Activity time: 5 minutes

Materials for Activity

• Taking It Home handout
• Clear bowl to serve as a chalice
• A small, hardy plant (such as a spider plant or shamrock plant)
• Optional: Small table
• Optional: Newsprint, markers and tape

Preparation for Activity

• Adapt the Taking It Home section. Prepare it as a handout and copy for all participants (or, plan to email to all adult participants and parents).
• Re-set the chalice bowl and plant where all can gather around it.
• Optional: Write the closing words on newsprint, and post.

Description of Activity

Gather the group. Briefly summarize the workshop:

Today, we talked about stewardship of the Earth's water and about people coming together in community. We discovered some of the wonders of water. In Gather the Spirit we will keep finding ways to be good stewards of the world's fresh waters. Today, we will recycle our chalice water by nurturing this plant.

Invite participants to offer a thought about what moved them during this workshop. Say something like:

Think about our time together. What will you take with you as we leave today?

Allow a moment for reflection. Then invite volunteers to answer. Then say:

We will recycle our chalice water by nurturing our plant.

Pour the water from the bowl into the plant.

As you pour, recite the closing words:

We leave our Gather the Spirit friends now, but not our Gather the Spirit friendships. May they be with us until we meet again.

Distribute the Taking It Home handouts you have prepared. Thank and dismiss participants. Set aside the chalice bowl and plant where they will be safe between workshops. Save newsprint with closing words for re-use.