Holidays and Traditions
Water Ingathering
The Water Communion, also sometimes called Water Ceremony or Water Ingathering, 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. During the appointed time in the service, people one by one pour their water together into a large bowl. As the water is added, the person who brought it may tell why this water 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.
Christmas Eve Services
We annually hold two services on Christmas Eve: an early service for families with young children or those young at heart, and a later service for adults. These services are taken from our rich religious traditions.
Celebrating the Flower Ceremony
The Flower Ceremony, sometimes referred to as Flower Communion or Flower Festival, is an annual ritual that celebrates beauty, human uniqueness, diversity, and community.
Originally created in 1923 by Unitarian minister Norbert Capek of Prague, Czechoslovakia, the Flower Ceremony was introduced to the United States by The Rev. Maya Capek, Norbert’s widow.
In this ceremony, everyone in the congregation brings a flower. Each person places a flower on the chalice table or in a shared vase. The congregation and minister bless the flowers, and they’re redistributed. Each person brings home a different flower than the one they brought.