How did you "restart" the church year?

I belong to a small UU church in New England, and its tradition is not to hold formal services in June, July, and August, giving the minister the summer "off" more or less. (It was the same when I belonged to a UU church in Los Angeles, which held low-key lay-led services during the summer.) It's good to be back...

Our church restarted with a Water Communion ceremony. People brought small samples of water from a place that meant something to them over the summer, and came up to pour their sample into a large bowl on the altar. They shared where the water came from: a beach in Maine, Cape Cod, the hose in their garden, the birdbath, a river they hiked along. The "communion water" will be used in child dedication ceremonies during the year.

It was a nice way to catch up with people we haven't seen for a few months, and a symbol of coming together from many places.

I'm curious what other UU churches are doing in this "ingathering" season, and also curious about how many churches don't take a "break" during the summer?

I have never heard of churches doing this... Has it always happened in UU churches.

Our congregation is the same way (in Riverside). We also started off with the Water Communion ceremony! Then we talked a little about what different people find sacred. I posted a thread on it to find out what other UU's find sacred, but nobody has said anything yet. Then we topped everything off after the services with the first Sunday Luncheon of the year. It was Asian themed and very tasty. There were chopsticks, but nobody used them

Edit: P.S. Something else my church is doing to start off the year is "Small Group Ministries". These are small groups held at the "facilitators" homes where a small group of people can get together and form a more intimate bond. It's kind of a way for people to start getting to know each other better. I've signed up for it since I am not yet a member and am looking forward to getting to know more people because it's a little hard for me to do during "coffee-hour" with a rather large congregation.

Terrywoodenpic said:

I have never heard of churches doing this... Has it always happened in UU churches.

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Each UU church congregation sets its own worship practices, and worship leaders (either professional or congregational) create their own ceremonies. So the answer to "has it always happened" is...no, and plenty of UUs may never have heard of it. I hadn't before a few years ago.

What does seem to happen is certain ideas travel between UU churches and are used and adapted in different ways, as you can see in this thread.

I don't know the roots of the water communion ceremony, or who first came up with it. Anyone know about its history?

A ceremony that most UUs have heard of is the "Flower Communion", which originated in a Unitarian church in Czechoslovakia before WWII. Every UU church I've been a part of has had one in the spring.

Our church in Toronto also had a water ceremony. Furthermore, we started in September with our new settled Minister, a welcome newcomer to our congregation. We anticipate both new things and old things happening under his leadership.

Terrywoodenpic said:

I have never heard of churches doing this... Has it always happened in UU churches.

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The water communion is a UU ritual, started by UUs. But as applewood said, it's not done by all UUs. And no, we haven't always done it. According to the mighty wiki, it was started in 1980.

applewuud said:

I don't know the roots of the water communion ceremony, or who first came up with it. Anyone know about its history?

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According to the mighty wiki, it was started at a UU Women and Religion convention in East Lansing, MI.

applewuud said:

A ceremony that most UUs have heard of is the "Flower Communion", which originated in a Unitarian church in Czechoslovakia before WWII. Every UU church I've been a part of has had one in the spring.

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We don't.

My church doesn't do either the flower communion or the water communion. Our senior minister doesn't like them so we don't do them. I don't understand why since he agrees that UU is light on ritual and spiritual practice. A ritual doesn't need to be old to have meaning for its participants. I really like the meaning behind the water communion.

Like other congregations, my church slows down during the summer. Our senior minister takes off immediately after General Assembly in late June and doesn't return until early September. During the summer, attendance is down. The Sunday after he returns, our senior minister devotes the service to answering questions posed by congregants. Then in mid-September, we have "Home Coming Sunday." No special ritual, other than the fact that it's called Homecoming Sunday and is always packed and everyone knows that we're kicking it back up into full gear. After service, Pierce Hall is usually filled with information for the "new year" - new convenant groups, etc. That's about it. I wasn't there this year (I was in Alaska ) so I'm relying on memory of previous years.