By Michelle Richards and Lynn Ungar

LOVE CONNECTS US
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
Grades 4-5

BY MICHELLE RICHARDS AND LYNN UNGAR

© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at

table of contents

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PREFACE

THE PROGRAM

SESSION 1: A COVENANT IS A PROMISE

SESSION 2: A HERITAGE OF LOVE

SESSION 3: LOVE IS THE SPIRIT OF THIS CHURCH

SESSION 4: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF

SESSION 5: MEETING PEOPLE WHERE THEY LIVE

SESSION 6: THE MORE WE GET TOGETHER

SESSION 7: ONE PERSON MAKES A DIFFERENCE

SESSION 8: THE POWER OF PEACE

SESSION 9: KINDNESS IS THE KEY

SESSION 10: PEACE INSIDE

SESSION 11: SCIENCE AND RELIGION

SESSION 12: SEEING TRUTH/TRUE SEEING

SESSION 13: A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

SESSION 14: OUR HERITAGE'S CALLING

SESSION 15: ALL WORK TOGETHER

SESSION 16: WE ARE ACTIVE CREATORS OF OUR FAITH

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Michelle Richards is a credentialed religious educator and author of the Skinner House books Come Into the Circle: Worshiping with Children and the forthcoming Tending the Flame: The Art of Unitarian Universalist Parenting as well as the author of several independently published curricula. She served the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Elkhart (Indiana) for seven years as director of religious education before becoming a religious education and small congregation consultant for the Central Midwest District.

Lynn Ungar is a graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry and holds a D.Min. in religious education from McCormick Theological Seminary. She co-authored the Tapestry of Faith curriculum Faithful Journeys and is the author of the 1996 meditation manual Blessing the Bread. Lynn served as a parish minister for ten years and a religious education director for three before taking up her current position as minister of lifespan learning for the Church of the Larger Fellowship, the online Unitarian Universalist congregation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The sessions of this program focus on the covenant created by the Reverend James Vila Blake during the time he served the Unitarian Church in Evanston, Illinois. Many congregations have adopted or adapted this covenant to express the fundamental values that bond them as a community and as Unitarian Universalists.

Rev. Blake was a poet with several volumes of published poetry to his credit. He received national attention when he calmly directed worshipers at the Third Unitarian Church to exit the building because of a fire which had been ignited during a service. His words, "There is reason for haste, but not alarm," encouraged everyone to leave the building quickly, in an orderly fashion, and without panic. Rev. Blake waited at the pulpit until all 140 worshipers had left, and then made his own exit. Less than a minute later, the entire meeting room was engulfed in flames from floor to ceiling.

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

PREFACE

As Unitarian Universalists, we belong to a beloved community with a heritage of love, truth-seeking, and peacemaking from our Unitarian and Universalist forebears. Although our theological beliefs can be diverse, our covenant with one another and the love we bring to it tie us together in a common bond. The covenanted community we share is embodied in the words of Reverend James Vila Blake which provide the structure for this program:

Love is the spirit of this church,

And service its law.

This is our great covenant:

To dwell together in peace,

To seek the truth in love,

And to help one another.

1

THE PROGRAM

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much. — Helen Keller, author and activist for people with disabilities

Love Connects Us celebrates important ways Unitarian Universalists live our faith in covenanted community. Moved by love and gathered in spirit, we embrace our responsibility toward one another and the world at large. We encourage one another's search for truth and meaning. We strive to be active in peace-making and other efforts to improve our world.

The sessions explore our legacy, from both Universalism and Unitarianism, of living our connections in loving service, inquiry, and action for social justice. At the same time, the program builds active participants in our faith. Children learn how our actions create a new heritage of connecting in love which will shape the faith of future generations.

By exploring the key ideas of the Blake covenant, participants grow in Unitarian Universalist identity, explore their connections to one another in our beloved communities, and discover ways they are called to act in our congregations and the wider world.

Crafts and games that use tying and knots makes tangible the concept of connections we share with one another. Participants physically explore what it means to be linked to others and how one person's actions can affect the whole system to which they belong. Many activities involve participants in teams or small groups, emphasizing their experience as individuals working together in community.

GOALS

This program will:

• Introduce the covenant statement by the Reverend James Vila Blake, which many Unitarian Universalist congregations use, and explore the covenant's key concepts
• Build Unitarian Universalist identity by highlighting people in our Unitarian and Universalist heritage who embodied the key ideas in the Blake covenant—people who sought truth in love, dwelled together with others in peace, and helped one another when called on to act
• Demonstrate that we actively create our living faith; we contribute to its legacy when we engage with others in community and work for peace and justice
• Reveal ways in which we are called to help one another and to encourage spiritual growth in our congregations
• Explore what it means for Unitarian Universalists to be connected by love and covenant rather than shared theological belief.

LEADERS

It is suggested that adult leaders have experience with both the congregation and Unitarian Universalism. The ideal teaching team of two adult co-leaders for each session will have some diversity, which might be in gender, age, race or ethnicity, socio-economic class, theological beliefs and/or learning styles. If possible, leadership could include adults comfortable with leading songs or who can contribute musical accompaniment. Additional adult or youth volunteers will be needed to help facilitate small groups in some sessions.

PARTICIPANTS

This program is written for fourth- and fifth-grade children. You may find it useful to think about the developmental norms for this age group. Not all children arrive at each developmental stage at the same time, but knowing what to expect overall can be quite helpful, especially to first-time leaders.

In her book, Nurturing Children and Youth: A Developmental Guidebook (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association, 2005), Tracey L. Hurd lists characteristics of the older school-age child:

• Uses gross and fine motor skills, which are almost fully developed
• Enters puberty toward the end of school-age years (particularly girls)
• Is influenced by media images
• Engages in logical thinking
• Practices cognitive skills of acquiring, storing, and retrieving information
• Develops specific learning styles (auditory, visual, sensory, and/or kinesthetic)
• Exhibits domain-specific intelligence (verbal/linguistic, musical/rhythmic, local/mathematical, visual/spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, or naturalist)
• Engages in gender-specific play.

Faith Development Skills

• Uses student identity and knowledge as sources of self-esteem
• Engages peers and learns through mutual friendship
• Comprehends the perspective of others
• Works on developing racial, ethnic and gender identities and seeks peers' affirmation of these identities
• Shows interest in concrete aspects of faith and religion
• "Does" religion or spirituality by participating in traditions
• Explores religious or spiritual ideas as a way of deepening faith.

Moral Development

• Interested in moral issues/ what is fair and right
• Practices figuring out what is fair when developing rules
• Moral decision making is complex
• Practices reconciling moral ideals with pragmatic realities
• Demonstrates interest in broader moral issues
• Reconciles the violence of the world with personal own moral code (e.g., violent video games)
• Interest in knowing and living out moral ideas
• Uses the Golden Rule (treat others as you would like to be treated)
• Wrestles with moral dilemmas in relationships
• Demonstrates awareness of societal moral issues and interest in helping to solve community problems
• Ponders increasingly complex moral and spiritual questions.

INTEGRATING ALL PARTICIPANTS

A group can include children with a range of physical and cognitive abilities and learning styles, food allergies, and other sensitivities or limitations. Adapt activities or use alternate activities to ensure that every session is inclusive of everyone in the group.

Love Connects Us was developed primarily with the kinesthetic learner in mind, offering myriad activities involving both small motor control and large muscle groups. Many participants in this age range need to move and benefit from the opportunity to physically explore new concepts. However, some activities can present a challenge for children with limited dexterity or mobility. Assess the physical abilities of the group early in the program. Many activities have an Including All Participants section which offers specific adaptations to meaningfully include children with mobility and other limitations. Certain activities, in their Preparation section, will direct you to an Alternate Activity that is less physically active and may better engage children's musical or logical/mathematical intelligences.

FAMILIES

The loving family unit, of whatever configuration, is the primary source of spiritual nurture and religious education in a child's life. The religious education children experience in Love Connects Us will be enhanced by involvement of parents or caregivers. To help, each session includes Taking It Home for you to download, customize, and share with families as a handout or email.

Taking It Home summarizes the session's content and provides questions and activities to stimulate family conversations and extension activities. With Taking It Home, a parent will have enough details to ask an engaging question, such as "What experiments with air did you do today?" or "What did you think about Elizabeth Blackwell's determination to become a doctor against all the odds?" Taking It Home guides parents to share their own life experiences and wisdom with their children, and to draw out their children's feelings and observations. For example, families are encouraged to share about ideas each person used to think were true and to tell how they gained a new perspective, or to talk about some ways they each feel love is stronger when it is given away. Taking It Home also suggests games, activities, excursions, and/or rituals parents can do with their children, related to the session.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

All 16 sessions in Love Connects Us follow the same structure. Between an Opening and a Closing, activities guide participants to explore what it means to be a covenanted community.

The program employs the statement of covenant by James Vila Blake, used in many Unitarian Universalist congregations, as a thematic framework. Individual sessions lift up the covenant's key themes of love, service, peace, seeking truth, and helping one another. For each theme, one session explores how a significant figure from our faith history embodies the theme, another session centers on how we can express the theme in community, and a third focuses on how we can each express the theme personally.

Rainbow Wall Hanging and Ornaments. In Session 1, after hearing the biblical story of Noah and the rainbow sign of his covenant with God, participants create a Rainbow Wall Hanging which, if possible, should remain displayed in your meeting space for the duration of the program. Starting in Session 2, each session begins with the opportunity for children to create ornaments related to a theme (e.g., love, service, peace). On cut-out ornament shapes, they each write ways they express or observe that aspect of our Unitarian Universalist covenant in their lives.

If you expect some children to arrive before the formal session begins, have these children cut out the ornament shapes (see each session's Welcoming and Entering activity). Otherwise, you will need to create the ornaments beforehand, so children can write on them in the opening activity.

In Session 16, participants are invited to cut a piece from the wall hanging so each may take some knots and ornaments along as they continue on their faith development journey.

Faith in Action. Each session offers a Faith in Action activity. These activities are optional and the time you will need for them is not calculated into a 60-minute session. Nevertheless, Faith in Action is an important element of Tapestry of Faith. Incorporate Faith in Action into regular sessions, if you have time. Or, adapt Faith in Action activities for the group to complete during additional meetings. You can open them up to multiple age groups in your religious education program, or expand them to the broader congregation. By design, Faith in Action activities often involve congregants or community members outside your group and require additional meeting times and/or places. Before you commit to a long-term Faith in Action project, make sure you obtain the support of congregational leadership and the children's families.

Alternate Activities. Every session has at least one alternate activity. You may add these to a session, or substitute one for a core activity if the alternate better fits your group or the time available. Feel free to use alternate activities outside of the Love Connects Us program for gatherings such as family retreats, wide-age span religious education programs, or multigenerational dinners.

Quote

A quote introduces each session. You may read a quote aloud to your group as an entry point to the session. However, the quotes are primarily for leaders. Co-leaders may like to discuss a quote while preparing for a session. Exploring a quote together can help you each feel grounded in the ideas and activities you will present and can help co-leaders get "on the same page." Quotes are also included in Taking It Home for families to consider.

Introduction

The session Introduction orients you to the session topic, central story, and activities. It may mention any special preparations, such as arranging for visitors..

Goals

Goals provide general outcomes for the session. Reviewing the goals will help you connect the session's content and methodologies with the four strands of the Tapestry of Faith religious education programs: ethical development, spiritual development, Unitarian Universalist identity development, and faith development.

Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives are the intended outcomes for participants who do the core session activities. As you plan a session's activities, apply your knowledge of the particular group of children, the time and space you have available, and your own strengths and interests as a facilitator to determine the most important and achievable learning objectives for the session.

Session-at-a-Glance

Session-at-a-Glance lists the session activities in a suggested order for a 60-minute session and provides an estimated time for completing each activity. The table includes all the core activities from the Opening through the Closing. The table also shows the Faith in Action activity for the session. The Session-at-a-Glance table also presents any alternate activities, with their estimated times.

Spiritual Preparation

Taking five or ten minutes to center yourself within the session's purpose and content will support and free you to be present with the children and provide the best possible learning experience. Each session offers a short Spiritual Preparation exercise to focus you on the theme of the session and help you reflect on its connection to your own life and your Unitarian Universalist faith. Calling forth your own experiences, beliefs, and spirituality will prepare you to bring the topic to the group in an authentic manner and help you experience teaching as an event in your own spiritual growth and faith development.