No. 8 Service

Facilitator______________
Date___________________

Group Session Plan from UUCCA* - Rev. Calvin O. Dame

Chalice/Candle Lighting

Opening Words:

"To Be of Use"

I want to be with people who submerge in the task

Who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along,

Who stand in the line and haul in their places,

Who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.

But the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

Greek amphoras for wine or oil, Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums but you know they were made to be used.

The pitcher cries out for water to carry and a person for work that is real.

Marge Piercy -- Singing the Living Tradition #567

Check-in/Sharing

Topic:
This is a topic to encourage a conversation both about the nature of service and the form of our Small Group Ministry. One of the hopes for our Small Group Ministry Program was that each group would engage in some sort of service to the church community or beyond in the course of the year. Several observations have been made. Many value this time as a time for oneself without further obligations, a place to grow and 'be fed'! And many or most participants serve in other roles in the congregation. Yet a maturing spirituality issues forth in service and a shared project could deepen the groups connections and experience. And small sharing groups can be overly self-involved. What do you think?

Select the topic and location for the next meeting

Check-out / Likes and Wishes

Closing Words:

If, here, you have found freedom, take it with you into the world.

If you have found comfort, go and share it with others.

If you have dreamed dreams, help one another, they may come true!

If you have known love, give some back to a bruised and hurting world.

Go in peace.

Lauralyn Bellamy -- Singing the Living Tradition #692

* Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Augusta, Maine