Why Water Communion?

 

Many Unitarian Universalist churches start their church year with the ritual of Water Communion, but why? 

In the autumn of 1980, two of our UU ancestors—as we would frame it for children—were crafting a service for the Women and Religion Continental Convocation of Unitarian Universalists. 

These two, Carolyn McDade and Lucile Schuck Longview, decided to create a new ritual to lift up our value of interdependence. Participants would mingle water collected in far locations, each one describing the significance of the water they were sharing.  

“Water 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—it is the womb of life—and 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.”

And thus, Water Communion was born. 

More details of this original service can be found here.