Goal:
To learn about some of the Unitarians and Universalists in Europe and the United States.

Materials:
The Dangerous Journey game board (copy onto legal-size paper with printer set to horizontal)
Die and pieces for each player

Activities:
Read about King John Sigismund, Joseph Priestley, and John Murray
Read Who’s Who on the Dangerous Journey
Play The Dangerous Journey instructions

The living spirit of any religion shines through most clearly in its hymns. The Psalter is
the hymnal of ancient Israel, compiled from older collections of lyrics for use in the temple of Zerubbabel. Most of the psalms were probably composed to accompany acts of worship in the temple and may be classified as follows: Hymns (acts of praise suitable for any occasion and including the sub-types Enthronement Hymns, celebrating the Lord’s kingship, and Songs of Zion, expressing devotion to the Holy City); Laments (in which an individual seeks deliverane from illness or false accusation, or the nation asks for help in time of distress); Songs of Trust (in which an individual expresses his gratitude for deliverance); Thanksgiving (in which an individual expresses his gratitude for deliverance); Royal Psalms… Wisdom Psalms… Wisdom Psalms… and Liturgies.
…The ascription of nearly half of the psalms to David is testimony to the regard in which the great singer of Israel was held.
The book of Psalms reflects many aspects of the religious experience of Israel. Its
intrinsic spiritual depth and beauty have made it from earliest times a treasury of resources for
public and private devotion.

Notes on Psalm 23:
This type of Psalm is called a song of trust. It is an expression of confidence in God’s protection. The Lord is compared to a shepherd. The word "soul" means vitality, life. "Paths of righteousness" or "of rightness," that is, right paths which suits the context better.
"Shadow of death" is the reading of the scribes, but "deep darkness" is the better rendenng from the Hebrew. The Lord is compared to a gracious host. "Dwell in the house of the Lord" means to worship in the temple. "Forever" Hebrew for "length of days," meaning "as long as I live"

Notes on The Gospel According to Matthew (in which to find "The Lord’s Prayer"):

The Gospel according to Matthew is a manual of Christian teaching in which Jesus Christ, Lord of the new-yet-old community, the church, is described particularly as the fulfiller and fulfilment of God’s will disclosed in the Old Testament…

The accounts of Jesus’ deeds and words, drawn from Christian sources both oral and written, are arranged in generally biographical order: chs. 1-2 Birth of Jesus; 3.1-12, Activity of John the Baptist; 3.13-4.1 1, Baptism and temptation of Jesus; 4.12-18.35, Jesus’ preaching and teaching in Galilee; chs. 19-20, Journey to Jerusalem; chs. 21-27, The last week, concluding with Jesus’ crucifixion and burial; ch. 28, the resurrection; Jesus’ commission to his disciples.

Within this natural framework the accounts of what Jesus said or did are grouped by common subject matter. The five discourses of Jesus, a noteworthy feature of this Gospel are collections of teachings on specific themes: chs. 5 – 7, The Sermon of the Mount (including The Lord’s Prayer); ch. 10 Instructions for missionary disciples; ch. 13 The parables of the kingdom of God; ch. 18, On sincere discipleship; chs. 24 – 25, On the end of this age.

This gospel is anonymous. The unknown Christian teacher who prepared it during the last third of the first century may have used as one of his sources a collection of Jesus’ sayings that the apostle Matthew is said to have made. In time a title containing Matthew’s name, and signifying apostolic authority, came to identify the whole.

Notes on the Lord’s Prayer:

The Lord’s Prayer (compare Lk.11.2-4) falls into hvo parts relating to God and to man; after the opening invocation, there are three petitions concerning God’s glory, followed by those concerning our needs… On the basis of David’s prayer (I Chr.29. 1 1-13) the early church added an appropriate concluding doxology…For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Why teach these prayers?
They are part of our culture. We want our children to be culturally literate. Psalm 23 is still very much requested as part of memorial services in our faith.

We are taught by the joke about UU youth:

Two UU youth are arguing about who knows more about the bible.

"Ya, and I bet you don’t even know the "Lord’s Prayer" says one.

"Do, to!"

"Prove it then! Betcha $5.00 you can’t say it."

" OK you are on!…The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…etc" and he recites Psalm Twenty Three.

"Well," says the other, " That’s it allright. Guess I owe you $5.00."

After the list of our Unitarian Universalist principles, which include the principle of a free and responsible search for truth and meaning, and after the listing of the five sources from which we draw, which include direct experience of transcending mystery and wonder, words and deeds of prophetic women and men, wisdom from the world’s religions, Jewish and Christian teachings and humanist teachings, there is a statement which reads:

Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision.

This statement points to one of the great truths of Unitarian Universalism: we are united and brought closer to understanding ultimate things by our belief in the value of different viewpoints. This is not just a passive kind of tolerance but rather a positive awareness that we need to hear different ideas in order to gain the broadest vision of life and its mysteries.

Unitarian Universalists hold a wide variety of views about the word "God." What some people mean by God are views which are close to the traditional Jewish or Christian beliefs; what others mean are more like the views in Eastern religions. What some mean by the word "God" are images from Goddess religion or Native American religion, others mean images from science. Other UUs don’t find the word "God" useful at all, either because it strongly signifies meanings which are no longer believed or because other words seem more relevant in explaining one’s answers to ultimate questions, words like Life, Universe, Creation, Love, Being.

The statements in the story for this session are created out of the ideas of numerous UU adults who have come to workshops or courses in connection with God Images, the curriculum for fifth and sixth graders. They are composite statements based on ideas heard over and over. Members of these groups have been asked to draw a picture of their idea of what "God" means and then to speak to the group later about the picture.

The four types of ideas represented in the story seem to be the most common. One type of picture shows natural objects: stars, sun and moon; trees, flowers, mountains and water and much use of the color green. The people who draw these say they feel close to God when they are out in natural settings. The second type of picture is usually more abstract and has a center out of which all sorts of things radiate. This type usually makes use of reds, oranges and yellows and people relate it to the Big Bang and energy and power. The third type has a person or people in it who often are holding hands.

Sometimes they have a red heart, on which is written "God." The people who draw these speak of connectedness and caring. The fourth type is more mystical and in some way combines images from the first three. There are, of course, other types of wonderfully creative drawings depicting the variety of UUs’ views about God. Children love to hear adults tell them about their beliefs on the kind of profound issues which are God questions. Encourage them to talk with their parents or other adults about their ideas about God.

The story of Svetaketu and his father is taken from the Hindu scriptures called the Upanisads. The word "Upanislld" means to "sit down nearby" and refers to the practice in which one who desires to learn sits down at the feet of a teacher. There are over two hundred Upanisads, written, in Sanskrit, during the 8th to the 6th century B. C. E.. This story is found in the Chandogya Upanisad (6.12) and it is part of a series of discussions between Svetaketu and his father.

The earliest Hindu scriptures are the Vedas which are hymns to the various Gods and Goddesses. In the Upanisads, Hindus begin to philosophize in a more systematic way about the universal religious questions. The concepts in the Upanisads develop toward the understanding that all of the "3306" Gods and Goddesses are in reality forms of the one God, Brahman. Furthermore, this philosophy sets forth the belief that there is in humans what is called the Atman, a spirit-power, a soul, and the Atman and Brahman are the same. In Sanskrit this is expressed in the phrase, Tat Tvam Asi, which means, That Art Thou. Most of the Svetaketu stories end with the father saying to him, "that which is the finest essence-this whole world has that as its soul. That is Reality. That is Atman (soul). That art Thou, Svetaketu." (translated by Robert Ernest Hume).

The theology of the Upanisads has been called monism, which is described in Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary as, "the view that there is only one kind of ultimate substance" or "the view that reality is one unitary organic whole with no independent parts." Another similar type of theology is panentheism, which is not the same as pantheism. Pantheism is described as meaning that all is God, whereas, panentheism preserves a sense of God’s transcendence by saying that all is in God. The Handbook of Theological Terms, says that panentheism "argues that the world is included in God’s being something as cells are included in a larger organism, although the world does not exhaust God’s being or creativity. Just as a person is both the sum of all his [or her] experiences and parts and yet more than they, so God has all of finite being as part of [God’s] being and experience but transcends it." The Hindu philosophy of the Upanisads can be interpreted in a strict way as monism, but in a more liberal way as panentheism.

At any rate, both of these viewpoints contrast with theistic beliefs in which God and humanity are totally separate entities and where the ultimate values ascribed to God are not applicable to people. A theology based on a belief of "That art Thou," on the other hand, must apply ultimate worth to humans just as it does to God. Therefore, the stories of the Upanisads, support the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person, one of our Unitarian Universalist principles. They also support the principle which urges respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part and the source of our own direct experience of transcending mystery and wonder.

Children who are on the younger side of the five to seven developmental shift may intuitively feel quite comfortable with the concept that God is in us and we are in God since their thinking isfluid and magical. Girls and boys who are developmentally older and are beginning to classify and analyze may want to examine these ideas in a more rational way. Invite both viewpoints in theconversation and encourage the children to share their differing ideas with each other.

The "Namaste" greeting is used in everyday conversations in India and Nepal and by those who study Yoga. When one says, "Namaste," to another, one is speaking from and to the place in each of us where the spirit dwells.

Muhammad was born in 570. His father died around the time of his birth and his mother died when he was 6 years old. Muhammad was raised first by his grandfather and later by his uncle, who was a tribal leader at the time. In those days, most people living in Arabia were nomads. Families, or clans, were organized together into tribes. Sometimes the animal herds of a tribe was insufficient for its needs and one tribe would raid another for goods.

The only people more powerful than tribal leaders were poets. Poets were believed to be possessed of spirits that inhabit the natural world known as "jinn." Arabs believed jinn could work good and evil, so keeping the spirits happy was important: Most tribes also believed in other gods and goddesses, including Allah (the creator of the universe) and his three daughters. Each year local tribesmen visited Mecca to see the KaBah, an area built around a mysterious and sacred black stone (possibly a meteorite) that contained a sanctuary dedicated to these goddesses.

With these annual pilgrimages, Mecca became an important commercial center as well as a religious center. During Muhammad’s early adult life in Mecca, Arabian society began to become more concerned with individual prosperity than clan and tribal community. At age 25 Muhammad married an older, wealthy merchant woman. He became involved in commerce and traveled frequently to areas north of Mecca, where Christitanity and Judaism (both monotheistic religions) were prominent. No one knows how much his travels among Jews and Christians influenced Muhammad, but he certainly gained a broader wider view.

Muhammad was only mildly happy with the comforts that wealth brought and he was quite concerned about the decline of traditional values and community. He began to spend a lot of time alone in meditation and prayer on these concerns. Our story begins with one such event, in the year 610.

For the skit, you will need one person to be the narrator and others to pantomime the underlined action in each scene. Gather props and costumes and have fun!

Characters:
Muhammad
Young boy
Gabriel (angel)
Khadijah (Muhammad’s wife)
Meccan merchants
Abraham
Moses
Jesus
Pilgrims from Medina
Meccan assasins
Abu Bakr (close advisor)

Scene 1: Gabriel’s First Visit
Muhammad was traveling home one night when he passed a young boy sitting idly on the road, staring blankly out in the night. It seemed like he had no where to go, no family even to care for him. Muhammad thought about how things were changing in Mecca. More and more people seemed concerned only about themselves, tribal wars were increasing, and in Mecca itself money and commerce seemed more important than religion. He worried when he heard stories of people less fortunate than himself. Now, this young boy was a reminder of those worries. When he arrived home he decided to go to one of his favorite caves just outside Mecca. He would spend the night there, fasting and reflecting on the changes that were happening all around him.

He gathered a few belongings for the night and headed off for a time of quiet and meditation. As he sat in silence a strange vision appeared to Muhammad. It was an angel Gabriel in human form. Gabriel reached out and held Muhammad tightly in his arms and ordered him to recite a short set of words. When Muhammad did so the angel released him and disappeared.

Muhammad was convinced that he was either losing his mind, or the jinn had possessed him, so he fled from the cave. Part way down the hill he heard a voice behind him say, "Oh, Muhammad, you are the Messenger of God. and I am Gabriel."

Scene 2: The revelations
When Muhammad got home, his wife, Khadijah, saw that he was disturbed and asked him what happened. Muhammad told her what he had seen and heard and said that he was afraid he was losing his mind. But the visions of Gabriel continued and each time Muhammad was asked to recite certain words before the vision would let him go. Khadijah was sure the words had come fiom God and that Muhammad had been chosen by Gabriel to be a messenger of God, just as the angel had said. Slowly Muhammad began to share the words he had heard with Khadijah and a few followers. It took Muhammad several years of experiencing the visions to come to believe they were truly revelations fiom God.

By 613, Muhammad was preaching openly in the streets. The message he preached was a simple one: he declared that there was only one God, Allah, and that there was nothing like him. He preached that Allah was all-powerful and that a day of judgment would come to all people. To worship any other gods, or jinn, was to violate the absolute oneness of Allah. The merchants and leaders in Mecca saw Muhammad’s ideas as threats to the established religious system that kept them wealthy and in power. Slowly hostility against Muhammad grew until his life was in danger.

Scene 3: The Miraculous Occasion
In 619 Muhammad moved his family and supporters away from Mecca to nearby Ta’if for refuge. But the main tribe there refused to let them stay, so they were forced to return to Mecca. That same year, both Muhammad’s wife and his uncle Abu Talib died. In the middle of his sadness and troubles, Muhammad had the most remarkable experience of his life.

One night, Gabriel came to Muhammad in his sleep. But instead of talking to him, he flew with Muhammad on a winged horse to Jerusalem, where from a large rock, they ascended to heaven. In heaven Muhammad met with the great prophets of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. At the end of his journey, it is said that Muhammad stood before God. (This night, called Isra & Mi’raj, is celebrated each year on the 27th day of the Islamic month of Rajab.)

Scene 4: Journey to Medina
Muhammad’s followers increased and so did the hostility against them. He knew he had to find a safe place outside Mecca for himself and his followers. The answer came one day when a group of pilgrims from Medina who had heard of Muhammad and his teachings, sought him out in Mecca. They were looking for someone to come to Medina to help bring peace among the tribes of the area. Muhammad saw an opportunity to start a new community of Muslims and he began urging his followers to move to the northern town.

One night, in 622, Muhammad received word that a group of Meccans were planning to kill him. He arranged to leave Mecca that very night with his closest fiiend, Abu Bakr. They gathered a few things for the journey and made their way to a cave outside of town. There they hid for three days. According to legend, the mouth of the cave was covered with a fine spider’s web just moments before the Meccan assasins rode by. When they saw the delicate web covering the entrance they were sure no one could have recently gone inside.

With travel safe again, Muhammad and Abu Bakr made their way to Medina where they were greeted joyfully by the Muslims who had already moved there and other people of Medina. Muhammad was safe and, most importantly, the first Islamic community was formed. This journey, known today as Hijrah, was so important to Muslims that they used it to mark the beginning of the Islamic calendar.