Even though she is small, Snail Girl has the courage to seek water for her people.

Goals:
To learn about the meaning and history of the flaming chalice as a symbol of UUism.

Materials:
For family chalice:
• Poster paint
• Unglazed Flowerpot 4" in diameter
• Unglazed flowerpot saucer 7” in diameter
• Glue
• Votive Candle
For chalice banner
• Cloth (felt, burlap, or muslin) for banner, 40” x 50” and of a light color
• Wooden dowel, 48” long and 1/2” in diameter
• Fancy cord or heavy yarn for hanging banner
• Colored felt or cotton cloth pre-cut into 1” squares. You will need various shades of green for the outer circle; blues, purples, & grays—or earth tones—for the chalice base; reds and oranges, yellows, and golds for the flame.
• Fabric glue

Activities:
1. Read “The Flaming Chalice, Symbol of Unitarian Universalism”

2. Make a family chalice
• Paint the unglazed flowerpot and saucer. You can make them all one color, or put designs on them.
• Use the unglazed flowerpot, upside down, to form the base.
• Glue the saucer right side up to the pot, following the directions for gluing porous materials. It will need a long drying period.
• Place a votive candle in the saucer. It will look like the illustration here.

3. Make a chalice banner
• Print the chalice design here. Enlarge it to trace on the banner cloth, or draw it freehand on the cloth.
• Place the background cloth on a flat surface. Trace or draw design on the cloth.
• Brush glue onto each section of the design and fill in with overlapping pieces of colored cloth.
• When the glue is dry, insert the dowel and fasten the cord or yarn for hanging.

4. Light a Chalice using Words and Motions

5. Do the Flaming Chalice HandShake

Many Unitarian Universalist churches and fiellowships start their worship service on Sundoy morning by lighting a flame inside a chalice. This flaming chalice is a symbol for Unitarian Universalists just as the cross and the Star of David are symbols for other religious groups. The story of how the flaming chalice became our symbol is an interesting one and it begins during the Second World War.

During that war, a lot of people living in Eastern Europe–Unitarians, Jews, and others–were in danger of being put in prison or killed by Nazi soldiers. A group of Unitarians came together in Boston, Massachusetts to form the Unitarian Service Committee and their plan was to help the people in danger from the Nazis. The director of the Service Committee was the Unitarian minister Charles Joy. Rev. Joy had an office in Portugal so he would be near the people he wanted to help. He was in charge of a whole secret group of agents and messengers who worked hard trying to find safe routes for people to escape.

The Rev. Joy and his assistants often needed to ask governments and other organizations for
their help to save people who were in danger. They would send messages to anyone in government who might give them money, transportation, or a safe route. Because they were a new organization though, not very many people had heard of them. This made it much harder for the Unitarian Service Committee to get the help they needed.

In those days during the war, danger was everywhere. Lots of people were running away from their own countries. People who were escaping and people who wanted to help often didn’t speak the same language. The Rev. Joy decided it would be much better if they had an official symbol, or picture to help identify members of the Unitarian Service Committee. With a picture or symbol, language didn’t matter.

An Artist helps
The Rev. Joy needed an artist. He went to a very talented man for help. His name was Hans Deutsch, and he had escaped from the Nazis in Paris, France, where he was in danger because he drew cartoons showing people how evil the Nazis were. The Rev. Joy asked Deutsch to create a symbol to print on their papers to make them look important. We wanted the symbol to impress governments and police who had the power to help move people to safety.

The Healing Cup
Deutsch borrowed an old symbol of strength and freedom from Czechoslovakia–a chalice with a flame. The Rev. Joy wrote to his friends in Boston that the new symbol seemed to show the real spirit of the Unitarian religion. It showed a chalice, or cup, for giving a healing drink of helpfulness and sacrifice. And so the flaming chalice became the symbol of the Unitarian Service Committee.

Many years later, the flaming chalice became the symbol of Unitarian Universalist groups all over the world. By the early 1970s, enough Unitarian Universalists had heard the story of the flaming chalice symbol that they began to light a flaming chalice as part of the worship service. Over the years, this practice has spread over most of the United States and Canada.

What does it mean to have a symbol like this? Well, one thing it means is that wherever you see a flaming chalice, you know that there are Unitarians and Universalists nearby. Having a symbol also can remind you of what’s most important to you.

Truth Wins
One very old woman told how the flaming chalice of her homeland, Czechoslovakia, helped her while she was in a Nazi prison camp. Printed under the picture of the Czech flaming chalice was the motto "Pravda vitezi," which means, in English, "truth overcomes," or "truth prevails." Every single morning in that terrible camp, the old woman said, she traced a picture of a flaming chalice in the sand with her finger. Then she wrote the motto underneath it. "It gave me the strength to live each day," she said. Whenever she drew the chalice in the dirt she was reminded that some day the world would remember the important truth that every single person is important and should be free to think and believe as he or she chooses.

When we see the chalice lit at the beginning of our service every Sunday, we can enjoy it because it is a lovely thing to do. But we can also remember the story of the flaming chalice and the strength it has given people for hundreds of years. We use it to let others know that Unitarian Universalists believe in helping others.

Sources: UUA website, The History of the Flaming Chalice, and the sermon, OtherPulpits, OtherMinistries by the Rev. Mark Belletini, delivered at the 1999 UUA General Assembly.

Opening (10 minutes)
Gather in a circle and light the candle or chalice. Say something like, "At our first session, we talked about racial justice and racism. These were words some of you had never heard. So far we have been doing things to help us understand racial justice, which is about being kind and fair to all people.

"We talked in the last few weeks about the beauty of all the kinds of people in the world, and all the different kinds of families. We can see on the map that our country is composed of people from different parts of the world. We know that there are many different languages and foods. We know that there are many different ways of dressing and playing, and many different ways of seeing the world. We call this diversity, and we cherish our nation’s diversity."

If your congregation has little or no racial diversity, you may want to say something like, "Yet, when we look around us, in our own town, we find that most of our neighbors are the same as we are. Many of our schools and churches have the same people as our neighborhood. When we look around us, we find very few African Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, or Native Americans (or Canadians) in our neighborhoods, churches, and schools. So we don’t have many chances to experience the diversity of our world.

"To understand why we are separated from some of the wonderful diversity of people, we have to understand another hard word, ‘prejudice’. Prejudice is an invisible wall between people. Prejudice keeps African Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, Native Americans, and European Americans (Canadians) apart. Prejudice is a form of racial injustice. Today we are going to learn a little more about prejudice and how it affects us all–even people like you, who may never have heard the word ‘preiudice’ before."

If your congregation is racially diverse, say something like, "We have a wonderful world of diversity in our church, too–a rainbow race with people who are African American, Asian American, Native American, European American, Latin American–just like our city, and our country, and our world.

"Not all churches and schools and towns have a rainbow of people. In many communities in our country, people are separated from each other by color. To understand how this happened, you need to understand a hard word, ‘preiudice’. Prejudice is an invisible wall between people. Prejudice can keep African Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Latina/Latinos, and European Americans apart. Prejudice is a form of racial injustice.

"Today we are going to learn a little more about prejudice and how it affects us all–even people like you, who may not have heard the word brejudice before."

Focusing (10 minutes)
Bring out the snack. Say something like, "Today we are beginning with a snack, Ugli fruit." Hold it up and wait for reactions. Ask questions like, "What is it? Have you ever seen one? Have you ever tasted one? What do you think it tastes like? Do you think you’ll like it?" Pass one or two around and let the children feel and smell the fruit. Encourage reactions from reticent children.

Cut up the fruit. Elicit comments as the children try it. Say something like, "Do you like it? Does it taste like you thought it would? Does it remind you of another fruit? What was your favorite part of snack today? Why?"

Say something like, "Sometimes we don’t think we are going to like something different– a new food, or game, or people who are different from ourselves. But when we taste the food, or play the game, or meet and live with the people, we are glad that we did. We grow when we try new things."

"When you first saw the outside–the skin– of the fruit, you may have thought,’Ugh–I’m not going to eat that!’ That was prejudice–you made up your mind about a new experience without even giving it a chance. If you refused to eat the fruit, you’d only miss out on a piece of fruit. The fruit doesn’t have any feelings; it doesn’t care. But when someone looks at a person and says, ‘I don’t like the color of his skin,’ or,’What funny hair she has!’ and refuses to get to know them or play with them, that’s prejudice, too. When a person develops a prejudice against another person, feelings are hurt, and everyone loses."

Exploring (15 minutes)
Reintroduce the word "prejudice" by writing the first part of the word on a card or newsprint. Say something like, "Today we have been talking about the word ‘prejudice’. It’s a long word, so let’s break it into parts so we can understand it better. ‘Pre’ means before, and ‘judge’ means to give an opinion about something. Add ‘pre’ to what you think, and you are saying what you think about someone or something before you even know that someone or something.

Prejudice means to be unfair to someone before you even know that person. Did anyone pre-judge the fruit? Did you think you wouldn’t like it before you even tried it?

"Have you ever had an experience where someone prejudged you? That is, when someone put you down or wouldn’t let you do something just because you were a girl or a boy, or too young or too small? Have you ever seen someone being unfair to someone else when they didn’t even know them?"

If it is helpful, use an example from your own experience. Use this example if you don’t have another one: "I know someone who started to wear glasses in the first grade. Do you know anyone who started to wear glasses then? Well, she was the only person in her class wearing glasses, and that made her different. What do you think happened to her? First of all, she could see the teacher and the blackboard, and that was good. But some of the other first-graders thought she looked funny, so they called her names and wouldn’t become her friend."

Elicit responses about this instance of prejudice to help the children understand the concept. Expand the discussion to include instances of racial prejudice. Use examples from your own experience or from news articles. Help the children identify the prejudice in each example. Take out some baseball cards. Invite the children to show any cards they have brought in. Point out that professional baseball teams are "rainbow" teams, with players of many colors — black and brown and white (point to appropriate cards).

Say something like, "But did you know that years ago, only whites were allowed to play baseball in the American and National Leagues? That meant that you couldn’t play for the New

York Yankees or the Cincinnati Reds or any other Major League team unless you were white.

What do you think about that?"

Invite responses.

Introduce the story Teammates by saying: "Today we are going to read a true story about real people. It’s about racial prej udice, and about justice and fairness. Let’s see what happened in the history of baseball to give us the rainbow teams we have now."

Read the story and show the illustrations. Invite reactions and discussion.