Flower Communion (belated)

I meant to share this picture with you earlier this summer, but, life got in the way, so to speak. These are the flowers that were brought by our church members for our Flower Communion.
The Flower Communion Service is a uniquely Unitarian Universalist celebration developed by Norbert and Maja Capek, who founded the Unitarian church in Czechoslovakia. They felt the need for some ceremony which would be non-threatening and would bind the people closer together, and make them feel like a religious community. And so they created the Flower Communion. Our little UU church usually celebrates it the second Sunday of June.

The first Flower Communion Ceremony was celebrated June 4, 1923 in Czechoslovakia. The first such ceremony in the US was held in 1940 in Cambridge, Mass., introduced by Maja Capek as she was in the US to raise funds for the UU churches in Europe.

As people come into the church, they add their flowers to the vase and this beautiful "arrangement" graced the front of the church during the service. At the end of the service everyone gets up and takes a flower to take home with them - the ensuing bouquet is just as lovely, don't you think?

Whenever Dr. Capek conducted his Flower Communion in Prague. he would say this proverb as he "consecrated" the flowers:

Infinite Spirit of Life, we ask thy blessing on these, thy messengers of fellowship and love. May they remind us. amid diversities of knowledge and of gifts, to be one in desire and affection, and devotion to thy holy will. May they also remind us of the value of comradeship, of doing and sharing alike. May we cherish friendship as one of thy most precious gifts. May we not let awareness of another's talents discourage us, or sully our relationship, but may we realize that, whatever we can do, great or small, the efforts of all of us are needed to do thy work in this world.

Dr. Capek was a visionary, amd the Capeks had very intersting lives - Dr. Capek, unfortunately died in a concentration camp during WWII. His memory lives on in the Flower Communion that is celebrated every spring in UU churchs all over the world.