Harvest and Honouring the Earth – Unitarians in Ringwood gather again in October 2023

We were pleased to welcome Christina Smith to lead and preside over our Zoom gathering in October, with the theme “Harvest and Honouring the Earth.”

Here is the order of service:

Prelude music – 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mURti-s0jc&list=PLuHoqBDN-aPI0LtadVRAlkXH7T42Ecxlr&index=1

Centring

Words of Welcome

Welcome

Welcome to this table

Whatever path has brought you here

Whatever load you carry

Let us rest a while together.

May our hearts be open to accept what comes to us as a stranger,

May our minds be open to wonder at what we do not understand,

And may our spirits be nourished by our time here together,

Before we again take up our loads and set off upon our many paths,

Welcome!

Chalice Lighting

Moment to Pause – A pause to reflect on what matters to us and how we have lived up to that, ending with:

‘This is what the Sacred asks of you; that you act justly, that you love tenderly, and that you walk humbly in its presence’ (from the book of Micah, chapter 6 v8)

 

Candles of Joys and Concerns

HYMN  (purple hymn book) 147 Spirit of earth, root stone and tree 

A Prayer by Roger Courtney

1st Reading – a re-telling of a Sufi Story

HYMN  (purple hymn book) 189 We Celebrate the web of life

Words for reflection – The Earth Speaks written by Richard Gilbert

Period of silence 

2nd Reading – For Five Thousand Years, Or More by Matthew Johnson 

Address – by Christina Smith

A Prayer – Mother Earth by Lucy Bunch

HYMN (purple hymn book) 188 We bring to the altar [a fantastically rousing hymn for a sing-song!]

Closing Words – Harvest Thanksgiving by Gabor Kereki 

Postlude music – 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JB7R2RokaY&list=PLuHoqBDN-aPI0LtadVRAlkXH7T42Ecxlr&index=2

I think we all appreciated how carefully crafted the whole piece was, with cross-references and careful re-emphasis of the key messages. These are some of the messages I think I heard: 

• "The earth simply turns; it is we who live." 
• "The harvest is a recognition of the eternal abundance." 
• "We show our gratefulness by how we share" (echoed in the postlude music).
• "We commit to seeing and supporting beauty and creativity for all." 

The sequencing of the pause to do the inward work near the beginning of the service, followed by the candles of joys and concern, worked really well.  It allowed us all to get our own baggage – if not dealt with – at least let go of, before addressing the main theme, which was the possibility of unending abundance and how we feel about that. That is to say, this sequence allowed the exchange of "problems brought" for "positivity received" – which is a notable feature of the classical Eucharist of certain Christian traditions.

June 2016 meeting for reverence

Something in the air?  Last weekend was the weekend of national celebrations for the Queen’s 90th birthday – some sense of rootedness, perhaps, to balance out the national turmoil over the pending decision to remain in or to leave the European Union – and lo! our gathering for reverence took the theme “Maintaining a grateful balance”.

Or perhaps the theme reflected events and experiences closer to home, as members of our small community have been providing mutual support through some personally taxing, unforeseen life events recently.

Our readings came from Dan Millman and Kristi Nelson, taking two different perspectives on what is required in order to live in balance; and why it is necessary to say “no” to some things in order to be able to say “yes” to others.  The perfect balance of the egret when fishing, and the need to thin out crowded, green peaches were the two abiding images from the readings. The meeting leader mused on the intersection of the divine with the messy experience of life as it is lived, and suggested that the insight in common from the two readings was mindfulness, attentiveness, intentionality.

Our opening prayer came from Aelin – a Pagan Catechism by Darren Canning and our closing prayer from Spirit of Time and Place by Cliff Reed, and we sang two hymns from Sing Your Faith, about seeking faith and life being a gift.  We also heard The Island by Hollie Sue   http://www.holliesheard.co.uk/songs.html

Our candles as usual drew out matters of concern to us, joys as well as sadnesses, and we had a frank yet gentle conversation on our theological perspectives over refreshments.  It was generally felt that as we grow our group we must do what it takes to retain the respectful and occasionally intimate context we have achieved so far.

Online bells and candles to keep us centred

There are two wonderful websites for people trying to establish the habit of mindfulness and focus on the interior aspect of living, whilst having to spend a lot of time on their personal computers.  I'm not sure how well they work on smart phones or tablets.  You do not have to download any software onto your computer for either of them.  Both sites are freely offered but accept donations for their work.

The first website allows you to set up a 'mindfulness' bell to ring either at random or at specific intervals.  The practice one is encouraged to adopt is (just like monks in a Tibetan monastery) to go about one's usual business, but then when the bell rings, to take three mindful breaths and regain a wider perspective of just what it is one is doing right now, right here.  To live in the real world of one's senses, rather than in one's virtual world of thoughts.

http://www.mindfulnessdc.org/bell/

The second website allows you to 'light a candle online'.  By following the instructions and clicking, you are invited to go through the same interior process as you would do in lighting a wax candle with a match.  It may sound trite; but if approached in the right manner it can be a moving experience.  What you get from it, as with so many things, is determined by what you put into it.

http://www.gratefulness.org/light-a-candle/

Happy and creative holidays 2014

In these summer months, some are in a position to be able to take a break from their usual routine and even go to a different place, for rest, refreshment and recuperation.  We call these breaks “holidays” and this could be spelt “whole-days” for they are a valuable tool in making us whole again.

The gift of becoming whole again after a period of being worn out, of splintering, alienation, tension, stress, and even injury has traditionally been seen as coming from the gods, and there is something in us as humans that feels grateful and even wants to say “thank you” for it.  Even for people to whom the words “god” or “gods” seem meaningless there often remains this sense of gratefulness, though it may be difficult to know to where it could be directed.  Let us just note that this floating gratefulness, which we all sense from time to time, is part of the mystery of being human, and that the word “mystery” originally meant “those things that it is impossible to speak of”.

For those people who can in some way associate a meaning with the word “god” it comes as no surprise to feel “mystery”.  For many people, the word “god” is merely a reverential synonym for the word “mystery”, and they use it to refer to the ultimate mystery, the whatever it is that is the absolute fabric or rule that arches over all the gaps in our knowledge, experience and sensation of living in the universe.

As we muse on the opportunity to take a break, and what it might mean to be grateful for that, let us also remember those who cannot get away from their usual routine.  Especially those for whom the usual routine means violence, oppression, incarceration, violation, lack of shelter, instability, disease, starvation, thirst.

May we in our gratefulness remain open to the humane task of helping where we can, for no other reasons firstly that we are able to do so and secondly that doing so seems very often to be creative and in fulfilment of who we as humans are.