The Birth and Life of Our Water Communion
Water Communion is Sunday September 13

Where do rituals come from?  How do they come about and what makes them last?  I am not sure of the answer to that.  It probably is some kind of alignment of what is offered and what people need.  Apparently, the Water Communion came about when all was aligned.

I remember the first Water Ceremony.  That took place in the mid-1970s at the first Women & Religion Convocation, at Grailville retreat center, not far from my home in Cincinnati.  In those days of the women’s movement, we were experimenting with varied worship styles.  At that conference, UU women from all over the continent were asked to bring a small amount of water from their homes.  At the opening worship, we poured our water into a common bowl, symbolizing that no matter where we were from, what our background or life experiences we were Unitarian Universalist sisters, of one liberal heritage.  It was a powerful metaphor of unity in diversity.  Most of the women there were deeply moved by it, and many of us brought the ceremony home to share with our congregations.

From that rather modest beginning, the Water Ceremony has traveled the continent, even to UU congregations in Australia and New Zealand.  Perhaps as an indication of a growing hunger in Unitarian Universalists for more and deeper ritual, congregation after congregation began adding it to their liturgical calendar. 

Most congregations hold the Water Communion, as we do, to mark the beginning of a church worship year.  As you might expect with a Unitarian Universalist ritual, there are almost as many ways to do the ceremony, as there are UU congregations.  But all are done to honor diversity and enhance community, highlighting our congregation’s connection and closeness, despite our variety of life experiences and theology.  And, many congregations do as we do in removing some of our water, made holy by our combined effort, to bless our children in child dedications.

That Grailville conference marked the birth of a movement that led to looking with new eyes at our UU principles.  While times had changed, the principles were exactly as adopted at the time of merger in 1961.  Women worked together and spoke out about non-inclusive language, and patriarchal imagery.  This led to rewriting the principles in the form we know today, inextricably linking our Principles and Sources to the Water communion.
Please do bring water on Sunday, September 13.  Whether from across the world, across the street or your own back yard, we will each and all honor our journeys, actual and spiritual.

Shared by Rev Joan Schneider, our former minister

Inspired by the Rev Melanie Morel-Ensminger