What do UUs believe about God?
Goal:
To consider the idea that UUs agree that it is all right to have different ideas about all kinds of things, including God and to consider some of the different ideas about God that UUs have.
Materials:
Paper doll pattern
White poster board
crayons, markers
Scissors
Activities:
1. Read “UUs Have Different Ideas About God”
2. Make paper dolls.
Trace several paper doll patterns on poster board. Cut them out and color each one. Encourage kids to make each one look different from the others. In the spot where the heart is, ask them to draw a picture of that person’s idea about God or ideas about things they love the most.
Attach the paper dolls together by taping their hands. Hang.
3. Engage kids in conversation about the stories, while you’re making the paper dolls. Tell them your ideas about God. Then ask them:
What ideas do you have about God?
What if someone doesn’t have any idea about God? Is that okay?
Do you like it that UUs have different ideas or do you wish we had one idea that everyone believed?
Background for "Being with God in Prayer"
All people need to communicate, with someone or something beyond themselves about their joys and their woes. For some, communication with other people, or even with animals, is enough. However, many people feel the need to express their deepest thoughts and concerns to that which is the source of all, to God, and they need to feel that God hears them and responds. There are many ways in which such communication can be expressed: through worshipful viewing of God and Goddess sculptures as the Hindus do in their worship; through the inner or spiritual eye as the mystics do; through silence as the Quakers and Buddhists do; through dreams; through body movements; and through words. All of these can be forms for prayer.
There is a great variety of types and methods of prayer in the world’s religions. In some religions, such as in many of the indigenous African religions, the God who created everything, becomes very distant and unavailable after creation is finished and people who wish to speak to a spiritual power, pray to the more familiar village Gods and Goddesses who care about them. In other religions, God is so powerful that it is dangerous for women and men to speak to God directly and it is necessary for there to be some kind of an intermediary such as a priest or priestess. Sometimes, one can only reach God through prescribed words, movements, or rituals. In other cases, however, humans are encouraged to speak directly from their hearts, in ordinary language, to God.
In some religions, it is believed that prayers are more pleasing to God or more effective if the one who is praying accompanies the words with certain body movements. In many religions, the one praying bows his or her head, sometimes accompanied by special placement of the hands. In Islam the faithful turn to face Mecca, kneel, and then lower their heads to the ground. Catholics enhance prayers by tracing the outline of a cross over their chests. At Shinto shrines, prayers are accompanied by hand clapping. Some Jews stand during prayers, rocking back and forth.
Many primary age children are likely to have experienced grace at a meal, a bedtime prayer, or a prayer in church though these prayers may not have been said on a regular basis. The idea that people can share thoughts and feelings with God, as well as with those who are close to them, may be appealing to many children. There are times when the people you are close to may not have the time to listen or, for a variety of reasons, they may not be an appropriate choice of a listener. It is comforting to know that there is a power that transcends ordinary relationships that is always available to listen and to respond.
Children can begin to understand "that power" as both greater than ourselves and yet also within us. The answer which comes to the girl in the story comes, not so much from a personified being as from within her own consciousness. It can be very helpful for children to learn to tap into a kind of "spiritual energy" which can provide support and encouragement. William James writes in The Varieties of Religious Experience, "the fundamental religious point is that in prayer, spiritual energy, which otherwise would slumber, does become active, and spiritual work of some kind is effected really." This kind of energy promotes the courage to overcome fears, as the girl in the story does.
At the same time, children, and all of us, should learn to avoid asking God to do something which is clearly impossible or which would only satisfy egotistical needs. They need experiences with prayers which express gratitude, concern for others, and otherwise promote spiritual growth. They, also, need to heed the advice offered by the grandmother in the story that the response to a prayer usually calls for listening, waiting, and being prepared for surprises; prayer does not guarantee instant gratification.
The importance of learning about prayer is supported by our Unitarian Universalist principle which encourages us to spiritual growth and by the source of direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.
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."
What is the Golden Rule?
Junior News by CLF
Goal: To learn about the golden rule in the Bible and in other religions.
Materials:
Golden Rules Cards: Page 1 and Page 2
Activities:
Read “The Very Short Rule”
If you want to show children the Bible reference for this story, it can be found in the New Testament of the Bible in the following passages: Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31, Mark 7:1-5 and 14-23. This is a well-known story from Jesus.
Discuss (according to age appropriateness):
All the people who talked to Jesus in this story seemed to find it hard to be good. Why was this? Do you find it hard, too? What makes it hard?
What are some of the rules you have to obey and find hard to remember?
What was the very short rule Jesus suggested?
How good a rule do you think it really is?
How can you tell someone that you do not want to play or be in their group or be with them so that they will leave you alone without hurting their feelings?
Think about this rule in your every day life. How would it work in specific situations. If you wanted to give your father a birthday present, would you give him a bike because that’s what you want him to give you for your birthday? Help kids see that we must learn how to imagine ourselves in other people’s situations in order for this rule to work well.
Cut and Color the Golden Rules cards
The Grumps
Once upon a time there was a family of Grumps. Papa Grump, Mama Grump, Sister Grump, and Brother Grump. Everyday they would grump at each other from morning to night.
Papa grumped at breakfast, “My porridge is too hot!”
Brother grumped at lunch, “My soup is too cold!”
Sister grumped at dinner, “It’s no fair. Brother got a bigger piece of cake than me!”
As for Mama Grump, she would roll her eyes, bang the plates down hard, and grumble, “If you don’t like what you’ve got, go fix it yourself!”
No one ever said, “Thank you!” No one ever said, “Please!” No one ever said, “I’m sorry!”
As you can imagine, all that grumping had a terrible effect upon the Grumps looks. Their faces were wrinkled up sourly, as if they’d been sucking on lemons. Their hair stuck out in all different directions because of their pulling at it in fits of temper. When they walked, their heads hung down so low, all they could see were their belly buttons; so every other step they would bump into something, getting scrapes and bruises on top of scrapes and bruises. It’s no wonder the Grumps hardly ever looked at each other.
The Grumps lived in the middle of a dense and gloomy woods. Under the great trees night and day seemed almost the same, except for the chill that night brought with it. Mama Grump often warned Brother and Sister not to wander away from the house, because they could get lost so easily in the dark tangle of trees and underbrush.
One morning Sister was feeling particularly grumpy. Brother Grump had stepped on her mud pie, because she had broken his stick, because he said, “You smell!” because she had sat on him thinking he was a mossy rock. Sister decided that she was going to leave her family to go wherever she pleased on her own.
So she headed into the woods muttering to herself, tripping over tree roots, scraping against pricker bushes, and aimlessly wandering this way and that, until her head bumped up against a tree. “Waaaaaah!” Sister stumbled, fell backwards, and landed hard on her sitter. She looked up ready to let loose a terrible grump at the tree, when “huh!” she saw something she had never seen. Before her was a small clearing, and stretching from the tops of the trees to the patch of ground in front of her were bright shafts of light.
Sister forgot all about her grumble. Looking into the brightness she could see the green of leaves, the yellow and blue of flowers, and a sudden flash of red as a bird flew past. She picked herself up and lurched forward into the light, feeling its warmth upon her.
In the middle of the clearing sister stumbled upon a spring. As she peered down into the calm water at its edge, she was startled by a dirty, twisted face peering back at her. At first she drew back, but then she realized the face was her own. Full of wonder, she began to smooth back her hair, and wash the dirt off her skin. Ever so slowly, her mouth untwisted and began to curve up at the corners while a good feeling warmed inside her.
Suddenly Sister wanted her family with her. She hurried back through the darkness and prickers trying to remember the way she had come. She would surely have been lost forever if her family’s grumping hadn’t been so loud, penetrating even the darkest and densest of thickets. Led on by her Papa’s roar, “Who’s been sitting in my chair?” she reached the house at last.
Sister rushed through the door. In her haste she knocked over Brother’s chair, and one of its rockers came off. “Look, my chair’s all broken! Sister did it!” Brother wailed.
“I’m sorry!” said Sister.
Mama, Papa, and Brother all stopped and stared at her in surprise. There she was all smiling and shining at them like she’d discovered the bees secret for making honey.
Somehow Sister managed to lead her family back through the tangled darkness to the clearing of light. Perhaps it was the red bird who signalled the way. Finally, there the Grumps were; blinking in the bright light, surprised by beauty, and warmed to their forgotten hearts. It wasn’t long before Papa, Mama, Brother, and Sister were all splashing and preening in the spring water, delighted with themselves and each other.
From that day on the Grumps made their home in the light. They held their heads up when they walked, hardly ever tripped, and looked upon each other with new warmth. They said, “Thank you!” “Please!’ and “I’m sorry!” quite often. In fact they were no longer Grumps. On their mailbox they printed in neat letters “Smith.”
The Half-Boy of Borneo
This story about the half-boy of Borneo is very, very old. It has been told by the people of the island of Borneo in the South Pacific for hundreds of years. How much is really true in the story and how much has been imagined as true is for readers today to think over and decide. Here is the story:
Long, long ago on the island of Borneo, in the village of Tambahillar, there once lived a boy who was the dread and worry of all who came in contact with him. This was because he was only a half-boy. Somehow, sometime, somewhere, he had lost his good half. Now he was merely his bad half, and the bad half was always doing bad tricks.
A woman in the village might be doing her washing in the shallow part of the river, pounding the clothes with a stick to get them clean. Half-Boy, who had only one hand and one leg, would hop by on his one leg and spatter mud all over her newly-washed clothes. Another woman might be spinning. Half-Boy would slip up behind her, and with his one hand, would tear the wool off the spinning wheel. A man might be picking fruit and Half-Boy would pelt him with coconuts.
When Half-Boy played games with the other boys, he always seemed to find a way to spoil their fun. The women of the village called Half-Boy a pest. The boys jeered at him behind his back and threw sticks at him and the men scolded him and chased him off their fields.
As Half-Boy grew older, he became more and more annoying to the other villagers. They were almost ready to drive him out of the village, and some even wanted to kill him. There was only one young woman of the village who felt sorry for him. She believed that he might change.
One day the young woman said to him, "You are only half a person. I am sorry to say you are only the bad half. Somewhere in the world is the other half of you—the good half. If you will go away and find your other half and then come back with it and let it live with you, I will marry you!"
Half-Boy was surprised; he could hardly believe what he had heard. He even hopped away as if he had not heard. But later he came back to the young woman and said, "You are the first person who has ever said a kind thing about me. I will do what you say. I will start tomorrow and I will never come back until I have found my good half and am a whole boy."
Next morning, with his spear in his belt, Half-Boy started off. But where could his other half be? He had not the slightest idea. The first day he hopped along for twenty miles, almost without stopping. At evening time he came to a village deep in the jungle. The people were all sitting about a big fire when Half-Boy hopped up and asked, "Is there a half-boy here? Is there one who has only one hand and does nothing but what is kind and good?"
The villagers shook their heads. "We heard once of a person like that," one of them said, pointing to the setting sun. "He is supposed to live two days journey from here."
Next morning Half-Boy started on his second journey. This time he hopped thirty miles before he found anyone. At last one evening he came to another village, beside a lake. Again he asked the same question, "Is there a half-boy here who has only one hand and does only good and kind things?" Everyone shook his head. They had heard of no such person.
Finally a stranger stepped up and said, "I saw a half-boy once in a village a day’s journey west. But I do not know whether he is good or bad, or whether he has only one hand. I only know he was a half-boy."
With that encouragement, Half-Boy started off again on his journey. This time he hopped forty miles. It took him several days. At last at evening time he came to the ocean and a little village on the shore. Even while he was quite far off from the village, a loud cry went up from the people.
"Another half-boy!" they shouted. "Another half-boy! This one has the opposite hand missing. Where is our own half-boy? We must find him right away. He must see his brother. While the people were still shouting and hurrying about excitedly, Half-Boy saw the other half-boy coming toward him. There could be no doubt whatever that he had at last found his other half. The two boys were the same size. They wore their hair done up the same way. One had only a right hand; the other, only a left hand. Each had a bracelet and an anklet to match the other’s. The only difference anyone could see between the two was in their eyes. The eye of the other was soft and warm and happy.
"Brother," said the bad half-boy, "I have come a long way to find you!"
"I am glad," said the other half-boy, "For I certainly would never have gone a long way to hunt you!"
"That may be true," said the bad half-boy, "but what are we going to do about it? Can we be joined together so as to make one whole boy again?"
As the two half-boys stood watching each other uneasily, the chief of the village came near. Taking each boy’s one had in his, he said, "The two of you must go off by yourselves into the bush and wrestle there. If necessary, you must wrestle for a day and a night or longer. As you wrestle, you will find yourselves growing together."
"It will be a short wrestle," said the bad half-boy. "I am strong and up to all sorts of tricks!"
"Don’t be boasting," said the good half-boy. "You may find a match in me, for I too am strong. I have a spirit in me, the spirit of the sunrise, which will help me."
The bad half-boy smiled. "I have a spirit in me that is more powerful than yours," he said, "It is the spirit of the night. It can blow out the fires of the sunrise."
So the two half-boys went alone into the jungle. When they had found a clearing, they grabbed each other. Back and forth they swung as they wrestled. All night long they struggled. At sunrise the good half was clearly the stronger, but they still wrestled on. By sunset time. when it began to be dark, the bad half had got the upper hand. But they were not ready to stop.
All the while in the village a heavy storm raged. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and rain flooded the land. The villagers said to one another, "Those two half-boys are not the only ones who are fighting. The stars are shooting their silver arrows at each other. Listen to the north and south winds. They are wrestling together in the palm trees."
Finally, the next morning at sunrise all was calm. The birds were singing. The wind went to sleep in the palm trees. And when the people of the village went forth from their huts, they looked out toward the jungle and behold! They saw a beautiful boy coming toward them. He held his head high and was looking in the direction of the rising sun.
The good half must have conquered!" said the chieftain of the village. "The two half-boys are now become one person."
The people shouted for gladness. They ran to the young man and asked him to come and live with them in their village. He shook his head. "No," he said, "I shall go back to the other village where my bad half has been living. I must find the maiden who believed in me, and marry her."
After thanking the chief of the village for the help he had given, the boy with two halves said good-bye to all the villagers. He started off again alone.
After some days he finally reached his own village, but his old neighbors did not recognize him. They thought he was a stranger! Only the one young woman who had believed in Half-Boy knew him at once, and she showed the others by what signs she knew him. "Our old half-boy accepted his good half," she said, "and the two together make a real person like the rest of us."
As his old neighbors looked and listened, they began to like the new boy. But the maiden loved him and the two were married that very day.
(This legend is found in New Found Tales From Many Lands by Joseph Burke Egan, published by John C. Winston Co., Philadelphia, 1929.)
Background for Hannakah
The joyful Hanukkah celebration of the Jewish people occurs in December, usually at the same time as the Christmas season. Traditionally, it commemorates the rededication of the Temple at Jerusalem. Hanukkah was first celebrated over 2,000 years ago after the Jews, under the leadership of Judah the Maccabee (the Hammer), recaptured the Temple from the Syrians. Because the Syrians had occupied and defiled the Temple, it had to be ritually cleansed Also, the Jews needed to find oil for the sacred lamp. According to legend, the Jews found only one jug of oil which was enough for the lamp to burn just one night But it burned in the lamp for eight days and nights. These eight days and nights became the Hanukkah festival, which Jewish people have celebrated ever since in many lands and under many different circumstances.
The story also says that when the victorious Jews first entered the Temple, they found eight iron spurs abandoned by the Syrians in their flight. On these Spurs the Jews stuck eight candles and the light was the origin of the special menorah (candlestick) which burns during the festival.
Hanukkah has usually been celebrated more in the home than in the synagogue. On each night of Hanukkah, the family gathers around the menorah and lights and blesses the festive candle– one on the first night, two the second, and so on, until in the final evening all eight are burning. They exchange gifts, play dreidel games, eat latkes, and retell the story of the victory of the Maccabees and the little jug of oil that burned for eight days.
What is Hannukah?
Goal:
To learn about the origins of Hannukah.
Preparation:
Read Background
Materials:
Dreidel pattern
Poster board
Markers, crayons
Scissors
Peanuts and raisins
Activities:
1. Read “A Great Miracle”
2. Make dreidels:
Trace the dreidel pattern on poster board, color and cut out.
Glue or tape dreidels together, fitting the small rolled-up turners into the tops to enable them to spin. Make enough for everyone to have his or her own dreidel.
Pass out an equal number of raisins and peanuts to each player.
3. Play the dreidel game using the following rules:
Each player puts one peanut or raisin in the center. Then the first player spins the dreidel. If it lands on:
Nun—the player does nothing
Gimmel—the player takes everything in the center
Hey—the player takes half
Shin—the player puts one item in
Before the next player spins, everyone puts another piece in the center.
The Healing Cup
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.
How can I help the world?
Goals:
To understand the meaning of making a "covenant"
To identify, design, and plan a stewardship project
To affirm individual contributions of time, talent, and resources to the project
To experience a sense of accomplishment for what they have done, and for making a difference in the lives of people in the congregation (or CLF), community, or faith
Materials:
A blank journal or notebook for each child
Chalice, candle, and matches
Building blocks (wood, cardboard, or plastic), two or three sets
Scissors
Tape or glue
Newsprint
Crayons and markers
Collection basket
Singing the Living Tradition hymnal
Preparation:
Read Family Stewardship Letter; Children, Money and Values: Ten Principles; and Helping Children with Allowances and Savings
Read the session below and decide who will lead each activity or how you will adapt it to suit your circumstances.
Collect needed resources and supplies.
If you wish, make arrangements with children who have musical gifts to share them during the closing ceremony. Such participation offers them a way to be stewards to Unitarian Universalism, and gives the closing ceremony more variety.
Copy template onto card stock for each child. Make a sample Stewardship Box.
Choose a project that is significant to your community. Make your project fit into the final celebration. The sample Celebration of Commitments provided includes a suggested format, but we encourage you to be creative.
When defining your project, consider these guiding questions:
What am I capable of doing?
What talents can I share?
What resources (treasure) do I have to offer?
How much time can we give to this project?
As you talk and plan the project with the children, consider carefully the following points:
The success of the project will depend on the children’s commitment to participate, your commitment to plan, arrange, and follow up, and the commitment of the people recruited from your community and the chosen social service agency to work with your group.
The kind of project that children of this age are most able to complete successfully is a service project involving either collecting and donating goods and/or donating time and effort to help or serve in a particular way.
Choose a project that can be begun and completed in a single morning.
Your project or actions can be in one or all of the three stewardship settings. For example, your students could decide to participate in the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee‘s Guest at Your Table program, or bake cookies and take them to shut-ins. The possibilities are almost endless. An important attitude to nurture is affirmation of individual gifts. People can learn to be generous. You provide an opportunity for your children to make a meaningful gift. The reward comes as the children see they have made a difference.
Some financial commitment to your congregation or CLF and larger Unitarian Universalist Association is an important part of the project. We are most likely to experience the joy of giving when we sort through our priorities and find a time and place for it in our lives. By educating participants about the value of stewardship, and by encouraging them to make giving to our communities, congregations, and other Unitarian Universalist institutions a part of our religious life, we challenge our congregation and Unitarian Universalist institutions to integrate young people into the full life of our religious communities. Empowerment and joy are the key words.
Activities:
Read, discuss, and plan an activity from Covenant for Kids
Lead the Stewardship session as follows:
Opening (10 minutes)
Start by allowing the children to build with blocks together.
Commentary (5 minutes)
1. Comment on the structures that the children have built and how some worked together and some built alone. State that this is similar to how we build stewardship in our congregation, our community, and the world. Sometimes we do things as individuals, like collecting for UNICEF; at other times, we do things in groups, like building a house for Habitat for Humanity.
2. Show them the sample Stewardship Boxes you have made. Discuss the six sides and items you’ve written or drawn on each side.
Story/Activity (20 minutes)
1. Tell the story of a stewardship project in which you have participated, such as Guest At Your Table, a Habitat for Humanity project, visits to hospital patients or the elderly, or a capital campaign fund drive.
2. Invite the children to the activity table. Distribute to each child a Stewardship Box pattern that you have copied onto card stock. Demonstrate how to create their own by doing one for yourself, as follows:
A. On each side of the box, draw a symbol to represent:
your name
your grade
a way you help at home
a way you are a steward in congregation
a way you are a steward in your community
a way you can be a steward for the UUA or the world
B. Cut out the box on the solid outside line. (For younger children, cut them ahead of time.)
C. Fold in on all the dotted lines.
D. Glue/tape the flaps and glue/tape them to the inside walls to form a box.
2. Help children make their own Stewardship Boxes, completing the six sides with their individual pictures and words.
Contemplation (15 minutes)
Invite children to bring their Stewardship Boxes and gather in a circle. Ask each child to share one side as you build a structure together with the boxes. Encourage participants to explain how they are or can be good stewards at home, in the congregation, in the community, or in the world.
On a sheet of newsprint or the chalkboard, list four or five ideas from the boxes (including your own) that would be practical projects for your community. The project might last only a week—e.g., baking cookies for shut-ins—or it might be a longer, ongoing project such as recycling or cleanup.
Discuss the pros and cons of the four or five choices. Then have the children vote on which project they will pursue. Point out that the use of the democratic process is one of our UU Principles and Purposes.
Commitment/Celebration (10 minutes)
Share how they can use their Stewardship Box.
Summarize the session by saying, “Today we shared how we can be good stewards at home, in the congregation, in the community, and in the world. We decided to _________________________________ to help care for ______________________________.”
Sing “We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands.”
