Worship, Celebration and Special Traditions

Halloween – Every year on the Sunday closest to and before Halloween, the entire congregation is encouraged to attend Sunday services in costume. The UUF youth group designs a haunted house for all to experience, and pumpkin carving, treats, and a Halloween carnival make this event a favorite.

Winterfest – On a Saturday in November, usually the weekend before Thanksgiving, this multi-cultural, inter-generational event is scheduled. Winterfest introduces UUF members and guests to the concept of Unitarian Universalism as an inclusive faith. Children make holiday gifts from cultures and countries around the world, while adults and children alike savor the flavors of delicious holiday treats—including soups lovingly made by culinarily talented members.

Christmas Pageant – Our Christmas Eve service features spirited holiday music.

Hidden Egg Hunt – On Easter Sunday we celebrate spring with an Egg Hunt.

Child Dedication – Child Dedications are a uniquely Unitarian Universalist ceremony of naming, which offers parents the opportunity to present their children to the congregation.  This ceremony celebrates the ongoing mystery of human life, welcomes the child into our religious community and publicly affirms the responsibility of the parents and the entire congregation to help the child grow in the way of love, truth, justice and peace.  

 Coming of Age – Each youth works with a mentor. In the Coming of Age Program, which is a passage and a pilgrimage.  The program is intended to provide a focused year of self-definition during which youths explore questions about themselves: their gifts, their strengths, their areas of growth, their beliefs and their goals.  They explore how their answers fit or do not fit within Unitarian Universalism. 

Water Communion Service– Water is a symbol of spirituality and an inclusion. This ritual speaks to our connectedness to one another and to our place on this planet. We cannot survive without water, nor flourish without tending to the spirit of community that flows around and through us all. Because we tend to scatter during the summer, we schedule our Water Communion Service in early September to mark the beginning of the cooler seasons and a return to the community of our Fellowship. Members gather a small quantity of water from wherever they go during the summer as a reminder of where they went and that they carried their UU connection there with them. They then bring that small bit of water to the Water Communion Service to pour into a common bowl and briefly tell where the water came from and how it represents a connection to UUism and the fellowship. At the end of the service, a small amount of the commingled water—now representing the commingled lives of the Fellowship—is reserved for use on occasions such as child dedications and weddings.

Flower Communion Service – Held in spring, the flower communion service was created by Czechoslovakia Unitarian Norbert Capek (1870-1942), and introduced to America by his wife, Maja Capek. Capek, who eventually died in a Nazi concentration camp, turned to the native beauty of the countryside for elements of communion which would be genuine. From this beginning, the service has spread to many of our Unitarian Universalist congregations and has been adapted along the way.

For the flower communion service, people are asked to bring a flower of their choice, either from their own gardens, or from the field or roadside. The vase that contains all the flowers is a symbol of the united church fellowship. After the service, each person takes a flower from the vase other than the one that he or she brought. The significance of the flower communion is that as no two flowers are alike, so no two people are alike, yet each has a contribution to make. Together, the different flowers form a beautiful bouquet. Our common bouquet would not be the same without the unique addition of each individual flower, and thus it is with our church community—it would not be the same without each and every one of us. Thus, this service is a statement of our community.  By exchanging flowers, we show our willingness to walk together in our search for truth, disregarding all that might divide us. Each person takes home a flower brought by someone else, thus symbolizing our shared celebration in community. This communion of sharing is essential to a free people of a free religion.        

11/06/2005