Special Worship Events
Intergenerational Services
Six or seven times a year we hold an intergenerational service which includes all of our children except the youngest. These are usually held in conjunction with a topic from the children’s curriculum. They might involve a skit or special music, and they are always a high-energy experience!
New Members Ingathering
Several times each year we welcome new members into the community with an Ingathering Service during our regular worship service. Those who have recently signed our Membership Book are introduced to the congregation and receive a gift from us; then we all participate in speaking aloud our commitments to one another.
In our work together across the generations, may we become a more effective instrument of service; a voice for liberation, reason and respect; and a community in which we can honor all that life brings to us. Recognizing that we all have ministries to fulfill, we celebrate together in unity of spirit and universality of love.
Child Dedications
Our Child Dedication ceremonies take place during regular Sunday worship. They are neither baptisms nor christenings; rather, they are an opportunity for the gathered religious community to dedicate themselves to the spiritual nurture of the child, and to the support of the child’s family. Child Dedication ceremonies can be held for children of any age, at the request of member families of the congregation.
Water Ceremony
Although we hold services all year round, we celebrate the return to community every Fall with a Gathering of the Waters service on the Sunday after Labor Day. People are encouraged to bring water from a place that was significant to them over the summer (whether a vacation site, the drinking fountain at the library, or their own back yard hose).
As we pour the waters we have brought with us into a common pool, we pour ourselves into this community, made stronger by the mingling of souls, by the merging of commitment to our mission, and by the shared care, talents, and resources each of us brings. Together in common purpose we are more powerful than any of us is alone. We join in our dedication to care for our world — and for each other — and through that service our lives are transformed.
— (The Rev. Duane Fickeisen, September 9, 2007)
El Dia de Los Muertos
On the Sunday closest to All Souls Day, we celebrate the Mexican Day of the Dead by remembering deceased loved ones at an altar created in the Mexican tradition, complete with sugar skulls (calaveras de azucar), marigolds, silly skeletons, and a bamboo arch decorated with flowers.
Christmas Eve
Every year on Christmas Eve, we gather for a family-oriented service of Lessons and Carols at 7:30 p.m., followed with a reception of hot cider and Christmas cookies. The Biblical story of the nativity is interspersed with contemporary readings and poetry including the message of the season.
Tolling of the Bells
The first Sunday service of the new calendar year gives us the opportunity to toll the bell for those dear to us who died in the previous year. This personal recognition is followed by eulogies of several significant public figures who died in the previous year.
Ash Wednesday Communion and Confession
On Ash Wednesday evening we meet for a Communion and Confession service in the Racovian tradition. Those attending speak of their spiritual shortcomings and acknowledge the elements of their religious life that will help them to overcome these shortcomings. We make commitments for Lent, followed by a communion of bread and wine.
Other Special Worship Events
In addition to noting in our worship services such significant religious holidays as the Jewish High Holy Days, Ramadan, Christmas, and Easter, we also often mark secular holidays such as Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Mothers’ and Fathers’ Days, and Independence Day. This will vary from year to year. Please visit our Religious Education pages for information about RE Sunday, Coming of Age, and our Bridging ceremony.
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