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Introducing Sacred Flexibility to the Hymn Sandwich

Introducing Sacred Flexibility to the Hymn Sandwich

Last updated on: February 20, 2017 at 9:56 am by Amy Beltaine

Introducing Sacred Flexibility to the Hymn Sandwich 2017-02-20T09:56:37+00:00 Amy Beltaine

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Rev. Amy Beltaine

I’m an itinerant UU Minister and Spiritual Director. That means that I travel from congregation to congregation, community to community offering Sunday services, retreats, and spiritual accompaniment. (I also visit with earth-relating folks and CUUPS chapters whenever I can.) So I’ve encountered many Sunday service templates and many Sunday service elements that I’ve loved and hated.

As a Gardnerian-trained Pagan I often discover in myself an ingrained rule that UU Sunday Services violate. For instance, the chalice lighting needs to be at both the beginning and the end of the service. Many congregations do, but it feels physically dis-orienting and WRONG to ritually light a candle without ritually extinguishing it. Some of my internalized rules, I need to examine and let go of. Some of them are worth engaging in a conversation with the congregation. (the chalice extinguishing is one I usually request.)

I’ve also spent a number of years circling with Reclaiming folks. I learned from these experiences the value of play, creativity, and mystical inspiration. I credit them with offering me the phrase “sacred flexibility.”

Unitarian Church Built 1717. Photo by William Murphy (cc) 2011.

You know the saying intended to make us notice what skills and tools we carry with us, about how when you carry a hammer, everything looks like a nail? Well, I’ve noticed that using these two very different tools, the Protestant-style “hymn sandwich” that UUs have inherited from our Puritan roots can actually be “pagan-i-fied” fairly easily. I think that offering my Gardnerian ritual forms and “smells and bells” and reaching into my Reclaiming “sacred flexibility” and soul connection make a creative collaboration with the Puritan style service.

So, what does this look like?

First, the over-all form:

(I always request that the announcements and all non-ritual talking get put BEFORE the service formally starts.)

I. Call into the Circle of Love and Justice

a. Call to worship (define sacred space)

b. Lighting of the chalice (invite the divine)

c. Singing together (sometimes this is inviting the directions)

II. Connect

a. Time for All Ages (state the purpose of the gathering/ritual)

b. Joys and sorrows

c. Pastoral prayer (I’ve started doing body prayers here, often with a chant as a way to invite folks to explore other forms of spiritual practice.)

d. Singing together (healing)

III. Covenant

a. Reading/activity/homily (re-affirm purpose)

b. Offering

c. Sermon/homily (raising energy – this one I have the most trouble with. I usually end up doing ½ traditional sermon and ½ energy-raising.)

d. Singing together (grounding)

IV. Carry the Light

a. Extinguish the chalice (thank the divine/directions)

b. Benediction (open the circle)

c. Fellowship (Cakes and Ale)

You can see that I’ve mapped the usual elements to the ritual structure of my training, with some sacred flexibility thrown in!

Second, some content:

The call to worship and the chalice lighting can be words from the earth-relating traditions. Very little needs to be changed. For instance:

Come into the circle of love and justice, come into the community of love. Come into this place of peace and nourishment. Enter into this sacred time together with full hearts, questioning minds, and open spirits. Come, let us worship together.

And

This flame we now kindle is a reminder of the divine spark that lives in each heart. May we be aware of the support of the earth below us, the invitation to new ideas that is carried to us through the air, the life’s blood flowing through every person here, and the fire of commitment. May the awareness of the gifts we each bring to the altar of humanity inspire us and sustain us as we share in beloved community here, today.

The same works for the chalice extinguishing and the benediction.

For the time for all ages I usually offer an activity with a story element. What matters most to me is that it introduces the message for the day. It is best if it allows those gathered to participate in some small way with the story. Even when I use a midrash (I recommend Rabbi Geller’s “Does God Have a Big Toe” collection.) the whole room is included in some way.

For the Sermon I try to move chunks out of the “sermon slot” and into other parts of the sermon so that the talking part is covered by the time we get to the real sermon slot. Then I can invite folks into participation. Sometimes it is a body prayer, sometimes a song, sometimes a guided meditation.

At all my services, technology willing, I include a slide show so that pictures are included in the service. I love using bells but often forget. I’m grateful I decided to sit down to write this because it reminded me of the use of bells.

Congregation of Fools. Photo by Earthworm (cc) 2010.

This is just a bare introduction to how I have tried to integrate earth-relating sensibilitie in a typical service. Some congregations whole-heartedly participate in changing their service. Some allow at most one small tweak. In every case, it is an opportunity to work with the worship team (associate, music director, tech deck staff, greeters, and more.) to invite them into new possibilities. Every once in a while I encounter a congregation that has somehow adopted most of the structure and elements I prefer. Sometimes that’s because a Pagan or Earth-Relating minister has shaped their worship format. But sometimes I think it is the God/dess shaping them without their knowledge.

As I travel from congregation to congregation, I usually find at least one Pagan or Earth-Relating person on the worship committee or team I don’t think this is a coincidence. I would love to hear from you what you do to ‘pagan-i-fy’ your Sunday services! (or if you are in a Pagan context, what, from your, or other members of your circle’s, childhood religion do you keep or repurpose?) I think we have a lot to offer one another!

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