All Ages Ingathering Service with Water Communion
September 9th, 2012
Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church
+INGATHERING MUSIC David Chapman, Music Director and pianist
+PROCESSIONAL HYMN #1000 Morning Has Come
CALL TO WORSHIP AND WELCOME Rev. Diane Teichert, Minister
Erica Shadowsong, Director of Religious Exploration
CHORAL INTROIT Come Into this Place Jim Scott
UNISON CHALICE LIGHTING
We light the chalice to celebrate Unitarian Universalism.
This is the church of the open mind, the helping hands,
the loving heart, and the radiant spirit
OUR SIX SOURCES 2012-2013 Worship Associates
John Sebastian, Carol Carter Walker; Celinda Marsh, Ken Redd;
Jonathan Mawdsley, Bettie Young; and Montana Monardes
DIANE:
Many of us are familiar with the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism – you may remember, in which we covenant to affirm and promote, firstly, the Inherent worth and dignity of every person and, lastly, the interdependent web of life, with five other principles for the living of our lives between the first and last.
But not so many know that at the same time – not quite thirty years ago – that Unitarian Universalist congregations adopted the Seven Principles, they adopted a statement of five Sources for our living tradition and in 1995 they added a sixth. We will be exploring these Six Sources throughout the year, one by one, in worship here in the Meetinghouse and in youth worship, and possibly in other ways, too – I’m open to your suggestions.
So, today, we will introduce the Six Sources and the original statement’s opening and closing lines. They will be read by this year’s Worship Associates. Also, we have a symbol for each Source, which will reappear again in future worship services that explore that Source. We need six young people to show off these symbolic objects – if you want to help out, please raise your hand and Erica will choose six ( a teen was recruited in advance to hold the one breakable object) Meet Erica over there (Point).
Montana Monardes, this year’s Youth Worship Associate, will read its opening and closing lines, as it was adopted in 1984-85:
MONTANA:
“Our living tradition draws from many sources:”
JOHN (symbol: beautiful glass bowl. Erica will send teen to the front of the platform to hold it high. And you start reading):
Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.
CELINDA (symbol: MLK poster – Erica will send child to front of platform to hold it high and then you read):
Words and deeds of prophetic women and men, which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.
CAROL (symbol: inflated globe – Erica will send child to front of platform to hold it high and then you read):
Wisdom from the world’s religions, which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life.
BETTIE (symbol: scroll – Erica will send child to front of platform to hold it high and then you read):
Jewish and Christian teachings, which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
KEN (symbol: oversized magnifying glass – Erica will send child to front of platform to hold it high and then you read):
Humanist teachings, which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
JONATHAN (symbol: butterfly or dream catcher – Erica will send child to front of platform to hold it high and then you read):
And, lastly: Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions, which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
MONTANA:
Grateful for the religious pluralism that enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision.
DIANE:
As we revisit and explore each of these Sources this morning, the Worship Associate will read it aloud again and you are invited to respond by reading the youth-friendly words printed in bold italics on the insert in your Order of Service.
(To the kids sitting on the edge of the platform holding the symbols): Thank you for helping out. Please give the symbols back to Erica and return to your seats.
OUR OWN EXPERIENCE
JOHN: Please find the insert in your Bulletin and be ready to read the words of the first source printed in bold italics along with me, after I read the original words to you. Our first source is: “Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life.” Or, in simpler words:
John and Congregation: The sense of wonder we all share.
INVITATION TO REFLECTION
DIANE:
If we stop to think and remember, each of us has likely had such an experience of mystery and wonder that renewed our spirits and opened us up to the Spirit of Life. I want to invite you – and for parents to help young children – to remember a time when you experienced something that took you deeper into or beyond yourself, and filled you with a sense of wonder. For you, it may be an experience in nature; at a birth or a death; through music, art, dance or literature; or of Jesus or of the divine by whatsoever name we worship, if any.
The ways to have such direct experience are as varied as we are different from one another. But just think of one such direct personal experience of wonder you’ve had and write it on the appropriate side of the blue paper water drop inserted in the Bulletin, to be collected during the Water Communion, and then posted on the windows for a waterfall of wonder. If you need a pencil, please raise your hand and an usher will bring you one.
Then, listen to the choir – does their song suggest to you this sense of wonder?
CHOIR Spirit Eternal Carl Strommen
Mark Cornick, Percussionist
PROPHETIC WORDS AND DEEDS
CELINDA: Please find the insert in your Bulletin and be ready to read the simpler version of the second source printed in bold italics along with me, after I read the original words to you. Our second source is: “Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.” Or, in simpler words:
Celinda and Congregation: What wise men and women have said and done.
CELINDA: One such wise person is the contemporary African American visionary Maya Angelou. The Chalice Dancers will dance as she reads her poem “Still I Rise.”
DANCE Still I Rise Maya Angelou (recording)
Paint Branch Chalice Dancers
Sharon Werth, Director/Choreographer
WISDOM FROM WORLD RELIGIONS
CAROL: Please find the insert in your Bulletin and be ready to read the simpler words printed in bold italics along with me, after I read the original words to you. Our third source is: “Wisdom from the world’s religions that inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life.” Or, in simpler words:
Carol and Congregation: Lessons from all religions that help us tell right from wrong.
STORY Words to Live By Farid al Din Abu Hamid (Iran, c. 1200)
Erica Shadowsong, Director of Religious Exploration
JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS
BETTIE: Our fourth source is: “Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.” Or, in simpler words:
Bettie and Congregation: Jewish and Christian lessons that teach us to love each other as God loves us.
HOMILY By Diane Scriptures as Library
As in all ancient traditions, the Jewish and Christian teachings, or scriptures, were not written; they were spoken. People told stories and lessons to each other and to their children and their children’s children, and over time the stories became so familiar they were just what people knew. Picture stories were drawn in dirt or sand, temporarily, or more permanently in caves or on really large rocks.
Eventually, people started writing down the stories and lessons, and when they did, there were no notebooks, or notebook computers or IPods. They didn’t even have paper, like we have today. They made their own paper from plants, dried it in flat, thin sheets, wrote the stories and lessons on them, and rolled them up to be scrolls – like this (show symbol).
Over the years, they’ve been translated from the original languages, revised often to suit the purposes of the writers at the time, and published as books. The book of Jewish scriptures is called the Tanakh. It contains the lessons and stories of the Jewish people in ancient times. The Christian scriptures tell the story of Jesus, his lessons, and give instructions to the Christian communities that grew after his death. Both the Jewish and Christian scriptures are in the book called the Bible.
This year, we will be telling fascinating stories and intriguing lessons from the Bible and asking ourselves, what might they mean to us, today?
OFFERTORY WITH SILENT CANDLES OF JOY AND SORROW
HUMANIST TEACHINGS “A Scientist Talks about Faith”
SKIT
Diane:
Albert Einstein, the famous 20th century scientist, was a humanist, so to illustrate the Fifth Source, I’d like to introduce you to him. Dr. Einstein, meet my people.
(John Bartoli, wearing a white coat and an Einstein wig, silently nods his head to the congregation – he tended to be quiet in public).
Diane: The setting is a dinner party in 1929, the year he turned 50. One of the guests expresses a belief in astrology.
John: Pure superstition!
Diane: Another guest speaks up saying, “Belief in God is likewise a superstition.” At this point the party host tries to head off an unpleasant argument by saying that even Einstein harbors religious beliefs. “It isn’t possible!” the skeptical guest says, turning to Einstein to ask, “Are you, in fact, religious?”
John, very calmly: “Yes, you can call it that. Try and penetrate with our limited minds the secrets of nature, and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.”
Diane: But, Dr. Einstein, Do you believe in God?
John: “I’m not an atheist. I believe in a God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”
Diane: Do you believe in immortality?
John: “No. And one life is enough for me.”
(Excerpted from Time Magazine, Einstein & Faith, Thursday, Apr. 05, 2007)
NATURE-CENTERED SPIRITUALITY
JONATHAN: Our sixth source is: “Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions, which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.” Or, in simpler words:
Jonathan and Congregation: Religious teachings about caring for the earth and celebrating nature.
Annual Ingathering Water Communion
Diane: One of the circles of life is the cycle of water from clouds in the sky, to rain, into streams, lakes, rivers and oceans, and then back into the air, through evaporation, where it forms clouds again. Our congregation has its own circle of life.
It’s our tradition here, and a tradition in many Unitarian Universalist congregations, to symbolize our annual cycle of re-gathering after scattering somewhat for the summer, by all of us pouring small amounts of water representing our summer’s most meaningful story into a bowl (point to bowl). If you didn’t bring water with you, you may pour a little from one of the pitchers. As we do, the water commingles. It all comes together – like the people here.
Erica:
We come together into a community, as a community that wants to be, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, a Beloved Community! Our separate summer stories come together and become our collective story!
Diane:
To help us tell our stories, on the other side of your blue paper water drop is a place to write about your water – where it is from and what meaning it has for you – what is sacred or special about your water or what it represents about your summer?
Erica:
Each person may write their own or if you came with people you live with, you might want to do one together. It’s up to you. If you are near someone who needs help writing, please help them. Parents, please take a moment to talk with your families about what was special, or sacred, about your summer. If you need a pencil, please raise your hand and an usher will bring you one.
Diane:
When you are finished writing, please bring your water and your paper water drop with you as you move up the center aisle to the table. After you pour your water in the bowl (again, we have pitchers for people who didn’t bring water), please move down the side aisles to the back windows, where Worship Associates will tape our paper water drops on the windows to become, like I said before, a Waterfall of Wonder. It will remain there for the rest of September, so we can read each other’s summer stories and about each other’s “direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.”
HYMN #359 When We Are Gathered
ANNOUNCEMENTS
CLOSING WORDS
We have re-gathered, we’ve rejoiced to be together, and we’ve experienced — in sharing, song, dance, story, words, a bit of drama, and the Water Communion — the Six Sources from which our Unitarian Universalist living tradition draws.
After we sing Spirit of Life, while the choir is singing, Erica and I will recess out with the bowls of water. She will be carrying the water out into the foyer and down to the garden. All children, youth, and parents of the youngest are invited to follow her there to all help water the garden with the water from our common bowl.
Now please rise as you are able to sing Hymn #123, Spirit of Life.
RESPONSE #123 Spirit of Life
CHORAL POSTLUDE Spirit Eternal (reprise)
Youth, children, and parents of the youngest are invited
to recess with Erica Shadowsong, DRE, to water the garden.
EXTINGUISHING THE CHALICE
MUSIC TO LEAVE BY
– The End –
Six Sources of Unitarian Universalism
(Original wording – youth-friendly wording)
- Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life.
The sense of wonder we all share.
- Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.
What wise men and women have said and done.
- Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life.
Lessons from all religions that help us tell right from wrong.
- Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Jewish and Christian lessons that teach us to love each other as God loves us.
- Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
Science and reason.
- Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
Religious teachings about caring for the earth and celebrating nature.