{"id":692,"date":"2019-01-13T09:46:17","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T14:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channingmc.org\/wp\/?page_id=692"},"modified":"2019-02-23T13:25:42","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T18:25:42","slug":"the-water-ritual","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.channingmc.org\/wp\/the-water-ritual\/","title":{"rendered":"The Water Communion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Throughout the year, members and friends of Channing collect small amounts of water that have meaning for them, either from a special location (e.g., the family home, an ocean or river, memento of a trip) or a special occasion (first rain after a dry spell). \u00a0At the service, usually at the first service in September, the samples of water are placed in a single bowl so they can merge. \u00a0We connect with one another through our sharing with one another the source and significance to us of our contributed water. \u00a0The combining of our water deepens in meaning for us as a congregation of interconnected lives.\u00a0 We know this as the Water Communion<\/em>, sometimes called the Water Ceremony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the end of the service, we gather outside our sanctuary and return the water to the Earth to nourish the growth of the tree we observe from inside our sanctuary during services.<\/p>\n

The first Water Ritual was held at the November 1980 Women and Religion Continental Convocation of Unitarian Universalists in East Lansing, Michigan. \u00a0<\/sup>Created by Unitarian Universalists Carolyn McDade\u00a0and \u00a0Lucille Schuck Longview “as a way for women who lived far apart to connect the work each was doing locally to the whole.”<\/p>\n

McDade and Longview wanted to create a new ritual \u201cthat spoke to our connectedness to one another, to the totality of life, and to our place on this planet.\u201d They included a new, inclusive symbol of women\u2019s spirituality: water.<\/p>\n

They write,<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWater is more than simply a metaphor. It is elemental and primary, calling forth feelings of awe and reverence. Acknowledging that the ocean is considered by many to be the place from which all life on our planet came\u2014it is the womb of life\u2014and that amniotic waters surround each of us prenatally, we now realize that [this worship service] was for us a new story of creation… We choose water as our symbol of our empowerment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For more information:<\/h4>\n