New Small Group Session

This I Believe

Thank you to our Titusville, NJ congregation for submitting this session plan.

From the session:

"This I Believe is based on a 1950s radio program of the same name, hosted by acclaimed journalist Edward R. Murrow. In creating This I Believe, Murrow said the program sought "to point to the common meeting grounds of beliefs, which is the essence of brotherhood and the floor of our civilization." Each day, millions of Americans gathered by their radios to hear compelling essays from the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, and Harry Truman as well as corporate leaders, cab drivers, scientists, and secretaries— anyone able to distill into a few minutes the guiding principles by which they lived. Their words brought comfort and inspiration to a country worried about the Cold War, McCarthyism, and racial division."

11 new small group sessions

Looking for small group sessions? We've just posted 11 new sessions to our site. These come from the Evergreen UU Fellowship in Marysville, WA and the First Church UU of Leominster, MA. Thanks to Mike ans Susan for submitting these batches of sessions.

Sessions from the Evergreen Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Marysville, Washington.

Meaningful Meals
My Music
Once Upon a Time

Eight Small Group Sessions from First Church Unitarian Universalist Leominster Mass. and the Rev. Susan Suchocki Brown.

Inherent Worth and Dignity
Atheism
Do Angels Exist
Missionary Evangelism
Religion as a Crutch - Humanism
Peace and War
What part do traditions play in your life
The Bible of Other Spiritual Writings

Two more sessions from Jolinda Stephen's

Sessions 1-6 of Jolinda Stephen's Radical Hospitality series are now available through our session page. Jolinda Stephens is Director for Lifespan Religious Programming Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula. http://www.uure.org. Sessions in Rich Text Format (RTF).

Visit Session Page or download sessions directly...

Session #1 Posted 3/17/07
Session #2 Posted 3/17/07
Session #3 Posted 3/17/07
Session #4 Posted 3/17/07
Session #5 Posted 4/30/07
Session #6 Posted 4/30/07

If you have sessions to share please email them to me as Word Documents, Rich Text, or PDF files. Thanks! Peter.

Invitation from Skinner House Books

Skinner House Books is actively seeking proposals for resources to be used in small group ministry. Some particular topics of interest are:

• Spiritual parenting
• UU Principles
• UU Sources
• Theology in daily life
• Anti-racism/anti-oppression
• Multiculturalism
• Generosity
• Peacemaking

If you are doing small-group work on any of these topics and would like to submit a proposal, or if you have another idea you’d like to suggest, please consider yourself warmly invited to contact me at 617/948-4603 or mbenard@uua.org.

UUSC offering new resources for small groups

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee is pleased to announce the development of Covenant Group Ministry resources. With these resources, UUSC supports members of the UU community in: the search for connection with each other and the larger global community; the quest for meaningful engagement with life’s most challenging questions; and the pursuit to engage more effectively with local, national, and global social justice initiatives.

The Covenant Group resources will include modules of 4-6 sessions for UUSC’s major program areas: civil liberties, environmental justice, economic justice, and rights in humanitarian crises. These web-based resources will be available at www.uusc.org in late May.

Stay tuned for more information on UUSC's presence at General Assembly 2007 in Portland, Ore., at the Small Group Ministry Network booth and events as well as distribution of print resources.

Carie Johnsen, UUSC ministerial intern, who has led the development of these new resources, will facilitate two Small Group Ministry circles during General Assembly 2007. If you are interested in participating, please contact Carie at cjohnsen@uusc.org. Participation will be limited.

12 Sessions from Rev. Amy Freedman and Channing Church

This batch of 12 sessions come courtesy of my wife, the Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman of Channing Church in Newport, RI. -- Peter

Truth. By Bill Peresta. Channing Church, Newport, RI.

Respect. Channing Church, Newport, RI.

The First UU Principle. Channing Church, Newport, RI.

Caring. By Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman.

Creating Paradise. By Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman.

Our Deep UU Source. By Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman.

Engaging Our Theological Diversity. By Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman. Based on the UUA Commission on Appraisal's report Engaging Our Theological Diversity.

From the UUA Bookstore:
Engaging Our Theological Diversity is an "in-depth commentary on the wide variety of Unitarian Universalist theological beliefs and the ways in which this diversity is a source of enrichment and conflict. Probes the questions: What is at the center of our faith? What holds us together as a community."

Pilgrimage. Designed for use as last session before a Summer break. By Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman.

Radical Hospitality. By Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman.

Silence. By Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman.

Spiritual Experiences . By Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman.

Spiritual Growth. By Rev. Amy Bowden Freedman.

3 sessions from Michelle Collins

Exploring Gandhi's Non-violence
By Michelle Collins, Towson UU Church, Lutherville, MD. Posted 3/25/07.

Global Living: An Interconnected World
By Michelle Collins, Towson UU Church, Lutherville, MD. Posted3/25/07.

Radical Hospitality
By Michelle Collins, Towson UU Church, Lutherville, MD. Posted 3/25/07.

CGNews Issue #87

Friends,

I just sent out CGNews Issue #87. You can view the message as it was sent here or read the posts below.

It has been a little while since CGNews has gone out. All quiet on the UU small group front? Not a chance! The board of the UU SGM Network has been working hard on planning for General Assembly and getting incorporating us as a non-profit. More on this below. This is particularly exciting for me as it happened magically while I've been busy commuting to Boston every day. I'm doing an eight month training in television/digital film so I can be an even bigger UU church geek and spend my life flooding the internet with UU media. I plan on dragging our movement into the 21st century. I'll be sure to make some small group related materials while I'm at it. Feel free to send me any special requests.

On to what the majority of you really want - group sessions. This is still the hottest item on our site. Those of you hungry for peace, justice and small group sessions will be happy to know the following:

1. The UUSC is developing a series of small group ministry modules related to their social justice campaigns. I spoke with the UUSC intern working on this project again this morning. Carie Johnson reports that of the four modules being published, two will be distributed at GA. One on Civil Liberties. The other on the genocide in Darfur. These resources are scheduled to be on their website this May. The UUSC will let me know as soon as they go online and I'll pass the word on to you. Keep posted!

2. Judy Morgan of the Peacemaking Congregational Study Action Issue Core Team has announced that small group ministry sessions based on the peacemaking Study Action Issue are now online. You can read more about these sessions and find the link below. I have not had a chance to read over these, though I did speak with members of that team before the sessions were produced.

My take on these efforts?

I think they represent a step forward for our movement -- provided the sessions are well done. Small groups are the ideal place to reflect on the spiritual, moral and ethical issues underlying the problems of our world. I think that if we discuss these issues we will find the strength to take action. We can't go on like we are.

As organizations realize that small group ministry sessions are a great way to engage with UU's across our association -- be it the UUSC, CSW, or others -- we need to make sure that the resources they produce stay true to the purposes of this ministry. It is a fine line. Ever have your congregation's stewardship committee want to canvass people in their small group meetings? From my conversations with representatives from the UUSC and the CSW these organizations are working hard to honor the nature of this ministry while trying to get us to wake up and engage with a big long list of critical issues. This weekend I went to a used bookstore that had a wall of books labeled "See what happened while you weren't looking" -- I won't go into the contents of the shelf. Needless to say, genocide and the need for peacemaking were represented. I bet you could name some more...

I love small groups and I want to change our world. I suspect that you do to. If so I hope you'll take the time to give these new session resources a look and tell me what you think of them.

In faith,
Peter

Peter Freedman Bowden
Editor, CGNews

New session - The Quality of Your Daily Life

The Quality of Your Daily Life
By Mary Wolski, Unitarian Universalist Church of Flint, Michigan. Posted 1/9/07

For more small group ministry sessions visit our session page
http://smallgroupministry.net/public/sessions/