Partnership Lesson #4: What is Partnership?

 

Goal:

To explore the many different kinds of relationships we have with people.

To convey that partners are people in relationship with each other and that there are different ways to be partners.

 

Materials:


Preparation:

  1. Draw four concentric circles, about 5” apart, on the large newsprint paper. In the center circle write the word “YOU.” Label each ring as shown in the “Circles” document. (View sample.) Cover this page until ready to use it.
  2. Type or write out a list of relationships. Cut them out, so there is one relationship on each small piece of paper, and put them all in the bowl. Put the bowl in your suitcase until ready to use.
  3. Put the two signs in your suitcase until ready to show.
  4. Review this entire lesson so you have examples ready to facilitate discussion.


Entering activity:

Gather participants together in a large circle. Have newsprint on an easel where all can see.

 

Chalice lighting  (400 + years old) Transylvanian Unitarian Affirmation. Pass the Affirmation around the circle so each person reads one line. Anyone who choses to may pass the paper along without reading.

Where there is faith, there is love.

Where there is love, there is peace.

Where there is peace, there is blessing.

Where there is blessing, there is God.

Where there is God, there is no need.

[The leader might repeat the lines if the message was lost in the reading.]

 

Introduction/Reflection (20 min.)

[Review where you’ve visited so far in the curriculum. Remind participants of the first lesson when you played the games that taught partnership and learned about the formation of the Partner Church Council. Take the sign “PARTNERSHIP” out of your suitcase. Tape it up on the wall.]

Today we’re going to begin an exploration of why we want to have partnerships with Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists in different countries and what those partnerships are like. So far we’ve learned that in the very beginning, the partner church idea came about because churches in the US and Canada wanted to help churches in Hungary and later Romania. That is certainly one thing partners do together—they help each other. But it isn’t the only thing. To start us thinking about other things partners do, I want to introduce another word. [Take the “RELATIONSHIP” sign out of your suitcase.] Who knows what this word means? [Discuss briefly, concluding with the idea that partners are people who are in a special kind of relationship. Tape this sign up next to “PARTNERSHIP.”]

 

In the word ‘relationship’ you find the smaller word: ‘relation.’ That comes from the word ‘related.’ Who are you related to?

[Go around the circle, give everyone a chance to name an individual or a category, like aunts and uncles.]

 

How are you related?

[Most will be family relations, near and distant.]

 

What other ways you can be related to people? Think about small groups you belong to, or where you live. Let’s go around the circle again and name other relationships we have.

[Encourage participants to think about distant people including: people they don’t know in their town, state, country; people in the country their ancestors come from, Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists in other towns, states, countries, etc., all people in the world.]

 

Exploration (20 min)

[Show the newsprint with the circles.]

One way to think about all our relationships is like a circle getting bigger and bigger. Relationships that are really close, like your parents, are in the first ring of the circle. Relationships that are not so close, like your neighbors or friends, are in the next ring out.

 

[Take out the bowl full of relationships.] This bowl is full of pieces of papers with many of the relationships we just named when we went around the circle. As I pass the bowl around, take one out, read it aloud and then come up and tape it to the circle where you think it belongs.

[This may generate some debate and discussion.]

 

Let’s think about partners again. Can you be partners with people in all three of these groups: Family, Friends/Small Groups, and Large Groups? How? Let’s brainstorm examples of partnerships in each of these groups of relationships.

[If your group is large, you could divide into small groups, with an adult facilitator for each group. If you do this, re-group to share ideas as a large group.]

 

So now we know we can be partners with lots of different people. But why would you want to be partners with them? What are some reasons people work as partners? [Elicit answers like: it’s more fun, get things done faster, easier, learn from each other, etc.

 

[Summarize the discussion of how and why people form partnerships into 4 major categories:  

1. help each other

2. play (have fun together)

3. work together on projects

4. learn together.

Write these at the top of a new sheet of newsprint.]

 

In our partnership churches we try to do all 4 of these things. The next time we meet to talk about partnership, we’ll learn more about that. To end our session today, we’re going to play another partner game.

 

Integration (10 min)

Play Partner Push-ups—a  partner game where participants are likely to experience unequal contribution. This is a set-up game for the next lesson on partnership.

 

Pair people up: put participants together who are different sizes (though not too extreme).Tell everyone sit down with their bottoms and feet flat on the floor. Ask them to stand without letting any other body parts touch the floor. (Maybe a few can but it’s very hard.) Next, have them try it with a partner--sitting back to back and linking arms the elbows.

 

Closing

Pass out the special partnership words to the song “Under One Sky,” written for this curriculum. Sing it together.