United Church of Gainesville
Gathering of Waters
Sunday, August 13, 2023 – 10 a.m.Our live stream begins at 10:00 a.m. Click here to join.Every year at the United Church of Gainesville, we begin our program year with the ritual of the gathering of waters. Church members and friends from far and wide have collected waters from places special to them. In this service, we will gather those together and then we will use this water for all our sacred rituals this coming year.

WELCOME – Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan

AN INVITATION FROM OUR BOARDS AND COMMITTEES:

Board of Business – Alan Hill
Seminar Committee – Sue Hatch
Justice League – A Handful of Heroes

PRELUDE – Handpan Duet – Mark Burlingame and Nan Ryan; music composed by Mark Burlingame

CALL TO WORSHIP – Rev. Chad McGinnis

One: This is a call to everyone! To all who use water in their ceremonies or fasts . . . to all who baptize their babies or wash their hands before the prayers!

ALL: To all spiritual people, we call! To sweat lodge yogis and sweat hogs;

One: and to those who use water for healing and to those who use water for play;

ALL: and to anyone who has offered up a prayer in gratitude for receiving a nice cool refreshing drink, we call!

One: We call out our gathering cry! Our cry of thanks!

ALL: Thanks for all that water has done for us . . . dusted us off, washed our bodies, wiped our tears, lifted our spirits . . .

One: allowed us to go on a little farther. It was there for us when we needed it.

ALL: And now it needs us.                                  

Gather us in, we all return this day,
Full of the mem’ries made along our way,
We bring the waters from the lakes and seas
That speak of healing, power, home, and peace.
Waters that heal, pour down in summer rain,
Cleanse the dry Earth, renew our souls again.
Ease all our sickness, quench our deepest thirst
Like tiny ferns, green us into new birth.Like ocean waves, waters of power roll,
Break down the walls and free the captive soul!
Wash all injustice, violence, pain, and greed,
So all creation may be free, indeed!We have returned from journeys far and near,
Join we today with friends we hold so dear,
Love now compels us to this place again,
Where we find home, and welcome others in.

Waters of peace invite us to be free,
Releasing guilt and long-felt enmity,
May love and grace within our hearts increase,
May we be instruments, O God, of peace.

TIME WITH CHILDREN/GATHERING OF WATERS OF CHILDREN – “One Love: Based on the song by Bob Marley” adapted by Cedella Marley and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton – Reisa GeorgeBIRTHDAYS

CHORAL ANTHEM AND OFFERING – “Healing River” (by Fred Hellerman and Fran Minkoff, arr. David Cherwien)

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THE WATERS OF POWER – Rev. Chad McGinnis

Do not be hardened by the pain
and cruelty of this world.
Be strong enough to be gentle,
to be soft and supple like running water, gracefully bending around sudden turns, lithely waving in strong winds,
freely flowing over sharp rocks,
all the while quietly sculpting
this hard world into ever deeper beauty, gently eroding rigid rock into silken sand,
tenderly transforming human cruelty
into human kindness.
Remember, true strength is not found in the stone,
but in the water that shapes the stone.

 ― L.R. Knost

Bring forward the Waters of Power. CONGREGATIONAL SINGING – “Wade in the Water” (traditional)
 

THE WATERS OF HEALING AND WHOLENESS – Rev. Ellen Ribe

And then, summer rain. Do you know what a summer rain is? To start with, it is pure beauty striking the summer sky, awe-filled respect absconding with your heart, a feeling of insignificance at the very heart of the sublime, so fragile and swollen with the majesty of things, trapped, amazed by the bounty of the world.

And then, you pace up and down a corridor and suddenly enter a room full of light. Another dimension, a certainty just given birth. Just as teardrops, when they are large and round and compassionate, can leave a long strand washed clean of discord, the summer rain as it washes away the motionless dust can bring to a person’s soul something like endless breathing.

That is the way a summer rain can take hold in you – like a new heart, beating in time with another’s.

– from The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery

Bring forward the Waters of Healing.

CONGREGATIONAL SINGING – “Like a Tree Beside the Waters” #313, UCC Hymnal (to the tune of “Beecher Street”)

Like a tree beside the waters, nurtured by your loving care,
We, O God, your sons and daughters, your enduring witness bear.
In each passing generation may your voice of love be heard,
Bless, we pray, this congregation with your holy, living Word.

Like a tree beside the river, drawing life from holy streams,
Fill us with your love forever; recreate our hopes and dreams.
Through the storms of life sustain us by the wisdom of your grace,
May the changing of the seasons find us in your warm embrace.

We, beside the living waters, drink from your eternal life.
Give to all, your sons and daughters, faith that rises over strife.
O Living God, most glorious, strengthen us for life today.
By the hope of timeless promise guide your church upon the Way.

THE WATERS OF PEACE – Jeremy Archer

Every part of the earth is sacred . . . The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of our people. The water’s murmur is the voice of our grandparents. The rivers are our brothers and sisters. They quench our thirst, carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give the waters the kindness that you would give to your family. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother and what befalls the earth befalls all the earth’s children. The earth does not belong to humans; humans belong to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Humans did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the earth, we do to ourselves.   – “Chief Seattle’s Message” from A Peace Reader by Ted Perry

Bring forward the Waters of Peace. 

CONGREGATIONAL SINGING – “I’ve Got Peace Like a River” #478, UCC Hymnal

I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river,
I’ve got peace like a river in my soul. (x2)
…Joy like a fountain …Love like an ocean

THE WATERS OF HOMECOMING – Erick Smith

Let us bless the grace of water . . .
The courage of a river to continue belief
In the slow fall of ground,
Always falling farther
Toward the unseen ocean.
The river does what words would love,
Keeping its appearance
By insisting on disappearance;
Its only life surrendered
To the event of pilgrimage,
Carrying the origin to the end,
seldom pushing or straining,
keeping itself to itself
Everywhere all along its flow,
All at one with its sinuous mind,
An utter rhythm, never awkward,
It continues to swirl
Through all unlikeness,
With elegance:
A ceaseless traverse of presence
Soothing on each side
The stilled fields,
Sounding out its journey,
Raising up a buried music
Where the silence of time
becomes almost audible.
Water: vehicle and idiom
Of all the inner voyaging
That keeps us alive.
Blessed be water, our first mother. -John O’Donohue

Bring forward the Waters of Homecoming. 

THE WATERS OF COMMUNITY – Blessing of Gathered Water – Ministers

PRAYERS

READING – United Church of Gainesville Compact

“We join as a spiritual community in this compact:
To worship God, however known,
To welcome into our church those of differing
understanding and theological opinion,
To learn from our religious heritage, yet to
grow by seeking new dimensions of truth.
To follow, even imperfectly, the way of Jesus
in personal involvement with each other,
And, strengthened by this bond, to act in
Christian concern for the welfare of all people.”

CLOSING SONG – “The Peace of the Earth Be with You” #74 in the UCG songbook

The peace of the earth be with you, the peace of the heavens too.
The peace of the rivers be with you, the peace of the oceans too.
Deep peace, falling over you. God’s peace, growing in you.

BENEDICTION

ALLELUIA

POSTLUDE – Phillip Herr-Klepacki

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