This is a message from our Church family friend, Lisa Kirk. It is nice to have friends that care for us. Thank you, Lisa.
Dear Friends,
In a few weeks, I was scheduled to see you and offer the Flower Communion that is so loved by us Unitarian Universalists. This week there is so much beautiful flora out there I encourage you to go to your gardens, or somewhere where you can find a flower that you love. Appreciate it's unique qualities, it's color and shape, perhaps its scent. Place it into a vase in your home where it can remind you of the soulful community of the Czechoslovakian Unitarian Church and Norbert Capek who brought this service to the people. With this Communion comes awe in Rev. Capek's strength and fearless dedication to his belief in the power of community and diversity. Strength and fearless dedication may we all have.
Here is a shortened version of my sermon.
It is this time of year when the myriad of colors of nature, the purple irises, the pink and red roses, multi-colored impatiens, pansies, and petunias, and the leafy greens of lily of the valley that dot our landscapes are a reminder of the Rev. Norbert Capek, the man who brought Unitarianism to his homeland, Czechoslovakia, in the early 1920's. He and his wife, Maya discovered Unitarianism in Orange, New Jersey; Capek had found what he had been looking for; the belief system he found himself leaning toward more and more over many years. He and Maya were moved enough by this unique message to carry it back home to their brethren.
After their church, called the Prague Congregation of Liberal Religious Fellowship, and then eventually the Unitarian Church of Czechoslovakia, was about a year old Norbert noticed a restlessness within his congregation. True to the typical Unitarian church theirs wasn't anything fancy, no robes, no hymns, no ritual, no dogma, just lectures. There was not enough spirituality. Capek, answering the call to bring his Jewish, Catholic, and Christian congregants under one spiritual umbrella, offered something to show that they had all made the right choice to live within this inclusive faith. He created the Flower Communion, a spiritual ritual of community that has become tradition during this time of year in many Unitarian Universalist churches. With this beautiful response Rev Capek opened up the Unitarians to a form of worshiping from their hearts and he showed them community within their various religious understandings.
The flowers are placed in the communal vase, they are gifts of beauty brought from one person to give to another. Each flower is unique just as each person who gave it and each person who will take the one that suits them.
In the midst of two world wars, Rev Capek's Flower Communion lived on bringing beauty, and soulful community to people during that historically challenging time in our nation's history.
During this unusual and difficult time in our history let us be grateful for the power our Earth still has to push forth beauty and color. Let us be grateful for the innumerable communities of people that have found each other in support.
Be safe and be well.
Lisa Kirk