Reflection, Briefest, On The New Church Year

Our official church year kicks off this morning.

We follow what has become more or less normative among Unitarian Universalist congregations in that the sermon is mostly replaced by what is called a water communion. It is not a communion in the Christian sense of eucharist, but rather a sharing, a bringing together.

People bring some water, often from a tap at home, perhaps more often gathered on some summer jaunt, occasionally from someplace exotic, but increasingly more often from someplace dear to the heart and frequently visited, around here that usually means the Cape or Maine or some other part of northern New England.

The different waters are all gathered together.

I think originally the deal was sort of a travelogue. But the spirit has descended and now it is a word or two about what inspiration people are bringing home to their church home.

Water is a powerful image.

It is our mother, of course.

It gives us life every day.

And like our life itself, we can shift

that image from this to that

as we need

from how it sustains us to how it is us.

We are the waves and that which joins us all is the great ocean.

And back to how it sustains us

We are gathered together on a small boat sailing that ocean…

Time to celebrate. To remember. To mourn those we’ve lost and

to recall those hopes as we go forward.