Multigenerational

Multigenerational service resources on WorshipWeb

If you are looking for ways to develop multigenerational worship services then look no further than the UUA’s WorshipWeb. Engaging a wide spectrum of ages in one service can be challenging, but WorshipWeb offers lots of resources to help make it happen.

WorshipWeb has drawn together articles on multigenerational worship from the Alban Institute and other sources. One useful article is the staff group of the MidAmerica Region’s “Ten Good Ideas About Multi-Generational Worship,” which include “keep it simple,” “keep it moving,” “think homily rather than sermon,” and “use multiple learning styles, engaging all five senses.”

WorshipWeb also includes a compilation of InterConnections articles about multigenerational worship and has a list of anthologies of stories and sermons for children. There are also book suggestions, such as Come Into the Circle: Worshipping with Children by Michelle Richards, and Story, Song, and Spirit: Fun and Creative Worship Services for all Ages by the Rev. Erika Hewitt.

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Skinner House books support lay leadership, multigenerational worship

Two books, Serving with Grace: Lay Leadership as a Spiritual Practice by the Rev. Erik Walker Wikstrom, the worship and music resources director for the UUA, and Story, Song and Spirit: Fun and Creative Worship Services for All Ages by the Rev. Erika Hewitt, minister of the Live Oak UU Congregation in Goleta, Calif., are available from Skinner House Books.

Serving with Grace includes chapters about learning to say no, mindful meetings, mission and community, relationships with other leaders, and spirituality of service. Wikstrom writes, “Imagine church not as a place led by a few overly taxed people, but one where leadership is a broadly shared ministry that members of the community undertake for the deep joy of it.” This small 90-page book will no doubt be given to many new lay leaders as an introduction to leadership. It is $12 from the UUA Bookstore.

In Story, Song and Spirit, Hewitt notes a “collective anxiety” about doing multigenerational worship because we’re mostly used to sitting and listening. She has created services that call for active participation, including storytelling, music, and acting, that will engage children and adults.

The book includes requirements for nine services, including one for Water Communion and one for Christmas. The book is $12 at the UUA Bookstore.

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Intergenerational service focuses on love

To the Editor:

My name is Gail Stratton, and I am with the 65-member Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Oxford, Mississippi.

This last Sunday, February 14, we had an intergenerational worship service that focused on love and the idea of reimagining valentines. Our message was about loving ourselves, loving our community, and loving the wider world. The younger children helped with the chalice lighting and taught it to the rest of the congregation.

Each person, large and small, got a valentine sticker when they came in the door. After one song and the chalice lighting, we asked everyone to find someone else with the same sticker, introduce themselves, and share something that they loved. This mixed the ages, and was a lively exchange. When we came back together,  we sang “Make New Friends.”

We shared what Universalism is, and read several short poems about the love of God from the poet Hafiz. We talked about the idea of Standing on the Side of Love. We said there will be times we will be challenged to understand situations, but while we are figuring it out, we choose to stand on the side of love. We talked about specific examples, like immigration reform and also the support UUCO had shown for my partner and me when we had gotten married last year.

We then as a group made valentines and posters for members who are ill or have moved. We also did face painting and decorated cookies. We concluded the day by taking pictures. The images are here. I think everyone left feeling “fed” and connected!

A new InterConnections article on intergenerational worship will be online at uua.org/interconnections March 1.

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Creating a multigenerational congregation

The following is an excerpt from an essay submitted by Henry Halff, a member of Community Unitarian Universalist Church of San Antonio, Tex., about how to create a multigenerational church. Halff includes a story about his own experience as a parent of a child in a religious education program:

In 1976 I dragged my son, Larry, then about to turn six, over to the First Unitarian Church of Arlington, Virginia, and enrolled him in RE. I was met at the door of the RE building by one Norma Veridan. [The late Rev. Veridan served five UU congregations as religious educator and was the first district religious educator in the Massachusetts Bay District.]

The first thing she asked me was this:

“What are you going to do?” “Do?” “Yes, ‘do.’ Teach? Work in the office? Children’s worship? What are you going to do?”

“I’m awfully busy, and I’d really like to go to church.” “Wouldn’t we all. If your child is here, you’re here. That’s the rule.”

All of us parents bowed to the rule. I started as a teacher, worked my way into the children’s worship program, then the RE Council, and finally board member and liaison to RE. By that time, Larry was in college.

The Veridan rule had the effect of building a strong, well-staffed RE program, but that was not its most important effect. Its most important effect was that of forging a community of parents. Because we were all in it together, we got together socially; we brought food to meetings; we put on extracurricular stuff like the Christmas Pageant; we developed strong personal ties to the church, or at least to RE. What Norma knew was that if you build a community of parents, the children will be taken care of. And, incidentally, you’ll have a multigenerational church.

If you want a multigenerational church, make your church worth joining to the generations of interest to you. Forge a community of parents, even if that means drafting them. Doing this will give you committed lifelong members and a strong children’s program. What could be more multigenerational than that?

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Growth