Tapestry of Faith: Riddle and Mystery: A Program on the Big Questions for Grade 6

Leader Resource 4: WCUU Script

To the Co-Anchors:

Today's WCUU program talks about the beliefs of different people gathered in the UU tent at an International Camp of Faith. Your job is to follow the script, read your parts, and otherwise keep things going. When the broadcast begins, you are together on camera, standing in front of a microphone.

Co-Anchor 1: This is WCUU, Wisdom of the Community of Unitarian Universalists, on the air.

Theme music

[Cue the sound engineer for theme music if your group uses it.]

The show

Co-Anchor 2: Good morning. I am [give your real or stage name].

Co-Anchor 1: And I am [give your real or stage name].

Co-Anchor 1: This morning's broadcast comes to you live from the International Camp of Faith. It is the latest in a series of visits to tents erected by all of the world's great religions — the most unusual tents in all the world.

Co-Anchor 2: That is right, [give your Co-Anchor's name]. Every significant religion in the world has erected tents here to ward off the weather and the bad things that happen and even the blinding light of all truth, a light so hot and powerful that it might frazzle anybody who looked directly at it. Each of these tents is equipped with many mystic skylights.

Co-Anchor 1: As we have seen in earlier visits to the Camp of Faith, visitors to the tents can gaze through these skylights at the Great Beyond. The strange thing is that the visitors see many different things. Visitors to tents of Christian faiths often report seeing the God of the Christian Bible, Jesus, and the Mother Mary. Visitors to Muslim tents see Allah. Visitors to Jewish tents see the God of the Hebrew Bible.

Co-Anchor 2: It is awesome. People looking out to the Light of the Great Beyond all find different truths there, different theological understandings, and different cosmic views. That's especially true at the tent we will visit today, the Unitarian Universalist Tent.

Co-Anchor 1: A tent that is just now being erected. Let's swing the camera around to that tent now so our viewers can see it going up.

[Camera Operator swings aims camera at the Tent Crew who struggle to raise their "tent" — a sheet with holes in it lifted high on four tent poles held by the Tent Crew, who stand in place for the remainder of the broadcast.]

Co-Anchor 2: There! The UU tent is now in place. Let's go inside and talk to some of the UUs who are there and ask what they see through the mystic skylights. Let's start with that group of three over there, and find out if they see God.

[Atheist, Theist, and Agnostic move under the tent, in range of the camera. Co-Anchor 1 interviews the Atheist, asking what the Atheist sees and whether the view includes God. Co-Anchor 2 then interviews the Theist in a similar way. And Co-Anchor 1 then interviews the Agnostic in a similar way. Atheist, Theist, and Agnostic give answers based on Belief Notes given to them in advance by the Director. While giving their answers they sometimes look up through or point at the skylights through which they view the Great Beyond.]

Co-Anchor 2: Well that was interesting. Now let's talk to that group of four over there.]

[Atheist, Theist, and Agnostic move out of the tent and camera range. Humanist, Mystery Seeker, God as Love-ist, and Pagan all move into the tent and camera range. Co-Anchor 2 interviews the Humanist, asking what the Humanist sees and whether the view includes God. Co-Anchor 1 then interviews Mystery seeker in a similar way; Co-Anchor 2 interviews God as Love-ist in a similar way, and Co-Anchor 1 interviews Pagan in a similar way. Humanist, Mystery Seeker, God as Love-ist, and Pagan give answers based on Belief Notes given to them in advance by the director. While giving their answers they sometimes look up through or point at the skylights through which they view the Great Beyond.]

Co-Anchor 2: My goodness. It is beginning to sound as if every Unitarian Universalist you meet has a different cosmic view.

Co-Anchor 1: You are right about that, [Co-Anchor 2's name}. I think it is time to return to the studio and ask NUUs Analyst to explain all this.

[Camera swings away from tent to studio and NUUs Analyst.]

NUUs Analyst: I think you just said it, [Co-Anchor 2's name). Unitarian Universalist call themselves a creedless religion. They agree to disagree about their ideas. They even like having different ideas, because it helps them learn from each other.

The UUA's web page gives us some clues about UU beliefs. About half of UUs say they are humanists. Some humanists say there is a God and some do not. About thirteen percent of UUs say they are theists, and believe in a god. Nineteen percent have earth-centered beliefs like paganism. Some of them also believe in gods, and some do not.

Co-Anchor 1: What about the UUs who speak of Mystery?

NUUs Analyst: They feel there is some sort of power beyond us and beyond the world that lives in our hearts and helps guide us, but we can never fully know or understand it. You could say that Mystery or Great Mystery is another name for God. But it is certainly not the sort of God who sits on a throne in the high heavens that other people think about when they say the word "God."

Co-Anchor 2: Can you sum up UU ideas about God, NUUs Analyst?

NUUs Analyst: Here's what one UU minister has to say. He is Forrest Church, a UU minister in New York City. He says, "God is not God's name. God is our name for that which is greater than all and yet present in each. Call it what you will." No wonder UUs have so many different ideas when they look through their skylights at the Great Beyond.

Co-Anchor 1: Thank you, NUUs Analyst, for your time and your words.

NUUs Analyst: But I am just getting started. There are one hundred thousand UUs with one hundred thousand different ideas who all gather together in one religious tent. I could go on all day.

Co-Anchor 2. Go right ahead, but not on our show. Tomorrow we will move on to some other tents in the International Camp of Faith. But for now it is time to sign off.

Theme music

[Cue the sound engineer for theme music if your group uses it.]

Station break

Co-Anchor 1: This is [your real or stage name] signing off for WCUU.

Co-Anchor 2: That is W-C-U-U for Wisdom of the Community of Unitarian

Universalists. And this is [your real or stage name] signing off, too.