Do all UUs believe the same thing?
Goal:
To become aware that Unitarian Universalists treasure each person’s special way of looking at things.
Activities:
1. Doodles: Make enough copies of the doodles from these pages (Doodle 1, Doodle 2, Doodle 3, Doodle 4) so each person has a copy. Ask everyone to make a picture out of the scribble. After you complete them all, share your drawings. Talk about how the same scribble suggested different ideas to different people. Suggest another way of completing the picture that most would not have thought of because it is not part of the daily world.
2. Play The Big Picture Game (this is a large image)
3. Play “What in the world?” National Geographic website link: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/world/games/whatintheworld/0203/witw.html
Discussion:
Everyone has their own special view of the world. Your experiences, interests, tastes, and personality all influence how you see the world. Unitarian Universalists treasure this fact of life. We celebrate our differences. We believe the world is a better place because we each have a special way of looking at things. This goes for religion, too. Not all UUs believe the same thing, and we like it that way.
Does everything die?
Goal:
To help children see that change exists throughout nature.
To recognize that change represents the end of the way things were, and usually involves a loss of some kind.
To understand that change affects everybody, and is impossible to avoid.
Preparation:
Read the Develpmental information from Lessons of Loss
Find one or more of these three books in your local library or bookstore:
The Fall of Freddie the Leaf, by Leo Buscaglia
Lifetimes, by Bryan Mellonie and Robert Ingpen
Annie and the Old One, by Miska Miles
Activities:
Read one or more of the stories.
Use discussion questions to engage in discussion about each story
Being with God in Prayer
Once there was a child who had problem and this problem was this. All of her friends would climb up to the top of the highest slide on the playground and slide down but, although she liked to slide on the smaller slide, she was afraid to go up to the top of the highest slide. And there was more to the problem; her friends sometimes teased her because she wouldn’t slide down the highest slide. Sometimes they called her "a baby".
Up to now whenever she thought about this problem she just got very tight inside and didn’t want to talk about it. When her friends called her a baby she just said, "No, I’m not. I just like the smaller slide better." But now she was starting to notice how exciting it was to go down the big slide and how much fun her friends were having and she wished that she could do it too. But she still was afraid.
She wanted to explain to someone about how she felt but she didn’t know who to talk to. One day when she was visiting her grandmother by herself, she said, "Grandmother, I want to talk to somebody about a problem but not my friends, or my teachers, or my parents." Her grandmother said, "Well, you certainly can share it with me, if you want to, or you could share it with God, like in a prayer."
"Share it with God in a prayer!" the girl replied, "How do you do that? Do you have to use special words, like Amen?" "No," her grandmother explained, "you can just talk like you would with anyone or you can sit quietly and just think and feel." "Don’t you have to go to a special place to pray, like church?" the girl asked. "No, you can be with God anywhere, although church is a good place," said her grandmother. "I saw some people pray once and they bowed their heads and put their hands in a special way. Do you have to do those things?" "Not at all," her grandmother reassured her, "Though bowing your head or closing your eyes or holding your hands together and near your heart is sometimes helpful."
"You can use any words, you can be anywhere and you can haveyour body anyway that is comfortable for you," her grandmother went on, "but there are three things you must remember when you pray." "What are they?" the girl asked. "The first is that when you share something with God, you also have to listen; the second is that sometimes you have to wait to hear God answer; and the third is that God may surprise you." "Thank you, Grandmother," the girl said as she hugged her. "I’m going to try sharing my problem with God and I will remember what you told me."
So when the girl went home, she went into her bedroom, sat comfortably on her bed and said, "Hi, God. I have a problem I want to share with you" and then she told God all about the high slide and the teasing and how she wished she could get brave enough to go down the slide now.
And then she waited quietly, listening. As she listened she heard same words going around in her head: "sliding–so high–scared–climbing–fun." And as she listened she heard some more words: "you go up the small slide–the big slide is just a few more steps–once you were afraid to let go in the water and swim but all of sudden one day you did it–when you are ready–you can do it"–and she wondered, "Is that God helping me with my problem?" That night as she slept she had a dream and in her dream there was a great huge slide that went all the way up into the clouds and in her dream she was climbing up the steps of the slide with God following behind her. When she got to the top she sat down and she heard God say, "Go!" and then, with a cry of "Here I go," she pushed off and slid all the way back to earth, and God did too. It was so exciting and wonderful that right away she did it again. When she woke up she remembered her dream and wondered, "Was God really there, in my dream?"
For several days she shared her problem with God, and she dreamed at night, and she went to school and looked at the high slide but she still went down the small one. Then one day a boy was sliding with her on the small slide and he said, "I want to go down the big slide but I’m afraid to do it by myself. Would you come over and climb up right behind me? If you were there with me I don’t think I’d be so afraid?" "Sure," the girl said, surprising herself, "I’ll come with you."
And so they went to the slide and the boy started climbing up and the girl climbed right behind him. When he got to the top, he sat down very carefully and then off he went, down, down the slide. "I did it," he yelled out, "because you were there and I knew I wouldn’t fall." All this time the girl had not been thinking about how high the slide was because she was thinking about helping the boy. Now she saw she was almost to the top. She just had one more step to go and she wasn’t afraid, well, not very much. So she climbed up the last she wasn’t afraid, well, not very much. So she climbed up the last step, sat down, and heard a voice within her saying, "Go, you can do it!!" and so down she went sucking in her breath with the thrill of it. And then the boy and the girl went up and down the slide over and over again.
That night again in her room, the girl said to God, "lt is good to be with you. I had to listen hard and I had to wait but you were with me. And you surely did surprise me today!! I didn’t know I was ready but I guess you did. Thanks, God, and oh, yes, Amen."
The Origins of Easter
On Palm Sunday, we told the story of how people greeted Jesus and his friends as they came into the city of Jerusalem–waving palm branches and shouting their welcome to him. Jesus was so popular with the people that the leaders of the city, particularly the priests, were afraid that the people would try to put Jesus in charge and make him king of the Jews. The priests tried to prove that Jesus was breaking the laws, so that they could arrest him.
The celebration of Passover began on Thursday night. After Jesus and his friends ate their Passover meal, they went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. After awhile, the priests’ guards came, arrested him, and took him away.
On Friday morning, the priests turned Jesus over to the Roman governor, Pilate, saying that Jesus was trying to be named king of the Jews. The priests knew the Roman rulers would not like this, for they had appointed the king. Pilate knew the priests were jealous of Jesus, so he offered to let him go. But the crowd of people,whom the priests had incited against Jesus, was shouting for Jesus to be crucified. To crucify him meant to hang him on a cross until he died. Pilate had Jesus whipped and then handed him over to the soldiers to be crucified.
The soldiers put a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head, made fun of him, gave him his cross, and sent him up a hill to be crucified. The crowd circled around him. By nine o’clock in the morning they had put him on the cross and by three o’clock in the afternoon he died.
A friend took Jesus’ body and placed it in a tomb which was a little cave and a heavy stone was rolled across the entrance. On the third day after he died, two women came to the tomb and were surprised to find his body was gone.
Some of Jesus’ friends said Jesus came to them after he died—that they saw and talked with him. Others said this couldn’t be so.
Why do people have different skin color?
Goal:
To think about the human race as the rainbow race and to experience how individual efforts contribute to making a whole.
Materials:
light blue poster board or a long piece of white paper (44 X 66”)
poster paint or watercolor paint in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet
paint brushes and sponges
one aluminum pie pan
bowls of clean water and towels
Preparation:
Paint the large sheet of white paper with a blue watercolor wash. Mix a small amount of blue paint with a large amount of water and brush or sponge it onto the paper. Allow it to dry thoroughly before touching it.
Make an arc on the paper (or blue poster board), using a pencil and string as a large compass.
Use the template to cut one or more sponges into the shape of a human figure. One sponge can be used to print several colors of paint if you rinse it out well between printings.
Activities:
Introduce this activity by saying something like:
People all over the world have stories about rainbows. Some people say there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. They say if you could ever find the place, very far away, where it touches the ground, you would find that pot of god and be rich. That story comes from the Irish. Jewish people tell a story about the rainbow, too. They say the rainbow is a sign, a promise from their God that the world will never be destroyed. They say the rainbow first appeared after a great, angry flood that nearly destroyed everything. When they see the rainbow they know their God is keeping a promise made long ago. Here’s another story about the rainbow, and this one will help answer your question.
Read: The Gift of Color
After the story, say something like: We’re going to make a people rainbow. Sometimes the human race is also called the Rainbow Race because people come in so many colors. Even in our family, we have different skin tones. Let’s hold our hands next to each others so we can really see the differences. Like the people in the story, all real people have some color or we wouldn’t be able to see them. We are going to make a big poster to remind all of us that we’re proud to be part of the Rainbow Race.
Use a paintbrush to apply each paint color (one at a time) to the human shaped sponges. Then press the sponge lightly to the paper along the arc.
An Advent Celebration
In many households around the world, the traditional advent wreath is part of the holiday season. Four candles are placed on the table in a wreath of evergreens, one to be lighted on each of the four Sndas preceding Christmas. Sometimes a central fifth candle is lighted on Christmas Day.
The tradition may well go back to the ancient firewheel, lighted in the darkest time of year to lure the sun back and ensure another spring. The placement of the candles at the four compass points of the wreath invokes the natural spirits of the North, East, South and West and the primal elements of earth, air, fire and water. The candles may also represent the seasons of the year and the seasons of our lives.
Lighting the advent candles, one at a time on each December Sunday, is a thoughtful and joyous way to prepare for Christmas, the winter solstice, and the turning of the year.
On the first Sunday, light the candle on the eastern side of the wreath and speak these words:
Spirit of the East, spirit of air, of morning and springtime: Be with us as the sun rises, in times of beginning, times of planting. Inspire us wth the fresh breath of courage as we go forth into new adventures.
On the second Sunday, relight the first candle and repeat the words above. Then light the candle on the southern side of the wreath and speak these words:
Spirit of the South, spirit of fire, of noontime and summer: Be with us through the heat of the day and help us to be ever growing. Warm us with strength and energy for th ework that awaits us.
On the third Sunday, relight the first two candles and repeat the appropriate words. Then light the candle on the western side of the wreath and speak these words:
Spirit of the West, spirit of water, of evening and autumn: Be with us as the sun sets and help us to enjoy a rich harvest.
Flow through us with a cooling, healing quietness and bring us peace.
On the fourth Sunday, relight the first three candles and repeat the appopriate words. Then light the candle on the northern side of the wreath and speak these words:
Spirit of the North, spirit of earth, of nighttime and winter: Be with us in the darkness, in the time of gestation. Ground us in the wisdom of the changing seasons as we celebrate the spiraling journey of our lives.
Blessed be!
The Birth of Confucius: A Story from China
THE MAN WHO BECAME the father of Confucius was called Kung the Tall because he towered head and shoulders above everyone else in his village. Kung the Tall lived in China a very long time ago. Kung the Tall was living in China when Buddha was born in India.
When this story begins Kung the Tall was an old man. As he thought back over the years of his long life he knew he ought to feel contented. He had been honored for his bravery as a soldier. He had been ruler of the people of his district. He had a faithful wife and a large family of nine children. He had enough money so that he could live comfortably, and he was highly respected by all who knew him.Yet Kung the Tall was a disappointed man.
His one most important wish had never come true.Kung was not happy. This was because all his nine children were girls, and Kung the Tall had no son to be company for him or to carry on the family name after his death.
But now the old man had a new wife beautiful and young. Perhaps even yet Kung the Tall might have a boy child. He had not given up hope. And all his neighbors sad all his friends were also hoping.
"If Kung the Tall does have a son, that child will someday be a great man" this was what everybody was saying. This was what everybody was wishing for, and none wished harder than Kung’s young wife.
Every day she made a wish for a boy child, and day by day she did what she could to make her wish come true. But she believed that somehow a child is always a gift for, the Creator of all Life. So Kung’s wife made her wish into a prayer to God. She even climbed to the top of a high mountain to make her prayer. Perhaps she felt nearer to the Creator when she could stand and look up at the wide, blue sky above and then look down on the broad, green earth below.
Kung’s wife returned home and waited patiently week after week. Before long she could feel the baby moving inside her body, and she was happy.
One evening as she was sitting alone in her garden in the dimness of the moonlight, she had a surprising dream. Seesaw a little animal coming towards her. It was not a goat, nor was it a sheep or a dog. The animals’ body shone in the moonlight. Its tail spread out like a fan and on its head was one turned-up horns Could it really be a Unicorn Surely only in storybooks was such an animal ever seen!
Kung’s wife threw a small silk scarf over the animal’s one horn just to see if it were really there. Yes, it was there, and it had in its mouth a long piece of jade. Kung’s wife wondered.
The Unicorn came closer until Kung’s wife could reach out her hand and take the stone tablet from its mouth. Her hands trembled as she tried to read the words that had been carved into the jade:
"A son of the Great Spirit is to be born. Someday he shall rule the land of Chou as a good and wise King."
Kung’s wife was frightened. She looked up to ask the Unicorn what the words might mean, but the strange animal was gone. Rung’s wife was left alone in her garden in the moonlight. She awoke trembling with wonder at what she had seen.
Not many weeks after this the longed-for day came. It was evening. Rung the Tall and his young wife were waiting for the final moment when their child would be born.In the garden outside the little cottage some of their friends were also waiting and hoping, moment by moment, for the good news.
Then they, too, had a surprise. High above them they saw two great dragons curling their long snake like bodies in and out among the clouds. Their fiery eyes turned this way and that as if they were watching the people on the earth. Said one of the waiting friends:
"Surely these good dragons are keeping guard over the blessed mother and over the child about to be born."
And beside the two long, fiery-eyed dragons, five old but wonderous men appeared in the sky, walking upon the clouds. Said one of the waiting friends:
"These five old men of the sky are the five immortals who never, never die. They have come down from the five planets to celebrate the birth of this great child."
And beside the two long, fiery-eyed dragons, and beside the five old men from the five planets, there appeared also in the sky among the soft clouds five musicians with pipes and harps in their hands, playing wondrous music and singing as they played. The words came down from the sky like the clear ringing of a bell:
"This night a child is born. He shall be a great King, who shall make good laws and shall help people to do the right."
When the young mother in the little Chinese home down below heard the sweet strains of the music, the piping and the singing, her waiting ended. Her boy child was born! To her it had all seemed much like a dream until she heard the voice of her husband:
"A son at last, my good wife. Now my happiness is full!" He lifted his newborn boy child and proudly laid him down in his mother’s arms.
For a long while he sat by his wife’s bed as the two of them looked in silence on the face of their young son. It was a homely face. But this did not matter to his happy parents. In their eyes he was a wonder child.
Presently, as they were fondling him, a strange writing seemed to show on the child’s breast. Five Chinese characters! What could they mean?
Wiser ones than Kung the Tall were called into the room to read the writing. They were amazed when they saw the characters, for the words on the child’s body were those of the heavenly song:
"This night a child is born. He shall be a great King who shall make good laws and shall help people to do the right."
So this is the very old story of the birth of Confucius. Kung-fu-tze, the Chinese say, meaning Kung the Master, or Kung the Teacher. We say Confucius for short.
But this Chinese boy child of long ago did not become a King. Instead he taught other men how to rule their people wisely. Confucius also taught that being able to rule oneself is more important than ruling others. So Confucius had wise words for everybody, big and little, rich and poor. Even after more than two thousand years millions of Chinese still honor Confucius and follow his teachings. All over the world he is regarded as one of the wisest and greatest teachers who has ever lived.
Guided Mediation
10 minutes
Invite participants into a guided mediation. Begin by asking them to find a comfortable position either sitting with a straight spine on a cushion or lying on the rug on the floor. Ask them to close their eyes and take a couple of long, slow, deep breaths. Continue by saying something like the following guiding words from On the Path by Wayne Arnason: "Now I’d like you to take a cleansing breath by first exhaling all of your discouragements and disappointments of this past week, breathing them out as you exhale…And now slowly inhale hope and vision…And now take another cleansing breath by exhaling pain and sadness…And now exhale tension and frustration…And inhale relaxation and peace." (Pause for 10 seconds).
"Now let come into your awareness one of your favorite places in nature, a place that you visit on a regular basis, perhaps in your backyard or in a nearby park or woods or near your congregation. A place nearby that is special to you, where you can feel a sense of peace…Now let your imagination take you to that place." (Pause for 20 seconds.)
"Find a comfortable spot to sit in this place…And experience the energy of this place…Feel your inner self becoming quiet, calm…As you sit, feel yourself connecting with the essence of this place, its own inner energy…Feel how this energy can help to hold you, to heal you, to nurture you." (Pause for 20 seconds.)
"Now invite yourself to communicate with the essence of this special place. You may imagine this essence of energy taking on a form, or you may wish to experience it in a more general way…Let the essence become very real to you…Now express your gratitude to this essence for helping to nurture you…Ask this essence how it would like to be treated…Ask if it has a message for you. Be still within and listen for an answer." (Pause for 30 seconds.)
"Now feel your sense of gratitude for having this special place available to you." (Pause for 10 seconds.)
"And when you are ready, bring your awareness back to this room and open your eyes."
When all participants have opened their eyes, gather in a circle and invite them to share how they experienced the guided mediation.
Mindfulness Exercise
30 minutes
Introduce the mindfulness exercise by saying something like, "As Unitarian Universalists, we are committed to the concept of ‘reverence for life.’ But Zen Buddhist master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, promotes reverence for life through the experience of mindfulness, the quality and experience of spirituality in everyday life. In the Miracle of Mindfulness, he says "Mindfulness…is the life of awareness: the presence of mindfulness means the presence of life…Mindfulness frees us of forgetfulness and dispersion and makes it possible to live fully each minute of life! Mindfulness includes the skill to be here now in the present moment. We can learn to become more mindful of our physical environment, and our thoughts, feelings, and actions. We need to focus completely on the moment at hand; maintain a relaxed awareness; and be as fully conscious as possible of our body, mind and spirit. As we grow in mindfulness, we gain awareness of our spiritual potential and enhance the spiritual quality of our lives."
Explain that you are going to read an excerpt, "Deep Listening and Loving Speech," from For a Future to Be Possible: Commentaries on the Five Wonderful Precepts, in which Thich Nhat Hanh describes a precept or principle of mindfulness. The principle is "to cultivate loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering."
There is a saying in Vietnamese, "It doesn’t cost anything to have loving speech." We only need to choose our words carefully, and we can make other people happy…
A person who has learned the art of listening and speaking deeply in order to help people let go of their fear, misery, and despair…opens…the "universal door." If we practice listening and speaking…we too will be able to open the universal door and bring joy, peace, and happiness to many people and alleviate their suffering.
The universal door manifests itself
In the voice of the rolling tide.
Hearing and practicing it, we become a child,
Born from the heart of a lotus,
Fresh, pure, and happy,
Capable of speaking and listening
In accord with the universal door.
With only one drop of water
Of compassion
From the branch of the willow,
Spring returns to the great Earth.
I learned this beautiful poem when I studied the Lotus Sutra at age sixteen…
In the "Universal Door" chapter of the Lotus Sutra…voice is described in five ways: the wondrous voice, the voice of the world regarded, the brahma voice, the voice of the rising tide, and the voice of the world surpassing. We should always keep these five voices in mind.
First, there is the wondrous voice. This is the kind of speaking that will open the universal door and make everything possible again. This voice…is refreshing and brings calm, comfort, and healing to our soul. Its essence is compassion.
Second, there is the voice of the world regarded… " the one who looks deeply into the world and hears the cries of the world." This voice relieves our suffering and suppressed feelings, because it is the voice of someone who understands us deeply-our anguish, despair, and fear. When we feel understood, we suffer much less.
Third, there is the brahma voice. Brahma means noble-not just the ordinary voice of people, but the noble speech that springs forth from the willingness to bring happiness and remove suffering through Love, compassion, joy and impartiality…
Fourth, the voice of the rising tide is…a powerful voice, the kind of voice that silences all wrong views and speculations. It is the lion’s roar that brings absolute silence to the mountain and brings about transformation and healing.
Fifth, the voice of the world surpassing is the voice with which nothing can be compared. This voice does not aim at fame, profit, or a competitive edge. It is the thundering silence that shatters all notions and concepts.
The wondrous voice, the voice of the world regarded, the brahma voice, the voice of the rising tide, and the voice of the world surpassing the voices we are to be mindful of…
Engage participants in a conversation around the definition of mindfulness. Then tell them that they are going to have the opportunity to experience mindfulness.
Ask the participants to count off by twos. Invite each pair to find a place in the room to sit face-to-face. Ask the first person to speak and the second person to listen, and then they will reverse roles. They are to speak for four minutes on "the best or the worse thing that happened to me last week." Signal beginning and ending time with a bell or chime. Allow a minute of silence between role reversals.
After 10 minutes gather the group and invite them to share thoughts and feelings about their mindfulness experience.
After this sharing, discuss how they might use mindfulness, especially "deep listening and loving speech," in everyday life.
