A CHORUS OF FAITHS
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Youth
WORKSHOP 7: SERVICE IS OUR PRAYER
BY RENEE RUCHOTZKE AND HANNAH MCCONNAUGHAY
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 7:48:45 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
...if you are here because your liberation is bound up in mine, then let us walk together. — Lilla Watson, Australian activist
This workshop explores more deeply the skills needed to talk about interfaith cooperation, particularly as a Unitarian Universalist. Participants return to their own stories of religious pluralism (Workshop 5) and enrich them with communal narratives, role-play how to change a conversation in the face of religious bigotry, and learn the real life story of Faithful Fools, a Unitarian Universalist interfaith service, and its street theater initiative with San Francisco's homeless.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — Faithful Fools | 10 |
Activity 2: Communal Narratives | 30 |
Activity 3: Changing the Conversation | 15 |
Activity 4: Story Review | 13 |
Activity 4: Final Planning for the Interfaith Service Event | 15 |
Faith in Action: Speed Faithing | 60 |
Closing | 2 |
Alternate Activity 1: Street Theater | |
Alternate Activity 2: Speed Faithing with Others | 90 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Read the story, "Faithful Fools." Have you ever had an immersion experience like those of the youth who participate in Faithful Fools retreats? What do you remember about the event? Which do you remember more: the details—such as how many people were served—or how the experience made you feel? Were you thankful you had lived up to a challenge? Humbled by the resiliency of the people around you? Frustrated or angry at how little you could do to help? How did it change you?
Think about the service event experience you will soon share with the youth. What are your hopes for the event? Keep these hopes in your heart in the countdown to the event. Years from now, the youth may not remember the details, but they will remember how they felt about the event. What can you do to make this experience challenging, yet affirming and transformative?
WORKSHOP PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to wear name tags. Gather the group in a circle.
Say, in your own words:
Today we are going to go a little deeper into what it means to do interfaith work as a Unitarian Universalist.
Ask a participant to light the chalice. Invite participants to find "A Litany of Restoration," Reading 576 in Singing the Living Tradition. Have volunteers take turns reading the regular text and the group respond with the italic text. Remind the participants they are free to pass if they do not wish to read.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — FAITHFUL FOOLS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Youth hear a story demonstrating Unitarian Universalists creating a contemporary interfaith organization.
Tell or read the story. Or, distribute copies to participants and have volunteers read aloud, taking turns at each sentence or paragraph or acting out the parts. Remind the group that anyone has the right to pass.
Then lead a short discussion with these questions:
ACTIVITY 2: COMMUNAL NARRATIVES (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants incorporate communal narratives into the stories of interfaith cooperation they have worked with in previous workshops.
Say, in your own words:
We have worked on our stories of interfaith cooperation a few times. We saw how important storytelling is for changing the conversation. We have practiced using an effective structure for storytelling.
Today, we are going to talk about another level of story—the communal story, or communal narrative. These are the "big stories," the identities we are a part of. For instance, there are multiple stories out there about what it means to be an American. It can mean achieving "the American dream." It can mean leaving another homeland to become part of the American "melting pot," or it can mean being loud, fat, and ignorant, depending on which story we subscribe to. There are stories—we call these "narratives"—about what it means to be a woman, about what it means to be a young person (energetic, rebellious), and about what it means to be a Midwesterner. Can you give me some examples of communal narratives that you are a part of?
As participants suggest communities to which they belong (perhaps immigrant, racial or ethnic, disability-related), write each on the newsprint and thank the participant for sharing. Then say:
We can tell a good story just about things that have happened to us, but the best and richest stories reference our communal identities and narratives. They connect our personal experience to the experience of the larger communities we are a part of. That gives listeners a shortcut to understanding our stories and why their message matters.
This can be a little tricky. Let's look at an example together using a story we have worked with before.
Distribute the story "We Are Each other's Business" and have one, two, or more volunteers take turns reading paragraphs aloud.
Now distribute Handout 1, Communal Narratives Chart. On the newsprint you have posted, draw the image on Handout 1. Lead the group to fill it out together, referring to Leader Resource 2 as a model of what your completed worksheet might look like.
After a short discussion, summarize:
Eboo adds importance and flavor to his story by bringing in his communal narratives. By using references to the big stories he is personally part of, he makes the story feel relevant to lots of people. He gets across the message that America is about respect, that Islam is about valuing others.
We, too, can use references from our communal narratives to enrich our stories. We can include in our stories the texts, arts, and historical examples from our tradition that confirm the values we want to lift up.
Invite the group to take the next ten minutes to fill out their own communal narrative chart on their second copy of Handout 1. Say:
What are three "big stories" you feel yourself to be a part of? What are some examples from those communities that support the value of interfaith cooperation? For example, Unitarian Universalism is a communal narrative for all of you. Can you incorporate a UU song we have sung together, a favorite reading from our hymnbook, something from our history, or a contemporary UU story like "Faithful Fools" into your personal story, to increase the story's impact?
Offer copies of Singing the Living Tradition and, optionally, Welcome: A Unitarian Universalist Primer. Maintain a quiet or contemplative space while participants identify their communal narratives. Move around the room to assist those who may be having difficulty.
Give participants time to identify their communal narratives and references. Then, ask one or two participants to share what they found, or to share their story of interfaith cooperation incorporating this new element.
ACTIVITY 3: CHANGING THE CONVERSATION (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants learn how to transform religious conflict by retelling a story using the lens of religious pluralism.
Set up this story in your own words:
In 2009, the first Muslim was elected to Congress, Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota. When he announced that he planned to take his oath of office on a copy of the Quran, the holy book of his faith, he was verbally attacked. In particular, Virginia Representative Virgil Goode claimed that taking the oath of office on a Quran was a threat to American values.
Ask if the youth know or can guess what happened next. If they know part of the story, draw out the details. Then, finish the story in your own words:
Ellison contacted the Library of Congress and requested to use the Quran that was once part of Thomas Jefferson's personal library. As Ellison's spokesman, Rick Jauert articulated, "Keith is paying respect not only to the founding fathers' belief in religious freedom but the Constitution itself." He made his point, but did not allow the situation to devolve into an "Ellison vs. Goode" fight. He changed the conversation.
Share the strategies to "Change the Conversation" you have posted on newsprint. Then ask:
How did Keith Ellison's use of Jefferson's Quran change the conversation from religious conflict to religious pluralism?
Ask participants to role-play how they might change the conversation in these situations:
ACTIVITY 4: STORY REVIEW (13 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants review interfaith service stories from our Unitarian Universalist faith tradition.
Remind the group that, along with their personal stories, they also share communal stories of interfaith cooperation from our Unitarian Universalist tradition.
Offer copies of the four stories for participants to share and review the stories together. Ask youth for examples of other stories about UU interfaith work they may know, but did not discuss in previous workshops. If youth do not mention these, tell them that Unitarian Universalists have worked with other faith communities on such issues as marriage equality (at www.watermarkonline.com/index.php/living/lgbt-spirituality/4044-Mainstream-and-progressive-churches-reach-out-LGBTs.html), climate change and taking care of the earth, comprehensive sexuality education (at www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/mar/20/religion-and-sexuality/), immigration (at www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/pastor_to_speak_on_immigration.html), and stopping war, (at www.uua.org/news/newssubmissions/102134.shtml) to name just a few, current issues. If time permits this activity to go on longer and you have a computer with Internet access, let participants research these stories more. If you do not have the time, invite youth to research other stories of Unitarian Universalist interfaith work as part of their Taking It Home assignment.
ACTIVITY 5: FINAL PLANNING FOR THE INTERFAITH SERVICE EVENT (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants address any last-minute needs in service event planning.
Make sure everyone understand their remaining roles and responsibilities. Use this time to go through an agenda for the interfaith service day together, double-checking times and responsibilities. You might also go through the program Introduction's Service Event Planning guidance again found in Before You Start, to ensure you have taken care of everything necessary.
You might write out the agenda for the day on the posted newsprint. Review your agenda and needs together, then use remaining time to discuss any issues regarding the service event. For example: Is there confusion about how many people are coming from other religious communities? Do you need to re-confirm with a partner organization that is hosting the service event? Are the food and service plans still appropriate for anticipated weather? If you identify new needs, make sure to assign each task to one specific person and obtain that person's phone and email information so you can follow up and ensure the task has been accomplished.
CLOSING (2 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Explain that you will close with a song that embodies the interaction of spirituality and justice work for Unitarian Universalists.
Sing Hymn 1014, "Standing on the Side of Love."
Extinguish the chalice. Distribute Taking It Home. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: SPEED FAITHING (60 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants and guests practice and get feedback on their "Unitarian Universalist interfaith service story," i.e., short articulations about their Unitarian Universalist faith and its relationship to interfaith service
Explain that the group will be divided into pairs. One person in each pair will have three minutes to answer the questions on the newsprint. Then you will sound the bell, and the second person will have three minutes to answer the questions. When you sound the bell again, the pair will have one minute to give each other feedback on their statements. The bell will ring again, and everyone will have 30 seconds to find a new discussion partner.
Remind youth of the story review you have done together. Invite them to illustrate their answers with a short story on Unitarian Universalists and interfaith service. If guests have a hard time understanding, begin the activity by having two youth model the conversation.
Ten minutes before you need to end the activity, call everyone back into the larger group. Ask these questions:
Tell participants their Unitarian Universalist interfaith service story can be combined with their personal interfaith story to help explain to others why interfaith service work is important to them.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
The next workshop is the last workshop in this program. Have there been any recurring themes in your time together so far? Are there issues participants have brought up that you feel have not been addressed? Think carefully about how you can incorporate responses to new or lingering questions into your next workshop, since it may be your last opportunity to do so.
Reflect on your personal feelings about your time as a co-leader. What have been your strengths and weaknesses? What would you like to improve for next time? What do you want to say to participants during your final workshop together?
Finally, identify any specific needs your group has for the service event, and re-confirm each service site, vendor, or group's participation.
TAKING IT HOME
...if you are here because your liberation is bound up in mine, then let us walk together. — Lilla Watson, Australian activist
IN TODAY'S WORKSHOP... we learned about doing interfaith work as a Unitarian Universalist and we prepared for our service event. To further prepare:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: STREET THEATER
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants engage with social issues using street theater.
Explain that service projects such as the one the group is planning are often connected to larger societal or institutional problems. Ask the youth to identify the larger issues underlying their service project. Write their answers on newsprint.
Say, in your own words:
We heard a story about the Faithful Fools in San Francisco. They would often use street theater to publicize the problems facing the residents of the Tenderloin district. What are ways we could use street theater to publicize the issues we have identified?
Write ideas on the newsprint.
Now present the costumes and props. Invite the group to plan a skit using one of their ideas, perhaps using some of the costumes and/or props you have brought. Encourage them to make their skit short, to the point. Tell them to avoid creating a skit that might appear to be a violent act in progress.
Give participants 20 to 30 minutes to plan. Have them perform the skit, critique it themselves, then perform it again. Pretend to be a person passing by and ask questions such as "What is going on?" "Why is this important?" and "How do I find out more information about this issue?"
Decide if the street theater piece will be performed outside the meeting pace. If so, have participants help plan the logistics. If you plan a performance around strangers, plan at least one performance beforehand to a friendly audience.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: SPEED FAITHING WITH OTHERS (90 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants explore their faith tradition, practice communicating about it to others, and learn about the faith traditions of others.
Greet participants. Open the gathering with the ice breaker of your choice—for example, names and favorite ice cream, last movie they saw. Ask the participants to pair up. Explain that each person in the pair will have three minutes to answer the questions on the newsprint. Then you will ring a bell and the second person will have three minutes to answer the questions. When you ring the bell again, then the pair will have one minute to give each other feedback on their statements. When the bell sounds again, everyone will have 30 seconds to find a new discussion partner.
If guests have a hard time understanding, begin the activity by having two participants model the exchange.
Lead two rounds of pair sharing. Then, invite participants to gather with the others from their own faith (the Unitarian Universalists form one group, the Muslims form another group, etc.). Give each group paper and pens/pencils and invite them to create a five-minute presentation about their faith. Suggest they start by pooling what they shared in their "speed faithing" pairs. Tell them they may also use what they know and any research materials you have provided.
Give the groups about 10 minutes to shape a short presentation. Likely, each group will discover individuals' ideas about their shared faith can vary.
Re-gather the entire group. Have each group present about their religion and answer questions.
Celebrate with applause. Then lead a discussion with these questions:
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 7:
STORY: FAITHFUL FOOLS
Faithful Fools. Used by permission.
The Tenderloin district of San Francisco can be intimidating because of its high concentration of homeless people, poverty, prostitution, and drug and alcohol abuse. Tourists are cautioned to avoid the area. But where some people saw danger, two women from different faiths saw an opportunity for ministry.
Sister Carmen Barsody a Franciscan Sister of Little Falls, Minnesota had spent several years living among the poor in the barrios of Managua, Nicaragua. The Reverend Kay Jorgensen was a Unitarian Universalist minister who felt called to work among the residents of the Tenderloin as a volunteer with the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco, then—with the help of a grant—as their community minister. The two met in 1997 and found that although they came from very different religious backgrounds, their theology about working with the poor and homeless was very similar. Together, they founded the Faithful Fools street ministry.
The "Fools" in their name refers to the "fool" of medieval times who was the truth teller in the king's court, the one on the edge of society who assists others in crossing the boundaries a society creates. The "fool" was also inspired by the street theater that Rev. Jorgensen and others in the organization use for creative public witness about issues that affect residents of the Tenderloin District and other impoverished areas of the world. Her clown persona, Oscard, once led a procession of homeless residents to City Hall to protest a ban on shopping carts on the city streets. St. Francis of Assisi often is referred to as a "Fool of God," one who challenged and changed the church and society in the feudal system of Italy by living and working with the lepers who were forced to live outside of the city walls.
The "Faithful" part of their name refers to their belief in the spiritual power of experienced relationship between those who are privileged and those who are impoverished. In order to dismantle the oppressions in our society, we need to break through our separateness—whether based on identity, belief, or economic situation—and then discern what connects us. They call their street ministry a "ministry of presence that acknowledges each human's incredible worth."
Rev. Jorgensen feels that Unitarian Universalism, with its living tradition and its openness of heart and mind, has a special role in this kind of outreach. In order to provide this kind of experience for people of many different faiths, the Faithful Fools offer one-day street retreats. They begin with the participant's personal journey and spiritual practice in direct relationship with social realities, such as homelessness and poverty. They give participants opportunities to relate with people of whom they may be afraid or whom they may hold in judgment or misunderstanding, and then provide a space for spiritual reflection afterward.
Alex Darr was a young adult member of the Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco who was also a key leader in Faithful Fools. He raised money and used his clown persona to bring visibility to the plight of Tenderloin residents. His leadership was instrumental in promoting participation in the street retreat program by youth and young adults when he suggested incorporating a street retreat into a local Coming of Age program. By addressing the fears of the participants and talking about the possibilities of personal transformation, he was able to convince a group of 60 area youth to participate the first year. Since then, thousands of youth and young adults from all over the country have participated in similar retreats.
Rev. Kay Jorgensen, Rev. Denis Paul, also a Unitarian Universalist and Fool, and other Faithful Fools have become Franciscan Lay Associates with the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minnesota.
The Faithful Fools are an example of interfaith collaboration based on Unitarian Universalist core values of creativity, respect, compassion and engagement.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 7:
HANDOUT 1: COMMUNAL NARRATIVES CHART
Developed by the Interfaith Youth Core. Used by permission.
Download a high-resolution PDF (at www.uua.org/documents/tapestry/chorus/communal_narratives.pdf) for printing.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 7:
HANDOUT 2: STANDING ON THE SIDE OF LOVE
"Standing on the Side of Love" lyrics by Reverend Jason Shelton, as included in the Unitarian Universalist Association's Singing the Journey: A Supplement to Singing the Living Tradition. Copyright 2004 by Yelton Rhodes Music. Used by permission.
The promise of the Spirit:
Faith, hope and love abide.
And so every soul is blessed and made whole;
The truth in our hearts is our guide.
Chorus:
We are standing on the side of love,
Hands joined together as hearts beat as one.
Emboldened by faith
we dare to proclaim
We are standing on the side of love.
Sometimes we build a barrier
to keep love tightly bound.
Corrupted by fear,
unwilling to hear,
Denying the beauty we've found.
Chorus
A bright new day is dawning
when love will not divide.
Reflections of grace
in every embrace,
Fulfilling the vision divine.
Chorus
We are standing on the side of love.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 7:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: FAITHFUL FOOLS PHOTOS
Photos courtesy of Megan Rohrer, Sister Carmen, and members of Faithful Fools.
A CHORUS OF FAITHS: WORKSHOP 7:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: WE ARE EACH OTHER'S BUSINESS COMMUNAL NARRATIVE CHART
Developed by the Interfaith Youth Core. Used by permission.
Download a high-resolution PDF (at www.uua.org/documents/tapestry/chorus/business_communalnarrative.pdf) for printing.
FIND OUT MORE
Read about the Faithful Fools in a 2001 UU World article (at www.uuworld.org/2001/04/feature1.html), or visit the Faithful Fools' website (at www.faithfulfools.org/). Find out more information about how to use street theater (at www.amnestyusa.org/get-activist-toolkit/plan-events-and-activities/how-to-use-street-theater/page.do?id=1101327) from Amnesty International.
Find media coverage of Congressman Keith Ellison taking his oath of office on Thomas Jefferson's Quran on the Fox News (at www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,233983,00.html), Washington Post (at www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/03/AR2007010300075.html), or National Public Radio (at www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6718662) websites.
Hear more of Jason Shelton's music here (at www.jasonsheltonmusic.com/audio.html). To purchase the choral arrangement of "Standing on the Side of Love" visit yrmusic (at www.yrmusic.com).