Mission: Because we recognize that the religious development of our children occurs mostly in the home, we have designed the Family Chalice to foster the spiritual growth of families through home-based religious practices tied to the church community. The Family Chalice is a democratic, family-led initiative that engages the energy, knowledge, and experience of the whole community.

Desired Future: We envision the following future for families at First Universalist:

1. Families Have an Organic Spirituality that Reflects Our Living Tradition

• There is a shared feeling for the sacredness of life.
• Family members have a sense of an open spiritual journey.
• Family members respect and appreciate their differences on spiritual issues.
• There is an ease and naturalness in family conversations about spiritual issues.
• Calm and uncluttered family living encourages spiritual life.

2. Families Have Integral Religious Practices

• Rituals in the home bring UU principles to life.
• Families make an effort to use UU symbols such as the chalice.
• Families are intentional about how they handle major religious holidays.
• Families engage in service and social justice activities.
• Family members can articulate why they engage in some practices and not others.

3. Families Understand Unitarian Universalism
Within their own developmental levels, family members can:

• Articulate their own religious beliefs
• Explain UU principles, symbols, and sources
• Relate our faith to other religions
• Recount the major figures, events, and turning points of UU history
• Make Unitarian Universalism relevant to today’s questions and challenges
• Appreciate the contributions of UUs to history and culture.

4. Families' Religious Lives Flow Between Home and Church

• Families are actively involved in the church community.
• Families pool and share their best religious practices.
• Families are connected in ways that promote mutual learning about religion.
• New families are welcomed and integrated into the religious community.
• The church offers ongoing, life-span faith formation.
• Church activities support strong connections across the generations.
• Energized intergenerational services create a true worship community.
• The church community sees itself as raising all its children.

THE FAMILIES AND DEMOCRACY MODEL
by William Doherty
First Universalist Church of Minneapolis, MN

Core Principles

1. In our time, the work of strengthening families must be done mostly by families themselves, working democratically in local communities.

2. The greatest untapped resource for strengthening families is the knowledge, wisdom, and lived experience of families and their communities.

3. Families must be engaged as producers and contributors to their communities, and not just as clients or consumers of services.

4. Professionals can play an important role in family initiatives when they learn to partner with families in identifying challenges, mobilizing resources, generating plans, and carrying out public actions.

5. If you begin with an established program, you will not end up with an initiative that is “owned and operated” by citizens. But a citizen initiative might create or adopt a program as one of its activities.

6. A local community of families becomes energized when it retrieves its own historical, cultural, and religious traditions about family life—and brings these into the contemporary world of family life.

7. Family and Democracy initiatives should have a bold vision—a BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal) while working pragmatically on focused, specific goals.

Strategies for Creating Action Initiatives

1. Employ democratic planning and decision-making at every step.

2. Emphasize mutual teaching and learning among families.

3. Create ways to fold new learnings back into the community.

4. Continually identify and develop new leaders.

5. Use professional expertise selectively—“on tap,” not “on top.”

6. Generate public visibility through media and community events.

7. Forge a sense of larger purpose beyond helping immediate participants.

AN INVITATION TO GET INVOLVED
THE FAMILY CHALICE INITIATIVE
LAUNCH DATE: SUNDAY, JANUARY 26
by William Doherty
First Universalist Church of Minneapolis, MN

What is the Family Chalice?

The Family Chalice is a family-led initiative conceived here at First Universalist to foster the spiritual growth of families through home-based religious practices tied to the church community.

What is the vision?

The vision is that:

• families have an organic spirituality that reflects our living, Unitarian Universalist tradition.
• families have integral religious practices.
• parents and children understand Unitarian Universalism and can articulate what it means to them.
• families’ religious lives flow between home and church.

How Will It Work?

The Family Chalice is not designed as a traditional program to be led by professionals or a small group of lay leaders. It aims, rather, to be a democratic, grass-roots movement that engages the energy, knowledge, and leadership talents of the whole community.

What Will It Do?

Here are the first two projects in a series of initiatives that will be planned and piloted during the winter and spring by parents and other participants.

1. Religious Practices in the Home

Families and other participants will work together to discover and develop UU religious practices for the home, share these with other families, and inspire one another to make religious practices part of everyday family life. An example: Families may come together to make their own chalices, participate in a church ceremony of blessing the chalices, and share ways to make the flaming chalice a focal point of UU family life.

2. Explaining Unitarian Universalism Initiative

Families and other participants will develop ways to understand and explain Unitarian Universalism, and why we are part of it, to themselves and their children at different developmental levels. There would be no pressure for a uniform understanding or explanation. Participants will learn from one another, practice in the group, and consult other sources. Their learnings and explanations will be shared widely in the church community in order to stimulate others in their own reflections and articulations.

How Can You Get Involved?

Come to a Sunday service on January 26 and sign up for one of the two initiatives, either as a planner or a participant later on. If you can’t be there on January 26, or if you have questions, contact Amy Scott. Phone day or evening: 952-926-6740. E-mail: arscott@visi.com.