A Sunrise Service
for Easter
from Spring Festivals,
edited by Patricia Bowen
Plan to be out of doors, as near sunrise as possible.
Use a tape recorder, if possible, with flute, recorder or string instruments,
OR a portable radio with a classical music station, OR if members of
the family play an instrument that can be taken out of doors, sit and
play a while. After music, have one member of the family read:
We have come here out of the busy-ness of the world- from the
noise and color and frenzy around us.
Here we can sit together, listen for the sounds that
silence brings from the gentle murmurings that nature offers us.
Let's listen, and while listening, settle down comfortably and feel
our
connectedness to the earth.
And let our minds wander to connect us to the whole of the universe
of which we are a part.
The past, present and future-the delicate thread from before we really
know to the possibly fantastic future.
Be silent together as long as the age of family members permits. Even
young children can get caught up in the silence and magic of the world
coming awake.
 Then
ask: I wonder how much is alive, right here, right now, that we can
see, hear, feel and touch?
Take a few minutes to talk about what is present.
I wonder how much has lived right here over the years? I wonder
how much has changed right around here-the contours, the plant life,
animal life, the climate?
Take another few minutes to talk about the past.
I wonder how we fit into the change? Whqt do we do, how have we
made the world change? Have we changed?
Take time for a few answers-perhaps a few questions. Read the following
poem by Virginia Washburn.
Tall
On the earth,
Did he feel it turning?
We feel the earth turn
As we wait here,
Not alone,
A few among many companions
Who travel together through space.
Do we help the world turn
From the darkness of times of oppression
From stubborn minds that close
From the clenched fist
The catcall
The jeer
From the stifling mists of suspicion;
Do we turn with the earth toward the
light?
The earthworm is turning
The chipmunk asleep in his hole
Wrapped well in his tail for a blanket
The jay too is turning.
Shall we continue to turn?
To stretch out our hands to our
neighbors?
To lift our eyes to the light?
It is almost time.
The earth is turning toward the light
Feel the earth turn. |
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It is almost time.
The earth is turning toward the light.
Feel the earth turn.
Turning
Turning.
How long the earth has been turning
Among its companions in space!
Did the great sun first set it spinning
Eons ago
A flaming cloud in the sky?
Did it cool
Gradually?
It kept turning.
Did rains fall,
Oceans form?
Did the first cell feel it turning?
Giant ferns grew as it turned
Winged reptiles glided above it.
Did the pterosaur feel it turn
And the lobe-fin?
When, Long ago
That early,
Many times great
great-grandfather
Climbed down from his treepaths
Where he had swung arm over arm from
the branches
To stand
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 After
a few minutes of quiet, ask: Can we continue to change? Shall we
continue to change? What happens if we reach out to our neighbors? What
happens if we keep our eyes to the light? Can we feel the earth turn?
Is it a good feeling?
Take time to share a few thoughts. Take time to be quiet again. Then
conclude:
Each of us has an important part in the world as it turns, but first
we must know that we need each other in this family. We help each other,
we laugh together in happy moments and we hold each other in sad moments.
We are in touch with each other and with our turning earth. It is good
to be a family.
If breakfast, picnic or snack, is incorporated, move quietly to another
place. It will change the mood - it is good to know a quiet place of
sanctuary to which one may return, in person or in thought.
Connections Spring
Index
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Address of this page: http://www.uua.org/clf/connections/spring/easter.html
Last updated August 11, 2002 by clf@uua.org
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