This Sunday, we will celebrate our annual “Ingathering”. This is a time of return, recommitment and re-energizing for the church year ahead. It is also a time of reflection on where we have been…even if that hasn’t been physically very far away at all.
As in past years, we will celebrate this time of coming together with a Water Ceremony. My hope is that we can be inspired by the women who first performed this ritual in Michigan in 1980. Amid the sometimes-turbulent efforts to increase the representation and leadership of women in Unitarian Universalism during its first two decades, Lucille Shuck Longview and Carolyn McDade created a service of empowerment and connection bringing together women from across the country and the UU universe. While today’s “Water Communion” can sometimes feel like a travelogue or show-and-tell, my hope is that this year we are able to return to the spirit and original intent of the ritual thinking about the water and items brought with you to church as representative of why you come back to this community, how you are connected to each other and what you hope to share.
You are welcome to bring a small amount of meaningful water, or an item or even just your intention to the ritual. This time is about interconnectedness and being nurtured and nourished by everything we bring into our relationships with one another. Let us honor this shared moment as well as the pioneering and prophetic efforts of Lucille Schuck Longview and Carolyn McDade and all Unitarian Universalist women as we gather together.
Learn more about the origins of the Water Ceremony and its founders:
Lucille Schuck Longview – https://lucilesrednotebook.org/water-ritual-origins/
Carolyn McDade – https://www.carolynmcdademusic.com/index.htm