Gathering Music (Mary Bopp)
Welcome
Announcements
Centering
Opening Hymn and Procession of the Flowers
#361 “Enter, Rejoice, and Come In”
Words and music by Louise Ruspini
arr., by Betty A. Wylder
Enter, rejoice, and come in.
Enter, rejoice, and come in.
Today will be a joyful day;
enter, rejoice, and come in.
Open your ears to the song…
Open your hearts ev’ryone…
Don’t be afraid of some change…
Enter, rejoice, and come in…
Chalice Lighting and Opening Words
“All of Us Are Beautiful”
by Thomas Rhodes
spoken by Gina Campellone
Music
“Chanson de Matin”
by Edward Elgar
Anne Stowe, violin; Mary Bopp, piano
New Member Welcome
Introductions (Membership Committee co-chairs)
Angela Fournier – 9AM
Carole Boster – 9AM (membership reinstatement)
Andy Ricci and Jackie Muschiano – 11AM
Olie Cohen – 11AM
Jan and Dick Knotts – 11AM
The Charge (Minister)
As you take up membership in the Unitarian Universalist Society: East, I charge you to share with us who you are. Share your creativity, your experiences, your questions, your doubts, your beliefs, and all your discoveries of life’s meaning. I charge you to shake us up with your ideas, to stir us up with your conscience, to inspire us with your actions, and to stimulate our hopes with your dreams of what life can be.
Congregational Welcome (Congregation)
We welcome you as companions in the search for truth and meaning. We invite you to share in our mission of caring for one another, encouraging each other in spiritual growth, working for justice and peace in the wider community, and living in harmony with the earth. We join our gifts with yours, trusting in the power of community to bring freedom, healing, and love.
New Member Affirmation (New Members)
We join the Unitarian Universalist Society: East out of a desire and willingness to participate in a liberal religious congregation. We pledge to share our time, energy and gifts; to diligently seek our spiritual truths; and to strengthen the bonds of community.
Music
“What a Wonderful World”
by Bob Thiele (George Douglas) and George David Weiss
UUS:E Choir
Joys and Concerns
Musical Meditation
Offering
In keeping with our congregation’s 2018 resolution to become a sanctuary congregation, our community outreach offering for May is dedicated to two important immigrants’ rights groups in Connecticut.
Hartford Deportation Defense say “we are an immigrant-led mutual aid collective that fights for the rights of all immigrants in the Hartford area, so that we can all have access to a dignified, peaceful, and joyful life.
Unidad Latina en Accion or ULA, was founded in New Haven in 2002, with the goal of building grassroots immigrant power across Connecticut to win economic and racial justice.
Offering Music
Sonata in C minor (second movement)
Edvard Grieg
Anne Stowe, violin; Mary Bopp, piano
Story
“The Flower Ceremony, a Plain and Simple Beauty”
ad. from a story by Janeen K. Grohsmeyer in
Lamp in Every Corner: Our UU Storybook
told by Gina Campellone
illustrations by Mia, Charlotte, and Claudia Gonzalez
Music
“Hatikvah” (trad. melody)
Spencer Vadas, piano
Homily
“Flower Communion, 100 Years”
Rev. Josh Pawelek
Flower Communion
Closing Hymn
#61 “Lo, the Earth Awakes Again”
Words by Samuel Longfellow; music by Lyra Davidica
Lo, the earth awakes again — Alleluia!
From the winter’s bond and pain.
Alleluia! Bring we leaf and flower and spray — Alleluia!
to adorn this happy day. Alleluia!
Once again the word comes true,
Alleluia! All the earth shall be made new. Alleluia!
Now the dark, cold days are o’er, Alleluia!
Spring and gladness are before. Alleluia!
Change, then, mourning into praise, Alleluia!
And, for dirges, anthems raise. Alleluia!
How our spirits soar and sing, Alleluia!
How our hearts leap with the spring! Alleluia!
Extinguishing the Chalice
Closing Circle
May faith in the spirit of life
And hope for the community of Earth
And love of the light in each other
Be ours now, and in all the days to come.
