SING TO THE POWER
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 4: THE POWER OF PLACE
BY REV. LYNN UNGAR
© Copyright 2012 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 2:37:20 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door. — Charles Dickens
The power of the earth is the power of place. Children discover how connection to one's location allows reaching out to others in the particularity of their location. In the story of a connection between a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Oakland, California and a Unitarian church in Ok'land, Transylvania participants see effective justice work based on all parties honoring the unique perspectives, gifts, and needs that arise in a particular location.
If your congregation has a partner church, you may wish to use Alternate Activity 3.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — Harvesting Hope | 10 |
Activity 2: Adverbs Game | 10 |
Activity 3: "Our Place" Brainstorm | 10 |
Activity 4: Egy Az Isten Posters | 20 |
Faith in Action: Reflecting on Our Earth Power | 20 |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Sharing Joys and Sorrows | 10 |
Alternate Activity 2: Baking Biscuits | 20 |
Alternate Activity 3: Learning about Our Congregation's Partner Church | 20 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for several minutes, perhaps repeating a word or phrase to separate yourself from the activities of the day. When you feel settled and relaxed, consider:
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The opening ritual for this program invites children to practice leadership and experience the power of a group coming together in sacred space.
Gather the children in a circle around the chalice. Invite them to take a deep breath and release it, and create a deep silence for a moment.
Invite the day's opening worship leader to select a reading from the Opening Words Basket and read it aloud (or, to read aloud the reading they prepared after the previous session).
Place the earth symbol on the cloth, saying, "I bring this symbol of earth, the ground on which we all stand together."
As needed, assist the worship leader to light the chalice.
Sing the song "Sing to the Power." Include the zipper words from previous sessions and add today's zipper words, "place we love."
Invite participants to hold hands in a circle. Explain, in these words or your own:
Each time the group meets, we will focus on ways we find and express our power. As part of each opening circle, we will send a pulse of energy, or power, around the circle.
Begin the power pulse by squeezing the hand of the person to your left, who will then squeeze the hand of the person to their left, followed by each person in rapid succession. Send the power pulse around the circle several times.
Conclude the power pulse. While still holding hands, ask the group to take a deep breath together, bringing their hands up as they breathe in, and bringing their hands down as they breathe out.
Return the reading to the Opening Words Basket and extinguish the chalice.
Including All Participants
Some participants may be uncomfortable being touched. Offer the opportunity to opt out of the circle during the time when participants are holding hands for the power pulse.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — HARVESTING HOPE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read or tell the story to the group.
After the story, invite the group to be silent for a moment to think about the story.
Then, ask participants to recap the story in their own words. What they recall indicates what they found most meaningful or memorable.
You might say:
The people of Oakland, California and Ok’land, Transylvania live in very, very different places. But the people in the big city in the U.S. have managed to connect and share with the folks in small farming towns in ways that have changed lives on both sides of the ocean. Their shared Unitarian heritage linked them together, and learning both to listen and to speak meant that everyone was able to contribute in ways that changed lives for the better.
Lead a discussion using these questions:
If your congregation has a partnership with another church, tell the group about it now.
ACTIVITY 2: ADVERBS GAME (10 MINUTES)
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
One of the most important skills for helping people, particularly people outside your community, is learning to listen. This game is a fun way to stretch our skills of paying attention when we might not know what is going on, and watching for the cues that others give us.
Have the group sit in a large circle. Choose one person to be "it," the person who will guess. Have the person who is "it" go out of hearing/seeing range of the group and wait while the group chooses an adverb to act out. Explain: An adverb is the kind of word that describes how an action is done, and adverbs usually end in "-LY," such as quickly, elegantly, brutally, sloppily, bravely, or carefully.
Have the person who is "it" return. Tell them they may request members of the group to perform certain actions in a way that expresses the adverb. For instance, the guesser might ask one person to walk across the circle, another to read aloud, another to pick up a piece of paper. Each person who is invited to act should perform the action in a way that expresses the adverb. The guesser attempts to identify the adverb based on the other's actions. You may wish to limit the game by setting 5-8 actions per adverb; then, have the group announce the word to the guesser, and choose a new person to be "it."
After the game, ask participants:
Including All Participants
If any individuals might have a particularly difficult time guessing an adverb or performing actions to demonstrate an adverb, have children work in pairs.
ACTIVITY 3: "OUR PLACE" BRAINSTORM (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
We can most effectively help others when we have a clear sense of our own gifts and resources. This activity invites participants to brainstorm what it is that they might have to offer based on their individual and group knowledge and talents, and the resources available in their congregation.
Use the prompt questions provided below. Write down the answers participants give, or invite a volunteer to serve as recorder.
You may wish to leave this brainstorm list posted on the wall as a reminder for future sessions or as inspiration for possible social justice projects.
Including All Participants
Make sure that those who need time to respond or are shy to jump in have a chance to be heard.
ACTIVITY 4: EGY AZ ISTEN POSTERS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell the group:
“Egy Az Isten”, pronounced “Edge Oz Eeshten,” is the motto of the Transylvanian Unitarians. It means “God is One.” We are going to create posters with this saying on it, surrounded by traditional Transylvanian designs. Your poster should also include a personal religious motto of your own. Take a few moments to consider what your own, personal Unitarian Universalist motto might be. This is a way to pair your own words with those of our Unitarian sisters and brothers in Transylvania.
Indicate the art materials. Distribute Handout 1 and suggest participants color the designs, cut them out and glue them to their posters, or simply use the designs as inspiration for their own drawing.
When the posters are completed, or as participants are working, ask questions such as:
Including All Participants
Participants with coordination or vision limitations may need larger paper and markers. Be ready to help to participants who need assistance in writing or spelling.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain that the session is almost over and that the group will now work together as a community to clean the meeting space. Ask everyone to clean their own area and put away the materials they were using, and then to clean another area or help someone else. No one should sit in the circle until the meeting space is clean.
Gather the group in a circle. Tape the "Place" circle (Leader Resource 1) outside the "Earth" quadrant of the Circle of Elements mural, in the position shown on Session1, Leader Resource 3. Say:
Earth power encourages us to honor both the place we are from and the different places that others are from.
Invite each participant to take a bead and string it on the elastic and, as they do so, to share something they love about the place where they live.
Ask the day's closing worship leader to choose a reading from the Closing Words Basket and read it aloud (or, to read aloud the reading they prepared after the previous session).
Ask for (and record) volunteers to lead the opening and closing readings for the next session. Offer the volunteers a copy of Session 1, Leader Resource 1, Opening Words for Basket or Session 1, Leader Resource 5, Closing Words for Basket that they may take home to choose and practice their readings. Tell them they are also welcome to choose their reading from a basket when they come next time.
You may wish to invite the opening worship volunteer to bring a symbol of earth for the centering space, as well.
Invite participants to put the bracelets in the Closing Words Basket.
Distribute copies of the Taking It Home handout. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: REFLECTING ON OUR EARTH POWER (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity is designed to help the group process a Faith in Action activity begun in Session 1.
An important but often neglected part of any social justice activity is the opportunity to reflect on the experience.
Use the prompt questions provided below. Write the answers participants give, or invite a volunteer to serve as recorder.
Summarize the feedback (or, invite a parent volunteer to do so). Share the summary with the director of religious education, and use it to help plan future Faith in Action projects. You may wish to share with this information with the Social Action committee or other volunteers in the congregation as well.
Variation
To develop leadership skills, invite the children to help write a newsletter article about their experience. Be sure to get appropriate permissions to share the information and any pictures from the project on the congregation's website. You might also create a scrapbook of Faith in Action projects.
Including All Participants
To make sure children who process their thoughts more slowly are heard, invite everyone to reflect on a question in silence for a couple of minutes before asking for responses.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on and discuss with your co-leader(s):
Approach the director of religious education for guidance, as needed.
TAKING IT HOME
Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door. — Charles Dickens
IN TODAY'S SESSION... the children heard about Project Harvest Hope, a UU organization which promotes economic development in Unitarian villages in Transylvania (ethnically Hungarian Romania). This project, which was started as a partnership between the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Oakland, California and the Unitarian church in Ok'land, Transylvania, shows earth power in honoring both our own location and the different locations that are dear to others. The children played a game to practice skills of communication and attention, brainstormed about their own gifts and the gifts particular to their congregation, and made posters with both the motto of the Transylvanian Unitarian church (Egy Az Isten) and their own religious motto.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. What are the particular gifts of your family's location? What do you love about the neighborhood where you live? What are the particular gifts of your family? What do you have to share with the world?
FAMILY GAME. The children played a game which requires both creative communication and active attention. To play it as a family, choose one person to be "it," the person who will guess. Have that person leave the room and the others choose an adverb—a word ending in "ly" that describes how an action is done (quickly, elegantly, carefully, etc.). When the guesser comes back to the circle, they may ask members of the family to perform certain actions in a way that expresses the adverb. For instance, the guesser might ask one person to walk across the room, another to read aloud, or another to pick up a piece of paper. Each person who is invited to act should perform the action in a way that expresses the adverb. The guesser attempts to identify the adverb. Play a few times, then talk about what was easy or hard about the game.
FAMILY ADVENTURE. What places other than where you live are important to your family? Some possibilities might be grandparents' homes; favorite vacation spots; a favorite park, restaurant, or community center; places where parents worked or went to school when they were younger; or a relative's gravesite. Make a visit together to a place that holds significant memories. Share stories of experiences that tie you to the place.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: SHARING JOYS AND SORROWS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Say:
Our community is like a bowl that holds all of our lives. The joys and sorrows which affect each person's life send ripples through all of our lives.
Invite participants, as they are moved, to pick up a stone, drop it gently (!) in the bowl of water, and share aloud a joy or a sorrow which has affected their life in recent days. Say they may drop their stone in silence, instead; tell them it is okay to keep their joys or sorrows private. You might go first, to model.
Once all who wish to have shared, affirm all the words people have spoken and the thoughts and feelings that remain inside each person's head and heart.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: BAKING BISCUITS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The first major project for Project Harvest Hope was the creation of a bakery, which would provide the village with bread, the staple food of the area, as well as jobs. Making yeast bread takes longer than most sessions will permit, but quick-rising biscuits are an easy alternative. Follow the instructions in Leader Resource 2 for making biscuits, having children take turns with the various steps, including measuring, pouring, rolling, and cutting.
While the participants are working, discuss what it would be like to live in an environment in which you knew the people who grew the wheat and ground the flour for your baking. What do we gain from living so far from most of our food sources? What do we lose, that a more agricultural lifestyle might offer?
Including All Participants
Consider the abilities of participants in assigning baking tasks. A child who would have difficulty measuring may well be able to stir, for instance.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: LEARNING ABOUT OUR CONGREGATION'S PARTNER CHURCH (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
If your congregation has an active partner church relationship, this activity gives participants an immediate sense of connection to a congregation overseas. Invite someone from your congregation who is active with the partner church program to come and talk about the partner church and their understanding of the relationship between the two congregations. Encourage the participants to ask questions, both about what life and worship are like for members of your partner church, but also about what each faith community gains from the relationship, and why the partnership matters. Have the children write a thank-you note to any guest speakers.
Including All Participants
Make sure there is time and space for participants who are more quiet or shy to ask questions.
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 4:
STORY: HARVESTING HOPE
We do not need to think the same thoughts as someone else, in order to love them. So wrote Francis David, a long-ago faith ancestor of today's Unitarian Universalist movement. He wrote these words in Transylvania, where he lived and was persecuted for his unpopular beliefs. Today, his words could be the motto for a special partnership between two congregations in two very different parts of the world.
You could call it a perfect match, although in some ways they couldn't be more different. The First Unitarian Church of Oakland, California is a thriving, active congregation in a downtown setting, just blocks from a newly revitalized city center. The Unitarian church in Ok'land (oak-LAHND), Transylvania serves a small village of people who share the Hungarian language and culture, but live inside the country of Romania. But the churches had more in common than you might think. The Oakland church had nearly died out a few decades earlier, at a time when the neighborhood had fallen victim to the poverty and violence that are still very real issues in Oakland. The church in Ok'land, Transylvania was dwindling rapidly because fewer and fewer people could stay in the village, where there were no jobs to be found.
When Beverly Smrha, a member of the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, California, met Reverend Levente Kelemen, the minister of the Unitarian church in Ok'land, Transylvania, they had an idea that great things could happen when Oakland and Ok'land partnered up. The Oakland, California congregation's members did not just want a partnership where they exchanged letters and small gifts. They wanted to make a real difference. They wanted to help the folks in Ok'land, Transylvania figure out how to bring jobs to their village, so that people could stay in the place where they and their ancestors had been born and still afford to feed their families. That history and ancestry was important to the California UUs, since Transylvania is the birthplace of Unitarianism. The folks in Oakland understood that for the Unitarians to lose their Transylvanian transitions would mean they, in California, would also lose an important part of their own heritage as UUs.
The folks in Oakland, California formed a committee. They started coming up with great ideas. Some of them owned small businesses in California, and they were eager to share with the Transylvanians their knowledge about business plans and strategies for small business start-up. But they had to take a big step back. Business in Transylvania is just not the same as business in California. Life in a country that is recovering from years under a cruel Communist dictator is not the same as life in California, with its history of freedom and encouraging new ideas.
The leaders in Oakland, California needed to learn to be patient and listen to the real needs and realities of the leaders in Transylvania. The leaders in Ok'land, Transylvania needed to learn that it was safe to talk with each other, and with their new partners in the U.S. Over time, with a lot of listening and talking, the people of the Ok'land, Transylvania church decided what their town needed was a flour mill and bakery. That way the people of the town would have access to fresh bread, the main staple of their diet; the farmers would have a place to sell their grain; and there would be more jobs for people running the mill and the bakery. So the people in Oakland, California started raising money and providing support to help make the dream a reality.
Soon the project grew so big a new organization was born, Project Harvest Hope. After the flour mill and bakery were up and running, the folks in Ok'land, Transylvania decided their village needed a dairy farm that would meet the standards of the European Union, which Romania hoped to join. So Project Harvest Hope began raising money to buy the finest dairy cows. They also helped bring in experts from other parts of Europe to work with the people of Ok'land, Transylvania to meet all the complicated European regulations. It took a long time, but finally Ok'land had its model dairy farm, with fifty dairy cows in a clean, modern barn. Money from selling the milk meant the people in the village could afford to educate their children, and calves from those fifty cows went to other farmers in the area, sharing the wealth.
Project Harvest Hope continues to change and grow, finding new ways to be a part of economic development in Transylvania. On both sides of the partnership, people need to stay flexible, to keep listening and talking to one another, because life is changing quickly as modern freedoms and technologies come to Transylvania. The Unitarians there are becoming part of modern, free Europe, and at the same time rediscovering their ancient heritage and culture, which the dictator Ceausescu tried to strip away from them. Village life and folk traditions are being restored as people are able to remain in the places where they are rooted. And the Unitarian Universalists of Oakland, California and supporters of Project Harvest Hope around the US are able to connect to our faith's roots in Transylvania, where Francis David taught so many centuries ago that "we need not think alike to love alike."
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 4:
HANDOUT 1: TRANSYLVANIAN ART
From the December 1999 issue of uu&me!, used by permission of the Church of the Larger Fellowship.
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 4:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: "PLACE" CIRCLE
SING TO THE POWER: SESSION 4:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: BISCUIT RECIPE
Quantities are for 12 biscuits.
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
Turn onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough to one inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush excess flour off biscuits and place biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.
FIND OUT MORE
Explore the Project Harvest Hope website (at harvesthope.uua.org/). The UU Partner Church Council (at www.uupcc.org/) has information about Unitarian churches in Transylvania and around the world, including RE curriculum sessions (at www.uupcc.org/re.html) and games.
The IgoUgo travel website (at www.igougo.com/) travel web site offers Transylvania photos and travel blogs (at photos.igougo.com/pictures-l1066-Transylvania_photos.html#474399).
A music video (at www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuxTeQRuVKQ) posted on YouTube by TuzesViz showss images of the geographical region which includes Transylvania and the struggle to overcome the brutal Ceausescu regime. Gain a sense of the Hungarian language from video and the YouTube comments section.