Welcome to the UUCF
Chalice Community

What is it?
 The UUCF Chalice Community (also known as Small Group Ministry) is a program made up of small groups, normally six to ten members and friends of the congregation. Each group meets regularly to share experiences and explore spiritual themes through the guided discussion.  Topics are selected by the group. These are fellowship and discussion groups; they are not therapy.
 

The name “The Chalice Communities” picks up on the theme of the U-U chalice symbol for truth seeking and community fellowship. Members of each group care for and support each other in their spiritual lives. And each group is strongly encouraged to conduct outreach projects both inside and outside of UUCF.
 

Who runs the program?
UUCF’s program has been developed by members of the congregation, based on successful programs in other churches, with the support of the minister. The facilitators meet with the minister monthly.  Administration of the program is done by the CC Steering Committee.

Why should I join?
Small group ministry programs answer the need many people feel for creating community ties and for spiritual challenge and growth.

q       For newcomers they offer a way to become a part of the congregation, to gain a sense of belonging.

q       For long- time church members they create new ways to relate to each other, to care for each other, to talk to and listen to each other.

What are the meetings like?
Chalice Community group meetings follow an established pattern:
* Short reading
* A “check-in” so group members can share where they are in their lives or what is on their minds.
* A discussion period. This year, all groups will spend six meetings during the year on “The Six Sources of our Faith” – the various intellectual and religious traditions that are foundations of the UU faith.  Other meetings will focus topics such as:

Change
Friendship
Pure Joy
Service and Helpfulness
Spiritual Goals
What we Love

*  a “check-out” for final comments and closing words
 

Groups may spend as many meetings as they like on a topic. But note the prime goal is not to lecture to one another, but to talk and listen to one another.

You can see two sample session plans below.

When do the groups meet?
Beginning in October 2006, groups are meeting twice a month at the following times:

Monday evenings

Tuesday mornings, 10 a.m.

Tuesday evenings

Saturday mornings, 10 a.m.
 

New members may be added to these groups, or, if enough people sign up, we can start a new group during the year at a time that is convenient for all participants.

How can I join?
You may join in at any time. Registration forms are on the Religious Education table in the church lobby. You may also register by email -- Send your name, email address and phone number, plus times you are available for a group to the Chalice Community Steering Committee at cc@frederickuu.org.

Sample Session Plans

Session Plan: The Second UU Principle
 

SECOND PRINCIPLE: We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations…

 Opening Words (read while chalice is being lit):

#686
Go in peace. Live simply, gently, at home in yourselves.
Act justly.
Speak justly.
Remember the depth of your own compassion.
Forget not your power in the days of your powerlessness.
Do not desire to be wealthier than your peers
And stint not your hand of charity.
Practice forebearance.
Speak the truth, or speak not.
Take care of yourselves as bodies, for you are a good gift.
Crave peace for all people in the world,
Beginning with yourselves,
And go as you go with the dream of that peace alive in your heart.

--Mark L. Belletini

 Check-in -- 20-30 minutes – Have each person take 3-4 minutes to share something new in their life and/or any new insight or experience relating to the last small group session.

 Sharing – about 75 minutes --

Read the Second Principle, above, and ask the following:

- What was a time that you strongly felt inequity or injustice, either for yourself or others? What could you or others have done to change that inequity? What was a time that you or someone else spoke or acted for justice in relationship in a way that made a difference?

- What strengthens and inspires us to feel compassion for those who are suffering from injustice or other cause of pain? Does compassion lead us automatically to, as the Buddhists say, “right action?”

Closing reading:
Reading #562:
Love cannot remain by itself—it has no meaning,
Love has to be put into action and that action is service.
Whatever form we are, able or disabled, rich or poor,
It is not how much we do,
But how much love we put in the doing;
A lifelong sharing of love with others. –Mother Teresa

Closing Feedback/“Pearls”—10 minutes -- Share in one or two sentences what you most valued from this gathering, and if there is anything you’d like done differently in future meetings.

Planning: Set up next meeting location and date.

 Sample Session Plan

Meaning, Value,Role of Rituals

Light Candle

Minute of Silence

Reading: “Pie with Spirits” by Mary Wellenmeyer (from “Admire the Moon”)

This is the very pumpkin pie
My grandmother made – almost.
She was a modern woman
Who knew how to follow recipes.
Receipts, she called them,
Because they had been received.
She had a rule for pie crust that was constant until, from time to time, it changed.
I have that rule, in turn, and it has moved on, just a bit, from where she left it.

This is my special shared moment
With her, departed a quarter century.
As I work, I am all ages by myself,
And the thought of my tall son comes to join us,
Though he hardly knew her.
He makes pies with wild abandon,
Sculpting them from material and artistry.
He has received pie somehow at the level of soul.

The three of us make pie together, preheating the oven,
Cutting butter into flour, adding water,
Flouring the board, rolling the crust.
To honor her, I follow the recipe.
To honor him, I change just one thing.
To honor myself, I take my time and smile.

Check-In

Business Matters

Name this CC group?

Statement of today’s subject: Ritual

Reading:

(From “The Power of Myth” by Joseph Campbell. In this section, Campbell is comparing the interior of the great cathedrals with the famous caves in France that contain the animal paintings…)

“In a cathedral, the imagery is in anthropomorphic form, it’s a world of spiritual images. In the caves, the images are in animal form. But it’s the same thing, believe me. The form is secondary, the message is what’s important. The message of the caves is the relationship of time to eternal powers that is somehow to be experienced in that place. What were the caves used for? Scholars speculate that they had to do with the initiation of boys into the hunt. Boys had to learn not only to hunt but how to respect the animals, and what rituals to perform, and how to live their own lives no longer as little boys but to be men. Those hunts, you see, were very, very dangerous. These caves are the original men’s rite sanctuaries where the boys became no longer their mothers’ sons but their fathers’ sons.”

Comments, Questions:

· As we start, ask each person to name or describe a ritual important to them (as defined by something they do or did regularly). Does not have to be religious.

· Just what is a ritual? How does it differ from a habit or a custom?
· Do spiritual practices need to include ritual?

· Rituals often seem to be action based, i.e., one DOES something. Is this essential?

· What is the relative role of rituals in children vs adults?

· In religion compared to civil life?

· Do rituals have to be practiced with other people, or by one’s self?
· Are rituals a means to an end, or can they be an end in themselves? Which is better?

· Why are rituals so important to some people, and much less so to others? How does one balance the two preferences?

· Does this CC group need more or less ritual?

Check-out/ summary reaction to discussion

Closing Reading: (This is the statement that always ended UU services in Albany, NY in the 1960s – found courtesy of Google)

May the truth that makes us free, the hope that never dies, and the
love that casts out fear lead us forward together until the
dayspring breaks, and the shadows flee away.

Candle Out