June 21, 2020
Dear Members and Friends:
Although a pandemic may separate us physically, it need not sever us from community. While we cannot be together in body at this time, we can be together in spirit. Let us then, set aside some time today to gather in spirit with one another and, through ritual and reflection, support one another by strengthening our resolve to remain faithful to our principles and maintain the bonds of community, friendship and love.
Below is an abbreviated worship service for use at home while limits on public gatherings are in place due to Covid-19. A new service will be posted and emailed each week until we can resume worship in the sanctuary at BUUC.
If you can, please join us on-line or telephone via Zoom, at 11:30 AM on Sunday. A separate email will have the details.
Today’s service was prepared by Rev. Craig Nowack.
Prelude
Fuga Set I, No. 17 by Johann Pachelbel
Announcements
Announcements are listed at the end of this document. If you have any announcements for the Zoom service, please type them into the Chat box or let the leader know you have an announcement.
Singing Bowl
Chalice Lighting
Light a candle at home or in your mind’s eye mindful of people from our church community and around the world who, though physically separated, are gathered in spirit.
The words of today’s chalice lighting are by Dawn Skjei Cooley,
We light our chalice this morning, grateful for the love that we experience in this beloved community.
May the flame light the way for all who seek such abundance.
Affirmation:
Reading for Reflection
“The Grout”
by Marcus Hartlief
The Unitarian Universalist congregation where I served as an intern made a mosaic Tree of Life the summer before I arrived. Congregants of all ages came together to craft the tree’s leaves, using bits and pieces of broken ceramics, jewelry, glass, and stone. There are many precious personal items in the tree, including fragments of the Berlin Wall, a father’s watch face, pieces of great grandmother’s china, and a key to the front door of a loved home. Like the members of the community that brought them together, each part is imbued with memories and meaning; each fragment holds a piece of truth.
Unitarian Universalists are mosaic makers. We are a people who bring together the broken pieces of our histories and the shining pieces of our seeking and, piece by piece, create a mosaic religion. Our Tree of Life is found in the stories of our living tradition. The bead from a transformational moment of worship at a youth conference. The bit of paper stamped with the blazing emblem of the Unitarian Service Committee that saved lives during World War II. The button or patch on a backpack that proudly proclaims the first justice issue that lit our souls on fire. But our mosaic making tells another story too, one that is often more difficult to see. One that is essential to the purpose of religious community. One that lies not in the beautiful and broken bits and pieces but in the grout.
Grout. The chalky, gritty stuff that is squeezed between the cracks of tiles. In a mosaic, the grout holds the image together, unifying disparate pieces into a whole. The grout of a community takes years to lay and settle. Grout happens in board meetings and committee meetings and endless emails and slow-moving institutions. It is in weekly potlucks shared by neighbors, a ride to church, and coffee in the social hall after worship. While the folks who show up for church only on Christmas and Easter will hopefully enjoy the beauty of the mosaic they find, they may never know the power of the grout that holds us through all the seasons of life.
We help to make the grout when we learn each other’s names and when we reach out across generational divides. We help to make the grout when we show up on Sunday morning without having checked first to see if we’re interested in the sermon topic. When a newborn arrives to be blessed by the community, it is the grout that enables us to welcome them. And it is in the grout that we rest when we gather to grieve and memorialize a beloved one who has died.
Hold us, O Grout.
Gather us in, through time and space, and make all our broken pieces whole in community. In our multiplicity, make us one. From each of our jagged edges, give us the shape of a communal beauty.
Question(s) for reflection:
What is your response to the reading? Did it touch/move or disturb you?
In what way is the reading relevant to your life experience past or present?
What might you take from this reading into the week ahead?
Musical Offering
Today’s musical offering,"Spirit of Life" by Carolyn McDade, performed by the BUUC virtual choir and brought to you by the magical work of Jared Adams.
Singers
Cara Wales
Emily Foster
Bridget Azarowski
Nubia Pena
Wendy Newhall
Rielle Navitski
Carrie Hale
Jo Ann Pierce
Donna Sullivan
Roxann Smith
Sarah Swift
Jessica Adams
Lila Farrar
Jamie Bishop
David Yutzler
Rob Adams
Kim Burdon
Sean Mulligan
Bob Swift
Jared Adams
Spirit of Life
Joys and Concerns
If participating as on ZOOM recipient: You may raise your hand and wait to be called on or post your joy and concern in the chat box
If participating as an email recipient: As you feel so moved, speak aloud a joy or concern you are holding, mindful you are not alone, but one among many with joys and concerns seeking expression.
Moment of Silent Meditation/Prayer
Take a moment to be still and listen to the wisdom of your heart and /or pray or chant words meaningful to you or in your own words.
Homily*
“You Rock”
by the Rev. Craig M. Nowak
*The homily will be posted online at www.buuc.org the week following the online the service.
“Stone” Communion
It has been a tradition here at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church (BUUC) to begin and end each church year with a ritual called Stone Communion, in which we bring stones at the start of the church year to symbolize the gathering of community and take stones at the end of the church year to symbolize something we value about this community to carry with us out into the world.
While Covid-19 prevents us from participating in the ritual as we have known it, it cannot not prevent us from reimagining and participating in it in a new way.
At this time you’re invited to draw a stone on a piece of paper and write a word that describes something you’ve experienced as part of the BUUC community that sustains you in the world beyond this community.
If you’re participating on Facebook, you’re invited to post the word you chose if you wish.
Keep your paper “stone” and bring it with you in September for the start of the next church year.
Extinguishing the chalice
Recite aloud or in silence
We Are One by Amy Zucker Morgenstern
Never has it been more true than now:
We extinguish this flame,
But the sparks within us remain alight.
From each of us, in our supposed solitude,
The signals buzz and hum, sparkling through space one to another,
Connecting us invisibly
But palpably.
We are one.
And from every window,
Our light shines.
Blow out the candle you lit physically or in your mind’s eye.
Benediction
Recite aloud or in silence
Peace be my companion
Have courage
Hold onto what is good
Return to no person evil for evil
Strengthen the fainthearted
Support the weak
Help the suffering
Honor all beings
Amen and Blessed Be
Benediction Response: “Peace Be Unto This Congregation”
Announcements
June 28th Worship Service - Imagine 1,000 UU congregations and 100,000 UU's sharing worship that reaches across the globe! The BUUC can be one of those churches and you can be one of those UUs!
The UUA is inviting all churches to attend the Sunday service at the General Assembly.
The Rev. Joan Javier Duval, minister of the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, Vermont, is leading the service, along with the Rev. Mykal Slack, Community Minister for Worship and Spiritual Care for Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), and Benjie Messer, Music Director at the UU Congregation of Phoenix who will lead the over 140 member virtual choir! Dr. Ysaÿe Barnwell and Emma’s Revolution will perform during the service.
The service will stream live two times on Sunday, at 10 a.m. Eastern/9 a.m. Central and again at 10 a.m. Pacific/11 a.m. Mountain.
Use the following link to access the service: https://www.uua.org/ga/off-site/2020/sunday-worship
The BUUC Book Group will be meeting on Tuesday, July 14 at 7 pm via ZOOM. We will be discussing the book Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Everyone is welcome to join us. An invitation will be sent prior to the meeting.
The choir, having not met for three months this spring, has begun meeting on ZOOM. It is NOT THE SAME THING! But it has allowed us to at least meet, and sing in the presence of one another. With Jared Adams' expertise and help, we are also working on virtual choir offerings, the first of which you will have heard June 21. We are preparing another for Laurel Burdon's Memorial service on ZOOM July 11, and will continue meeting this way into the summer, hoping to do some more virtual choir. The good thing about virtual choir is that distance is no obstacle. The harder thing about virtual choir is you have to know your own part well and record your own voice solo. If you are interested in participating in this or are curious to learn more, please contact me. lilamfarrar@gmail.com or 508 864 5978.
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Dear Members and Friends:
Although a pandemic may separate us physically, it need not sever us from community. While we cannot be together in body at this time, we can be together in spirit. Let us then, set aside some time today to gather in spirit with one another and, through ritual and reflection, support one another by strengthening our resolve to remain faithful to our principles and maintain the bonds of community, friendship and love.
Below is an abbreviated worship service for use at home while limits on public gatherings are in place due to Covid-19. A new service will be posted and emailed each week until we can resume worship in the sanctuary at BUUC.
If you can, please join us on-line or telephone via Zoom, at 11:30 AM on Sunday. A separate email will have the details.
Today’s service was prepared by Rev. Craig Nowack.
Prelude
Fuga Set I, No. 17 by Johann Pachelbel
Announcements
Announcements are listed at the end of this document. If you have any announcements for the Zoom service, please type them into the Chat box or let the leader know you have an announcement.
Singing Bowl
Chalice Lighting
Light a candle at home or in your mind’s eye mindful of people from our church community and around the world who, though physically separated, are gathered in spirit.
The words of today’s chalice lighting are by Dawn Skjei Cooley,
We light our chalice this morning, grateful for the love that we experience in this beloved community.
May the flame light the way for all who seek such abundance.
Affirmation:
- Together: We unite in an atmosphere of care and support to foster spiritual health and growth.
- Together: We focus on sharing our ideas and histories, with warmth, hope, loving friendship and an open mind.
- Together: We nurture stability for our daily lives and seek motivation to reach out to the larger community.
Reading for Reflection
“The Grout”
by Marcus Hartlief
The Unitarian Universalist congregation where I served as an intern made a mosaic Tree of Life the summer before I arrived. Congregants of all ages came together to craft the tree’s leaves, using bits and pieces of broken ceramics, jewelry, glass, and stone. There are many precious personal items in the tree, including fragments of the Berlin Wall, a father’s watch face, pieces of great grandmother’s china, and a key to the front door of a loved home. Like the members of the community that brought them together, each part is imbued with memories and meaning; each fragment holds a piece of truth.
Unitarian Universalists are mosaic makers. We are a people who bring together the broken pieces of our histories and the shining pieces of our seeking and, piece by piece, create a mosaic religion. Our Tree of Life is found in the stories of our living tradition. The bead from a transformational moment of worship at a youth conference. The bit of paper stamped with the blazing emblem of the Unitarian Service Committee that saved lives during World War II. The button or patch on a backpack that proudly proclaims the first justice issue that lit our souls on fire. But our mosaic making tells another story too, one that is often more difficult to see. One that is essential to the purpose of religious community. One that lies not in the beautiful and broken bits and pieces but in the grout.
Grout. The chalky, gritty stuff that is squeezed between the cracks of tiles. In a mosaic, the grout holds the image together, unifying disparate pieces into a whole. The grout of a community takes years to lay and settle. Grout happens in board meetings and committee meetings and endless emails and slow-moving institutions. It is in weekly potlucks shared by neighbors, a ride to church, and coffee in the social hall after worship. While the folks who show up for church only on Christmas and Easter will hopefully enjoy the beauty of the mosaic they find, they may never know the power of the grout that holds us through all the seasons of life.
We help to make the grout when we learn each other’s names and when we reach out across generational divides. We help to make the grout when we show up on Sunday morning without having checked first to see if we’re interested in the sermon topic. When a newborn arrives to be blessed by the community, it is the grout that enables us to welcome them. And it is in the grout that we rest when we gather to grieve and memorialize a beloved one who has died.
Hold us, O Grout.
Gather us in, through time and space, and make all our broken pieces whole in community. In our multiplicity, make us one. From each of our jagged edges, give us the shape of a communal beauty.
Question(s) for reflection:
What is your response to the reading? Did it touch/move or disturb you?
In what way is the reading relevant to your life experience past or present?
What might you take from this reading into the week ahead?
Musical Offering
Today’s musical offering,"Spirit of Life" by Carolyn McDade, performed by the BUUC virtual choir and brought to you by the magical work of Jared Adams.
Singers
Cara Wales
Emily Foster
Bridget Azarowski
Nubia Pena
Wendy Newhall
Rielle Navitski
Carrie Hale
Jo Ann Pierce
Donna Sullivan
Roxann Smith
Sarah Swift
Jessica Adams
Lila Farrar
Jamie Bishop
David Yutzler
Rob Adams
Kim Burdon
Sean Mulligan
Bob Swift
Jared Adams
Spirit of Life
Joys and Concerns
If participating as on ZOOM recipient: You may raise your hand and wait to be called on or post your joy and concern in the chat box
If participating as an email recipient: As you feel so moved, speak aloud a joy or concern you are holding, mindful you are not alone, but one among many with joys and concerns seeking expression.
Moment of Silent Meditation/Prayer
Take a moment to be still and listen to the wisdom of your heart and /or pray or chant words meaningful to you or in your own words.
Homily*
“You Rock”
by the Rev. Craig M. Nowak
*The homily will be posted online at www.buuc.org the week following the online the service.
“Stone” Communion
It has been a tradition here at the Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church (BUUC) to begin and end each church year with a ritual called Stone Communion, in which we bring stones at the start of the church year to symbolize the gathering of community and take stones at the end of the church year to symbolize something we value about this community to carry with us out into the world.
While Covid-19 prevents us from participating in the ritual as we have known it, it cannot not prevent us from reimagining and participating in it in a new way.
At this time you’re invited to draw a stone on a piece of paper and write a word that describes something you’ve experienced as part of the BUUC community that sustains you in the world beyond this community.
If you’re participating on Facebook, you’re invited to post the word you chose if you wish.
Keep your paper “stone” and bring it with you in September for the start of the next church year.
Extinguishing the chalice
Recite aloud or in silence
We Are One by Amy Zucker Morgenstern
Never has it been more true than now:
We extinguish this flame,
But the sparks within us remain alight.
From each of us, in our supposed solitude,
The signals buzz and hum, sparkling through space one to another,
Connecting us invisibly
But palpably.
We are one.
And from every window,
Our light shines.
Blow out the candle you lit physically or in your mind’s eye.
Benediction
Recite aloud or in silence
Peace be my companion
Have courage
Hold onto what is good
Return to no person evil for evil
Strengthen the fainthearted
Support the weak
Help the suffering
Honor all beings
Amen and Blessed Be
Benediction Response: “Peace Be Unto This Congregation”
Announcements
June 28th Worship Service - Imagine 1,000 UU congregations and 100,000 UU's sharing worship that reaches across the globe! The BUUC can be one of those churches and you can be one of those UUs!
The UUA is inviting all churches to attend the Sunday service at the General Assembly.
The Rev. Joan Javier Duval, minister of the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, Vermont, is leading the service, along with the Rev. Mykal Slack, Community Minister for Worship and Spiritual Care for Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), and Benjie Messer, Music Director at the UU Congregation of Phoenix who will lead the over 140 member virtual choir! Dr. Ysaÿe Barnwell and Emma’s Revolution will perform during the service.
The service will stream live two times on Sunday, at 10 a.m. Eastern/9 a.m. Central and again at 10 a.m. Pacific/11 a.m. Mountain.
Use the following link to access the service: https://www.uua.org/ga/off-site/2020/sunday-worship
The BUUC Book Group will be meeting on Tuesday, July 14 at 7 pm via ZOOM. We will be discussing the book Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Everyone is welcome to join us. An invitation will be sent prior to the meeting.
The choir, having not met for three months this spring, has begun meeting on ZOOM. It is NOT THE SAME THING! But it has allowed us to at least meet, and sing in the presence of one another. With Jared Adams' expertise and help, we are also working on virtual choir offerings, the first of which you will have heard June 21. We are preparing another for Laurel Burdon's Memorial service on ZOOM July 11, and will continue meeting this way into the summer, hoping to do some more virtual choir. The good thing about virtual choir is that distance is no obstacle. The harder thing about virtual choir is you have to know your own part well and record your own voice solo. If you are interested in participating in this or are curious to learn more, please contact me. lilamfarrar@gmail.com or 508 864 5978.
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