Worship Service to Celebrate Identity

By Jason Lydon
Congregational Director
Community Church of Boston
Boston, MA 

Reprinted with permission from Synapse, Fall 2005

Preparation

As people enter, get everyone to write something short about their identities and who they are on a slip of paper.

Materials

• Chalice, matches
• Singing the Living Tradition hymn book
• Music and CD player

Welcome everyone into the room. Invite them to sit wherever. You may want to sing “Come, Come, Whoever You Are” ( Singing the Living Tradition #188 ).

After everyone is seated, light the chalice, and use the Audre Lorde quote, “When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

Play some good music, you know, what folks want to hear. While the music is playing, pass out the pieces of paper that people had written about their identities. Encourage people to take one that is not theirs.

Once everyone has their slip of paper, stop the music. Read this quote by Richard R. Grant: “The value of identity, of course, is that so often it comes with purpose.”

Then invite people, one at a time, to read the writing about identity that they have in their hands. When they finish the story, invite the person who wrote it to share what purpose they find in expressing and living out parts of their identity. (Be clear that participants may or may not choose to reveal their identities, and are always free to share only what they wish to share.)

After five people share, ask everyone to get up and move around the room. Encourage people to make eye contact and smile at one another. Suggest that people move differently than they normally do. It's okay to be silly and laugh as long as everyone is being respectful. After a few moments of moving, get people to sit back down and read another five writings. Have people get up and then move, and so on, until everyone has had a chance to share.

Close the worship with music and people leaving as they please.