Suggested Movements, Reading, and Responsive Reading
From Covenant Group News
An occasional newsletter about Covenant Group Ministry read by 830
forward-looking Unitarian Universalists.
Vol. 4, No. 9B September 10, 2002
(See also Session Plan and Discussion
Topics )
CHOREOPOEM
Linda Van Blaricom, Covenant Group leader at out Little Rock, AR,
congregation submitted the following poem with choreography, or “choreopoem,”
from her friend Lucy Dubose, with her permission.
Something from below (down and scoop with right arm up)
Something from above (up and over and make rainbow across)
Beckons me (knock on my heart with right fist)
To befriend myself (legs wide, grab left arm with right hand)
All others (bended legs, arms outreached to left with palms open/up;
circle around)
And the earth (bent legs, palms toward earth, fingers facing each other)
READING
Linda Thomson of Hamilton, Ontario, wrote the following responsive
reading last year and modified it for our use. She suggests using it
either responsively or simply as a reading:
We have come here today; bruised, wearied and saddened by the remembrance
of the events of September 11, 2001.
Our sense of ourselves and of our place in the world has been challenged.
The loss of lives and of landmarks has changed the maps of cities and
of hearts.
Yet we have come here today; to be together, to struggle to understand
and to risk hope.
We come to listen to one another, and to be listened to, to share our
tears and our anger, to find again our understanding that each of us
has the power to heal, that each of is a small seed of the divine.
We come to look with compassion into the eyes of another, and to trust
having another look into ours.
Together we bear witness to acts of simple kindness. We wonder that
the capacity for goodness can co-exist with such hatred.
All: Truly, it is when we come together, reaching out to be with one
another, that we can resolve to believe in a world of justice and peace.
Together we can risk hope. Together we can invite back the image of
beauty. Our small voices can join and form an insistent chorus that
affirms that love is an awesome force.
RESPONSIVE READING
(An adaptation of an adaptation)
Based on the words of the Rev. Gordon McKeeman, adapted by Bob Miess
and the Rev. Lindi Ramsden, First Unitarian Church, San Jose, CA
Facilitator: Ministry is not only the province of ordained clergy.
It is the calling and work of the entire church. Let us reach out to
one another in mutual ministry.
Left side of room: Let us foster a quality of relationship between
and among us that beckons forth hidden possibilities.
Right side of room: Let us invite people into deeper, more constant,
more reverent relationship with the world and with one another.
Left: Let us carry forward the long heritage of hope and liberation
that has dignified and informed the human venture over many centuries.
Right: Let us be present with and for one another in our terrors and
torments, in our grief and pain.
Left: Let us celebrate the triumphs of the human spirit, the miracles
of birth, the wonders of devotion and courage.
Right: Let us struggle for human responsibility in our institutions
and structures, witness to life-enhancing values, and stand for dignity
and equity, for compassion and aspiration.
All: Let us strive to be what we wish to see, ever growing in our capacity
for a shared ministry of hope and healing, joy and justice.
