Copy and paste into worship material
This is a Unitarian tradition, but can be used anywhere concerned with liberty. The line can be said by everyone, though most likely it is said by the worship leader alone.
I light the chalice...
[Light the chalice]
The Flaming Chalice
Is our symbol, our copyright
Taken through Europe, and across the world.
Why is this?
Because the high flame, which reaches ever higher,
Is that of ever-expanding Reason -
But it is held within the Covenant of our Fellowship,
Which is of our discussion in this space and through time.
It's ours,
And we proclaim the Religion of Reason.
We light the chalice.
[Light the chalice]
The flame consumes so many materials!
The flame brings light into so many places!
But it coheres into - it is - one flame,
And it can be tamed in one bowl,
The bowl giving focus:
And directing the fire's rays.
This is a symbol of Unitarian Faith!
Giving a welcome to all, receiving its glow.
Easter, breaks out the light of the world!
We are led from darkness into light,
Breaking out and before us:
Help us to reflect on the light of love,
May we always find the light of holiness,
Guide us and light shine on our daily path.
We are children in this light,
Aglow and so forever praising
The Sun and Son of righteousness:
Forever.
[Adapted from text in 'Epiphany Praise', Service Sheet, The Parish Church of St. Mary, Barton-on-Humber, Sunday 6 January 2008, 18:00.]
Light the chalice.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
or
This is a symbol of our faith of liberty!
O God of meaning, God on earth, God of motivation,
We have come together to offer this worship,
To all creation,
For thanksgiving,
for its holy blessing and its redemption,
In all its ways and purposes. Amen.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
To become properly acquainted with a truth, we must first have disbelieved it, and disputed against it.
(Friedrich Novalis)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
We gather here today in this church,
to find again the courage to be ourselves,
truly ourselves,
to banish illusion,
to find our way forward,
and find contentment.
Let our eyes see,
Our ears hear,
and our bodies feel,
the wonder that can be
the truth of living.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
We have come together as the family of the church
to offer praise and thanksgiving,
to hear and receive holy words,
to bring forth our needs and the needs of the world,
to seek forgivenness and grace,
in the name of the God we each know and follow.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
Have you noticed how the pebbles of the road are polished and pure after the rain? And the flowers? No word can describe them. Only can one murmur an °Ah» of admiration. A Japenese writer and bonze has said that one should understand the °Ah» of things. A Master of Zen Buddhism
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will gradually become clear of itself... Be sparing of speech, and things will come right of themselves.
(Lao Tzu)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.
And sweetest in the gale is heard
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
(Emily Dickinson)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
Unitarians - and many more - believe in God, the Goddess, gods, goddesses, nothing at all, ideals, and pragmatism, these which create and destroy or stand and call us to where we need or want to be;
And with them are the Buddha, Gandhi, Jesus, and great men and women who are called and not called saints, who are lights to the highest in which we believe, and who stand as light for us for centuries. And also with them are the everyday people who live and work diligently and make the world what it is.
And alongside all is the realm of nature, the lives of varied animals and the spread of plants, of large and small forces and objects on the planet and swirling in space.
And we believe in places for gathering together for worship where all these Gods and people and animals and plants and forces are remembered and renewed in symbol, and where we take what they stand for into our wider lives, so that hope exists and the life of the world to come can be built.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
"Thank God!" the theologian said,
"The reign of violence is dead,
Or dying surely from the world;
While love triumphant reigns instead,
And in a brighter sky o»erhead
The blessed banners are unfurled.
And most of all thank God for this!
The war and waste of clashing creeds
Now end in words and not in deeds;
And no one suffers loss or bleeds
For thoughts that some call heresies."
(non-sexist; after Longfellow)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
The whole course of things goes to teach us faith. We need only obey. There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word.
(Emerson)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
In this Unitarian Church
We covenant together
in the search of the spirit:
To accept people as they are,
To allow personal space and development,
To uphold the integrity of each individual,
To find love out of the dark
And to worship with full heart and voice.
Our covenant is made from each individual to this community,
From this community to each individual.
It is given with commitment.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
This is the joyful point of the return of spring; the time of seed when life bursts from the earth and the grip of winter is lost. Light and dark are equal and in balance and all the elements come into pure harmony.
We receive the light of the sun in the blue of the sky, the white moon among the stars, the green of the earth, the mystery of the waters, the desires of the heart, and the will of the self. All comes from these and returns to them, through passing days and throughout eternity.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
There is much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it hardly becomes any of us
To talk about the rest of us.
(Anonymous)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
A candle lights others and consumes itself.
(Jewish saying)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
In faiths and foods and books and friends
Give every soul her choice.
For such as follows divers ends
In diverse lights rejoice.
There is a glory in all things;
But each must find his own,
Sufficient for his reckonings,
Which is to him alone.
(Rudyard Kipling)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
This is a Unitarian church and we are part of the Unitarian movement!
We join together in the search for deeper meaning,
for truth and for light.
We join together to try and unite our fragmented lives
into renewed wholeness.
We know that we must overcome our delusions, our dark sides,
and find ways to clarity and self-truth.
We do this in knowing that we may fail,
But in the hope that together we each may find what we seek.
We hope for a new day dawning out of the dark night,
For growth, for light and warmth,
In fellowship and within ourselves.
In this spirit we pray.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
From the events of our lives come the songs of our hearts;
From the struggle to survive comes the melody of hope;
From the broken places of the spirit come our anthems of praise;
From the deep silence of the soul comes the solace of peace;
From the offerings of love come the new shapes of the divine;
From the community we share comes the promise of tomorrow.
We believe in knowledge, for there is no help in ignorance;
We believe in reason, for without it humankind surrenders to the blind forces of falsehood and prejudice;
We believe in liberty, for all must have equal chance in finding truths;
We believe in compassion, for revenge and hatred destroy the spirit;
We believe in community, for no one»s potential can be realised if living as an island;
We believe in love, for it is life»s most open creative gift.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
We meet together
Here this morning in this meeting place
To be challenged by the faith
that questions
Who we are and what we are doing.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
Are we in the world to exploit nature?
Are we in the world to exploit race?
Are we in the world to exploit sex?
Or are we to right wrongs in the light of faith?
We meet here to right wrongs in the light of faith.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
Worship has many moods.
We will not impose the favoured tones of piety alone:
Supplication, praise and penitence.
We will invoke our living moods
In representational language
that make us more human.
Worship is a coat of many colours.
(Based on Mason, 'Evocation' in Bold Antiphony, p. 11)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
Seek the truth,
Listen to the truth,
Teach the truth,
Love the truth,
Abide by the truth,
And defend the truth
Unto death.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
Let us move away from those things which divide and separate...
Consider for a while the comfort and richness of spirit
That comes from dependence on one another.
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
In spite of our differences, and because of them,
We meet here regularly and are met here today
In the knowledge that we are all equal under the roof of the church.
May we be humbled by the recognition
That no one is more important than another...
And yet each of us is important, has worth, as a person.
Let us then consider the meaning and value of worship.
(from Celia Midgley, Reflections, p. 9)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
If we love, we will be loved;
If we respect people, we will be respected;
If we serve each other, we will be served;
If we give a good account, we will hear good accounts;
Blessed is the one who loves - and does not desire to be loved for it;
Who respects others - and does not look for respect in return;
Who serves - and does not expect service for it;
Who acquits well of others - and does not desire that they return the grace.
Because such things are big, foolish people do not rise to them.
(After Brother Giles)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
All that is sweet, delightful and amiable in this world, in the serenity of the air, the fineness of the seasons, the joy of light, the melody of sounds, the beauty of colours, the fragrancy of smells, the splendour of precious stones, is nothing else but heaven breaking through the veil of this world, manifesting itself in such degree and darting forth in such variety so much of its own and our recreative nature.
We have three precious things, which we can hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility. If we are gentle, we are bold; if we are frugal we are liberal; if we do not put ourselves in front of our neighbours we can be all as leaders.
From Lao-Tzu
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
O dayspring, brightness of the ever blessed life, and world of beauteousness! Come and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Come our happiness! True happiness come!
(Youlden, H., Manual of Ethical Devotion, 1914, 2.)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
How beautiful is the voice of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world.
(Youlden, H., 1914, 1.)
Light the chalice.
This is the symbol of our Unitarian faith!
Let there be light, O mind of humanity!
For our feet falter in the night.
O lamp of living years to be,
O mind of humanity, let there be light!
Truth only is living,
Truth only is whole,
And the light of its giving
Man's pole star and pole;
Truth, pulse of our centre, and depth of our feeling, and fruit of our soul.
(Youlden, H., 1914, 1.)
We bring you the sword of a song,
The sword of the spirit's desire;
When spirit finds utterance meet,
That which was weak shall be strong,
That which was cold shall take fire,
That which was bitter be sweet.
(Youlden, H., Manual of Ethical Devotion, 1914, 2.)
We come into this house of worship
To enter into fellowship with one another
And meditate on things unseen.
Let us dedicate this quiet hour to sacred thoughts,
To hallowed memories,
Uplifting hopes,
And aspirations.
[Light the chalice]
And if we gain here any true peace of mind,
Comfort,
and strength of heart,
We keep these within ourselves
For taking back into our daily lives and cares
Prepared to serve with fidelity and gladness.
This is a world
Full of conflict
And destructive activity.
Humans down the ages
Have formed themselves into tribes.
We have our tribe
And they have theirs, we hear.
We are right
They are wrong, we say.
It's a black and white world
And even this metaphor raises the issue of race
When the world is full of grey areas
And races who have mixed
Tribes and empires which once fought
They have faded away.
So when we express faith
Let us not fall into the same trap
The light of the flame
Is not just our light
But visible to anyone in the darkest places
I make light in this bowl
So that it shines out
As a reminder in this dark world
Of what there can be
Against what there is and is likely to be
And with a flame
We can keep watch
And practice what we see
And what we preach
A light against tribalism
Nationalisms of all forms
Against people who practice terror
Against one people who oppress another
And for toleration
And for what is noble, good and true.
[Light the chalice]