Gathering the Waters – 3/9/23

Musical Prelude: 8 Pieces, Op.39 – R. Glière – II. Gavotte (played by Sydney Mariano and Simon Guémy)

Opening Words: ‘Learning to Love This World’ by Molly Housh Gordon

We gather together this morning
tenderly—like drops of dew on a leaf of grass
hopefully—like gathered raindrops in a cloud
purposefully—like water rushing in a stream to the sea
deeply—like groundwater pulled up from a well

We gather from every direction,
for another year of growth and depth,
another year of companionship and hope,
another year of learning to love this world.

We gather like the water that joins us across all of creation,
the living water that connects us within and without:
merging and flowing across the entire world.

Words of Welcome and Introduction

These opening words, written by Molly Housh Gordon, welcome all who have gathered this morning for our Sunday service. Welcome to those of you who have gathered in-person at Essex Church and also to all who are joining us via Zoom from far and wide. Wherever you are, whoever you are, however you are, you are welcome here this morning just as you are. For anyone who doesn’t know me, my name is Jane Blackall, and I’m Minister with Kensington Unitarians.

This morning’s service is our annual ‘Gathering of the Waters’. It’s a ritual we do about this time each year to begin the process of regathering ourselves after the summer months when people tend to be gallivanting (though in truth a number of our regulars are still holidaying at the moment). We use the symbolism of water – in all its ever-changing forms – to explore our connectedness as a congregation, as a community, a movement – and our wider connection with all living beings across time and space – our interdependence with all-that-is, all that has ever been, and all that is yet to be.

Before we go any further, though, let’s make sure we’re all really here. Let’s take a moment to catch up with ourselves. We’ve set this time aside from the rest of the week. We’ve each chosen to come here, join together in community, for a time of spiritual nourishment and reconnection. So let’s just pause, and breathe, and ground ourselves in the here and now. And perhaps you might set your intention for this hour; to be receptive, to be open, to know you’re in a place where you belong.

Chalice Lighting: ‘The Spirit of Water’ by Katie Gelfand

Let’s light our chalice flame now, as we do each week. This simple ritual connects us in solidarity with Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists the world over, and reminds us of the proud and historic progressive religious tradition of which we are a part.

(light chalice)

We light this chalice as a symbol of reunion.
We reunite in this space of sanctuary to share
the flow of our hearts with one another once again.

We gather together in ritual
to celebrate our fountains of joy
to hold each other through storms of grief
to guide one another through rapids of transformation
to rest together on ponds of stillness.

Together, we honour the spirit of water,
its many forms, and its life-giving essence.

Hymn 111 (purple): ‘O Brother Sun, Sister Moon’

Let’s sing together. Our first hymn today is number 111 in your hymn books, ‘O Brother Sun, Sister Moon’, and the words will also up on your screen to sing along at home. Please feel free to stand or sit, as you prefer, as we sing: ‘O Brother Sun, Sister Moon’

O Brother Sun, you bring us light,
all shining ‘round in fiery might.
O Sister Moon, you heal and bless,
your beauty shines in tenderness.

O Brother Wind, you sweep the hills,
your mighty breath both freshens and fills.
O Sister Water, you cleanse and flow
through rivers and streams, in ice and snow.

O Brother Fire, you warm our night
with all your dancing coloured light.
O Sister Earth, you feed all things,
all birds, all creatures, all scales and wings.

O Sister Death, you meet us here
and take us to our God so near.
O God of Life, we give you praise
for all your creatures, for all your ways.

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 & Reflection: based on words by Becky Edmiston-Lange

And let’s take those joys and concerns into an extended time of prayer now (based on words by Becky Edmiston-Lange). You might first want to adjust your position for comfort, close your eyes, or soften your gaze. There might be a posture that helps you feel more prayerful. Whatever works for you. Do whatever you need to do to get into the right state of body and mind for us to pray together – to be fully present here and now, in this sacred time and space – with ourselves, with each other, and with that which is both within us and beyond us. (pause)

Spirit of Life, God of All Love, in whom we live and move and have our being,
we turn our full attention to you, the light within and without,
as we tune in to the depths of this life, and the greater wisdom
to which – and through which – we are all intimately connected.
Be with us now as we allow ourselves to drop into the
silence and stillness at the very centre of our being. (pause)

Mysterious force giving shape to life,
miraculous source and river of being,
help us to know who we are, to see our place
in the history of earth and in the family of things;
Help us to see that we are part of all that ever was –
our grandmother’s prayers and our grandfather’s dreamings,
our mother’s courage and our father’s hope –
a unique expression of the unfolding universe.

In our bones lies the calcium of antediluvian creatures,
in our veins courses the water of seas;
we are part of all that ever was,
born of this earth, riders upon a cosmic ocean;
we are not separate from nature, we are nature,
part of that same spirit that turned
scales into feathers and birdsong into speech;
we live by the sun; we move by the stars…
we eat from the earth; we drink from the rain.

Great Spirit, help us know who we are
and fill us with such love for this holy creation
and gratitude for this awesome gift we call living,
that we might claim our inheritance and live out our calling
to bless the world and each other with our care. (pause)

And in a good few moments of shared silence now,
may we speak inwardly the deepest prayers of our hearts —
maybe something in our own life or the life of the world is weighing heavy on us –
maybe we are feeling full of gratitude, despite it all, and feel moved to give thanks for our blessings – let us each lift up whatever is on our heart this day, and ask for what we most need. (long pause)

Spirit of Life – God of all Love – as this time of prayer comes to a close, we offer up
our joys and concerns, our hopes and fears, our beauty and brokenness,
and we call on you for insight, healing, and renewal.

As we look forward now to the coming week,
help us to live well each day and be our best selves;
using our unique gifts in the service of love, justice and peace. Amen

Hymn 128 (purple): ‘Our World is One World’

Let’s sing together again. Our second hymn today speaks of our interdependence. It’s number 128 in your purple book, ‘Our World is One World’, and the words will be on screen once again.

Our world is one world:
what touches one affects us all —
the seas that wash us round about,
the clouds that cover us, the rains that fall.

Our world is one world:
the thoughts we think affect us all —
the way we build our attitudes,
with love or hate, we make a bridge or wall.

Our world is one world:
its ways of wealth affect us all —
the way we spend, the way we share,
who are the rich or poor, who stand or fall?

Our world is one world,
just like a ship that bears us all —
where fear and greed make many holes,
but where our hearts can hear a different call.

Reading: ‘The Cycle that Connects Us’ by Molly Housh Gordon and Jamila Batchelder (read by Sonya)

Rain falls upon the surface of the earth, and pulled by gravity each drop begins to flow downhill. Drop merges with drop, flowing together, into a trickle, a stream, a creek, a mighty river, flowing onward.

Some of the water seeps down into the earth itself, as groundwater, or deep aquifers, where it will stay for days, years, or even millennia until it’s pulled up again by tree roots, wells, springs, and geysers, rejoining the dance, the flowing, flowing, flowing.

The water flows on until it collects in ponds, lakes, seas, and vast oceans. And all the while the sun’s rays warm the water, calling it back into vapour, so light that it can rise, up, up, up, each molecule moving on its own again, rising into the higher atmosphere, buoyant and swirling, up to where the air grows cool, and, the water vapour slows and cools, and begins to turn again, back to droplets.

Droplets find droplets and join together again and again, forming clouds, growing heavier and heavier. Until at last the weight of them pulls them down again, and rain falls on the surface of the earth again. Everywhere on earth at every moment is somewhere in this cycle, cycles upon cycles, falling, flowing, sinking, transforming, rising, again, and again, and again. Our planet has all the water it will ever have and has ever had; this water cycle has been spiralling around and around for four and a half billion years.

This means that the water we gather in our annual ritual – the ‘Gathering of the Waters’ – comes from all over the world and also from across all time on Earth. The water we gather today has travelled through the root systems of trees long since returned to soil, burst from geysers that ceased spraying millennia ago, and flowed down rivers that have changed course entirely over billions of years. And the water cycle doesn’t only involve rivers, and plants, and clouds, but also involves creatures. The water cycles through us, too, coming in and out of our bodies in many different ways.

That means that the molecules in the water you gathered from a pond, or a river, or the sea, could have been in the tears of joy and sorrow cried by the first person who ever felt love… or the water from your kitchen tap contains within it molecules that were once in the best bowl of soup someone ever ate, or perhaps they were in the sweat of the people who built this church, or in the blood of the mothers that birthed our grandmothers’ grandmothers’ grandmothers, or even… in dinosaur pee.

What and when and where else do you imagine this water has been?

As we gather the waters of community this morning, let us remember that they connect us to everything that has ever been, and everything that will ever be. That is the power of the water we share.

Words for Meditation: ‘The Strength of Water’ by Jamila Batchelder and Molly Housh Gordon

We’ve come now to a time of meditation. I’m going to offer some words for reflection, a piece by Jamila Batchelder and Molly Housh Gordon, on ‘The Strength of Water’. You’ll hear some prompts to ponder, which we’ll return to when we do our ‘Gathering of the Waters’ ritual later in the service, when I’ll invite you to play with this metaphor of water and speak of the particular gifts or strengths that you bring to the work of love in the world. These words will take us into silence which will end with the sound of a bell. And then we’ll hear some lovely music from Sydney, Simon, and Peter. So let’s each do what we need to do to get comfortable – adjust your position if you need to – perhaps put your feet flat on the floor to ground and steady yourself – maybe close your eyes. As we always say, the words and music are just an offering, feel free to use this time to meditate in your own way.

The strength of water takes on many, many forms—just as each of you has a unique and necessary strength that you bring to our community and to the work of love.

Take a moment now to drop down into the deep wellspring of your own spirit and bathe yourself in the strength that is the groundwater of your person.

Are you a roaring waterfall wearing rock away with sheer force of will?

Are you a tiny drop of water in a crevice, breaking it open slowly, steadily?

Are you buoyant, like a great salt lake, practiced at holding others aloft?

Are you tenacious like the mountain stream,
finding your way down and around every obstacle you face?

Are you still and calm like the pond at daybreak, offering radiant peace by your shores?

Are you in touch with hidden depths, pulling from a vast well?

Do you soothe like the steam rising from a cup of tea?

Do you dissolve away stubborn muck, like water left in a pot to soak?

Do you soften and smooth the edges like a creeping fog?

Do you clear away distraction like a cleansing rain?

Do you roll with the ebb and flow like the ocean waves?

Settle your mind upon the strength, the power that is yours. Draw that strength into your heart. Draw it up into your soul. As we gather together the many waters of this community, we need each of your power, each of your resilience, each of your love to make us whole.

Period of Silence and Stillness (~3 minutes) – end with a bell DING

Musical Interlude: Miniatures – F. Bridge – IV. Romance (played by Sydney Mariano, Simon Guémy, and Peter Crockford)

Gathering the Waters Ritual:

So we’ve got about ten minutes now for our ‘Gathering of the Waters’. We’ll do it in a similar way to the Candles of Joy and Concern – I’ll invite the people in the room first – then the people on Zoom. By default we will leave this bit in the recording so if you join in but don’t want to be included in the video that goes on YouTube please have a word with me straight after the service and I’ll edit you out.

The words for meditation began: ‘The strength of water takes on many, many forms—just as each of you has a unique and necessary strength that you bring to our community and to the work of love.’

In this ritual, I invite you to ponder, and to affirm that unique and necessary strength that you bring. Whether you bring it to this particular community, or the wider Unitarian community, or to some other community that is precious to you, or indeed the world community, because in the end we are all connected and interdependent. What do you bring to the work of love? If a watery metaphor came up for you during the meditation please do share that but if not just tell us of the strength you bring. During these times of great uncertainty and change it can be easy to forget the strength we do have. When you come up, please pour your water into the common bowl, and if you haven’t got water please pour a splash out of the jug, then come to the microphone to speak (get close and speak up). Like I said we’re aiming for about ten minutes so bear that in mind when you come up to speak (but we might run over time a little as I don’t want to stop anyone who’d like to join in from doing so).

(in person water)

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 – we’re not able to see you on the big screen until you’ve unmuted and started speaking. And as you pour your water (or imaginary water) at home I’ll pour some for you in the church.

(zoom water)

If that’s everyone… thank you for joining in with our ritual. I’d like to invite you to join in with a responsive reading, a ‘Blessing of the Waters’, with words by Ranwa Hammamy. They’re on your hymnsheet if you’re in the building, and will be up on screen if you’re at home, but the response is a very simple refrain if you’d like to join in and say it out loud: ‘This Water is Sacred’.

‘Blessing of the Water’ by Ranwa Hammamy

This water is sacred. It is made sacred by the many hands that have poured it with intention and love, the many stories that each drop contains, the many lives surrounding it in this unique moment, connected by commitment and faith. This water is sacred.

May it continue to flow through this community, with shining reflections
of the unique gifts that flow through each of its members. This water is sacred.

May it continue to nurture this community, with sustaining hope
that we journey together through ripples of growth and change. This water is sacred.

May it continue to bless this community with loving reminders of
our collective responsibility to one another and the world. This water is sacred.

May its ripples be a reminder that the changes and growth within this community
bring movement and transformation to the world beyond our doors. This water is sacred.

May its purity offer grace to our community, and the willingness
to forgive ourselves and one another when we make mistakes. This water is sacred.

In moments when we are confused or uncertain, may it bring us
clarity of purpose and commitment. This water is sacred.

In moments when the reservoirs of hearts and spirits are drained by sorrow or pain,
may it nourish them with the knowledge that we are surrounded by a deep and abundant love.
This water is sacred. Amen.

Hymn 90 (purple): ‘Let Us Give Thanks and Praise’

Time for our last hymn, it’s number 90 in your purple hymn book, ‘Let Us Give Thanks and Praise’.

Let us give thanks and praise for the gifts which we share,
for our food and our friendship, for water and air,
for the earth and the sky and the stars and the sea,
and the trust we all have in God’s love flowing free.

Give a shout of amazement at what life can bring,
put your heart into raising the song all can sing.
What a world we could build with our minds and our hands
where the people live freely and God understands.

Let us give of our best with the tools we shall need,
use our eyes, hands and brains so that we may succeed.
Inspire us to cultivate what we have sown
so that nature and nurture make a world we may own.

We adore you, great Mother, O help us to live
with a love for each other that each one can give
let the pain of our brothers and sisters be faced
and the healing of all souls on earth be embraced.

Sharing of News, Announcements, Introductions

Thanks to Ramona for tech-hosting and Charlotte for co-hosting. Thanks to Sonya for reading and all our contributors. Thanks to Sydney, Simon and Peter for lovely music. Thanks Liz for doing coffee and Marianne for greeting. For those of you who are here in-person, please do hang around for a cuppa and a chat and some apple and sultana cake after the service – it’s served in the hall next door. If you’re joining us online hang on after for a chat with Charlotte.

We have various small group activities during the week. Heart and Soul, our contemplative spiritual gathering, takes place twice a week online it’s a great way to get to know people more deeply. Send Jane an email if you want to sign up for Sunday or Friday at 7pm. The theme is ‘Contradictions’. The in-person poetry group will be back this Wednesday evening – this is a chance to bring along your favourite poems to share with others – speak to Brian to find out more.

We’ll be back here at 10.30am next Sunday when I’ll be leading the service (I can’t tell you what it’s going to be about yet as I’m still waiting for inspiration to strike!). But I can tell you that the week after, on the 17th September, will be our harvest service, so if you grow your own veg and you’ve got a giant marrow or a comedy carrot to bring along for our table display that’d be appreciated. In fact I encourage you all to bring along a favourite item of fruit or veg to celebrate that day!

Details of all our various activities are printed on the back of the order of service, for you to take away, and also in the Friday email. Please do sign up for the mailing list if you haven’t already. 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.

I think that’s everything. Just time for our closing words and closing music now.

Benediction: ‘All Water Is One Water’ by Mel Hoover and Rose Edington

Water unites us.
All water is one water,
shape-shifting as it goes
on and on in its unending cycle.

The stream we gather by unites us
with all the waters of the world,
for all of life depends on water.

And so this common, everyday element
on which our very lives depend is sacred.
In our thankfulness for water, let us remember
to honour, cherish, and care for it—for our own lives,
for all life touched by water, and for those who come after us.

May it be so, for the greater good of all. Amen.

Closing Music: Miniatures – F. Bridge – II. Gavote (played by Sydney Mariano, Simon Guémy, and Peter Crockford)

Rev. Dr. Jane Blackall

3rd September 2023