September 11th is our Water Ceremony, which marks for most Unitarian Universalists as the beginning of the church year. This ceremony was developed a long time ago as a way for the church to come back together after a summer hiatus. People would tell about what they did for the summer and reconnect. But gone are the days when the church takes a summer hiatus. And people realized that after a while, the ceremony became a kind of “bragging rights” about the exotic places people went, leaving many to feel left out or even unable to participate.
Yet this ritual can be so wonderful! After all, water is integral to our lives; we are almost 2/3rds water! So each year, instead of doing a travelogue about where we’ve been, I invite people to talk about what is important to them, from the past year, usually around the theme of that month.
This year our worship theme for September is “Vocation.” As you add your water (and you can bring your own or use a pitcher that will be provided), you are invited to consider how you are called as a Unitarian Universalist to be in the world. What does that mean for you?
Let this Water Ceremony be a time of both connection with one another and a connection to the world around us.
With love,
Rev. Sian