SIGNS OF OUR FAITH
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 7: WE SHARE
BY JESSICA YORK
© Copyright 2013 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 12:50:23 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
We are here that we might have life
and have it more abundantly,
so that we might share it with others.
Come, let us join together
as a generous people. — John. C. Morgan
Children explore contexts in which they can practice sharing as sign of Unitarian Universalist faith. They discuss ways they share with family, friends, neighbors, the congregation, and the world. They understand that they are better at sharing now than when they were younger, and that this is a sign of maturity.
Children learn about the flower, water, and bread rituals of Unitarian Universalist congregations and discover how these rituals highlight sharing as a UU value. Use the Alternate Activities to tie this session into any ceremonies of your congregation.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 2 |
Activity 1: Mine! | 15 |
Activity 2: The Ritual of Communion | 15 |
Activity 3: Story — Jesus Feeds the Multitude | 15 |
Activity 4: Saying Grace | 10 |
Faith in Action: Sharing Fun Times | |
Closing | 3 |
Alternate Activity 1: Leadership in Action — Helping with a Communion | |
Alternate Activity 2: Leadership in Action — Planting Flowers for Flower Ceremony | |
Alternate Activity 3: Shared Space | 30 |
Alternate Activity 4: Communion Display | 30 |
Alternate Activity 5: Clothing to Share | |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Generation after generation, adults make commitments to help shape the characters of young people. What a gift to the world! As a leader of this program, you share of yourself with children in your congregation. What does this sharing mean to you? Why do you share yourself in this way? Who were important teachers in your life? What did they share that you still carry today?
Discuss these questions with a co-leader. Does teaching have the same meaning for them?
SESSION PLAN
OPENING (2 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Welcome all participants. Gather everyone in a circle around the chalice table. Ring the centering chime. Ask a volunteer to light the chalice, and recite together:
We gather together as Unitarian Universalists and members of the Signs of Our Faith community.
Together to learn, together to share faithful leadership, together to celebrate the traditions of our faith.
Tell the group that today you will talk about sharing as a sign of our UU faith.
ACTIVITY 1: MINE! (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Children role play sharing and not sharing. They discuss the value in sharing and sharing as a sign of their UU faith.
Ask participants if they have ever seen little children struggle over a toy or something else they will not share. Say that this is natural: When very young children want something someone else has, they do not understand why they cannot have it and they are focused only on themselves. Brainstorm scenarios where this might happen. You might suggest siblings arguing over sitting on a parent's lap, two children trying to play with the same toy, fighting over whose turn it is to play a game, or a child with candy who gives some to one friend, but not to everyone. Let a few volunteers role-play scenarios of not sharing.
Now say, in these words or your own:
You are all getting older. You have learned to think not only about making yourself happy, but about making other people happy, too. You have had to learn to share. It is not always easy. Everyone has to learn to share, and keep relearning it, too—even adults sometimes have a hard time sharing.
Invite the group to demonstrate how they have learned, now that they are older, to share. Ask for volunteers to re-enact scenarios, this time with sharing instead of without. Then, ask for examples of what sharing looks like now, in their own lives as older children. Prompt:
Now say:
The older you get, the more ways there are to share. When you are a grown-up, you might share an apartment with someone. You might share a car that you can drive when it is your turn. You might have money of your own that you sometimes share with others. You will have jobs to do with other people, where you will share the work, and also the credit when you get it done.
Invite the children to role play sharing, as adults.
Ask:
Affirm:
We share because sharing is one way we can make our world more fair, so everyone has something, as opposed to some people having a lot and others having nothing. We share because it usually more fun to share than to be alone. We share because sharing is one way we can take care of each other.
ACTIVITY 2: THE RITUAL OF COMMUNION (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants learn a hymn and learn about UU rituals of sharing.
Teach Hymn 402, "From You I Receive."
Say, in your own words:
Why do people share? Because the world works better when we do. It would be very hard for every person to make and grow everything they need in life. Someone grows onions and carrots, and someone else makes bowls and spoons, and a third person works at the electrical plant that brings energy to your house to heat up your stove. Together, they can make a bowl of hot soup.
Another example of sharing happens at our congregational potlucks. Someone brings dessert, someone else brings vegetables, and another person might set up the tables and chairs. Have you ever been to a shared meal at our congregation? Did your family share by bringing a dish or setting up or eating?
There is another kind of sharing which is harder to see. Did you ever teach someone how to do something, or have someone else teach you? Have you ever told someone one of your special wishes, or one of your fears? Have you listened when someone else told you about something special to them? That is a kind of sharing too, when you share of yourself. In our families and at our congregation, we share more than just material things like food and furniture. We also share our hopes and dreams, our fears, our laughter, and our tears. We share what we have learned in school and what we have learned just from living. We share stories about ourselves, about people we know, and stories from all around the world. When we gather together in worship, we might share our joys or concerns, or feelings and ideas we think are important.
Today we will talk about rituals Unitarian Universalists can do in our worship services to symbolize sharing and how important it is to us. These are called rituals of communion.
Some Christian religions have a Holy Communion ritual. In Holy Communion, each person receives a wafer and either wine or juice, with a blessing from a worship leader, as a symbol for the connection they share with Jesus. UU congregations do not have a Holy Communion, but many celebrate other types of communions. The most common ones are flower ceremony, water communion, and bread communion. Like the Christian Holy Communion, UU ceremonies are about sharing connections.
Share these descriptions of flower ceremony, water communion, and bread communion with the group. Ask your co-leader to write important words on the appropriate newsprint sheets as you talk.
Flower Ceremony
For flower ceremony, everyone brings a flower. Some people bring extra. All the flowers are gathered together and blessed. The flowers are a symbol for the congregation: Each one is unique, and all have a place in one big beautiful bouquet.
The flowers are different, but also have things in common. Some might come from a garden, some from a store. But every flower is a sign that the person who brought it loves their congregation and the people in it. They think the people of the congregation are as special and beautiful as flowers.
In the Flower Ceremony, everyone takes home a different flower than the one they brought. This action is a symbol for how we share with each other our beauty, our uniqueness, our very lives.
Flower ceremony was started in 1923 by Norbert Capek, a Unitarian minister from Czechoslovakia and has been celebrated in this country since the 1940s.
Ask:
Water Communion
For water communion, people bring small amounts of water they have collected. One at a time, everyone pours their water into one huge bowl which is placed in the front of the sanctuary. Sometimes waters are poured in silently; sometimes people tell where their water came from. Many congregations hold water communion at an Ingathering service after the summer, when it is the start of a new church year. Some people have traveled over the summer and they bring water from someplace far away. Other people bring rainwater from outside their home, or water from their kitchen faucet. Sharing our waters is a symbol that even though we are all different, unique people who have been all sorts of places doing many different activities, we come back together to share who we are and where we have been. Sharing our waters is a sign that we plan to nourish and refresh one another, as water has nourished and refreshed each of us. After a water communion, some congregations water the gardens with the water, or boil it and use it in another ritual to bless new babies.
Ask:
Bread Communion
In bread communion, people bring different kinds of bread to share. Some bring breads that are part of their cultural heritage, like pita bread from the Middle East, or Irish soda bread. Sometimes people share stories about the bread during the worship service. People volunteer in the kitchen before the service, cutting and tearing the loaves into bite-sized pieces. The kitchen volunteers are lucky because they get to see all the different yummy breads brought in. The bread is blessed and baskets are passed around for everyone to take a piece. Breads around the world are very different, but, every civilization that has ever lived on the earth has made some type of bread. This communion reminds us that we all need food to live, that we must share our one earth which feeds us all. It also reminds us to share our unique gifts with one another, so all can be fed.
Ask:
ACTIVITY 3: STORY — JESUS FEEDS THE MULTITUDE (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants respond to wisdom from Christian tradition about sharing.
Read the story "Jesus Feeds the Multitude."
Ask:
Then say:
One of our Unitarian Universalist teachers, Sophia Lyon Fahs, had a different way of telling this story.
Read the story "Jesus and the Loaves and Fishes — A UU Telling."
Then, ask:
Explain:
The first story comes from the Bible. In Christian scripture, there are many stories where Jesus performs a miracle. He does something that people cannot explain, like making food appear. Miracles are like magic. Some people believe these stories are literally true. But most Unitarian Universalists do not believe Jesus performed supernatural miracles. Whether or not you believe that Jesus performed miracles, we can still believe the stories told about Jesus have wisdom for us. Either way, this story about Jesus has good wisdom about sharing.
Conclude in these words, or your own:
There are many stories in the Bible where people share meals. Another famous story about Jesus is the Last Supper. This is a meal he shared with the disciples before he died. The Last Supper is the meal that Christian churches associate with the Holy Communion we mentioned earlier. During Holy Communion, participants eat a wafer and drink wine or juice. These are symbols of Jesus' body and blood, which Christians believe he sacrificed to save humankind. Our UU flower, water, and bread ceremonies are not about remembering Jesus, but are about the things that are important to us as UUs: community, diversity, appreciating nature, remembering our families and honoring our different cultures. Our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors were Christian and some UUs today are Christian. We have Christianity to thank for the tradition of a communion, but we have created ceremonies that reflect what we love and hold dear today.
Who do you share food with? Family members? Kids at school during lunch? People you don't even know, by donating or serving food at a food pantry? How does our congregation share food?
Including All Participants
You may wish to make fidget objects available to children who find it difficult to sit still while listening or can focus better with sensory stimulation. For a full description and guidance, see Session 1, Leader Resource 2.
Consider using rug squares in the storytelling area. Place them in a semi-circle with the rule "One person per square." This can be very helpful for controlling active bodies.
ACTIVITY 4: SAYING GRACE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
We are here that we might have life
and have it more abundantly,
so that we might share it with others.
Come, let us join together
as a generous people. — John. C. Morgan
We lift our hearts in thanks today for all the gifts of life. — Percival Chubb, Unitarian minister
May we have grateful hearts, and may we be mindful of the needs of others. — Source unknown
May we hold hands quietly for a moment...
Feeling love flow around us and through us,
Knowing that as we give love away
There is always more within. — Source unknown
Description of Activity
Participants learn a UU reading to use as a grace.
Read the quote with participants. John C. Morgan is a Unitarian Universalist minister. Ask children what they think the quotation means. Ask, "Are you a generous person? In what ways? Say that being a generous person and sharing are ways to be UU every day."
Ask: "Why would we say a grace or a blessing before meals?" Explain that grace is another ritual. It is a special time to acknowledge how blessed we are to have food to eat. Some people say grace to thank God, Goddess, or the Spirit of Life. Some people remember and thank all the people who grew, processed, and prepared the food on our table. Some people say grace to express gratitude for the earth and how it feeds us, and to renew a promise to take care of our planet.
If participants have special graces they say, invite them to share them with the group.
Point out the grace you have prepared on newsprint and invite participants to read it aloud. Help participants serve the snack and say grace before they begin to eat.
CLOSING (3 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute stoles and invite participants to put them on.
Distribute Taking It Home. Tell participants that after each session, they will receive this guide to fun activities they can do with family or friends. Read aloud some of the activities suggested.
Gather everyone in a circle around the chalice table. Lead the group to say:
We end as we began: together.
May we remember to be UU not just when we are together here, but every day and in every way.
Sing "From You I Receive," Hymn 402 in Singing the Living Tradition. Ask all participants to blow out the chalice together. Have them store their stoles in the place you have designated. Stoles should stay at the congregation and not go home with children.
FAITH IN ACTION: SHARING FUN TIMES
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children share games with the congregation.
Has your congregation ever designated a Sunday morning as Game Day? Sometimes religious educators will choose a Sunday on which they expect low attendance (like a holiday weekend or summer Sunday) and declare a Game Day, when children and youth can play games during RE. The Signs of Our Faith community could ask the worship staff if one Sunday could be declared Game Day for the entire congregation. After the service, children invite everyone to stay for games. Stations can be set up outside and inside. Children and youth from other RE classes, as well as adults, can cover each station, leading a different game. Pick a balanced assortment of games: Some games that involve movement are fine, as long as not all the games require movement. Twenty Questions and Red Light/Green Light are good choices.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
What went well in this session? What have you learned that can help you plan and lead next time? Do participants appear to understand how symbols, signs, and rituals represent abstract ideas? If not, how can you be more explicit in future sessions? Did co-leaders allow adequate time for your own spiritual preparation?
TAKING IT HOME
We are here that we might have life
and have it more abundantly,
so that we might share it with others.
Come, let us join together
as a generous people. — John. C. Morgan
IN TODAY'S SESSION... we explored sharing as a way to be UU every day. We talked about UU flower, water, and bread communion rituals. We heard a story from Christian scripture about Jesus helping a crowd share loaves and fishes. We role-played good ways to share and learned hymns and a grace about sharing.
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about... how does your UU faith calls you to share? Does it affect decisions about whom you share with? Does it affect decisions about what and how much you share?
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Take the time to notice and name sharing when you see family members doing it. Young children especially need praise and encouragement to continue sharing.
Family Discovery. How does your family share with the wider community and the world? Perhaps the adults write checks to various organizations they support. Do the children know about this? Who in the family volunteers to do community service? Is any student a reading buddy who shares their knowledge of reading and their time with other students? Keep track of the ways all family members share and what they share. Remind yourselves that your family shares and is generous as part of your UU faith.
Family Game. We practice sharing at home when we take turns playing a game, enjoying a privilege, or doing a chore. Find ways to make everyday activities more fun by sharing. Think about chores. Is it possible to share chores and have more fun? Instead of one person doing the dishes, share the job: One person washes, one dries, and one puts away. If sweeping, one person handles the broom and another the dustpan. Sing or play music while working and take turns choosing the songs.
Family Ritual. Some families start their Thanksgiving meal by sharing what they are thankful for. Try this kind of sharing at meal times. What if, once a week, everyone shared about a new topic? One week you share your favorite food. Another week you share your favorite fairy tale. A different week you share your favorite family vacation memory.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: LEADERSHIP IN ACTION — HELPING WITH A COMMUNION
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants assume positions of leadership in a communion service.
Leadership in Action (LIA) activities provide opportunities for children to take the lead in an activity that engages with the congregation. Through these activities, young people start to see themselves as leaders of their faith.
Tell the group about the scheduled service and invite them to help. Some participants may know how they would like to help. Others might need your suggestions. Present options to please both the more extroverted children (helping to tell a story, passing bread baskets) and the more introverted (setting up, cleaning up).
After the ceremony, talk with participants about their favorite parts of the service. What was being shared during the ceremony? Why did people share it? Was the sharing symbolic? If so, what did the flowers/water/bread/other object represent or symbolize? Ask them how it felt to take a leadership role and if they would like to help with worship again in the future.
Including All Participants
Pay particular attention to any children with special needs who might need roles modified in order to participate fully. Consider assigning roles to pairs or triads to share responsibility and provide back-up if a child misses the service.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: LEADERSHIP IN ACTION — PLANTING FLOWERS FOR FLOWER CEREMONY
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Children prepare offerings for flower ceremony for the entire congregation.
Leadership in Action (LIA) activities provide opportunities for children to take the lead in an activity that engages with the congregation. Through these activities, young people will start to see themselves as leaders of their faith.
Invite children to prepare seedlings to offer during flower ceremony. Demonstrate how they will plant seeds and offer help, as needed. Optional: Offer children smocks to protect their clothing.
After planting, water seeds and set them in a place where they will not be disturbed. Help the group remember to water and check on them regularly.
During the flower ceremony, as a group, tell the congregation about your work and why the group wanted to give every family a flowering plant. Make sure all plants are taken home by someone, planted on congregational grounds, or given to an organization that can use them.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 3: SHARED SPACE (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Is the space where Signs of Our Faith sessions are held shared with other groups? You might share space with an adult religious education program, yoga or meditation class, a preschool, or a civic organization. Children acknowledge shared space by creating a sign of welcome.
Tell the children about a group that shares the space. Invite children to create decorations to welcome the other group. Make sure the children's artwork or card mentions how nice it is to share space with the other group. Help the children think of specific comments such as "Thanks for putting the furniture back the way we like it" or "Thank you for adding the pretty rug."
Bring the creation to the attention of the leaders of the other group to make sure they see it. If the other group responds, share the response with the Signs of Our Faith community.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 4: COMMUNION DISPLAY (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
If your congregation has a communion scheduled soon, invite participants to create a display to advertise the event and demonstrate what the communion means to them. Decorate the display with photographs from the congregation's past ceremonies, photographs cut of magazines, and artwork from participants.
For example, a flower ceremony display might include "Multigenerational Flower Ceremony" and the day, date, and time of the event in the center of a piece of poster board. Beneath, you might add short instructions, such as, "Bring a flower from your garden or a store. Take a flower home. All are welcome to participate." Around the sides, children can draw or write about their favorite flowers, why they like flower ceremony, how they helped plant a garden at home, what we share when we share symbolic flowers in our congregational worship, or why they think we exchange flowers during the ceremony. Decorate with photographs of flowers from seed catalogs and drawings by the children. Post it in a high traffic area at least two weeks before the service.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 5: CLOTHING TO SHARE
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants lead the congregation to recycle families' unused or gently used clothing to share with neighbors.
Say, in these words or your own:
Sometimes, in a family, younger children wear clothing that their older siblings have outgrown. Sometimes we call these items "hand-me-downs." To some, that might sound like a bad thing, but actually, it is a good practice: reusing clothing helps our environment. It does not make sense to throw away perfectly good clothes.
You can share clothing with people who are not in your family, people in need of more or better clothing. Our congregation could hold a clothing drive and we can help. Are you interested?
Introduce the guest speaker. Invite them to explain the need for donated clothing and what types of clothes to collect.
Allow the children to ask questions.
Point out that the group has learned what kind of clothing other people need. Ask:
Has someone ever shared something with you that you did not want or need? How did that feel? Should we donate items that we want to get rid of or should we find out first what is needed and then see if we have it to give?
Engage the children to help with these tasks:
After the speaker's presentation, or later, such as while sorting donations, process the activity with these questions:
Thank the children for sharing and for living their UU values every day!
SIGNS OF OUR FAITH: SESSION 7:
STORY: JESUS AND THE LOAVES AND FISHES — A UU TELLING
From Jesus, The Carpenter's Son by Sophia Lyon Fahs (Boston: Beacon Press, 1945).
Jesus had not been speaking long—at least so it had seemed with all who were there, yet the day was now almost wholly spent. As the afternoon shadows crept over the hillside the air had begun to chill.
Two of his disciples stepped quietly up to Jesus and said: "Send the crowd away so that they can go into town before it is too late and buy food for themselves."
But Jesus answered: "Is there need for them to go away? Can we not give them food?"
Philip answered in amazement: "Shall we go and buy two hundred shillings' worth of bread and give them to eat?"
"How many loaves are there here among us?" asked Jesus.
A lad, overhearing Jesus' question, stepped forward. "I have five loaves and two fishes. You may divide them."
Jesus smiled and, beckoning the boy to come nearer, he stood with uplifted arms and in a strong voice spoke a prayer of thankfulness to God.
For a few moments afterwards, there was complete silence. Men and women looked wonderingly at each other as if to say: "What are these few loaves and fishes among so many people?"
But presently others in the crowd brought out baskets and bags. All who had shared generously with those who had not. Before long, everyone had eaten heartily and still there was bread untouched. The crowd seemed refreshed and lighter in spirits as their friendliness grew.
SIGNS OF OUR FAITH: SESSION 7:
STORY: JESUS FEEDS THE MULTITUDE
Mark 6: 34-44 from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat." But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?" And he said to them, "How many loaves have you? Go and see." When they had found out, they said, "Five, and two fish." Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
FIND OUT MORE
Jesus and the Loaves and Fishes
The popularity of this story is evident by the number of organizations named Loaves and Fishes, including a food pantry (at www.loavesandfishes.org/) in Charlotte, NC and a Meals on Wheels for seniors (at feedseniors.org/) in Portland, OR. This session includes the version of this story from the Book of Mark in Christian scripture. Read other versions in Matthew 14:13-21 (at bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20Matthew&verse=14:13-21&src=%21), Luke 9:10-17 (at bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20Luke&verse=9:10-17&src=%21) and John 6:5-15 (at bibref.hebtools.com/?book=%20John&verse=6:5-15&src=%21).
This session also provides a version from Jesus, The Carpenter's Son (Boston: Beacon Press, 1945), Sophia Lyon Fahs' retelling of the life of Jesus, through a Unitarian lens. Read the entire book (at books.google.com/books?id=8H0hqUJovnoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false) on the Google Books website.
Sharing
This Psychology Today blogpost, Sharing Among Children (at www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolved-primate/201002/sharing-among-children), by Daniel R. Hawes analyzes results from a small experiment with children on sharing. Hawes describes two distinct steps in the sharing process—deciding whether or not to share and then deciding how much to share—and affirms that children share more as they age or, as the article states, learn more "prosocial behavior" as they get older.
Communions
Search the UUA's WorshipWeb (at www.uua.org/worship/index.php) for chalice lightings, readings, and sermons for flower, water, and bread communions.
Norbert Capek, a Unitarian minister in Czechoslovakia, created the Flower Communion, and his wife, Maya, introduced it to the United States. Read about flower ceremony (at www.uua.org/worship/holidays/174534.shtml) on the UUA website or a short biography of Norbert Capek (at uudb.org/articles/norbertcapek.html) in the online Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography. A Tapestry of Faith workshop in the curriculum for youth A Place of Wholeness, (at www.uua.org/re/tapestry/youth/wholeness/index.shtml) also explores the flower ceremony and its theme of hope.
Graces
A Child's Book of Blessings and Prayers, by Eliza Blanchard (Boston: Skinner House, 2008) includes graces for meals, as does the UUA pamphlet, Family Prayers (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=576), by Irene Praeger.