Radical Hospitality, Session Three
UUCMP Covenant Groups
Created March 15, 2007

OPENING WORDS

I am not a street person.
I am not a token of my race or creed.
I am not a statistic.
I am not a divorcee.
I am not an AIDS patient.
I am not a sex object.
I am not a laborer.
I am not an 'at-risk' kids.
I have a mind. I have a heart. I have a soul. I dream. I feel. I care. I am a human being.
– Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love by Daniel Holman and Lonni Collins Pratt (unless otherwise noted, all quotes are from this book.)

CHALICE LIGHTING 
	Leader:	We gather together as a community of memory and hope to celebrate life and its infinite possibilities for love.

	ALL:  		We light this chalice as a symbol of the light within every human heart.  May our individual sparks meet and merge bringing both light and warmth to the world.

SHARING OF JOYS & CONCERNS
•	Did you experience any unusual encounters with strangers recently?

READINGS

“I turn to you to renew my life
I turn to the world, the streets of the city, the worn tapestries of brokerage firms,
drug dealers, private estates personal things in the bag lady's cart
rage and pain in the faces that turn from me
afraid of their own inner worlds.
This common world I love anew, 
as the life blood of generations
who refused to surrender their humanity
in an inhumane world,
courses through my veins.
From within this world
my despair is transformed to hope
and I begin anew
the legacy of caring.” 
--Dr. Thandeka, UU theologian
“Issues of inclusions and exclusion, while personal, are not just personal. Our entire culture excludes many people. If you are in a wheelchair, for example, you are excluded...If you are very young, if you are very old, you are excluded. In high school you can be excluded if you don't wear the right shoes or listen to the right music.”
“When I consider the stranger I am faced with my worst fears. I can't deny that I am afraid and that I don't even always like people.”
“The horror of September 11, 2001, did not create bigotry against Muslims; it incited existing bigotry. It fed a silently held bigotry already alive in a dark corner of our hearts. It uncapped a quietly seething suspicion.”
“Hospitality has an inescapable moral dimension to it. It is not a mere social grace; it is a spiritual and ethical issue. It is an issue involving what it means to be human. All of our talk about hospitable openness doesn't mean anything as long as some people continue to be tossed aside.”
SILENT REFLECTION
•	“Somewhere, sometime, you were excluded. Remember what that was like. Some people live with the experience constantly.”
•	Do I have some perhaps unexamined criteria by which I decide whether someone is worth my time and attention? 
•	Do we as a congregation have some tacitly agreed upon criteria for the visitors that we wholeheartedly welcome? 

 COMMUNING (Sharing & Listening without cross conversation)

DIALOGUE (Sharing & Listening with cross conversation)

CLOSING CIRCLE