all these paths, the right path to take is that one, the flowery meadow path. I have been told that if I follow it, at the top I will find God, the Great Mother of All.
Puppet Number 2:
That's interesting. I have been told that the right path to take is that steep, cliff-side path over there, and if I follow it, at the top I will find God, the Great Father in Heaven.
Puppet Number 3:
Strange that we have all been told to follow different paths. I have been told that the right path is that wide river valley path, and if I follow it, at the top I will find God, the Great Spirit in All Things.
Puppet Number 4:
Yes, this is strange. I have been told to follow even a different path. My path is the deep forest path, and I'm told if I follow it, at the top I will find God, the Great Peaceful Silence.
Narrator:
The travelers were surprised to hear about the other paths, because they were sure the path they had been told to follow was the only right one. They even tried to convince the others to follow their chosen path.
Puppet Number 1:
I'm sure my way is the right one.
Puppet Number 2:
Change your minds and come my way.
Puppet Number 3:
Don't you think it would be best for you to come this way?
Puppet Number 4:
You really ought to take the forest path.
Narrator:
But none would change. Each was sure that their way was the right way. So, bidding each other good-bye, they began their journeys to the top. As they started out, each was singing a song of praise to God. They could hear each other's songs in the distance and they all thought the other songs sounded strange. But off they went on their chosen paths. They soon were traveling alone and could no longer hear any of the others. Sometimes following the path was easy and sometimes it was hard.
Finally, each traveler neared the top of the mountain. They began to hear the other travelers' songs once again, but now they realized how beautiful the others' songs were, even though they were very different than their own. All four came to the top within minutes of each other. They stopped and eagerly looked around.
Puppet Number 1:
Oh, Great Mother of All, I have found you!
Puppet Number 2:
Oh, Great Father in Heaven, I have found you!
Puppet Number 3:
Oh, Great Spirit in All Things, I have found you!
Puppet Number 4:
Oh, Great Peaceful Silence, I have found you!
Narrator:
But all of them were seeing and calling out to the same God. Then they realized that they had all been searching for the same thing, though each had called it by a different name and each had taken a different path. At this, they reached out for each other's hands, formed a circle right there on the top of the mountain, and began to sing again. And now, as each of them sang their songs, there seemed to be only one song, a joyous song of love for God.
LOVE SURROUNDS US: SESSION 9:
HANDOUT 1: POSTER, FOURTH PRINCIPLE
Unitarian Universalist Fourth Principle
Each person is free to search for what is true and right in life.
FIND OUT MORE
Books for adults that represent a wide variety of religious beliefs in prose and poetry include The Enlightened Heart (New York: Harper & Row, 1989) and The Enlightened Mind (HarperCollins Publishers, 1991), both edited by Stephen Mitchell.
Books with meditations and prayers are A Grateful Heart, edited by M.J. Ryan (Berkeley, CA: Conari Press, 1994) and Earth Prayers From Around the World, edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991).
A children's book on world religions is The Kids Book of World Religions by Jennifer Glossop (Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press, 2003).