Invite a medical professional with experience in end-of-life medicine, palliative care, and hospice care to explain some common end-of-life medical choices. Read resources listed in Handout 1, Looking Ahead to Workshop 7, from Workshop 6. Post Our Covenant from Workshop 1....

Chalice, candle, and lighter or LED/battery-operated candle Our Covenant from Workshop 1 Handout 1, Looking Ahead to Workshop 8 Five Wishes booklet for each participant or copies of your state’s advance directives or both Three-ring binders with clear plastic covers, one for each participant who...

The dying must often feel this way—steaming along just fine, while on ahead someone has torn up the rails. — Annie Dillard This workshop concerns end of life. Participants will learn about and reflect on medical issues and choices as well as consider how they wish to be remembered. Several weeks...

Make a time for individual reflection and discussion with your co-leader after the conclusion of the workshop. Consider these questions: What worked well in today's workshop? How can these elements or approaches be repeated or amplified in the future? What was most challenging?...

Activity time: 5 minutes Share these closing words from Lee Ann Wester: Is there such a thing as a good death? Perhaps we should ask is there such a thing as a good life? To live a good life with Love, Honesty, Kindness, Humor, Compassion. Couldn’t a good death contain these qualities, too? In...

Activity time: 5 minutes Share with participants any updates on upcoming plans. Distribute Handout 1, Looking Ahead to Workshop 7 and answer any questions. Tell participants that Find Out More includes additional resources they may wish to explore.

Activity time: 15 minutes Distribute copies of The Right to Die with Dignity, 1988 UUA General Resolution, or project it. Go around the circle and ask participants to read aloud one section at a time, noting that it is fine to pass. After you have read the resolution, ask: What has changed since...

Activity time: 40 minutes Show Segment of "The Suicide Plan" (15:06-21:08), Frontline, PBS. Then call attention to color pencils, markers, pens, and pencils....

Activity time: 20 minutes Show the video Teen Suicide Prevention or distribute copies of Suicide Warning Signs. Invite comments and observations. Ask how the information in the video or handout is applicable to people of all ages. Then lead a conversation about what your congregation might do to...

Activity time: 30 minutes Distribute copies of Suicide Prevention, Myths and Facts and Suicide Fact Sheet, which participants were asked to read before the workshop. Invite them to share things they found surprising from the list and things that verify their own experiences. Be comfortable with...

Activity time: 5 minutes Light the chalice and share these words from Kate Walker: We open our hearts to love, yet sometimes find pain. We open our hearts to connection, yet sometimes find loss. We yearn for simplicity, yet sometimes find complexity....

Read materials listed in Handout 1, Looking Ahead to Workshop 6, from Workshop 5. Post Our Covenant from Workshop 1. Customize and make copies of Handout 1, Looking Ahead to Workshop 7 for all participants. Make copies of Suicide Fact Sheet. Make copies of The Right to Die with Dignity, 1988 UUA...

Newsprint, markers, and tape Chalice, candle, and lighter or LED/battery-operated candle Our Covenant from Workshop 1 Handout 1, Looking Ahead to Workshop 7 Suicide Fact Sheet, National Alliance on Mental Illness Three-ring binders with clear plastic covers, one for each participant who does not...

We cannot tear out a single page of our life, but we can throw the whole book in the fire. — George Sand, 19th century French novelist This workshop focuses on two related topics, both emotionally charged, but in different ways. Suicide and suicide prevention is one topic. The right of terminally...

Make a time for individual reflection and discussion with your co-leader after the conclusion of the workshop. Consider these questions: What worked well in today's workshop? How can these elements or approaches be repeated or amplified in the future? What was most challenging?...

Activity time: 5 minutes Explain that the closing words come from a children’s book about an interfaith family, Kaddish for Grampa in Jesus’ Name Amen, by James Howe and Catherine Stock (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2004). Share these words: And then one night, after the people had stopped...

Activity time: 5 minutes Share with participants any updates on upcoming plans. Distribute Handout 1, Looking Ahead to Workshop 6. Tell participants that Find Out More includes additional resources they may wish to explore.

Activity time: 15 minutes Go around the circle and invite participants to share their journal reflections and their questions and concerns with the large group as they are comfortable doing so. Ask other participants to refrain from responding until all have shared....

Activity time: 20 minutes Show “About Uncle Jack,” “Expressing Emotions,” and “You Can Talk to Me,” three Sesame Street segments that explore helping children cope with grief. If you are unable to stream the segments, explain that you are going to show a segment of an hour-long PBS video...

Activity time: 40 minutes Invite participants to form groups of three. Give each group a copy of pages 11-14 of “Loss across the Lifespan” from Let's Talk About Families and Loss and one of the children’s books. Invite the group to read the book, and then to decide for which age(s) the book is...