Message from Butterflies – 13/08/23

Opening Music: played by Peter Crockford

Opening Words of Welcome & Chalice Lighting: ‘We lift up our hearts in thanks’ by Richard Fewkes

Good morning everybody and welcome to Kensington Unitarians’ Sunday gathering. Welcome to those of you joining us online and to those of you gathered here in person at Essex Church in Notting Hill, London. For those of you I’ve not met before I’m Sarah Tinker, and I’m delighted to be here with you this morning.

Today’s service has butterflies as its theme and Heidi Ferid will be talking to us later about her use of butterfly imagery in her art work. And our invitation as always is for each of us to find some message in our gathering – through words and music and silence – let’s make space for us to hear the silent whisperings of our hearts, to sense the great call of life itself that beckons us onwards, though we may not know where or how.

So let’s take a moment now to take breath and take stock. Together let’s take a conscious breath. Allow your every molecule to settle here and now, for we have set aside this hour to spend together, it’s a time for us to reflect, to turn inwards, for our thoughts to drift off perhaps or to be more focused and alert. May we all in this next hour find something of that which we seek in our lives.

Our chalice flame is lit and reminds us of our worldwide Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist community, a beacon of light, reminding us that we are one people living one life on this our one planet earth home. How very precious is this shared life.

“For the sun and the dawn which we did not create; for the moon and the evening which we did not make; for food which we plant but cannot grow; for friends and loved ones we have not earned and cannot buy; for this gathered community which welcomes us as we are, from wherever we have come; for the freedom and commitment of communities such as ours, that keep us human and encourage us in our quest for beauty, truth and love; for all things which come to us as gifts of being from sources beyond ourselves–gifts of life and love and friendship–we lift up our hearts in thanks this day.” (words adapted from Richard M Fewkes)

Hymn 38 (grey): ‘Morning has Broken’

Our first hymn this morning is in our grey hymn book if you’re here in church – for those of you online the words will appear on your screens. It’s number 38 Morning has Broken, with words by poet Eleanor Farjeon. And if you have a hymnbook to look at you’ll see at the top left the name of the hymn tune which is Bunessan – Bunessan is a small village on the Scottish island of Mull – a beautiful place – and this is an old Gaelic melody, it’s a lovely tune – let’s sing, or feel free to simply enjoy listening.

Morning has broken
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing
Fresh from the Word!

Sweet the rain’s new fall
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the fresh dewfall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where God’s feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight!
Mine is the morning
Born of the one light
Eden saw play!
Praise with elation,
Praise every morning,
God’s re-creation
Of the new day!

Candles of Joy and Concern

Each week when we gather together, we share a simple ritual of candles of joy and concern, an opportunity to light a candle and share something that is in our heart with the community. So we’ve an opportunity now, for anyone who would like to do so, to light a candle and say a few words about what it represents. This time we’re going to go to the people in the building first, and take all of those in one go, and then I’ll call on the people on Zoom to come forward.

So I invite some of you here in person to come and light a candle and then if you wish to tell us briefly who or what you light your candle for. Please do get up close to the microphone as that will help everyone hear (including the people at home). You can take the microphone out of the stand if it’s not at a good height and have it microphone pointing right at your mouth. And if you can’t get to the microphone give me a wave and I’ll bring it over to you. Thank you.

(in person candles)

And if that’s everyone in the room we’ll go over to the people on Zoom next – you might like to switch to gallery view at this stage – just unmute yourselves when you are ready and speak out – and we should be able to hear you and see you up on the big screen here in the church.

(zoom candles)

And I’m going to light one more candle, as we often do, to represent all those joys and concerns that we hold in our hearts this day, but which we don’t feel able to speak out loud. (light candle)

Time of Prayer and Reflection for our beautiful and turbulent world

Let us join now in a time of shared prayer and reflection in which I call on the divine spirit of life and of love to be with us now and to bless all that we do and say together today. May each of us now align ourselves with that which we hold to be of greatest worth in the living of our lives, entering that quiet inner space where new insights may emerge.

Let’s give thanks for the beauty of this day, for our lives and for life gifts we have been given.

And if we feel so able, let us give thanks for the difficult tasks and experiences our life is presenting to us, knowing that no life journey is without difficulty, without stumbling.

The times in which we live are often turbulent. We hear so much of the world’s problems and can feel so helpless in the face of such seemingly irresolvable dilemmas in our own lives as in the life of the world.

Yet, just as muddy waters shaken up in a jar will eventually settle and clear let us now allow ourselves to settle, to find a place of clear calm within, bring a peaceful spaciousness to our way of being here in our world, an opportunity to strengthen our inner resources, our power within.

Let us pray for our world’s leaders, that they might work for the highest good, transcending the limitations of their particular group or party, aiming beyond self-interest but rather for the highest good of all.

As we pray for the people of Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and the Palestinian territories, those living in the Sudan and all the other troubled countries of the world that they might find a way to peace. We think of all those dealing with wildfires the world over and pray for their safety.

As we pray for the world’s scientists and engineers – that they might find solutions to the problems of our day.

As we pray for people in our own lives for whom life is challenging.

And as we pray for the painful places inside ourselves. A few moments of silence for the prayers and cares of your own hearts this day (pause).

Let us imagine a circle of light, like our circle of lit candles on the table here – imagining a circle of light surrounding all difficulties and dilemmas and bringing fresh hope and insight and possibility (pause) and may this be so for the greater good of all, amen.

Hymn 123 (grey): ‘Spirit of Life’ (sung twice)

And now for our second singing opportunity now, it’s number 123 in our grey hymnbooks, with words also appearing on your screens – Spirit of Life, come unto me – it’s quite short so let’s sing it twice. It’s one of Heidi’s favourites.

Spirit of Life, come unto me.
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea;
move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.

A True Story: ‘A butterfly with one wing’

This is quite a long but really interesting story about one butterfly and the people who found it. A minister friend called Joy Croft sent it to me after I’d shared a well known spiritual teaching story with her. That’s one you may have heard before – about a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis? A kindly person tries to help the process by cutting away some of the confining shell and, in so doing, harms the butterfly, who needs to make its own way out in order to grow. The struggle is a crucial part of the butterfly’s development. Now that’s a life lesson I have to learn over and over again – that in trying to help someone we may actually hinder their development in life. But the story I’m going to tell you know holds another message for me – that there is so much to be gained if we pay close attention to our natural world in which we live and move and have our very being. I wonder what message it might have for you – see what you think. I don’t know the name of the man who is telling this story – but his partner is Lynn and they clearly love being in nature:

Early July, we were walking in a local wood we know well. Lynn had gone on ahead a little, I was walking barefoot and had fallen behind (I love walking barefoot in the woods). As I was walking up the path, a butterfly stumbled out of the undergrowth and rolled across the path in front of me, trying to fly but clearly unable to leave the ground. Looking more closely, I realised it only had one wing so cupped my hands around it and picked it up – the missing wing had not developed, there was just a small rolled-up stub where it should have been.

I carried it in my hands to show Lynn. She noticed that other butterflies were feeding on some nearby blackberry flowers so went and picked one and put it in my hand. we also put some drops of water on it. The butterfly freely extended its proboscis into the flower and water droplets – we even held the flowers in front of it for it to feed on… we were feeding a butterfly, there in the woods. It was amazing.

We realised it had little chance of survival if we left it in the woods so decided to take it back home with us. I carried it in my hands back to our car (quite a walk away), where we temporarily transferred it to a small flower pot we found in the boot for Lynn to hold while I drove back. When we got home, we sat in the garden and soon found that buddleia was the perfect flower for a butterfly that could walk, but not fly. We picked a buddleia stem off the tree in our garden, sat on the lawn and held it to the butterfly who quickly climbed onto it and started feeding vigorously!

This carried on all summer. The butterfly came everywhere with us – we took it back and forth from Canterbury to Sussex, to our daughter’s graduation, camping, to the sea, everywhere – we lived with it all summer. Everywhere we went, we looked out for buddleia bushes as a food source. To begin with, we carried it in a flower pot with netting on, then a colander with netting on, and then latterly an actual carrying case made from netting. Wherever we stopped, we took it out and let it walk and flap around on the grass, or table top whilst we were eating, or we held it, lay down and watched it very closely. We developed quite an intimate relationship with this insect, learned about its rhythms of activity and rest, held it, fed it, let it walk on us, and so on.

It died early September. We took it back to the exact place in the wood beside a tree where it had stumbled out onto the path. We noticed at the time that a snail had left an unusually patterned trail higher up on the bark of the tree, like writing. We lay the butterfly on some moss at the foot of the tree, covered it with some leaves and more moss, silently gave thanks and wished it well, and then left.

About six months later I was telling students on a course I teach on dreams at the university the story of the butterfly (as an example of what Jung termed synchronicity), and had shown them a photo I’d taken of the snail trail on the tree where we had returned it. One remarked that the ‘writing’ on the tree said ‘Lep’! – I was amazed I hadn’t seen this before, as it seemed so obvious once pointed out. ‘Lep’ could be short for Lepidoptera, family of butterflies and moths, but in looking deeper I found that the connections between ‘Lep’ and butterflies is much older than this, going back to ancient Indian and Chinese languages too (where it’s linked to words for leaf and flattened out). This was Nature talking…

We felt then, and still do now, that the butterfly was a gift of the forest, a gift of Nature. It has continued to deepen our relationship with and understanding of Her ever since.

Thank you to Lynn and her partner for this story from the living of their lives as part of our natural world.

Words for Meditation: ‘The Ordinary is Extraordinary’ with words from The Grateful Living organisation

The Grateful Living organization was founded in 2000 by Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk who has devoted his life to encouraging interfaith dialogue and to exploring the interweaving of science and spirituality. Brother David is sometimes described as the ‘grandfather of gratitude’ and The Grateful Living website has many wonderful resources freely available – including the text of this guided meditation.

So I invite you to ready yourself for a time of inner focus as these few words will be followed by three minutes of shared silence and stillness together and then a chime from our bell will be followed by Peter playing the piano for us. This short meditation offers an invitation to walk through our days taking nothing for granted, with conscious acknowledgment of the amazing things and people that make up our lives. So let’s get ourselves ready to turn inwards and feel free to follow these words or simply enjoy your own meditative process.

Embrace this ordinary moment to slow down and connect with your breath. As you slowly breathe in, and out, invite an awareness of how your breath is breathing you every moment of the day, while you are doing anything and everything. This breath, and this, a thousand times an hour, without your effort, your lungs are nourishing and renewing all the cells in your body, keeping you alive and connected to all of life in every moment.
The ordinary is extraordinary. When you take nothing for granted, life is abundant.

Breathing, touch, running water, a meal, a tree, a window, routines, everyday activities, the people in your life. It is so easy to lose touch with how amazing life is, to take for granted the people and things in life that could render you awestruck if you had never seen them before or knew you might not see them again. Open yourself to the extraordinary nature of these. Lean in, listen, engage with them anew. What is calling to be recognized in your life?

What we take for granted every day, many people are longing for. We may have once longed for these things ourselves and we very may well again. Can you fill yourself up with a sense of abundance that comes from truly noticing and savouring what is already in your life, from noticing the extraordinary nature of all that it takes to simply be here?

The ordinary is extraordinary. When you take nothing for granted, life is abundant.

Allow yourself to see the things and people you encounter with fresh eyes today. As Brother David Steindl Rast reminds us, if you can respond to what you experience as if it were the first day in your life, you will have used this day very well. Practice not taking for granted all that graces your life. Let yourself marvel at and appreciate the abundance that is already yours as we enter the fellowship of quietness together.

(Meditation used with gratitude to The Grateful Living Organisation (grateful.org) for their generous online offerings.)

Time of Shared Silence and Stillness ended with a chime from our bell

Musical Interlude: ‘The Humming Chorus’ from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly – played by Peter Crockford

Shared Reading 682 (grey): ‘Beauty is Before Me’

At the back of your grey hymnbook are lots of great readings and I’m inviting you now to read together number 682 which is called beauty is before me. These words come from the Navaho nation tradition and I’m reading them with respect and appreciation. I think they have come to mean a great deal to many people around the world. And today let’s read them with particular appreciation and respect for the butterflies of our world and for all of nature of which we are part.

Beauty is before me, and Beauty behind me,
Above me, and below me,
Hovers the beautiful.
I am surrounded by it,
I am immersed in it.
In my youth I am aware of it,
And, in old age, I shall walk quietly the beautiful trail.
In beauty, it is begun,
In beauty, it is ended.

Reflection: ‘The Symbolism of Butterflies’ by Heidi Ferid

I remember a visit to a butterfly farm in the south of Spain, they had many exotic butterflies, but what moved me most was watching a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. There are of course many scientific explanations about the chemical process involved, but for me this transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis and to butterfly is simply a miracle.

I remember gardens full of butterflies in days gone by, but unfortunately they are becoming rarer. I suppose that climate change and modern agricultural practices are to blame.

When I started to paint butterflies I was not so much interested in realistic depiction but more in an emotional and imaginative approach. I want to see them as kind of symbols of transformation.

The first painting I want to talk about is called FOUR SEASON BUTTERFLIES
I start with butterflies in a landscape with fresh spring colours, move to bright summer and mellow autumn to cool winter. Of course we all know there are no butterflies in winter. The caterpillars are hiding in the earth, but we can imagine them and art can help us to activate our imagination, dreams and memories – and go to a different reality beyond our current limitations.

The second painting is titled BUTTERFLIES AND MENADES. In Greek mythology the Menades were female followers of the god Dionysos. They were frequently depicted in art. Greek women went into the forests to perform rituals in honour of this god without male supervision. Not much is known because the women were sworn to secrecy, but some male writers expressed concern. Somehow these stories fired my imagination. I thought the women might have communicated with butterflies The Greek word for butterfly is psyche. These rituals could have been about recovering the female soul. I imagine they might have practiced rituals of dancing with butterflies and the butterflies, in their imagination became larger than life, like forces of nature or life forces . I used different colours to suggest different moods the women might have experienced. Of course nothing like this has ever been recorded, but I find Greek mythology is often a good starting point for many of our own thoughts and feelings.

The third painting is called BUTTERFLY CONVERSATION, here we have two butterflies dancing in a blue sky. One can often see two butterflies of the same kind flying together, in this painting I have given them almost human eyes – it as if they are reflecting back to us.

There is something else I want to mention and I’d be interested to hear what you think. Some people, particularly in olden days, like to collect butterflies, they keep dead butterflies in boxes. I do not like this because it involves killing butterflies. The artist Damian Hurst has created a lot of work with dead butterflies, I am not too keen on this work and I wonder how you feel about it.

In Puccini’s opera ‘Madam Butterfly’ the tragic heroine mentions the practice of killing and collecting butterflies. Peter our pianist is treating us to music from this opera today. I would like to know if you have any thoughts and feelings about butterflies, and what butterflies mean for you. It would be nice to share them over coffee or you might want to email me via the Church.

Hymn 20 (grey): ‘Be Thou My Vision’

Our closing hymn today, number 20 in our grey hymnal or words showing on screens, is an old favourite called be thou my vision, with words from an ancient Irish prayer and sung to an Irish folk melody.

Be thou my vision, O God of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art;
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom and thou my true word,
I ever with thee and thou with me, God;
Thou my soul’s shelter, thou my high tower,
Raise thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor world’s empty praise,
Thou my inheritance, now and always;
Thou and thou only, first in my heart,
Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.

Announcements (see back page for further details)

Thanks to Ramona for tech-hosting and Charlotte for co-hosting. Thanks to Heidi for sharing her ideas with us. Thanks to Peter for beautifully themed music. Thanks Patricia for greeting too and David for serving our drinks. For those of you who are here in-person, please do hang around for a chat after the service. If you’re joining us online you’re welcome to stay online after the service for a chat with Charlotte.

As always you’ll find information about your congregation’s activities on the back of today’s order of service and in the weekly email that goes out on a Friday – so do sign up for that if you don’t currently get it.

There are small group activities throughout the week. There are online Heart and Soul contemplative spiritual gatherings (Sunday/Friday at 7pm) and this week’s theme is ‘tradition’. And from the autumn, there’ll be a once-a-month in-person Heart and Soul here at church, on Weds evenings.

Looking further ahead your annual ‘Gathering the Waters’ service on 3rd September – this is a traditional ‘regathering’ after the summer months – if you do go anywhere in the next month or so, for a holiday or a day trip, collect a little drop of water and bring it back with you (or you can always just bring some from your tap). And there’s a plan to have a bring-and-share lunch that day as well, but a volunteer is needed to organise that, to sign people up to bring food, and to make sure we have a range of offerings, we’ll only have the lunch if someone, or maybe two people, volunteers, so if you might be willing to do that please let someone know.

And remember that your congregation is looking to recruit an audio-visual assistant to help with video editing and tech hosting. The details were in the Friday email – it’s about six hours a week on average – most can be done from home but they’ll need to come in to church one Sunday a month. If you know anyone who might fit the bill please do pass the advert on – an interesting opportunity for the right person.

Your minister Jane Blackall will be here leading next Sunday’s service with assistance online from Cody Coyne – our Unitarian minister from Cross Street Manchester.

The congregation very much has a life beyond Sunday mornings; we encourage you to keep in touch, look out for each other, and do what you can to nurture supportive connections.

Time for our closing words and closing music now, with another fine piece of piano music from Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly.

Benediction: ‘Life’s precious, fleeting moments’

Rabindranath Tagore wrote that ‘The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.’
As we step out into our lives once more may we be the people who notice life’s beauty – the beauty of a human smile, a small act of kindness given, the touch of a hand when it’s needed most.
May we be the people who notice the beauty of the earth – its many colours and its multitudes of life forms.
May we be the people who recognise that life exists in moments – precious fleeting moments – to be appreciated and released, again, again, again.
Amen, go well all of you and blessed be.

Closing Music: ‘Un bel di’ by Puccini – played by Peter Crockford

Rev. Sarah Tinker and Heidi Ferid

13th August 2023