When
Friday February 20, 2015 at 5:00 PM EST-to-
Saturday February 21, 2015 at 5:00 PM EST
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Worship Wide: Overcoming Barriers to Spiritual Community
Join other laypersons and religious professionals from UU congregations around our district for this annual celebration of powerful UU worship! Workshops address the theology, theory, and practice of UU worship, with the goal of broadening our communities beyond boundaries we many not even have realized we had drawn! Your congregation won't want to miss out on these exciting conversations!
Workshop presenters include:
Mark Bernstein ~ Jennifer Brooks ~ Madelyn Campbell ~ Michelle Collins ~ Dani Fiore ~ David M. Glasgow ~ Carl Gregg ~ Pawel Jura ~ Erik Martinez Resly ~ Andrew Mertz ~ Osaretin "Osa" Obaseki ~ Julie Price ~ David Pyle ~ Jennifer Rodgers ~ Sharon Werth
Postmodern Polity: Transformative Lay Leadership in Worship - Join the Rev. Dr. Carl Gregg as he shares best practices for training and facilitating lay leadership and participation. Engage with insights for UU worship from the Emergent Church Movement, Group Spiritual Direction, and UU history. (Recommended resource: R6)
Session B (7:30PM Friday)
Multicultural Worship Arts for a New Generation - Join the Rev. Erik Martinez Resly, Osa Obaseki, and artists from The Sanctuaries in Washington, DC, for this interactive workshop with live performances! We'll explore how the arts can deepen multicultural ministry, as well as provide suggestions for how to integrate hip hop, spoken word, and digital media. There will also be a Q&A session with the artists.
Session C (9:30AM Saturday)
C1 • Facilitating Transformative Lay Leaders in Worship - Continue the conversation from the Rev. Dr. Carl Gregg’s Friday night presentation, or join the conversation anew if you couldn’t be with us on Friday. Share best practices from your congregations. Go deeper into ways to adapt insights for UU worship from the Emergent Church Movement, Group Spiritual Direction, and UU history. (Recommended resource: R6)
C2 • Worship in the Style of Taizé - Brother Roger, founder of The Taizé Community, said that he “never lost the intuition that community life could be a sign that God is love, and love alone,” and that it was that intuition that led him to found the now-world-famous community “where kindness of heart and simplicity would be at the center of everything.” Come bring your voice, your instrument, or just your whole self, and experience the powerfully simple worship style of the Taizé Community under the direction of David M. Glasgow. We may find that by focusing on the pure center of worship, it is easier for us to relax the boundaries we’ve drawn at the outer edges.... (Recommended resources: R7, R8)
C3 • Biblical Storytelling: Making the Bible Approachable and Alive in Worship - Why read the Bible when you can perform it? After all, the books of the Bible began as oral tradition, and were meant to be heard. In this workshop, Madelyn Campbell will teach the basics of storytelling: learning—and teaching—the stories by heart, different methods of telling a story, and resources for learning about the stories you tell. You’ll get to see a story performed, and you’ll have a short story to share by the end of the workshop. And all the techniques you learn in this workshop can be applied to non-biblical storytelling, as well!
C4 • The Difficulty of Being Just: Including People with Disabilities in Worship - Victor Hugo wrote, “Being good is easy. What is difŢcult is being just.” Ensuring that all may worship is not just a moral issue. It is a growth issue. Accommodating people with disabilities, including those who are aging, can mean attracting more new members and retaining older members longer. In this workshop, Mark Bernstein will focus on the obvious and not-so-obvious was in which we deny opportunities or people with disabilities to worship fully, equally, and respectfully; and will offer ideas for truly being “radically hospitable.”
C5 • Risking Relationships: What Happens When You Share in Worship? - Practices of sharing in worship and other participatory involvement are on the rise. Some of our communities risk relationship regularly by using this alternative form of worship. During this session, Andrew Mertz and other Y/YA leaders will start by briefly exploring the cultural barriers that often hold us back from developing a spiritual community. We will then spend most of our time looking at effective techniques that allow congregants to develop deeper relationships with others. This is not alternative worship, but alternative practices that can be used in “regular” worship. The presenters draw from their experience with Youth & Young Adult worship.
Plenary Keynote (11AM Saturday) Worship and the Future
When we think of what worship means in our congregations, it is natural that we look to the past... to the traditions that have rooted people in a sense of community and in the deepening of the spirit. Yet we cannot allow that connectedness to tradition to keep us from seeing all the ways that people may be brought to encounter with the sense of wonder and meaning. In our plenary keynote, Joseph Priestley District Executive Rev. David Pyle will explore some of the farthest horizons of what worship may mean for our congregations in the years to come. (Recommended resource: R2)
Session D (1:30 PM Saturday)
D1 • Worship in Institutions - Whether it is college campuses, military chapels, or prison ministries, Unitarian Universalists are often given the opportunity to present worship in institutional settings, often for those who are just learning about our faith. Join the Rev. David Pyle and learn a model for Institutional Worship, based on the lessons of the UU Worship Service at the Recruit Training Center of the Great Lakes Naval Station. (Recommended resource: R2)
D2 • Vocal Technique in a Choral Setting - A workshop for singers and conductors alike that explores the principles of healthy vocal production with a special focus on the choral environment. Come join Jennifer Rodgers to gain more perspective on how to work with and sing amongst the multitude of voices that make up choirs of mixed experience and ability: leader singers, tentative sight-readers, tenors with tension, tremulous sopranos, high-D-averse altos, bass-ish basses. Everyone has a place in the choir and that choir can produce a beautiful, round and healthy sound. (Recommended resource: R1)
D3 • Empowering the Word, Part 1.' Talking about Speaking - Does your congregation fall asleep listening to lay readers? Do they have to read along to understand what’s being said from the pulpit? Are there looks of sympathy in the pews as insecure readers stumble through their tasks? It doesn’t much matter how powerful our message is if no one’s awake to hear it! Join David M. Glasgow in exploring the ten variables of public speaking and how to apply them—which ones to “keep up,” and which ones to “mix up”—to keep your congregation “wide-eyed” and empower your readings and sermons. (Recommended resources: R4, R8)
D4 • Vibrant Visuals.' Projecting Song Lyrics, Musical Notation, and Images in Worship - After more than a year of projecting song lyrics during worship, the UU Congregation of Fairfax is now experimenting with visuals and musical notation as well. We're also using visuals on occasion to enhance readings and sermons. This workshop is an opportunity for us to share what we've learned, and for all of us to exchange ideas and experiences as we seek to create vibrant visuals for worship. The discussion will include volunteer, technological, and copyright requirements. Facilitated by Rev. Jennifer Brooks, Interim Parish Minister; Rev. Julie Price, Intern Minister; and Pawel Jura, Director of Music and Arts.
D5 • We Dance As One - Andrew Lang says that “You cannot find a single ancient mystery in which there is not dancing.” So come join Sharon Werth in a “movement matters” workshop, to explore how movement can be a spiritual vessel for you and your congregation. You will learn how simple gestures can involve your congregation in kinesthetic experiences and enhance your services. Moving choirs can become part of your congregation’s spiritual experience, consisting of 3 or 30 “dancers.” You will also learn a group dance that will be a part of the WAF closing service (participation is optional). Let us move beyond the barriers of sitting, and into the wonders of movement!
Session E (3PM Saturday)
E1 • Chat with the New JPD District Executive - At our 2014 WAF in Frederick, we shared a farewell video from outgoing JPD District Executive, Richard Speck. As the name on the door changes, so does the job description: the Rev. David Pyle has leadership responsibilities not only within our District, but also with an eye toward the collaborative services of the Central East Regional Group of which we are a part. Bring your questions, or just come to find out more about what’s changing— and what we can still count on from our leadership—in this informal session.
E2 • Choral Repertory Session - Join director Jennifer Rodgers to learn and sing a variety of choral works, all appropriate for UU worship, selected with our “Worship Wide” theme in mind. Pawel Jura accompanies this session. (Recommended resource: R1)
E3 • Empowering the Word, Part 2: Speech Coaching Master Class - Having identified a shared vocabulary for describing and evaluating our speech, it’s much easier for us to work together as colleagues in worship leadership toward the goal of making our “product”—our congregation’s experience of worship—ever more powerful and rich. David M. Glasgow will lead this “master class” in which we’ll prepare texts for use in our Festival’s closing worship service. Al those who plan to read at the closing service are asked to attend this session; others are welcome to come and participate as wel— attendance at Part 1 (workshop D3) is not a prerequisite. (Recommended resources: R4, R9)
E4 • Worshiping Foolishly - Joy, spontaneity, and foolishness, as well as relationships and presence, are part of worshipping with the Faithful Fools. While interning with the Faithful Fools Street Ministry in San Francisco (faithfulfools.org), “Grand Fool” Rev. Michelle Collins led many pre- and post-street-retreat worship and reflection experiences. Today we’ll experience a Fools-inspired worship experience and explore elements and ideas from it to carry into our various ministries.
E5 • Creating Community through Rhythm - Any time we gather together there is an opportunity to do something connective. Forget Facebook, this is the ancient art of social networking. Drumming with others is one of the oldest universally recognized practices people use to connect with spirit and to each other. Join Indian Summer Jars percussionist Dani Fiore and discover how to transcend perceived barriers in our society through the healing and unifying power of drumming! Feel free to bring your own drum if you have one, but you do not have to be a musician to benefit from these practices.