New Connections

Worship services

Unless you live near the equator, beginning some time in August you usually begin to notice a change in the length of daylight. Here are two worship services that are gentle, low-key ways to recognize and celebrate that change.

One service, for those in the southern hemisphere, celebrates the lengthening days. The other service, for those in the northern hemisphere, celebrates the shortening of daylight. If you live near the equator, perhaps these two worship services will give you ideas on how to celebrate seasonal changes in your part of the world.

I/ Northern hemisphere: August worship service for the waning of summer
Begin this worship service right at sunset. You can hold it indoors or outdoors. If you hold it indoors, sit near a window, and have no light except the light of a candle. As the worship service progresses, you'll be aware of the day growing progressively darker.

Sit around a table (or if outdoors you could use a cloth spread on the ground, or whatever is available to you). In the center of the table, place either produce from your garden or locally-grown produce you've bought at a store or a farm stand. Also have a yummy seasonal dish that everyone can share during the worship service (here in the Boston area, we'd probably have blueberry pie since August is blueberry season). In many parts of the northern hemisphere, August marks the very beginning of the major harvest, and the produce and food on the table helps remind you of that harvest. Finally, you should also have a chalice or large candle on the table.

OPENING WORDS:
May the truth that sets us free,
And the hope that never dies,
And the love that casts out fear
Be with us now
Until the dayspring breaks
And the shadows flee away.
Light the chalice or candle while you say these words.

SONG:
Sing the song below, or sing "Lady of the Seasons Laughter," no. 51 in the UU hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition.

READING:
A one-paragraph newspaper article describes a subway platform during the morning rush hour at Grand Central Terminal. A train pulls in; a well-dressed woman gets off. Before the doors close, the woman realizes that she is holding only one of her leather gloves. She looks back into the train and spots the matching one on the seat. It is obviously too late to dash back in to retrieve it, so with a cavalier shrug, she flings her arm out and, the doors about to close, tosses her glove onto the seat alongside its mate. The doors shut, and the train pulls away.

What a great image. One could use it, I suppose, as a metaphor for facing the inevitable, or arguing for an orderly universe, or even, with a little stretch, for sharing the good things in life. But, in the summer season, the metaphor that comes to mind is one of "letting go."

To throw a favorite leather glove into the oblivion of a moving train must involve small pangs of uncertainty, pangs of some degree of loss, pangs of upset. After a lifetime of struggling not to lose our mittens, then our gloves, cavalier abandonment does not come easy.

In New England at least, our pattern is to cling, as we cling to our gloves, to routine, hard work, and obligation, all fall, all winter, and right through to the summer. But in the summertime, there is a letting go. We close up our schools and our churches, put our overcoats in moth balls, and dust off the swam boats, the lobster pots, and last year's new gas grill. We need that. We need to cast that glove of responsibility back into the train. We need a vigorous and decisive toss about now to free ourselves of the confining gloves of life, even if we love them.

And the train's about to leave.

-- Jane Rzepka

SHARING:
Share the yummy seasonal dish as you have a low-key discussion of the reading. Perhaps each person could share something that he or she is going to let go of in the next month or two. Or you could just talk about your memories of summer so far, and what you're looking forward to in the remainder of summer.

CLOSING SONG:
Close with one of the evening hymns from the UU hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, numbers 45-50. Many people know #45, "Now on Land and Sea Descending," also known as the Vesper Hymn, and that is a particularly good song for this worship service.

CLOSING WORDS:
The days are growing shorter, and summer is gradually coming to a close.

Southern hemisphere: August worship service for the end of winter
Gather around a table, just at sunset. In the center of the table, place a chalice or large candle. Have at least two candles for each person. You will also need something that can hold each candle as it is lit -- either a candle holder for each candle, or a dish filled with sand that the candles can be stuck into.

OPENING WORDS:
May the truth that sets us free,
And the hope that never dies,
And the love that casts out fear
Be with us now
Until the dayspring breaks
And the shadows flee away.
Light the chalice or candle while you say these words.

SONG:
Sing the song below, or sing "Lady of the Seasons Laughter," no. 51 in the UU hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition.

READING:
Feel free to change this reading to better reflect the changes you see in your part of the world.
You can feel it now: the days are longer,
the sun higher in the sky at mid-day.
Something begins to emerge from winter:
You can hear it: in the morning, small birds
sing once again. You can see it: subtle
changes in the slant of the evening light.
Let's not tempt fate by saying
"Winter's as good as over" -- not yet.
But we can start to feel hopeful.
Something new is coming

SHARING:
Go around the table, and allow each person to share a new beginning in their lives -- perhaps a new project they have started ("I started the new Harry Potter book, and I'm already on page 357"), or a positive change they have made ("I started my new job"), or a new skill they have learned ("I learned how to say the alphabet"). If someone doesn't want to say anything, he or she may light a candle in silence. Obviously, adults will help younger children light candles.

After everyone has had a chance to share, go around the circle once more, and let everyone light another candle as the worship leader reads these words by CLF member Albert Schweitzer:

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."

MOMENT OF SILENCE
Take a moment of silence, and enjoy the light of the candles as outside the dusk deepens.

CLOSING SONG:
Close with one of the evening hymns from the UU hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, numbers 45-50. Many people know #45, "Now on Land and Sea Descending," also known as the Vesper Hymn, and that is a particularly good song for this worship service.

CLOSING WORDS:
Each candle by itself doesn't give much light. But as we light these candles, we see how much light they bring to our lives when they are combined.

New beginnings add light to our lives. The help of other people adds light to our lives. One candle at a time, light is growing in this world. One candle at a time, hope is growing in this world.