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Session 6: Your Own Prophetic Voice

Session 6: Your Own Prophetic Voice

Session Metadata
Session6
TitleYour Own Prophetic Voice
UU SourceProphetic Women and Men
Unit2nd Source: Prophetic Women and Men
Head / Hands / HeartHeart
Has ExerciseNo
Has RitualNo
Has Spiritual Practice PresentationYes
Special BlocksNone

Preparation

Email to Participants

For our next session on [date], we’re each going to listen to our own prophetic voice. We’ve heard about our Unitarian and Universalist ancestors and other prophetic voices telling new truths and from contemporary UUs about being fully, courageously themselves. Now it’s our turn to step up and see what it’s like if we take the second source to heart:

[My] words and deeds … challenge [others] to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.

UUA

For some of us, thinking of ourselves as a “prophetic voice” might be empowering and thus inspire us to speak ever more loudly for justice. For others in our group, it might make us feel a little guilty that we don’t do nearly as much as we should, or it might even sound utterly ridiculous.

For those of us who identify with the latter, try this: think about “the structures of evil” in a significantly smaller way: Where is there emotional hurt or spiritual harm in your life? In your family, workplace or community? How could you confront that hurt and harm with the transforming power of love?

Before our next session, there are three short (and amazing!) videos to watch, reflection questions to write about in your UU Wellspring journal, and an experiment to try.

Media

(Note: you can click on the “interactive transcript” icon if you’d like to read along while watching)

  • The first video challenges us to think about “vulnerability as the birthplace of joy, of creativity, of belonging, of love:” Brené Brown “On the Power of Vulnerability” (20 minutes)

  • The second video is about using one’s voice to call forth justice: Clint Smith “The Danger of Silence” (5 minutes)

  • The final video shares a theology for our times. “Homily” by Rev. Mariela Perez Simons (11 min video). Rev. Mariela Perez Simons provided the video to UU Wellspring.

Reflection Questions

  • What most resonated with you in the Brene Brown video? How might you use her ideas in your own life?

  • Clint Smith says, “I’m going to live everyday as if there were a microphone tucked under my tongue.” How would your life change if you did the same? What would you say more of? What would you say less of?

  • How do we allow ourselves to see intense pain and injustice in the world without being overwhelmed by it? How do we remain open-hearted when it feels like our hearts are breaking?

  • What powers and structures of evil do you see in daily life?

Exercise

Try looking for opportunities to be a prophetic voice. This does not have to be a huge, dramatic gesture! The challenge is to step outside of our regular comfort zones and act with vulnerability and courage.

Maybe you’ll call out an injustice at work or write a letter to the editor. Maybe you’ll attend a rally or workshop. Maybe you’ll speak up about a topic you often remain silent about.

Or maybe you’ll take the first step towards something you’ve been avoiding. Maybe this isn’t something that will be resolved in a day and you’ll discover a new avenue for action.

Or maybe you already dedicate your life to social justice work, and, all too often, come face-to-face with trauma or injustice. In that case, think about how being a prophetic voice of compassion in your own life might help you sustain your work. How might the transforming power of love bring hope and courage?

Notice what using your prophetic voice is like for you and come to our session ready to tell us about your experience.

I look forward to hearing about it!

And finally, in order to deepen our experience of spiritual practice as we journey together this year, each group member will be given the opportunity to lead a spiritual practice during a session. You are welcome to share a spiritual practice that has meaning for you or one that you’d like to try. You can keep track of who is presenting **with this calendar.**Some examples of spiritual practices include: -Nature meditation: 5-10 minutes of silence outside -Prayer: leading the group in prayer or each person writing a prayer -Movement: yoga poses, Tai Chi, Dance of Universal Peace, running, ecstatic dancing, swimming laps -Breathing exercises -Singing or listening to music -Journal writing -Meditation: sitting, walking, eating or moving -Meditation on a reading (poem, psalm, quotation) -Meditation on a work of art (painting, piece of sculpture, any handmade object) -Meditation on a natural object (stone, branch, seed pod) -Guided meditation recording -Art: draw or sculpt with clay an expression of your relationship with __ (fill in the blank) i.e., your spiritual practice, your relationship with trust, with prayer, your body, with the divine, etc.

Tips and things to consider: AMOUNT OF TIME: You have 5 to 10 minutes to lead this experience.  Please plan accordingly in order to share your practice with us while also helping us ensure that we keep with the overall flow of the session.

INSTRUCTION: For most of these practices little instruction or words are usually necessary. The opportunity to go deeper within and get in touch with ourselves is what teaches.

With faith,

Session Plan

Note to Facilitator: Let people know that in the email for the next session they will be asked to email the facilitator(s) response to a few questions to offer participants the chance to weigh in on any concerns they have so your group can reset and refocus as needed. The questions are 1) What is working well? 2) What is not working well? 3) What would you like to change?

Second, often around this time of the year, participants struggle with wanting to get to know each other more. It can be very helpful (and fun!) to schedule a gathering such as a potluck (if you are together) or an online chat time so your group can spend some time simply chatting and laughing together. Groups that have done this have found it releases some of the pressure that builds up for people who struggle with not being able to cross-talk. They then are able to more fully engage in the silence and deep listening of future UU Wellspring sessions.

If your group chooses to do a gathering, it is important to find a date and time that works for everyone in the group. Anyone can be the online or in person host, but rather to make sure everyone is fully included.

Chalice Lighting and Silence

From p.37 Sources of Our Faith, edited by Kathleen Rolenz.

The first act of a prophet

is to hear one’s own first cry.

Desire is good

and longing is the first prayer.

Let us bless ourselves with knowing

and bless each other with words that are true.

Barbara Pescan, From Sources of Our Faith, edited by Kathleen Rolenz.

Or you might share Jonipher Kwong’s “Our Voices Must be Heard” (p. 10) from Voices from the Margins: An Anthology of Meditationsedited by Jacqui James and Mark D. Morrison-Reed.

Today’s music is “Just Before Dawn” by William Ackerman.

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

Check-In

What are you carrying in your heart tonight? How is your spiritual practice or spiritual companioning going?

Covenant Review

Use whatever process your group has established to stay current with the covenant.

Is there anything about the covenant that we should address?

Spiritual Practice Presentation

As the facilitator, please model the sharing of a spiritual practice for the group. If the practice is meditative, you may want to limit the meditation length at the start of the session.

Before I begin sharing my spiritual practice with you, let’s remind ourselves that our spiritual practices may also highlight the pluralism within our group. This means there are multiple, valid, complete religious paths and spiritual practices. My path and practices may feel valid and complete, and I encourage all of you to be open to all of the paths and spiritual practices as they are shared. Although it might feel vulnerable, we invite you to try out and share your spiritual practices when your turn comes, recognizing the sacred space we have created together.

Rev. Kelly Dignan says, “Unitarian Universalist minister Fred Muir writes in Turning Pointthat pluralism implies diversity, but it’s more than that. It’s more than tolerating difference. It’s engaging in the difference. We risk surfing the surface theologically if we don’t do the engaging part.

I look forward to engaging in the diversity of spiritual practices that we are all engaging in.

Reflection

**Note for Facilitator:**Encourage participants to respond to the feedback questions in the email for next session.

Today we’re reflecting on a slight rewrite of the second UU source:

My words and deeds … challenge [others] to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.

UUA

Reflection Questions

  • Tell about your experience experimenting with your own prophetic voice. You’re invited to celebrate what went well and acknowledge what was difficult.

  • What most resonated with you in the Brené Brown video?

  • Clint Smith says, “I’m going to live everyday as if there were a microphone tucked under my tongue.” How would your life change if you did the same? What would you say more of? What would you say less of?

  • Confronting “the structures of evil” starts with being willing to see profound injustice and intense pain. How do we keep an open heart when there is so much pain and injustice in the world? How does this make working for justice a spiritual struggle?

  • What powers and structures of evil do you see in daily life?

So What?

How does this reflection relate to your spiritual journey? What are you inspired or challenged to do next?

Gratitude and Closing

Have everyone focus on the chalice. Each person, as moved, says one or two words about something from this session for which they are grateful or how they are feeling in this moment. After everyone has said a word, close with a brief statement of thanks and appreciation.

Respond to Participant Feedback

**Note to Facilitator.**Please share a summary of your group’s feedback with UU Wellspring emailing:

Director@uuwellspring.org Or Send Hard copies to Linnea Nelson UU Wellspring 8848 Grey Hawk Point Orlando, FL 32836

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