WINDOWS AND MIRRORS
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 6: ALL AGES OFFER GIFTS
BY BY GABRIELLE FARREL, NATALIE FENIMORE AND JENICE VIEW SUSAN LAWRENCE, MANAGING EDITOR/DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR AISHA HAUSER, CHILDREN AND FAMILIES PROGRAM DIRECTOR/DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR
© Copyright 2009 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 11:46:33 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
The elder cannot be an elder if there is no community to make [them]... an elder. The young child cannot feel secure if there is no elder, whose silent presence gives [them]... hope in life. The adult cannot be who [they are] unless there is a strong sense of the other people around. — M.P. Som?n Ritual Power, Healing, and Community (Portland, Oregon: Swan/Raven & Co., 1993)
While society tends to segregate people by age, our congregations can be places where multigenerational living and learning can happen. However, even here, multigenerational experiences may need to be intentionally appreciated, and sometimes created.
This session guides participants to identify their own age-related characteristics and interests as well as those common in people of other ages, from the very young to the very old. Then participants assess ways people from multiple age groups interact in the congregation and imagine new ways they could interact to better share and enjoy their different gifts.
The story "The Children's Crusade" provides a Civil Rights-era lens to examine different ways children and adults can contribute to a shared purpose. The story describes how schoolchildren joined protests in Birmingham, Alabama , in 1963, despite the concern of many adults.
If it is feasible to conduct this session with a number of guests of different ages and stages of life, we recommend it. All the activities can be done with a larger-than-usual, multigenerational group. To ensure a good representation of ages, you might schedule this session at a time that does not conflict with worship. Invite individuals personally; Leader Resource 1, Invitation to Participate, provides a sample letter. Confirm guests' attendance a day or so before the session.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Where Do We Mix? | 5 |
Activity 2: Story —The Children's Crusade | 15 |
Activity 3: Window/Mirror Panel — The Age I Am | 15 |
Activity 4: Creating a Congregational Event | 15 |
Faith in Action: Multigenerational Congregational Event | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Making Pastoral Cards for All Ages | 30 |
Alternate Activity 2: Come Sing a Song with Me | 20 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Find a place where you can be quiet with your thoughts. Make yourself comfortable and light a candle to mark the time as different from other activities. Close your eyes and breathe deeply for about five minutes; perhaps repeat a word or phrase to separate you from the activities of the day. After opening your eyes, consider:
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This ritual welcoming reminds participants of the relational nature of the group experience. 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.
Ask a volunteer to take a reading from the Opening Words Basket and read it aloud. Invite another volunteer to light the chalice. Then, lead a greeting:
Now we will take a moment to greet the people next to us. If you are next to someone who is new to our group, offer a welcome, tell them your first and last name, and learn their name.
Lead the group in singing the hymn you have chosen. Singing a congregational favorite helps children grow in their sense of belonging in congregational life.
If you choose not to sing, use a bell to signal the group to still themselves for another moment of silence.
Ask the child who lit the chalice to extinguish it. Ask the child who read the opening words to return the reading to the Opening Words Basket.
Including All Participants
If you have a non-sighted participant who reads braille, obtain the braille version of Singing the Living Tradition from UUA Bookstore. The bookstore orders from an outside publisher, so order several weeks ahead.
ACTIVITY 1: WHERE DO WE MIX? (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Pass around the information and photographs about congregational events and activities. Ask participants to name the events, what their purpose is or was, and what ages of people attended. List events on newsprint and note the age groups involved. If you made a chart, place checks in the appropriate age group columns. Do this activity quickly and briefly.
Including All Participants
If you have a multigenerational group, give clear direction to all ages that this activity is a brief brainstorming. Affirm that participants will have opportunities to share stories about congregational events later.
ACTIVITY 2: STORY — THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Give instructions for the moment in the story when participants can stand, as they are able.
Ring the chime (or other noisemaker), make eye contact with each participant and read or tell the story.
Sound the chime (or other noisemaker) again at the end. Invite participants to think silently on their own about the story. Say:
Now we are going to practice listening and discussing skills—both are needed to help us understand the story from multiple perspectives. Let's find out what one another thought about the story.
Remind them not to assume others think or feel the same way. Ask everyone to use "I think" or "I feel" statements. Encourage the group to listen to each comment and then share some silence. Use the bell or chime to move between speakers.
Begin a discussion by asking participants to recap the story in their own words. What they recall indicates what they found most meaningful or memorable.
Then use the following questions to facilitate discussion. (If the group includes multi-age participants, phrase the questions to include everyone.) Make sure everyone who wants to speak has a chance:
Conclude by articulating what the story teaches about different gifts that children and adults bring into re/making the world. Ask the group to think about:
Thank everyone for their observations and sharing.
Including All Participants
If any participants cannot stand up on their own, tell the group before you begin the story that there will be a moment when they should raise their hands in the air (if possible) or nod their heads to signify answering the call with a "yes."
If you have brought documentary images and a non-sighted participant is present, ask a few volunteers to describe the photographs verbally.
ACTIVITY 3: WINDOW/MIRROR PANEL — THE AGE I AM (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Ask the children to bring their Window/Mirror panels to worktables. Distribute Window/Mirror panel basket(s) and any other materials you may have brought. Say:
Today you will add another view of yourself to your Window/Mirror panel. You can use pictures, words, collage, or a combination to show how you fit into multigenerational community.
If you have guests, invite them to do the assignment on an individual piece of paper. Explain any plan you have for how the guests might display their work after the activity.
Remind participants that "multigenerational" means a wide span of ages and stages of life. Ask the group for definitions of "community." Affirm answers such as: A community is a group where everyone feels like they belong; it has a shared purpose; it is people with something in common; it is being together for a reason everyone cares about.
Ask participants to think of a time when they gathered with people of many different ages, from very young children to older adults. Suggest it might be a congregational event they talked about earlier in the session; a gathering of family and friends; a public event such as a parade, a community fair, or an arts performance; or sports event. If they cannot think of a real experience they wish to represent, they may imagine a multigenerational community gathering. Ask everyone to raise their hand when they have an image in mind.
Once most have raised their hands, invite everyone to position themselves with any others their age in the community gathering. What are the people their age doing? What are people of other ages doing? You may wish to ask some volunteers to describe their multigenerational event and tell what different age participants are doing.
Now invite the children to create an image of multigenerational community for their Window/Mirror panel. Tell them they may use drawing/painting, collage, writing, or a mixture of these. Ask them to make sure they feature themselves or their age group in their representation.
Give the group a two-minute warning so they have time to affix their image to their Window/Mirror panel, clean up materials, and store their Window/Mirror panels.
ACTIVITY 4: CREATING A CONGREGATIONAL EVENT (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Form as many small groups as you have adult facilitators—ideally, each with five to nine participants. Give each group paper and a pen or pencil and ask for a volunteer in each group to take notes.
Ask each group to choose one congregational activity or event on the list to discuss. The event should be one that (1) most of the group value and enjoy and (2) they agree is important to at least some people in the congregation.
Give groups a moment to choose an event. Then, quiet the group and invite groups to discuss these questions, with the note-taker recording the group's answers. Tell them they will have five minutes.
Give a one-minute warning and then stop the groups. Then give them another five minutes to consider how the event/activity could be changed to be more fun, meaningful, and engaging for people of every age and stage of life. Remind participants to avoid suggesting changes to appeal to one age group that could cause another group to like the activity less.
You may wish to mention the story "The Children's Crusade":
As you think about how all ages share time together in our congregation, remember the story we heard. Consider what the children and the adults in Birmingham each brought to the protest march, and what a child or adult may have experienced as a result of doing that activity together.
Give groups at least five minutes. Then ask them to stop their discussion and choose a spokesperson.
Re-gather everyone in a circle. Invite spokespeople to briefly present how they would change one congregational event or activity. Record ideas in note form on the blank newsprint.
To close this activity, lead a discussion about how the various suggestions would engage different age groups to make the event/activity more enjoyable and meaningful for them and how different ages could participate.
Variation — Faith in Action
If this activity could lead into a Faith in Action activity in which the group will plan and/or host an explicitly multigenerational congregational activity or event, guide the discussion toward consensus on a plan based on one or more small groups' suggestions. You may end up with a suggestion for a brand new event to propose to the congregation.
Conclude by asking for volunteers and assigning roles so the group can present their idea to your minister, your director of religious education, or other congregational leaders.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain that the session is almost over and we will now work together as a community to clean the meeting space. Ask everyone first to clean up their own area and the materials they were using, then clean another area or help someone else. No one should sit in the circle until the meeting space is clean.
Then bring the group back to the circle. Ask them to think about what happened today that was good or what they wish had gone better. If you are running short of time you can ask them for a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on the session.
Invite each participant to say, in a word or sentence, why it is important for them to be a part of this faith community. You may go around the circle for responses; allow individuals to speak or pass.
Then ask everyone to hold hands and say together:
Keep alert;
Stand firm in your faith;
Be courageous and strong;
Let all that you do be done in love. — 1 Corinthians 16
If this is the first time the group is using "namaste," briefly explain its origin and meaning. Then, lead the group in the word and bowing gesture. Or, substitute "thank you." Invite each participant to bow their head to the individuals on either side and then bow to the center of the circle and say "thank you" together.
Distribute the Taking It Home handout you have prepared. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: MULTI-GENERATIONAL CONGREGATIONAL EVENT
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
In Activity 4, the group looked at the congregation's events and activities in terms of what someone of a particular age or stage of life might find meaningful or fun. This Faith in Action activity guides the group to plan and suggest to congregational leaders an explicitly multigenerational, adapted or brand new event or activity.
Lead the group to review the events explored by the small groups, with an eye toward choosing one to suggest to your congregation. You might also introduce for consideration a new multigenerational event idea for the group to plan. Consider offering a social justice or pastoral activity, or a children's activity with roles for all ages. Alternate Activity 1, Making Pastoral Cards, might provide the seed for an all-ages activity at your congregation.
There are many ways you might choose an event to plan as intentionally multigenerational; one way might be to hand each participant two differently colored dot stickers (for example, red and yellow) and ask everyone to mark their first and second choices on the posted newsprint lists. The event with the most dots wins.
Once an event or activity is selected, lead the group to plan the event. Brainstorm ideas on how it can be welcoming, enjoyable, and meaningful for people of different ages. An adult should briefly record ideas on the blank newsprint. Start the planning process with questions like the following:
Once the purpose and basic plan for the event are established, gather ideas for making it maximally welcoming, enjoyable and meaningful. Refer to the list of age groups (Leader Resource 1) to make sure all are addressed. Find consensus on suggestions as you go along.
Save about five minutes for working together on a proposal to congregational leadership about the event. The proposal might be in form of a letter to your minister or committee chair(s), or an outline of what will happen at the event. Draft the proposal on newsprint.
Have a volunteer type and print the proposal, leaving room for all participants to sign. Thank everyone for their participation and invite them to share clean-up.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on and discuss with your co-leader(s):
Approach your director of religious education for guidance, as needed.
TAKING IT HOME
The elder cannot be an elder if there is no community to make [them]... an elder. The young child cannot feel secure if there is no elder, whose silent presence gives [them]... hope in life. The adult cannot be who [they are] unless there is a strong sense of the other people around. — M.P. Som?n Ritual Power, Healing, and Community (Portland, Oregon: Swan/Raven & Co., 1993)
IN TODAY'S SESSION...
While our society tends to segregate us by age, our congregations can be places where multigenerational living and learning can happen. This session guided participants to appreciate multigenerational experiences from multiple ages' perspectives and to plan a congregational activity for all ages.
Participants reflected on idea that they, themselves, are a particular age. They explored their own and others' age-related characteristics and interests.
The story, "The Children's Crusade," provided a Civil Rights-era lens to examine different ways children and adults can contribute to a shared purpose. The story describes how children joined protests in Birmingham, Alabama , in 1963 despite concerns of many adults.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about...
Share stories about multigenerational events you participate in, such as family/friends vacations, congregational events or public events. Invite each person to talk about what they like or don't like about an event and the ways in which they find it meaningful. Encourage your child to articulate anything they may have learned about the traits or concerns of their own age group, yours and others.
Invite your child to tell you about the Children's Crusade. Share observations about how children and adults together made a difference. Help your child keep their commitment this week to notice the gifts of someone of a different age.
EXTEND THE TOPIC. Try...
Affirm regular multi-age connections for you and your child. Calculate the time your child spends in age-segregated activities, and try to balance it with activities in which they engage with people of diverse ages. Together you might develop a chart to record, for one week, each person's interactions with various ages.
To broaden the age ranges in which your family interacts, you might volunteer together to care for or teach younger children or older adults. Visit a neighbor with older children, younger children, or no children. Commit to participating in an activity or event at your congregation that is already intergenerational.
A FAMILY RITUAL
Before one meal each week, light candles, hold hands and invite each member of the family to name a friend or family member not of the same age and not present. End with these words:
With all of these people in our hearts and minds we are in communion.
A FAMILY GAME
The game Do As I Say is fun for all ages to play together. One person starts the game by repeating a simple action, such as patting their head or tapping a foot, but saying something different, such as "I am making a fist." Everyone has to repeat the statement each time the leader says it, but do the action the leader is doing. The first person the leader catches doing or saying the wrong thing becomes the new leader. If the leader gets mixed up first, they choose someone else to be the new leader. Younger children may need help with what to say but often find "opposite" motions easier to negotiate than adults. Older participants may like help thinking of a simple action to perform.
FAMILY DISCOVERY
Make a family photo album/scrapbook with the theme All Ages Have Particular Gifts. Include photos of different-aged people, both friends and family, doing what they enjoy most or spend most time doing. Organize the album by age. Or, use photos that include multiple generations in shared activities. Use scrap-booking items found at office supply or craft stores to enhance the theme.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: MAKING PASTORAL CARDS FOR ALL AGES (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity generates discussion of the personal challenges and celebrations common at different stages of life and gives the group a role in your congregation's practice of recognizing members' life passages. Ministers and others in your congregation who provide pastoral service and those who receive it will appreciate children's hand-made cards.
Ask participants to name occasions on which they have sent or received cards and write these on newsprint. You may suggest the anniversary of a special event, a birthday, a child dedication (baptism, christening, bris), coming-of-age ceremony (or confirmation, first Communion, bar/bat mitzvah), congratulations on an achievement, death of a family member or pet, graduation, marriage, move to a new home or serious illness.
Distribute card stock and arts and crafts materials at worktables. Explain that the group will now make cards to be sent out to congregational members of all ages, as the need arises. If you have a multigenerational group of participants and have made sticky labels, distribute the labels and show participants where to affix them on each card.
Engage the group in thinking about how to design cards for different purposes. Lead the group in phrasing a few different sentiments to write on the cards. Mention that any art made with loving thought is appropriate for all occasions. Indicate the spelling of "condolences" and "congratulations" on the newsprint and invite the group to suggest additional words they would like to see spelled out.
Invite participants to make at least one card for someone in an age group different from theirs. Tell them how much time they have and give a two-minute warning with directions for clean-up and where to place the finished cards. You may wish to leave extra time for volunteers to share cards they made or randomly choose a card(s) to share with the group.
Thank everyone for their participation.
Variation
If you have multi-age guests, create opportunities for participants to work with someone of a different age. Form multigenerational groups to share a worktable or to design cards on a theme (e.g., get-well cards).
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: COME SING A SONG WITH ME (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Singing songs together, especially ones that are important in your congregation, can foster a sense of multigenerational community and create special memories for children.
Welcome everyone. Distribute hymnbooks or song sheets. Lead the group in singing the songs you have chosen, using call-and-response to make sure all can join in whether or not they already know the words.
Include some songs that elders can teach and others that children can teach. Inviting young children to teach hand motions to a well-known song could be fun.
Variation
Warm up the group with games all ages can play together. Groups of 20 or fewer can play a Name Whip game. Participants sit in a circle and each introduces themself by saying their name and a word that starts with their first initial—for example, Dana Delicious or Amy Apple. You might ask participants to introduce themselves with a word that describes something they and other people their age do or like—for example, Dana Driving or Amy Aerobics. Each participant must recite the names and matching words for every person who has already spoken and then add their own name and word. The whip ends when the last person names everyone in the room and their age-related word. Then you might invite one or two volunteers (preferably of different ages) to name every person in the circle and the word they chose.
For another game, Do As I Say, have everyone sit in a circle. One person starts the game by repeating a simple action, such as patting their head or tapping a foot, but saying something different, such as "I am making a fist." Everyone has to repeat the statement each time the leader says it, but do the action the leader is doing. The first person the leader catches doing or saying the wrong thing becomes the new leader. If the leader gets mixed up first, they choose someone else to be the new leader. Younger children may need help with what to say but often find "opposite" motions easier to negotiate than adults. Older participants may need suggestions for a simple action to perform.
Including All Participants
Make sure the room is fully accessible and has seating options to make people of every mobility level comfortable. Invite people with hearing or vision limitations to sit where they can best hear/see.
WINDOWS AND MIRRORS: SESSION 6:
STORY: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE
By Kate Rhode, in What if Nobody Forgave? and Other Stories, edited by Colleen McDonald (Boston: Skinner House, 2003). Used with permission.
You may wish to have an adult storyteller begin this story, and have a child reader take over at the point where the text says, "The children heard about the decision and told their friends." Make sure all storytellers have time to read the story and prepare themselves to tell it before the session begins. Invite all the listeners to rise, as they are able, at the part of the story where the children stand up.
"What are we going to do?" asked Martin Luther King, Jr., the well-known American civil rights leader, as he sat with his friends at a meeting in the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama . King, who was trying to lead the black people of Birmingham in their struggle to end segregation, was worried that he and his friends were going to fail in their mission. Nevertheless, he rose from his chair at the front of the group.
"Who will demonstrate with me tomorrow in a brave attempt to end segregation? Who will risk going to jail for the cause?"
Often, four hundred people would show up for meetings like this one, but only 35 or so would volunteer to protest and not all those volunteers would actually show to protest. Those who did would gather downtown and parade through the streets, carry signs, chant, and sing, sending the message that segregation had to end.
In King's day, segregation meant that black people were not allowed to do the same things or go to the same places as white people. Black people couldn't go to most amusement parks, swimming pools, parks, hotels, or restaurants. They had to go to different schools that weren't as nice as the schools for white kids. They had to use separate drinking fountains, and they could and did get in trouble for breaking this rule. They weren't allowed to use the same bathrooms; many times, there were no public bathrooms at all that they could use. They weren't allowed to try on clothes before they bought them, like white people could.
Black people didn't think this was fair. Some white people didn't think it was fair either. In the 1950s and 1960s, many thousands of people worked to end segregation. But in many places, especially in the southern part of the United States , segregation was the law, and if black people tried to go somewhere they weren't supposed to go, they could and did get arrested, beaten, and even killed. In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. went to Birmingham, Alabama, one of the largest and most heavily segregated cities in America , to bring people together to change the law.
You see, the people were very scared. The sheriff in Birmingham was named Bull Connor. And black people didn't know what Bull Connor might do to them if he caught them protesting. Martin Luther King had already been in jail once, and others were afraid to follow him. Besides, they weren't sure protesting would do any good.
Dr. King, seeing that no one answered his call, again tried to inspire the group. "The struggle will be long," he said. "We must stand up for our rights as human beings. Who will demonstrate with me, and if necessary, be ready to go to jail for it?"
There was a pause, and then a whole group of people stood up. Someone gasped. All the people who stood up were children.
(Leader—Invite all the children in the room to stand up, as they are able.)
The adults told them to sit down but they didn't.
Martin Luther King thanked the children and told them he appreciated the offer but that he couldn't ask them to go to jail. They still wouldn't sit down. They wanted to help.
That night, Dr. King talked with a close group of friends about the events of the day. "What are we going to do?" he asked. "The only volunteers we got were children. We can't have a protest with children!" Everyone nodded, except Jim Bevel. "Wait a minute," said Jim. "If they want to do it, I say bring on the children."
"But they are too young!" the others said. Then Jim asked, "Are they too young to go to segregated schools?"
"No."
"Are they too young to be kept out of amusement parks?"
"No!"
"Are they too young to be refused a hamburger in a restaurant?"
"No!" said the others.
"Then they are not too young to want their freedom." That night, they decided that any child old enough to join a church was old enough to march.
The children heard about the decision and told their friends. When the time came for the march, a thousand children, teenagers, and college students gathered. The sheriff arrested them and put them in jail. The next day even more kids showed up—some of their parents and relatives too, and even more the next day and the next day. Soon lots of adults joined in. Finally, a thousand children were locked up together in a "children's jail." And there was no more room for anyone else.
Sheriff Connor had done awful things to try and get protesters to turn back. He had turned big police dogs loose and allowed them to bite people. He had turned on fire hoses that were so strong the force of the water could strip the bark off of trees. He had ordered the firefighters to point the hoses at the children and push them down the street. People all over the country and all over the world saw the pictures of the dogs, the fire hoses, and the children, and they were furious.
Now the white people of Birmingham began to worry. All over the world people were saying bad things about their city. Even worse, everyone was afraid to go downtown to shop because of the dogs and hoses. So they decided they had to change things. A short time later, the black people and white people of Birmingham made a pact to desegregate the city and let everyone go to the same places.
Today when people tell this story, many talk about Martin Luther King, Jr. We should also remember the thousands of brave children and teenagers whose courage helped to defeat Bull Connor and end segregation in Birmingham and the rest of the United States .
WINDOWS AND MIRRORS: SESSION 6:
HANDOUT 1: CONGREGATIONAL EVENT FOR ALL AGES
Use these questions to consider how people of different ages might enjoy or find meaning in an activity or event at your congregation. Try to answer each question from the perspective of a very young child, a school-age child, a teenager, a young adult, an older adult and a very old adult.
For each activity or event... | Very Young Child | School-Age Child | Teenager | Young Adult | Older Adult | Very Old Adult |
... what is there to do at the event/activity? (How do they participate?) | ||||||
... what is enjoyable about the event/activity? | ||||||
... what is meaningful or valuable about the event/activity? (What do they get out of it?) | ||||||
Additional questions to consider for each age group:
WINDOWS AND MIRRORS: SESSION 6:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE
Dear [name],
We would love to have you join our Windows and Mirrors (grades 4/5) religious education program on (date, time). Our session is about how our religious community is made up of all ages, each important to our congregation. We will hear and discuss a story about a Civil Rights event called the Children's Crusade—a time when adults were reluctant to act to further the movement and children participated in a way that no one else could. Then we will do some activities together to explore the different gifts that people of different ages and life stages bring to our congregation.
We hope you will join us. If you have any questions, or would like transportation to and from church for this event, please contact us.
We will follow up with a phone call to you in a few days.
Sincerely,
(Co-leaders / contact information)
WINDOWS AND MIRRORS: SESSION 6:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: LIST OF AGES AND LIFE STAGES
Use this list as a reference during the activities in this session to ensure you include multiple age and stage-of-life perspectives.
Very young children
School-age children
Teens
Young Adults
Older Adults
Very Old Adults
FIND OUT MORE
Intergenerational, or Multigenerational, Community
Many Unitarian Universalist congregations value multigenerational community in theory more than in practice. Online, find discussion about how worship, religious education, social actions, and other congregational functions might become more richly multigenerational.
The Reverend Tom Owen-Towle has written:
The mission of Unitarian Universalist (UU) religious education is to create and sustain an intergenerational community of truthfulness and service, holiness and love. This imperative should undergird and guide our social action, liturgy, and stewardship as well. Unitarian Universalist religious education is neither book nor guru centered. It is not adult or even child centered. It is congregation centered, wherein all ages cooperatively engage in what Starr Williams called 'a cycle of nurturing.' Hence, our educational perspective must be grounded in sound ecclesiology and focus on all members being religious, remembering, re-creative, responsible, respectful, renewable and reverent pilgrims.
Websites supported by St. Thomas University in Brunswick, Canada (at www.stthomasu.ca/research/youth/manual/activities.htm)and Penn State's College of Agriculture and Extension (at intergenerational.cas.psu.edu/Program.html)offer many ideas and considerations about intergenerational community, including activities.
The Children's Crusade, Birmingham, Alabama
The marches in which children participated took place in the spring of 1963 during the Birmingham campaign (at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_campaign) orchestrated by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and allies in the black civil rights movement. Read a detailed report on the Children's Crusade and find background, including primary sources, on the Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement website (at www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis63.htm#1963bhcc). A National Parks Service website dedicated to historic places of the Civil Rights Movement (at www.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/al10.htm) describes what happened on May 2, 1963, when children joined the protest at Kelly Ingram Park.
On the Teaching Tolerance (at www.tolerance.org) website, read a story about a schoolchildren's march in December, 2005 (at www.tolerance.org/news/article_tol.jsp?id=1337) in Montgomery, Alabama, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott.