WATER COMMUNION A Multi-Generational Service by Fritz Hudson August 28, 2011

Transcription

1 WATER COMMUNION A Multi-Generational Service by Fritz Hudson August 28, 2011 Bell Introit: "Prelude" from Le Tombeau de Couperin Bill Carpenter, by Maurice Ravel piano Opening Words: (Laura Dais Center): We're coming home to the spirit in your soul We're coming home and the healing makes us whole Like the rivers running to the sea, We're coming home, we're coming home. These words have opened the Unitarian Universalist Water Service since its creation. It's our annual ritual for "Ingatherings", our return in autumn to full life. Today we welcome you to our church, the Unitarian Church of Lincoln, and sharing this service with congregations of our faith around the world. Our opening song this morning is "For the Earth Forever Turning", Number 163 in your hymnal. We'll all remain in our places for all the verses this morning. Let's rise and sing. Opening Song: #163 "For the Earth Forever Turning" Chalice Lighting: (Fritz Floor Left:) We light this chalice to celebrate Unitarian Universalism. We are a church of open minds. We are a church of the loving hearts. We are a church of the helping hands. Together we care for our earth and work for friendship and peace in our world. Welcome: Fritz Floor Left: I want to welcome those among you who are new or visiting among us today. If you and I haven't met yet, I'll be standing at the front entrance after the service. I hope you'll stop by up just so we can get a little acquainted. Our Annual Water Service celebrates our power as individuals, in ritual and in symbol. Each of us, in our own way, out of our own lives, has the power to renew our entire community. We, each, in our lives apart, experience sights, sounds, feelings - in our homes, our schools and workplaces, our neighborhoods nearby or when traveling afar- which connect us to the life within us. And they give us power to bring life to us all when we come together. 1

2 Laura Floor Right: We symbolize this truth by bringing water we have collected, or drawing water from this reservoir, and then pouring it into our common bowl. You can come to our bowl either from in front or behind, according to your comfort. As we pour, we speak simple words. We say - first our name, - then where we have found individual renewal where the water comes from. - then what kind of power it offers our community what it means to us. This is a service, throughout, for all ages. We encourage families to come up together to pour your water and speak your words. If you need to wiggle or giggle, the Gallery Space is yours as is the Nursery & Parent's Lounge, Room 1 down the right hall and our Preschool leaders are also providing alternate programming for that age in their room 5, all the way at the end of the hall Chelsea Floor Left: In a moment we will begin to gather water into this bowl. We'll bring our separate spirits into our shared soul for this time. We will invite you to come up in four different groups, as you are moved to place yourselves by our invitation. We will call you from the four directions, east, south, west, and north. It is for you to decide which of those directions you come from today. Karen Floor Right: You might decide you come from the direction in which you traveled from Lincoln this past summer: east toward the Atlantic or beyond; south toward the Caribbean or beyond; west toward the Pacific or beyond; north toward the Arctic, or beyond? You might decide you come from the direction where you actually arose this morning - the direction where your day-to-day home in our community lies: east toward Stevens Creek or beyond; south toward Beal Slough or beyond; west toward the Salt Creek or beyond; north toward the Platte River or beyond. Jean Floor Left: You might even decide you come from the direction whose spirit comes closest to expressing the kind of renewed power you're feeling today: - from the east if your feelings are awakening like the dawn, perhaps; - from the south if your feelings are languid as at mid-day perhaps; - from the west if your feelings are settling like the dusk perhaps; - from the north if your feelings are cool as the night, perhaps. Listen to your spirit; it will find your direction. 2

3 But before we move at all, let us open ourselves to receive what our time here together will give us. The ancient Chinese teacher, Lao Tse, wrote that "The Tao (the Way) is (like) the emptiness of a vessel; and in our employment of it we must be on our guard against all fullness. How deep and unfathomable it is, as if it were the Honoured Ancestor of all things!" (Tao Te Ching Ch.4) Our bowl before us begins in emptiness. No matter how full we feel in coming, let us begin by finding our emptiness within as well. Before we say and hear our words, let us, in silence, now make an open space within. (15 seconds) (Rain Stick Sound) And out of our silence, out of our emptiness, now let words arise first in each of our minds. Let words arise that you might say as you pour water into our bowl. In your own words, wellchosen, simple, - where have you felt life surge this summer where does your water come from? - what does your spirit offer, to fill our cup, what does your water mean to you? (15 seconds) Interlude: (Bill) "Oh Healing River" (piano instrumental) Ingathering Rite: (Fritz Dais Center) To frame our communion from its four directions, we will sing together verses from the song "Oh Healing River." We'll sing a different verse each time we change directions. Bill has just played the melody of the song for us. In a moment, we'll begin our singing with the first verse. Now we are ready begin our communion. A full year ago, we set out in exactly the same way. And, we anticipated then that we would indeed arrive here for renewal. If you were here then, you may remember that we poured and stored a bit of the water we gathered that day to pour as the first drop in forming our stream today. So let me set our stream in motion again. (Pour water) This Water is from our "Water 2010" To me it means "timely & timeless connections" Introit (Congregation with piano) (Bill) " send down your waters upon this land and wash the blood from off the sand." Invitation: (Fritz Floor Left) If your water is of the east, please come and form a line along the south wall. Bill: "Oh Healing River" (piano instrumental) 3

4 Laura Floor Right: I am a Wizard of shapes and moods I am ice, I am fog I grow your food I quench your thirst I flood, I launder I mirror, I skip I race, I wander I dribble and drip I float a ship I sooth a throat I brew your tea I swim in you You swim in me -Constance Levy Now, one after the other, would you come forward pour in your water and tell us where it's from and what it means to you. "This land is parching, this land is burning, no seed is growing in the barren ground. Oh healing river, send your waters down. Invitation (Fritz Floor Left): If your water is of the south, please form your line now. Bill "Oh Healing River" (piano instrumental) Chelsea Floor Right: And the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Genesis 1:2 Now, southerners, please you add your water and your words. "Let the seed of freedom awake and flourish let the deep roots nourish, let the tall stalks rise. Oh healing river, from out of the skies. Invitation: (Fritz Floor Left:) If your water is of the west, please form your line now. 4

5 Bill: "Oh Healing River" (piano instrumental) Karen Floor Right: "It is wise to bring some water, when one goes out to look for water" - Arab Proverb "By means of water, we give life to everything." Holy Koran (21:30) Now, westerners, please you add your water and your words. "This land is parching, this land is burning, no seed is growing in the barren ground. Oh healing river, send your waters down. Invitation: (Fritz Floor Left): If your water is of the north, please come forward now. Bill:"Oh Healing River" (piano instrumental) Jean Floor Right: The words on labels tell this tale, In recipes, in ads by mail, And chances are, at work or play, You'll see these famous words today - Just add water. You'd be surprised how many things Are dry and useless till one brings The magic liquid known to all; You use it when you heed the call - Just add water. David J. Ford And now, northerners, please you add your water and your words: "Let the seed of freedom awake and flourish let the deep roots nourish, let the tall stalks rise. Oh healing river send down your waters Oh healing river from out of the skies." Offertory & Announcements: (Fritz Floor Left) Fritz Floor Left And now as the money we're giving to our work finishes its journey to our collection plates, I invite you to think with me back over the words we all brought with our water this morning. Those words are kind of like pebbles dropped into our bowl. All of them 5

6 start ripples out into our work. Some sound to make echoes in our ears. Let us pause now to hear some of those echoes. What did you hear one of us say that is still ringing in your ears? What meaning or power did they bring? Would you repeat it now to remind us what's here to renew us? OPEN SHARING Watering Rite Laura Floor Right: "It is better to leave a vessel unfilled, than to attempt to carry it when it is full." Lao Tse also said. (Chapter 15) So let us prepare to leave our vessel unfilled again. In this year, we will welcome children and new members into our service. We will give them flowers. First we save some of this water to feed those flowers. In this year, though we wish it weren't so, we know some among us will find life's end. We will release some dust among us into our memorial garden. We now save some of this water to nourish that garden. When we come round again to begin our next summer, we will gather for our Flower. We will bring the blooms of our work together into this bowl. We now some of this water to nourish those blooms. Finally, when this year before us completes its turn, we will gather again at summer's end to renew our life together at next year's Water. We now save some of this water as the first drop to begin our stream then, yet again and again and again. Throughout this year's turning, of course, each week, each Sunday in all seasons we will seek small renewals here in the sight and shade of our tree of life. We now give our water to its life for our life. (Fritz pour bowl into tree pot) Congregational Song: (Laura Dais Center) Our closing song is "I've Got Peace Like a River". Number 100. Let us rise and sing. Closing Song: #100 "I've Got Peace Like a River" 6

7 Closing Words: (Laura Dais Center) All the waters run to the sea and yet the sea is not full; From the place the waters begin, there do they return again. Ecclesiastes Closing Music: "Un Poco Adagio" & "Allegro" from Sonatina Op.36 No.3 by Muzio Clementi Chalice Extinguishing: (Laura Floor Right): Go in peace 7