Flower Communion, emerging

I couldn't help thinking of Betty Butterfield Sunday morning as we celebrated our first ever Flower Communion at Mt. Vernon Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. (Flower Communion? Whaaa?!)

As an Emerging Congregation with barely more than 4 years under our belts, no one had yet had an itch they had to scratch when it came to this widely used UU ritual. Our member who led this flower communion service had experienced a flower communion 40 years ago in California but, in the intervening years, had never been geographically located where she had access to a UU church until our fellowship started up.

Norbert Čapek, a Czech Unitarian minister, first introduced the Flower Celebration, as it was originally named and as it is still called in the Czech Republic, on June 4, 1923. About eighteen years later it made its way to the United States, where it became one of the few specifically Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist rituals used in American congregations.

The other two typical UU rituals are even newer.

The representation of a Flaming Chalice, the internationally recognized symbol of Unitarianism and Unitarian Universalism, was invented during World War II by an Austrian refugee as the symbol of the Unitarian Service Committee. It was not used as a denominational symbol or in a worship ritual for several years. It was in the 1960s that American Unitarians started using the symbol, but the precise beginning of the practice of kindling a chalice at the beginning of worship is uncertain despite its relatively recent emergence. This ritual is one MVUUF has used at every service since the beginning.

The other UU ritual, the Water Communion, also known as the Water Service or as the Mingling of the Waters, was not invented until 1980. It comes to us from a UU Women and Religion Convocation held that year in East Lansing, Michigan. MVUUF has not had a Water Communion though I can imagine someone getting the bug to do one one of these days.

Of course our dearth of shared ritual stems from our Radical Reformation and Puritan heritage. The iconoclasm of the Protestant Reformation generally and the more extreme iconoclasm of the Radical Reformation stripped much of the liturgical wealth of the Church down to the bare bones and shifted the focus to the word, that is preaching. So here we are, (Post-)Postmoderns trying to learn how to do ritual in meaningful ways that do not compromise our values.

Some of our congregations are pretty good at creating and using ceremonies. Others, naturally, are still rather clumsy with it. I don't think we've got ritual worked out at all though. I'm not sure ours is an age that gets ritual generally, tending to try creation ex nihilo every time there is something to recognize or celebrate. And this is not just a UU trait but obtains far and wide, as evidenced, i.a., in individuals writing their own wedding vows and imagining that they are somehow more meaningful that way.

Now, to be clear, I do love creative ceremonies, but ritual requires repetition over time. Will MVUUF take to common rituals or create some of its own? Let's check back in 10, 20, 50 years. For now, we are exploring even when it comes to the recent trinity of Unitarian rituals.

For our Flower Communion, many of our members brought flowers from their own gardens. It was very nice to have the front of the sanctuary filled with flowers. And I believe our members enjoyed this service: if ironically, for its novelty in our setting.

Sing we and chant it, while love doth grant it,
Fa la la la la la la la Fa la la la la la la la
Not long youth lasteth, And old age hasteth;
Now is best leisure to take our pleasure,
Fa la la la la la la la Fa la la la la la la la
All things invite us now to delight us,
Fa la la la la la la. Fa la la la la la la la
Hence care, to be packing, no mirth be lacking;
Let spare no treasure to live in pleasure.

-Words attr. to Michael Drayton (1563-1631)