Minister's Musing

Rev. Mark Ward
Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville

October 2007

It was a misty afternoon – not quite fall, though it felt like it – when I carried the bowl filled with water from our Water Ceremony down to the Memorial Garden. A pan was heating to a boil on the stove in our kitchen with water I had taken from the bowl and will use for child dedications in the year ahead.

As I walked into the Memorial Garden, I stopped before the brass plaques on our wall and silently read the names of church Members whose ashes have been buried in our garden. Then I slowly poured the water that we had gathered over the area where the ashes of those dear folks are buried, saying simply, “We remember you.”

I reflected as I walked back inside on how we as Unitarian Universalists struggle with ritual. Many of us came from religious traditions with rituals that felt to us like empty gestures or meaningless incantations. Historically, our tradition has been wary of ritual as a way believers can be manipulated and oppressed. And yet we also are drawn to the power of words or gestures that connect us to what matters: people we love, ideals we hold dear, or a way of touching what our principles call “that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and openness to the forces that create and uphold life.”

On that day I felt drawn to make a brief ritual of returning water to the earth in that special place. It reminded me of other rituals in our church life, such as lighting the chalice to begin each Sunday service and joining hands to sing our closing song to end it. We have discovered, I think, that it is possible to craft rituals that have integrity, that ground us in this world and connect us, one with the other, in the spirit of hope and love.