Activity time: 10 minutes

Materials for Activity

• Copies of Singing the Journey, one for all participants
• Copies of Taking It Home
• Optional: A piano or a recorded version of the song

Preparation for Activity

• Optional: Arrange for musical accompaniment.

Description of Activity

To close the workshop, ask for a couple participants to share brief reflections from the journaling exercise about their beliefs, feelings, and actions in response to today's workshop. Wrap up the sharing after five minutes.

Tell participants that Unitarian Universalists have many favorite songs about freedom. Some are in our hymnbooks, and are drawn from various sources and traditions. Ask them to name any that they know or have sung. Introduce the song, "Building a New Way" by Martha Sandefer and Jim Scott, a song that calls for building a new way of peace and freedom for all. Many of the well-known freedom songs are African American spirituals from the times of slavery or the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 60s. This song, however, is more recent, reminding us that the struggle for freedom continues.

Invite participants to rise in body or spirit and sing Hymn 1017 in Singing the Journey. Invite a participant to extinguish the chalice and distribute copies of Taking It Home.

Including All Participants

An invitation to "rise in body or spirit" accommodates participants of all physical abilities.