YMCA Adventure Guides: Ceremonies

Included here are a few examples of Adventure Guide ceremonies. For other ceremonies, check out the member manual Friends Forever or the leader’s manual Leading the Way.

Adventure Guides compass logo
  

Naming Ceremony

Circle Ceremonies:
Sample Opening Rituals
Sample Closing Rituals

Transition Ceremony (PDF)

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Naming Ceremony
photo of participantsSelecting a nickname is an important part of the program. A ritual where we retire the Circle members’ given names and begin using their nicknames is ceremonious. The ceremony can be elaborate or as simple as this. “Dan, the YMCA Adventure Guides program recognizes the value of creating a program identity. What name have you selected as your program nickname?” (Dan answers). “From this point forward, you will be forever known as [program nickname] by the fellow members of the [name] Circle. Log Keeper; please record [Dan’s program nickname] into our [Circle name] logbook.”

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Circle Ceremonies

Sample Opening Rituals

  Navigator:

“All members young and old of the ________ Circle will now come to the Circle.”
  Junior Host: (Beats the Circle drum once for each parent and child member present.)
  Navigator: “We give thanks for this home and the _____ (hosts) who have shared it with us tonight.”
  Members: “We give thanks!”
  Navigator: “____ (Junior Host) will now lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.”
  Junior Host: (Leads pledge.)
  Navigator: “Members, what is the purpose of the ___Circle?”
  Members: "To foster companionship of parent and child.”
  Navigator: "What are the aims of the ___ Circle?”
  Members:

“To be clean in body and pure in heart.
To be friends forever with my dad/mom/son/daughter.
To love the sacred circle of my family.
To listen while others speak.
To love my neighbor as myself.
To respect the traditions and beliefs of all people.
To seek and preserve the beauty of our Creator’s work in forest, field, and stream.”
  Navigator: “May this night be a blessing to all who are with us and those who are not be kept safe as well” (or other short prayer).

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Sample Closing Rituals

  Navigator: “All members, young and old, of the ___ Circle will now return to the circle for our closing.” (The Navigator may offer some very brief words of reminder and thanks.)
  Members:

(Recite closing prayer, blessing, poem, or thought. Some examples are included here.)


 

I.

“Great Creator of the Universe,
guide us until we meet again.”

(Start with arms and faces upraised and lower as the prayer is recited until arms are joined in circle.)
 

II.

“And now…
May our Great Father in Heaven

Be with you…

For today
And forevermore.”

(pointing to the ground)
(arms raised with hands drawing small circles)
(pointing to other members of the Circle)
(pointing to the ground)
(shooting an arrow into the sky)

 

III.

“We honor our families…

Our friends of today…
Our many tomorrows together…
Under God’s guidance and direction.”

(arms around shoulder of parent or child)
(arms around shoulders in the circle)
(arms upraised)
(arms lowered)

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