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Our Special Water Communion Ceremony: honoring the gift of life

Join us Sunday, September 9, at the church at 10 a.m.

Led by Rev. Elaine Bomford

leting the Water Communion

        The Water Communion, also sometimes called Water Ceremony, was first used at a Unitarian Universalist (UU) worship service in the 1980s. Many UU congregations now hold a Water Communion once a year, often at the beginning of the new church year (September).

        Members bring to the service a small amount of water from a place that is special to them, anything from an ocean to their own wells. During the appointed time in the service, people one by one pour their water together into a large bowl, often started with water from previous years. As the water is added, the person who brought it tells why this water and/or the event is special to them. The combined water is symbolic of our shared faith coming from many different sources. It is often then blessed by the congregation, and sometimes is later boiled and used as the congregation's "holy water" in child dedication ceremonies and similar events. 

        At the Walpole Unitarian Church, we stock our crystal bowl at Water Communion with water from last year, which held water from the year before, which held water from the year before......that's a lot of shared expreiences and emotions in this precious fluid, saved through the years as a symbol of continutiy, and made up of water from oceans and streams and taps and tears of our lives.

Water                                                      Gratitude

 

Drops,                                                              When you drink water,

Water cleanses,                                                Remember the source.

Gathers in the earth.                                                 

Tender. Invasive. Subtle.

Emerges a shining river.

When small, it is weak.

When great, it tumbles mountains,

Rendering great cliffs

Sand.

 

                        One of our most basic acts is drinking water. Without it, we could not sustain ourselves. Water cleanses us, cools us, and is an essential component of most of our biological processes. But when we drink it are we aware of what it does?  Do we think of its source and all the efforts that make it possible for us to have this simple glass of water?

                        Being spiritual means not taking things for granted. Quite the opposite, you remember how everything that came to you fits into an overall scheme. You acknowledge the precious quality of everyday things. And you maintain a gratitude for both the good and the bad in your life.

 

~365 Tao Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao

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