Communion in Unitarian Universalist Congregations

Last updated on: November 1, 2011 at 3:11 pm by James Ford

Communion in Unitarian Universalist Congregations 2011-11-01T15:11:18-07:00 James Ford

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One of the intriguing things about my new call to the First Unitarian Church of Providence is the tradition of communion services. To those who ask about it, a common response here is we’ve always had communion services, why do you ask? And they have, for pushing hard on three hundred years…

Truthfully, communion ’tis an endlessly interesting subject to me.

Way back when, when I was getting my undergraduate degree, in my late-thirties and rushing, rushing after what I saw as nothing more than a ticket to graduate school a wise friend said, do yourself a favor, find just one professor whom you admire and take whatever she or he teaches.

At Sonoma State that person was Gordon Tappan, an archetypalist. Loved it. And truthfully,his classes were pretty much all I remember of that experience…

And so when I arrived at the Graduate Theological Union, I determined to do the same thing. At a cocktail party I met Louis Weil, and found him a searching mind, and with more than a hint of sanctity about his aura. I thought he’s my guy. Sadly he was an Anglican liturgist and I ended up learning vastly more about the subject than could ever be good for a Unitarian Universalist Buddhist.

So, now here I am at a church that expects communion services at least a few times a year. And this doesn’t mean any of those many events that UUs like to call “communions,” but rather ceremonies genuinely in the spirit of the historic Christian rite. (I exclude the flower communion from any sense of disdain the previous sentence might contain. It has come to have its own legitimacy within our association…) My sense is for the most part most people want to know the communion services are held, although they personally have no intention of participating…

But the carriers of the tradition are our deacons, another tradition all by itself unusual within the UU universe. So it happens…

So far since my arrival, we’ve done one communion. It was what they call their humanist communion service. I should say our humanist communion service. With my already revealed biases, I was suspicious, but I was game to try it. And whoever designed it actually seemed to have some sense of liturgy and the structures of the Christian communion, and I felt there was a deep appreciation being offered in that little gathering and cermony.

It was quite moving.

And now we’re doing another communion this Sunday. As is our tradition after the formal worship service so no one need stay who isn’t interested.

This time we’re doing something more obviously representing how it is a Christian rite, although vastly closer to the memorial sense rather than the sacramental, as these terms are understood in Christian communities…

When I can catch a breath I look forward to finding a little time to study these rites we’ve inherited, working them a bit, and pushing up against my own issues as well as those of our community.

And, as an additional treat, there are a number of people here who are interested in this conversation. Well, a couple…

I think some good may actually come out of this.

Maybe even a celebration of our truest communion, with each other, and the world, and the great mystery from which we come and to which we return…

As a friend signs his letters, good things…

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