Every year at the United Church of Gainesville, we begin our program year with the ritual of the gathering of the 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.
 
If you did not bring water to this service but would like to participate, you can add your symbolic waters, available on either side of the Sanctuary.
 
WELCOME – Rev. Andy Bachmann
 
PRELUDE – “For the Beauty of the Earth” – Carl Carter, Ewan Johnson,  trumpets; Phillip Herr-Klepacki, piano.
 
CALL TO WORSHIP – Rev. Bromleigh McCleneghan
 
One: If I were called in
To construct a religion
I should make use of water.
 
All: Going to church
Would entail a fording
To dry, different clothes;
 
One: My liturgy would employ
Images of sousing,
A furious devout drench,
 
All: And I should raise in the east
A glass of water
Where any-angled light
Would congregate endlessly.   – Philip Larkin
 
HYMN – “God of the Waters” (words by Shelly Wilson, tune by George W. Warren, tune 592) 
 
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 AND GATHERING OF THE WATERS OF CHILDREN -Rev. Andy Bachmann

BIRTHDAYS
 
CHORAL ANTHEM AND OFFERING – “Down to the River to Pray” Traditional, arranged by Sheldon Curry
 
During the offering, we welcome your offerings as the plates are passed. Your gifts support all facets of the UCG community. You can also give online: bit.ly/ucgplate
 
The Waters of Power – Rev. Talia Raymond
 
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 humankindness. 
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. Bromleigh McCleneghan
 
In this interconnected universe, every improvement we make in our private world improves the world at large for everyone. We all float on the collective level of consciousness of humankind, so that any increment we add comes back to us. We all add to our common buoyancy by our efforts to benefit life. It is a scientific fact that what is good for you is good for me.    -David R. Hawkins
Bring forward the Waters of Healing 
 
CONGREGATIONAL SINGING – “Like A Tree Planted By the Water” 

Blessed are those whose hearts are open,
Delighting in the way things are.
Like a tree planted by the water,
We are planted right here.
 
Chorus:
I’m planted right here.
I’m planted right here.
Like a tree planted by the water,
I’m planted right here.
 
Roots digging deep in the soil,
Branches reaching for the sun,
Like a tree planted by the water,
I’m planted right here.
 
Chorus

UCG’s my family tree,
Rooted in love and care.
Like a tree planted by the water
I’m planted right here.
 
Chorus

The Waters of Peace – Rev. Andy Bachmann
 
We have all felt the lure of the river.  We are drawn to its beauty, and we are aware that something passes with the waters, something of time, memory, hope, lives and histories, all in a long unnamed movement toward the sea.  We know the deep intuition that our own lives cohere with the Cosmos both now and into some unimaginable forever.  To stand at the confluence of rivers is to hear more than the joining of streams; it is to hear ourselves.  Something converges within us.  We are a sink, as one old mystic called us, a cosmic sink awash with energies we can scarcely imagine, a blending of nature and imagination, matter and spirit.  When we begin to imagine all that we are, the universe will change, and these countries, these neighborhoods, this breath, this day itself will fill with Spirit just as surely as the rivers run to the sea.  Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future. –from Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse and from Daybook, Spring 1991 by Marv Hiles
 
Bring forward the Waters of Peace. 
 
CONGREGATIONAL SINGING – “I’ve Got Peace Like a River” 
 
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 – Rev. Talia Raymond
 
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 Homecoming. 
 
THE WATERS OF COMMUNITY – Blessing of the Gathered Water – Ministers
  
Reading of the 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”
 
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.
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND PRAYERS -Rev. Talia Raymond
 
BENEDICTION – Ministers
 
ALLELUIA
 
POSTLUDE -Phillip Herr-Klepacki

Here are the UCG friends celebrating a birthday this week!

Happy Birthday!