COVENANT GROUP LESSON 12 - ARTICULATING YOUR FAITH #4

July, 2008

Chalice:

Our congregations freely gather to live out a democratic faith.

Every human being is holy and is called to the tasks and joys of love.

We do not limit the truth of God (even to the word "God") but live in openness and belief in human freedom and dignity.

Our creed is kindness.

We celebrate the gift of life, and join in taking on the sufferings of this fragile world.

We are this generation's bearers of an eternal message, drawn from ancient springs, that truth must grow, enlarge, and glow in creative freedom.

Revelation is not sealed.  It is lived anew in every heart.

Rev. Stephen Kendrick

Check -in:

Sharing "This I Believe "Statements with the Group;

Each member will have the opportunity to share their brief prepared statements with the group.  My suggestion is that this be a time of complete and deep listening and not a question and answer session.  You might want to consider a moment of silence after each person shares  before starting the next person.  

When everyone who wants to has taken a turn, an open discussion can follow about the specifics that people shared.

Reading:

I think that one of our most important tasks is to convince others that there's nothing to fear in difference; that difference, in fact, is one of the healthiest and most invigorating of human characteristics without which life would become meaningless.  Here lies the power of the liberal way:  not in making the whole world Unitarian, but in helping ourselves and others to see some of the possibilities inherent in viewpoints other than one's own;  in encouraging the free interchange of ideas;  in welcoming fresh approaches to the problems of life;  in urging the fullest, most vigorous use of critical self-examination.

Adlai Stevenson

Closing ritual:

We extinguish this flame but not the light of truth,

The warmth of community,

Or the the fire of commitment.

These we carry in our hearts until we are together again.

Check-out