Mid-week Message
from our Developmental Lead Minister
August 23, 2023
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro
Friends,
Water is a powerful force of nature. It has the power to move objects and transform landscapes. It has the ability to take on many forms, from solid to liquid to gas. It exists in a multitude of places, from underground aquifers, to streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, glaciers, and clouds. It falls from the sky as rain and snow. It waters the crops that feed us. It soothes, cleanses, and hydrates our bodies. Water is essential for life to exist. Water is a blessing given from sources beyond ourselves.
The Water Communion is a traditional ritual of ingathering in our Unitarian Universalist congregations. We come together and pour water into a common bowl as a symbol of our individual lives mingled together into one strong body. Like rivers returning to the sea, we return to the living water of our faith community. Not so much a baptism in the traditional sense, not a washing away of sin, but a full immersion into the life of the congregation.
The Water Communion is a renewal of our covenant and commitment to nurture and care for each other. Just as water is a blessing in our lives, each of us brings blessings to the community. As you prepare to participate in FUUN’s annual water communion ritual this coming Sunday, take some time to reflect on where your summer journeys have taken you, be they physical journeys or journeys of the spirit. What blessings did you receive? What blessings do you bring to the congregation as we begin a new church year?
The blessings will become part of the ritual, symbolizing our deepest intentions for the coming year. At the end of the service we will gather in the memory garden in the yard outside the sanctuary. At that time, you will be invited to pour water on the ground in memory of someone you have lost, or in memory of someone whose ashes are interred in the memory garden.
I look forward to seeing you in church — in person or online — as we share this powerful ritual together.
Yours in shared ministry,
Rev. Diane