Welcome to this online worship service. We may be apart and distant, yet we are home to each other as we gather in this new way.

 

 Prelude: A Little Flower-Gurlitt, performed by Anna Kojovic-Frodl

 

Call To Worship:  by T.C. Rhodes

We come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes.
Some of us grow in bunches.
Some of us grow alone.
Some of us are cupped inward,
And some of us spread ourselves out wide.
Some of us are old and dried and tougher than we appear.

And some of us are delicate and fragile.
Some of us are still in bud.
Some of us grow low to the ground,
And some of us stretch toward the sun.
Some of us feel like weeds, sometimes.
Some of us carry seeds, sometimes.
Some of us are prickly, sometimes.
Some of us are fragrant, sometimes.
And all of us are beautiful, always.
What a bouquet of people we are!

Let us join in worship together.

 

 Chalice Lighting:   by Suzelle Lynch

Compassion is born in knowing how connected we all are.
The healing and comfort we experience in being together is wonderful,
but compassion is more than comfort.
Because when we feel connected, we also feel responsible.
We know our destiny is bound up with the destinies of others.
We light this chalice for Compassion,
the connection that drives us to take action, and work with love for justice.

 

Hymn #318 We Would Be One

 

Love be with you and all living things

 

Gesture of Friendship:

 

Message for All Ages 

 

Children’s Blessing
We are…
We are blessed…
We are blessed by being…
We are blessed by being here…
We are blessed by being here together.

 

Reflection       “Why Flower Communion Today”      Rev. Dr. Marlene Walker

Sharing in Flower Communion   

 

Blessing of the Flowers – Norbert Capek (adapted by Rev. Walker
“In the name of Providence, which implants in the seed the future of the tree and in the hearts  of all people learning to live in human love;
In the name of the highest, in whom we move and who makes all people what and who they are.
In the name of sages and great religious leaders, who sacrificed their lives to hasten the coming of peace and justice–let us renew our resolution.
To sincerely be siblings together, regardless of any kind of bar which estranges one from another.
In this holy resolution may we be strengthened, knowing that we are one family; that one spirit, the spirit of love, unites us, and may we endeavor for a more perfect and more joyful life for all. Amen.“

 

Offertory Music: Bashana Haba’ah by the Olympia Brown UU Church Choir

 

Chalice Extinguishing 

Benediction
What if 2020 isn’t cancelled?
What if 2020 is the year we’ve been waiting for?
A year so uncomfortable, so painful, so scary, so raw – that it finally forces us to grow?
A year that screams so loud, finally awakening us from our ignorant slumber.
A year we finally accept the need for change.
Declare change. Work for change. Become the change.
A year we finally band together, instead of pushing each other further apart.

2020 isn’t cancelled, but rather the most important year of them all.

~Leslie Dwight

 

Postlude: