What is a Chalice Circle / Covenant Group?

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Chalice Circles/Covenant Groups

Small Group Ministry

The purpose of the content and process is to create gatherings that invite intimacy, allow for serious engagement with religious and spiritual topics, and lead toward expression of our principles and values in action. The intention is to obtain a balance of the personal and the thought provoking

The core of the content is the group’s shared life stories in response to thought provoking UU oriented themes, and the insights we draw from them. SGM meetings are generally structured around worship, intimate connection with one another, radical listening, exploring a theme together, and openness to what comes next. The materials to support these include meeting outlines, openings, songs, readings, questions to prompt discussion, closings, and ceremonies for group transitions (beginning, bringing in new group members, sending members forth, birthing new groups, transitioning leadership, and ending groups).

 

Promoting:

·        Personal and Spiritual Growth

·        Relationships Within the Community

·        Interactions on a Meaningful Level

 

WHAT DOES SMALL GROUP MINISTRY DO?

It enables us to discover what we really value, and encourages us to express those values in our actions, transforming our society. Its primary emphasis is to care for people---to serve them, encourage them to spiritual growth, and meet their needs for affirmation and acceptance. It creates an open, supportive, nurturing environment that promotes and facilitates spiritual growth and mutual, interactive care for one another. It offers opportunities to search and grow at our own pace and in our own way through telling our stories, learning, loving one another, and contributing ourselves and our resources. It offers an open chair, recognizing that everybody needs a place to experience community. Excitement and enthusiasm arise as lives change and new people enter into meaningful relationship in community in which everybody is cared for. It provides a quality of caring and intimacy that many people long for. Although its leaders are not trained to be professional counselors, it provides opportunities for members to be referred to sources of the appropriate care they require. In the small groups we can identify and use our spiritual gifts.

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