Of course, we're made of it, mostly, but also, we revel in the ebb and flow of it; the dripping, splattering, waves-crashing noise of it; the thirst-quenching, snow-crunching, swim-through feel of it; the misting, falling, rainbow-casting-prism joy of it. Water is that which unites us—in our sweat and tears, and in the very life's blood of our bodies: we are together...through water. So it's no wonder that water and configurations of it figure prominently in philosophy, art, and literature of all kinds.


This week, I offer a poem that appears in our very hymnal (528) as a meditative reading, the testimony of an African-American, likely gay, male, playwright, columnist, novelist, social activist, poet, and leader of the Harlem Renaissance, using the waters of a river to symbolize...well, we'll discuss on Thursday!




I've Known Rivers

Langston Hughes


I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world

and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

 

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

 

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi

when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans,

and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

 

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

 

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.




What do you think about the equation of rivers with the growing and shared depths of a soul?


If you were to write a poem about your own growing soul, of its heritage, struggles, and depths, what rivers would you cite?


What sort of body of water would Unitarian Universalism be?



This Sunday, we celebrate a ritual known as Water Communion to symbolize a return to the ocean source of our religious community after summers of tributary adventures. We will each bring water to a common bowl, emptying our collective love and energy and intention into the wellspring of a new congregational year that will course forward from that moment. We will join our diverse water caches to a collective new whole, just as the varied sources of our faith contribute to our movement’s ongoing life, just as the drops of our lives coalesce and become something greater than the sum of their parts. I look forward to being in community with you during the service and also afterwards, at a potluck picnic. It will be good to begin A New Chapter of our lives together with intention.


And don't forget to bring your backpacks or purses or briefcases—whatever you tote around with you—so that we might add this community’s intentions and blessings to it with a small token of love as a reminder of the power of our connection at UUCMC.


Let's gather in. Here we go!



Rev. Craig




Click here to join Tea Time on Thursday (Sep 7) at 4:00 p.m.

This Week's Service

promptly at 10:30 AM


Livestreamed from the meetinghouse on YouTube

(link in the eblast)


You can always access any week's service

at our YouTube channel



September 10, 2023


Multigenerational Ingathering

Water Communion Sunday

w/ Backpack Blessing

Rev. Dr. Craig Rubano

and CDFM Michelle McKenzie-Creech


We gather in the waters this multigenerational Sunday as we welcome and are welcomed—welcomed back, welcomed home, welcomed in.

Bring your hope for this New Chapter in UUCMC history, and bring a little water (from wherever is meaningful to you) to add to a communal bowl symbolizing the community we create together.

Also, bring a dish to share for our potluck picnic following the service.

And bring your backpack, bag, briefcase, purse—whatever will carry you through this new season—for a blessing.

The congregational year begins in full with all of us in attendance.

Let us gather in!


Music by Dr. Louise Chernosky, UU Singers,

Paul Vallin

 

Welcome-in Potluck Picnic to follow the service.


UUCMC is a beacon of love, justice, and community-building in Monmouth County and beyond, transforming lives and transforming the world, sustaining us all.

The Annual Stewardship Campaign—A New Chapter—is our opportunity to make a difference in the pages of our lives.

To submit your pledge, please...

Bring your form to the meetinghouse in-person,

Send it to the meetinghouse by mail or email (uucmc@uucmc.org),

Or pledge online by clicking: www.uucmc.org/giving.

Thank you for your support of UUCMC!