Led by our Flower-Co-op (Dinah Smith, Alice Berninghausen, Bobbie Carnwath, Chris Murphy and honoring Marnie Wood as she recovers). We brought flowers to build our communal bouquet, heard reflections and wrote a flower haiku. We paid homage to Ukraine and its sunflowers and invited you to plant a seed to take home, along with a flower from the bouquet.

Watch a recording of the service:

Order of Service

Bell: Land Acknowledgement  

Welcome & Pathways to Connection:  Martha Fulda, Worship Associate

Music: Ronnie Romano, Music Dir.

Call to Worship: I Sought the Wood In Summer (Gray #328)  Dinah Smith

Chalice Lighting:  Chris Murphy

May the light we now kindle help us to see
What is seed and what is flower in our lives
And lead us through the endless transformations

Of one into the other.

Responsive Reading:    Chris Murphy

Within the heart of the flower,

the fountain of beauty

Within the heart of the community,

a fire that warms and dances

Within the heart of each of us,

a spark of the spirit of life.

Holy . . . . . . .  Holy . . . . . . . . . Holy . . . . . . . . . .

by Rev. Amy Morgenstern

Hymn:       Where Have All The Flowers Gone     Chris Murphy

Offering:  We’ll share our collection with Addison County Community Trust (ACCT). Please write all checks to CVUUS. All cash and checks not otherwise specified will be split between CVUUS and our donee. You can give online at https://cvuus.breezechms.com/give/online.

Time For All Ages:  Scout and Lucy         Bobbie Carnwath

Reading: Excerpted from Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit  Dinah Smith

Hymn:   Spirit of Life     Ronnie Romano

Insights:  Dinah Smith

The Unitarian Universalist tradition of an annual Flower Celebration was initiated in Prague on June 4, 1923, by Norbert Čapek [pronounced Cha-pek], who was the founder of the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia.

His congregation came together from the very diverse practices of Catholicism, Judaism, and Protestantism.  To unify the congregation, he chose to bring focus to the universal beauty in nature.  To make the point that each individual brings a unique gift to the community, Capek asked each participant to bring a single flower to the celebration.

In our celebration this morning we honor Capek’s legacy of gathering to enjoy the beauty of flowers, and more importantly, the contributions of each of us to this and the greater community. This year as we’re preparing for this service, the members of the CVUUS Flower Coop are thinking about another reason flowers are so meaningful to us, particularly here in Vermont, where we can rejoice in the passing of the seasons.  We shed our coats and snow tires in relief and then put them on again, surprised by snows, heat, freezes, and heat. Flowers are the embodiment of resilience. The fact that we are gathered here this morning after more than two years of grinding isolation is a tribute to the resilience of each of us and to our congregation. The resilience of these north-country flowers so vibrant here after a winter that wouldn’t quit, reminds us of resilience evident all over the world today.  Resilience in response to injustice, prejudice, deprivation, war, and suffering of all kinds. We seek to extend the fellowship and support that we feel in this room to our brothers and sisters and all living things everywhere in the world.

Creative Community:    Flower Power      Chris Murphy

Benediction:   Attr. St. Francis of Assisi     Chris Murphy

Where hate rules, let us bring love; where sorrow, joy.

Let us strive more to comfort others than to be comforted,

to understand others, than to be understood,

to love others more than to be loved.  For it is in giving that we

receive, and in pardoning that we are pardoned.

Postlude: Ukrainian Anthem & Song         Ronnie Romano

Credits: Thanks to Flower Co-op for leading worship; Margy and Jordan Young and Richard Hopkins for technical support; Mike Greenwood and Alan Moore for overseeing safety, sound, and social hour and Avi Freund and others who helped set up, usher, and greet.

Thank you for joining us for worship!

Join the Flower Co-op and Landscaping Team!

Dinah Smith                          Landscaping & Tree Care

            Marnie Wood                            Sue Rasmussen

            Alice Berninghausen               Gerry Loney 

            Bobbie Carnwath                     Paul Stone

            Chris Murphy                            Rich Wolfson

            Jess Danyow                             Bob & Sheila House

            Rosalie Cryan                            Steve Maier

            Susie Patterson                         Dinah Smith (retiring)

            Revell Allen                                Alan Moore, YOU?  

            YOU?