Maypole Ideas

Group Size: 10-40
Ages: 8- adult
When or where to use activity: Around May 1, but could also do in summer.
Materials needed:
 Pole - about 12 foot high is good, I use a roll from a carpet store which you can usually get for free. I drop it over a free-standing volleyball post. Crepe paper streamers, or if you have more money get florist ribbon. Attach ribbon to top of pole, then add silk flowers to create the "crown" at the top of the pole. You need 18 foot long streamers for a 12 foot pole. I use two colors, to make it easier to give directions. Tissue paper or real flowers, as it is customary to adorn oneself with flowers for maypole dancing. English folk music - tape available from Hobgoblin Music.

Description:
 The easiest dance is the barberpole, with an inner circle and outer circle. The two circles go in opposite directions, then when the inners get in close to the pole you reverse direction and unwind. The next easiest is the single weave. The inners face one direction and the outers face the other. Inners all have one color streamer, outers have the other color. Outers raise their streamers, inners go under, then outers step to inside and inners step to outside. Thus, after each step the inners become outers and outers become inners (you can see why color-coding is so helpful) It is important to practice this before adding music. Also, the longer the streamers the larger the circle, so more people makes it easier. If there are large gaps between the cross-overs, it is hard to keep everyone evenly spaced around the pole. We often end up with everyone on each others heels, on one side of the pole, with the streamers all tangled up! If younger children are participating, pair them with someone because they seem to get overwhelmed easily and tend to stand still! It is easier to do the single weave with live music like a recorder or flute, that can be slowed down as you are learning. The music I have on tape is fast and pre-supposes knowledge of the dance step. "Here we go round the mulberry bush" is one tune suggested in a book I have, with altered Maypole words. However, I believe a three-step rhythm, like a slow polka or waltz, works best with the way the dancers actually are supposed to move, again assuming they all start on the correct foot! My advice is to not expect too much, just have fun, and if you do it every year eventually they might actually learn how to do it! It really is very cool to see the weave pattern on the pole, and theoretically if you did it properly you can reverse the dance and unwind the whole thing! We have never attempted to do so, however. Festivals, Family, & Food by Diana Carey & Judy Large is a very helpful resource for planning a maypole celebration

Memorial Service Readings

Group Size: any
Ages: all
When or where to use activity: memorial services, miscarriage ceremony.
Materials needed:
 None Required

Description:
 When I die if you need to weep, cry for you brother or sister walking the street beside you and when you need me put your arms around anyone and give them what you need to give me.

I want to leave you something, something better than words or sounds.

Look for me in the people I've known or loved and if you cannot give me away at least let me live in your eyes and not on your mind.

You can love me most by letting hands touch hands, by letting bodies touch bodies, and by letting go of children that need to be free.

Love doesn't die, people do. So when all that's left of me is love, give me away.

-Anonymous

_____________________________________________________________

We Remember Them

(the leader reads the first part of each line while the people responsively speak "we remember her/him).

In the rising of the sun and in its going down, we remember him/her.

In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, we remember him/her.

In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of spring, we remember him/her.

In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer, we remember him/her.

In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn, we remember him/her.

In the beginning of the year and when it ends, we remember him/her.

When we are weary and in need of strength, we remember him/her.

When we are lost and sick at heart, we remember him/her.

When we have joys we yearn to share, we remember him/her.

So long as we live, s/he too shall live, for s/he is now a part of us, as we remember him/her.

-slightly adapted from a reading by Rabbi Roland Guttelsohn (#720 in the hymnal)

Posted in behalf of I. Forrest Gilmore
Associate Minister of Religious Programming
Unitarian Universlaist Church of the Monterey Peninsula

Yom Hashoah Intergenerational Service

At 8:00 AM we have a Hosanna in the Glen service.

This is held in most years on the plateau just below our Meeting House, but we held it in the chapel because of the mud this year. We take this half hour on Easter to honor and celebrate the births and deaths in our lives. It is a very simple service.

We start with opening words and then sing "Morning Has Broken".
Following that we have a short Easter reading and sing another song (songs at this sevice are traditional Easter themes that can be sung with a guitar - Lord of the Dance, Amen, Lonesome Valley).

Then the service is opened up for people to share about the deaths and births in their lives this past year. Sharings are sometimes about people, jobs, spiritual understandings, or relationships. Sometimes the deaths and births are very physical and other times they are metephorical. The sharings are interspersed with songs.

We end with some closing words and the singing of Kumbayah. This is a tradition here and while it attracts a small group (30-40) it would be very missed.

At 9:00 & 11:00 We hold the regular Sunday Services. It is tradition here to honor the Wheel of Life on Easter. We read the names of all who have died in the congregation in the past year and the names of all who have been born. It is a special time and very moving. We also traditionally hold the Flower Communion on Easter as well.

We begin this service as all our services with families worshipping together. At the point when the children would be invited to meet with their leaders for class on a regular Sunday, on Easter they are invited to meet with me in the Chapel for their own Easter Service and Flower Communion.

We light the Chalice for the Chapel from the Meeting House Chalice and the children follow it next door. This Sunday Carolyn Owen-Towle preached to the adult service on "Alive Again To Life", a sermon on how we manage to "hold on" to hope through the light and dark days of our lives.

In the Chapel, I held a service with the focus on Miracles. I look each year to find a way to discuss a UU perspecive on Easter while also educating the children on why this Holiday is so important to their Christian Friends. This year the topic of miracles opened the door to talk about Easter and Passover. I drew my initial inspration from the section on miracles in "Conversations with Children" by Edith Hunter.

Between the 9 & 11 services we hold an Easter Egg Hunt. The eggs are dyed on Friday night at an intergenerational pot luck party. The hunt is usually held on the Plateau, but because of the mud it was held in the upper and lower patios along with the social hour (a potential crazy mess that actually went very smoothly!) My favorite part of the egg hunt is watching older children find eggs quickly and then re-hide them for the little ones.

This probably only happens because we use real eggs and the idea of eating lots of them is not as appealing as candy might be!

A Litany of Covenant with Religious Education Class Leaders
submitted by Dawn Star Borchelt, Director of Religious Education

Michelle Richards, DRE
UU Fellowship of Elkhart, IN

Thanksgiving intergenerational service
submitted by Jan Smith

May Day - our Women's Spirituality Groups have taken on this celebration .

We usually have a very large post or an old tree sunk into the ground out in the yard with lots of ribbons. First we do make head wreaths out of flowers and vines, then we do some circle dances and/or sufi dances and a few reading. Then each person grabs a ribbon and every other person goes the opposite direction. You move on the inside to the outside alternately until the whole ribbon is wrapped. If I recall correctly we chant while we wrap the ribbons. Then people bring fruit and snacks to share later. It takes 3/4 to 1 hour and is very nice.

Cathy Muller, DRE
Columbia, MD

Effective Religion

Here's a paper bag homily on effective religion that I made up one day.:

You start with the idea that the purpose of religion is to feed the spirit. The homily starts with a bunch of groceries that you want to put into a grocery bag and take home, so you can feed yourself and loved ones with food that will be nourishing--and tasty. And sometimes you find your bag isn't big enough--or it tears or you trip and then you have to do some re-arranging to make it all fit. Or maybe you need a bigger bag or a better bag--or you need to choose differently--

Our religion is like a bag in which we can carry all the ideas and loves that feed and sustain a healthy spirit. you might have some fun thinking about what should go into such a bag--but in this case, probably you could think about what kind of a bag will work--will be effective--and maybe reflect on what your sabbatical has done--has it given you a chance to re-arrange the stuff in your religion bag--to put new stuff in, or discard anything you don't want to carry home any more? Have you got a new bag? or had your good old bag gotten stronger?

Ruth Gibson Denver CO

by Bonnie Jakubos
RE Coordinator
Pocatello Unitarian Fellowship
Pocatello, Idaho

Children in the Service

Here in Traverse City MI, children are a part of every service. They are there for about 15 minutes concluding with a "children's story" during which the children come forward and sit on the floor where they can see the pictures in the book from which the story is read by the minister or by a skilled lay person.

Recently, prior to the story, we've had a "UU Minute" in which a child reads information about a famous UU and asks if anyone knows the identity of this famous UU. Following the children's story is the offering, during which two children pass wire baskets to collect food and money for two community activities which feed the homeless. The other children leave for their classes.

Our teenage group is responsible for one service per year and also puts on a spaghetti dinner and coffee house. Annually, we have a "Coming Of Age" service which happens to be today's program.

Some adults grumble about having the children present, about the children's story, and about the length of the service (1 hr 15 min) but most understand the importance of having the children feel they are part of the Fellowship. Yes, despite 254 members, a minister for 10 years, and a building for 6 years, we have not been able to part with the name Fellowship.

Paul Clarke
Vancouver Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Grand Traverse
(254) Denominational Affairs Chair
6647 Mission Ridge, Traverse City MI 49686-6120

Song: O Mitten Tree

O Mitten Tree, O Mitten Tree,
We've come to trim your branches.
O Mitten Tree, O Mitten Tree, We've come to trim your branches.
Our gifts of scarves and mittens warm Keep children snug in cold and storm.
O Mitten Tree, O Mitten Tree,
We've come to trim your branches.

author unknown (submitted by Joyce Dowling)

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