JANUARY

Week 3. Communal Life and Simple Living

IMMIGRATION

Material and Tradition Elements for this Block. Video: TED Talk - Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story. Our lives, our
cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice, and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. Or Chaper Six, The Practice of Encountering Others in An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. Click here for a sample reading and discussion guide. Or Sidling Up To Difference on Krista Tippetts Being radio program. The shows Civil Conversations Project continues with the Ghanaian-British-American philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah. His parents' marriage helped inspire the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. He's studied ethics in a world of strangers and how unimaginable social change happens. We explore his erudite yet down-to-earth take on disarming moral hostilities in America now. Leviticus 19:33-34 When a stranger dwells among you in your land, do not taunt him. The stranger who dwells with you shall be like a native among you, and you shall love him like yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt I am the Lord, your God.

The Hebrew Bible in one verse commands, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, but in no fewer than 36 places commands us to love the stranger. Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of Great Britain Objectives.
To reflect on issues of difference and division at hand for volunteers: cultural backgrounds within service agencies cultural diversity challenges/opportunities in building community To explore how the presence of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds affect the quality of the local community

Background for Facilitator.

As the participants have had a few months to explore their community, invite them to reflect on the various kinds of diversity they have encountered, and what kinds of borders or thresholds of difference they have crossed to develop relationships with people of diverse backgrounds. How does ones approach to people who represent the other relate to the quality of community living? How is their local community shaped by the cultural background of residents?

For this session, please plan to spend 85 minutes together. Materials You Will Need. Spool of strong, heavy twine

Screen to show the TED Talk video or speakers to play the Being radio program or copies of Barbara Brown Taylors chapter for everyone

Presentation of The Material. 15 min.

Watch the TED video OR listen to a portion of the Being program OR read the Barbara Brown Taylor piece.

Gut Response. 5 min.

Give participants two to five minutes to get initial responses to this material down on paper. Encourage them include intellectual and emotional reactions, what their favorite bit/quote is, and anything in between.

Engagement of the Material: Group Activity. 20 min.

Activity: World Wide Web Briefing Talk about how we live in a web of diversity, and people are constantly crossing borders of difference. Activity Have a spool of strong twine, and have the group sit in a circle. Have the participants think of as many aspects of difference exists within the circle, within their service sites, and within their community. The leader will start by naming one of these differences, such as national origin, and will pass the spool to someone on the other side of the circle, holding on to the end of the twine. The person with the spool names another difference, and passes it on, holding on to a piece of the twine. This continues as the group forms a web with the twine. It should go around the group several times, and each time the person should toss it to someone different (if there are enough participants). Once the group has formed a tight web with the twine, everyone should keep hold of their strands and lower the web to the floor. Have the smallest person in the group give their strands to their neighbors to hold, and have them lay down across the web. See if the group can then lift the person off the floor. Caution - you have to have strong twine and a tight web to make this work, otherwise, the strands will break. De-Briefing Talk about how the strength of the web was related to how many times and ways it crossed the circle, from many different points.

Group Reflection. 15 min.

Reflection Questions/ Group Discussions

Ask how having this kind of strong web of relationships can elevate ones perspective on the world and on community life. Talk about where our points of commonality are with those who come from different places - geographically, spiritually, politically, etc. In what ways are we are all part of the same spool and how can we find those common roots?

Pillar Signature: Community Mapping. 15 min.

Have a map of the wider community (the city or town or county) up on a wall, and have a color of sticky notes (the narrow ones) representing where the various ethnic communities are in the local community. Where are the ethnic restaurants and arts venues?

The Tradition. 5 min.

Leviticus 19:33-34 When a stranger dwells among you in your land, do not taunt him. The stranger who dwells with you shall be like a native among you, and you shall love him like yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt I am the Lord, your God.

Synthesis. 10 min.
In a time of journaling, have participants reflect on the following questions: Have you ever experienced being welcomed by a stranger? What was this like? Have you ever been intentional about welcoming a stranger? What was this like? Why is it important to cross boundaries of difference and deepen our understanding of the other?

Prayer. 1 min.
This prayer is from the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, used in a prayer service for immigration: Response: Lord, hear our prayer. For an end to the violence and poverty that displaces so many people from their homes and homelands, we pray to the Lord. For migrant workers, that they may labor and live in safe and just conditions, we pray to the Lord. For the families and children of migrant workers, that they be reunited, we pray to the Lord. For an end to human trafficking, that the dignity of all God's children will be acknowledged and protected, we pray to the Lord. For our law-makers, that they establish and enforce laws that protect the rights and dignity of everyone, especially those most vulnerable in our country, we pray to the Lord. For employers and corporations, that they choose the dignity and worth of each human person over profit and power, we pray to the Lord. For our faith community, that we may continue to serve those without homes and resources, and that we speak out for just immigration reform, we pray to the Lord. The Gospel and the directives of our congregation call us to help. We welcome the invitation to be true to the call. Amen.

** additional resource materials/web links**

Images Moving Walls Documentary Photography Project from the Soros Foundation Unified Field: The Border exhibit by Beatriz Ezban Poetry The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes The Poetry of Angel Island You Bring Out the Mexican in Me by Sandra Cisneros The Stranger by Rudyard Kipling The Immigrants by Margaret Atwood next to of course god america i by e.e. cummings Songs Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin Hello Stranger covered by Emmylou Harris and Ricky Skaggs Mas Americanos by Los Tigres Del Norte Lady of the Harbor by Si Kahn Border Song by Elton John Icky Thump by The White Stripes Refugee by Tom Pettty TED Talks Patricia Ryan: Dont Insist on English Parag Khanna Maps the Future of Countries Ethan Zuckerman: Listening to Global Voices Movie Trailers Crossing Arizona Balseros House of Sand and Fog God Grew Tired of Us Crash Gran Torino Stats/Research/Policy Pew Hispanic Center National Conference of State Legislatures Quotes Walk cheerfully over the earth, answering that of God in every human being. George Fox

All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian. Pat Paulsen Good things happen when you meet strangers. Yo Yo Ma Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people. Bill Moyers Books Faith Beyond Borders: Doing Justice in a Dangerous World by Don Mosley Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros Common Fire: Lives of Commitment in a Complex World by Jim and Cheryl Keen, Laurent Parks Daloz and Sharon Daloz Parks Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony by Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas Podcasts/NPR Archives of Krista Tippetts Being Latino Migrations and the Changing Face of Religion in the Americas The Dignity of Difference Religious Passion, Pluralism, and the Young Globalizing the Sacred