FAITHFUL JOURNEYS a Tapestry of Faith Program for Children Grades

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FAITHFUL JOURNEYS a Tapestry of Faith Program for Children Grades FAITHFUL JOURNEYS A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children Grades 2-3 BY ALICE ANACHEKA-NASEMANN AND LYNN UNGAR SUSAN DANA LAWRENCE, DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR JUDITH A. FREDIANI, DIRECTOR OF LIFESPAN FAITH DEVELOPMENT © Copyright 2009 Unitarian Universalist Association. This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at www.uua.org/tapestryoffaith. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT THE AUTHORS ......................................................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 THE PROGRAM...................................................................................................................................................................... 4 SESSION 1: THE JOURNEY BEGINS ................................................................................................................................. 15 SESSION 2: UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, A GIFT FROM OUR UNIVERSALIST HERITAGE................................................ 43 SESSION 3: WELCOMING SUPERMAN ............................................................................................................................. 67 SESSION 4: BE FAIR ........................................................................................................................................................... 83 SESSION 5: FINDING BALANCE ...................................................................................................................................... 100 SESSION 6: KEEP LEARNING .......................................................................................................................................... 115 SESSION 7: CREATE MAGIC, CHANGE THE WORLD ................................................................................................... 135 SESSION 8: SEEK TRUTH ................................................................................................................................................ 152 SESSION 9: ASK QUESTIONS .......................................................................................................................................... 170 SESSION 10: SPEAK OUT ................................................................................................................................................. 192 SESSION 11: GET INVOLVED ........................................................................................................................................... 209 SESSION 12: MAKE PEACE .............................................................................................................................................. 227 SESSION 13: BUILD WORLD COMMUNITY ..................................................................................................................... 245 SESSION 14: HONOR LIFE ............................................................................................................................................... 263 SESSION 15: PROTECT THE EARTH .............................................................................................................................. 280 SESSION 16: GET MOVING .............................................................................................................................................. 298 Note: If you add or delete text in this program, you may change the accuracy of the table of contents. The Table of Contents is an auto-generated list; if you change content and want an accurate representation of the page numbers listed in the TOC, click the table and click “Update Field.” Then, click “Update page numbers only.” Click OK. 2 ABOUT THE AUTHORS ALICE ANACHEKA-NASEMANN Reverend Alice Anacheka-Nasemann serves as the associate minister at the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson (Massachusetts). Previously she served as a director of religious education at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Oneonta (New York) and the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson. A graduate of Andover Newton Theological School, Alice is an ordained minister in final fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. Alice earned a bachelor's degree in early childhood development at Friends World College. Her college years included travel and study in Kenya, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua and internships focused on the educational needs of homeless children, gifted learners, adolescents with special needs, and orphans. LYNN UNGAR The Rev. Dr. Lynn Ungar is minister for lifespan learning and editor of Quest for the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Larger Fellowship, an online congregation for isolated religious liberals. Her work is included in the anthology What We Share. Lynn's website has links to her books of poetry. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Tapestry of Faith Core Team The following UUA staff brought Tapestry to fruition: Judith A. Frediani, Curriculum Director, Tapestry Project Director Adrianne Ross, Project Manager Susan Dana Lawrence, Managing Editor Jessica York, Youth Programs Director Gail Forsyth-Vail, Adult Programs Director Pat Kahn, Children and Family Programs Director Alicia LeBlanc, Administrative and Editorial Assistant We are grateful to these former UUA staff members who contributed to the conceptualization and launch of Tapestry of Faith: Tracy L. Hurd Sarah Gibb Millspaugh Aisha Hauser Pat Hoertdoerfer Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley 3 reach learners who are more active. Many core activities THE PROGRAM suggest adaptations to address different abilities as well as learning styles. Craft each session using activities Onward! to that which is endless, you think will best suit the children in your Faithful As it was beginningless... Journeys group. To see nothing anywhere but what you may Each session of this program includes rituals: sharing reach it and pass it. opening words, a chalice-lighting, centering in silence To look up or down no road but it stretches and before hearing a story, and singing. You may also waits for you — choose to add a ritual of lighting candles of joys and sorrows (Session 1, Alternate Activity 1). Most young To know the universe itself as a road — children love ritual, and these spiritual activities form an as many roads — important element of the program. as roads for traveling souls. — Walt Whitman GOALS Because ours is a creedless faith, defining what it Faithful Journeys will: means to be a Unitarian Universalist can be challenging. Our adults and youth often welcome such a challenge — Strengthen participants' Unitarian Universalist indeed, a questioning spirit is part of our faith. Yet, our identity through exploration of people from our children need to learn who Unitarian Universalists are, faith heritage and our contemporary what we believe, and how we live in faith. Faithful communities whose actions have expressed Journeys equips them with language and experiences to their faith and our Principles and promoted answer these questions and help them develop a strong positive change Unitarian Universalist identity. Help participants recognize and develop their Participants embark on a pilgrimage of faith, exploring capacity to be agents for positive change in the how Unitarian Universalism translates into life choices world and everyday actions. In each session, they hear Highlight ways the small and large choices we historic or contemporary examples of Unitarian make represent our personal faith and beliefs Universalist faith in action. Stories about real people model how participants can activate their own personal Teach participants to understand our Unitarian agency — their capacity to act faithfully as Unitarian Universalist Principles and apply them to faithful Universalists — in their own lives, and children have actions in their own lives regular opportunities to share and affirm their own Promote understanding of, and sense of stories of faithful action. Through sessions structured responsibility for, the world's around the Unitarian Universalist Principles, Faithful interconnectedness, and reinforce cooperation, Journeys demonstrates that our Principles are not a nonviolence, and balance as necessary for our dogma, but a credo that individuals can affirm with many collective moral, ethical, and spiritual health kinds of action. Over the course of the program, children discover a unity of faith in the many different ways Engage participants physically as well as Unitarian Universalists, including themselves, can act on mentally and spiritually through Move It! our beliefs. activities In the last session, the central story will be provided by Foster the creation of a learning community in individuals in your congregation whom you will invite to which everyone is respected, welcomed and share their own experiences with the group. The honored — a community in which diversity is children will have previously heard examples of embraced, justice is practiced, and children Unitarian Universalist faithful living through the learn, grow and have fun together. centuries. Now bring it home, and share the faithful journeys of people in your own congregation. LEADERS All sessions include hands-on activities as well as A team of two or more adults should lead Faithful guided discussion, reflection, and self-expression to Journeys. Having two leaders present at all times helps engage participants with
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