Session 19: Celebration and Reflection

Session Metadata

Session	19
Title	Celebration and Reflection
UU Source	Conclusion
Unit	Closing
Head / Hands / Heart	N/A
Has Exercise	No
Has Ritual	No
Has Spiritual Practice Presentation	No
Special Blocks	Presentations, Gratitude Exercise, Closing Circle

Preparation

Also note that UU Wellspring materials are subscription based. Please delete any downloads at the end of each program. We update each summer and any downloaded materials should not be considered current. Thank you for supporting UU Wellspring in this way so that we can continue being relevant and meaningful in the lives of so many Unitarian Universalists. If your congregation has not yet committed to next year, please share your experience with leadership to ensure continuation.

Note for facilitators: This final session will probably take more than the normal two-hour meeting depending on the size of the group. Either start earlier or have your group plan on staying later.

If you are meeting in person, in addition to the session plan below, this final session might also include a shared meal, small gifts, poetry, music, laughter — whatever feels right for your group.
**Note:**you will need to provide blank cards and pens for your group for the gratitude exercise.

**Online Groups:**If you choose to meet, make sure the projects are accessible to online meeting. You can teach people how to share their screen if they have videos, documents, websites or photos to share.

**Option for Online Groups:**Here are some options for the affirmation activity that you would have otherwise written on blank cards during the session.
**Low Key, Low Time Commitment:**Suggest everyone take a few moments to write affirmations directly to each person in the chat and allow everyone the option to save their chat.
Provide emails of all participants and facilitators. Invite each person to write a brief email to each of the other people with a brief affirmation.
**More impactful, but takes some time and effort (and possibly postage) on part of facilitator:**Send an email with all of the names of participants and facilitators listed. Then invite the participants to write a brief affirmation after each name (and sign their own name). The facilitator can cut and paste the affirmations to separate files and either email all of the affirmations for each person to the intended recipient or print them out and mail them. You might also print onto a blank greeting card or write your own note and include the affirmations. See sample letter at the end of Session 18.
**Needs Technical Know-How:**You could also make a shared Google Sheet and put each person’s name in a tab.
If you have other ideas, please share in the comment section at the end of this session!

Thank you, Facilitators! We are so grateful for your dedication as a UU Wellspring facilitator.

We would like to send you a small gift for completing ourFacilitator’s Feedback.****

Your feedback will enhance our program and help us understand the needs of your participants. Thank you!

Email to Participants

We have come to the end of this year’s journey together. (That sentence fills me with emotion!) For our final session, we will reflect on what we’ve experienced and celebrate our time together.

At the start of the year, we were invited to become the theologians of our own lives. We then searched for and found courage in prophetic voices, learned about radical love, and reimagined God. We became more mindful of the present moment and reached towards forgiveness. We listened to the teachings of nature and heard messages of hope and joy. We looked towards death and saw our lives in a new light.

What a journey it has been!

For our final session, you are invited topull together what this year has meant for you by integrating your thoughts and experiences. Using whatever medium works best (art, music, poetry, written reflection, etc.), prepare a brief presentation to share with the group that articulates your theology and how you will put those beliefs into action. A few questions to help you get started:

Think back to the start of this year. Why did you join UU Wellspring? If you remember what you wrote at our opening retreat on your two rocks (one to keep and one to throw away), how have you lived into that covenant with yourself?
How has this year changed your understanding of Unitarian Universalism?
What were some of the most memorable readings for you? Group reflections?
What surprised you this year? Why?
How are you more deeply grounded in these sources?
How do you feel more connected to the larger communities that inform our UU sources?
How will this experience change how you are as a member of this UU community?

At our session, we will each have time to share our presentation with the group.

If you have not had time to complete the UU Wellspring Feedback form, please do so now.

Another reminder:

If UU Wellspring has made an impact on your life, would you consider a donation to fund future curriculum development, updates, and opportunities to make the program available to more people? If so, please visit our website and use the donate button at the bottom of the home page to share your love.

Perhaps you would like to make a legacy gift either online or by check, or even through the UUA Umbrella fund option, that will keep UU Wellspring sustainable and affordable for all. You may also send a check made out to UU Wellspring to

Linnea Nelson, Executive Director 8848 Grey Hawk Point, Orlando, FL 32836.

We will be printing your name on our website as a supporter (unless you request to be anonymous.)

If we want to continue as a group, or some of you want to continue with others interested in UU Wellspring, UU Wellspring now has a new 12-session program: Love at the Center: UU Values and Covenants. This program extends experiential opportunities and storytelling. As a member congregation, Sources, the foundational UU Wellspring program and/or Love at the Center will be included, so we could choose either one. Other UU Wellspring 6-session programs include UU Wellspring Reads: Sacred Earth or Creating Meaning.

Since you have taken Sources, we can consider other year long programs, such as or Love at the Center, Deep Questions, Spiritual Practices, Faithful Actions, or the Seeker Series that offers opportunities to find some of your own inspiration: Sacred Arts or Spiritual Ancestors. Also, Youth or Young Adult programs include 8 session programs on Sources and Spiritual Practices and a new LOVE: YEA! (8 sessions). Learn more about any of these program here.

Stay connected through the UU Wellspring Facebook****Pageor visit the **webpage**for more information.

With deep gratitude for each of you,

Session Plan

Note for facilitators: If you are meeting in person, bring blank cards/envelopes and pens for your group for the gratitude exercise. Save at least half an hour at the end of the session for this activity. If you are meeting on line, copy the email from the end of Session 18 and send it out as a final email. Collect the emailed affirmations and send back out individually via email or mail to each individual.

**Online Tip:**See the orange online tip box near the beginning of this session to choose an affirmation process and share it with the group members so they know how to access and send their affirmations.

Chalice Lighting and Silence

Our opening words are the same words we used at our opening retreat:

*“We begin by remembering the sound and the feeling of the one Being, the Wellspring of love. We affirm that the next thing we experience shimmers with the light of the Whole Universe.”

Note: “We begin by remembering” is one translation of the Arabic word Bismallah, which is used at the beginning of prayer and from a translation by Neil Douglas-Klotz in The Sufi Book of Life*.

Let’s take a few minutes of silence to bring ourselves fully into this circle.

Presentations

**Note to Facilitators:**Plan on no more than ten minutes per group member; again, you might want to use a timer. Honor each group member’s presentation with listening and silence. If there is extra time (save at least half an hour for the gratitude exercise and closing circle), invite people to reflect on what they just heard.

**Online Tip:**Ensure that you have given screen sharing privileges to everyone in case they want to share a visual copy of their project.

Gratitude Exercise

Note to Facilitators: Have each participant choose a notecard and put her/his name on it. Pass the cards around so each member of the group can write a statement of gratitude for the person whose card it is, a remembrance to carry away. This exchange of gratitudes has been very meaningful for participants.

Online Tip: The Gratitude Exercise will be done after the group ends.

Closing Circle

Allow participants time to say out loud what is in their hearts by asking: What do you want us to know as we close our circle?

After responses, have focus on the chalice. Close the circle with each person saying one word they will carry with them.

Blessings, farewell and Amen.