Flower Communion Opening Words: (Elizabeth Strong )

Enter into the communion of flowers.


Enter with joyful hearts.
Enter with reverent thoughts.
It has taken long months beneath 
      cold ground for these flowers 
      to prepare their blooming.
It has taken each of us long times 
      of growth through sorrow and joy 
      to prepare for our living now.
The blooming season is short, 
The flowers stay only a brief time. 
We are travelers upon the earth: 
      travelers through all to brief life times.
Therefore let our moments be bountiful. 
Let us rejoice in our unique colors, aromas, and sounds. 
Let us celebrate together in love;
      that as we travel away, we take with us 
      the memory of golden hours together 
      among the flowers.

The Origins:
The Flower Communion service is a particularly Unitarian tradition, with a ritual and symbolism befitting us. It was created by the Reverend Norbert Capek, who lived from 1870-1942. Capek, originally a Baptist who converted to Unitarianism, founded the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. He introduced this special service to that church on June 4, 1923. For some time he had felt the need for some symbolic ritual that would bind people more closely together in a manner that would be perceived as authentic by his congregation. He turned to the native beauty of the Czech countryside for elements of a communion which would be genuine. This simple service was the result. It became so beloved that it was held every year.

People were asked to bri ng a flower of their choice, either from their own gardens, or from the field or roadside. When they arrived for the service, a large vase stood waiting in the vestibule and each person was asked to place his/her flower in the vase. The vase that contained all the flowers was a symbol of the congregation. As people left the service, they took a flower that was different from the one they had brought. As no two flowers are alike, so no two people are alike, yet we enrich each other with our uniqueness. Together we form a beautiful bouquet. The flower communion is a communion of sharing, a recognition of the life that binds us together. Will you take a moment now and think of someone in this congregation, or in your life, whom you find unique, or whom you have watched bloom, or someone whose presence has enriched your life. Hold that person in your mind’s eye as a flower and as you receive your flower today, think of him/her. Better yet, let them know that today, the flowers have reminded you of them in their beauty and uniqueness and interconnectedness.

The Flower Communion service was brought to the United States and introduced to the members of the Cambridge, Ma ssachusetts congregation by Maja Capek, the wife of Norbert Capek. The Czech-born Maja had met Norbert Capek in New York City while he was studying for his Ph.D., and it was at her urging that Norbert left the Baptist ministry and turned to Unitarianism. The Capeks returned to Czechoslovakia in 1921 and established the dynamic liberal church in Prague; Maja Capek was ordained in 1926. It was during her 1940 tour of the United States that Maja introduced this service. Unfortunately, Maja was unable to return to Prague due to the outbreak of World War II, and it was not until the war was over that Norbert Capek's death in a Nazi concentration camp was revealed. In the service today we recreate the message that every flower blooms in its own time, just as every person does. We can learn from each other and share in each other’s joys and sorrows as our lives unfold. Also in the service today we remember the uniqueness of Norbert Capek and take inspiration from his story. He was a man whose faith in freedom was great and in the Europe of the late 1930's and early 1940's he used flowers to remind everyone that love, friendship, goodwill and joy still existed. In a Europe torn ap art by war and hatred, he used flowers to remind everyone that we are still bound together. For his outspoken defense of freedom, Capek was arrested by the Gestapo and eventually taken to the Dachau concentration camp, where he died in 1942. Nazi court records show that Capek was considered "...too dangerous to the Reich [for him] to be allowed to live."

So while the beauty and special qualities of each flower astound and delight us, while we share in the beauty and special qualities of one another, we also know that love and beauty and goodwill do not exist for everyone. The Flower Communion reminds us that there are lands today where freedom has yet to blossom and, like Norbert Capek, our Unitarian heritage calls us to be messengers of meaning, with flowers. We can remember that friendship, peace and joy still exist in our world, torn apart this day by war, hatred and violence. We can be messengers of peace, with flowers. As Norbert Capek himself wrote in the Dachau camp, It is worthwhile to live and fight courageously for sacred ideals.

Oh blow ye evil winds into my body's fire; my soul you'll never unravel. 
Even though disappointed a thousand times or fallen in the fight and everything would worthless seem, 
I have lived amidst eternity. 
Be grateful, my soul, 
My life was worth living. 
He who was pressed from all sides but remained victorious in spirit is welcomed into the choir of heroes. 
He who overcame the fetters giving wing to the mind is entering into the golden age of the victorious. 

Consecrating and blessing the flowers
These are Dr. Capek’s words for consecrating and blessing the flowers:

Infinite spirit of life, we ask your blessing on these messengers of fellowship and love. May they remind us that, amid diversities of knowledge and of gifts, (we might be) one in desire and affection, and devotion to good and beauty. May they also remind us of the value of comradeship, of doing and sharing with one another. May we cherish friendship as a most precious gift. 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. May we be strengthened by the knowledge that . . . the spirit of love unites us, and may we endeavor together for a more joyful life for all. May it be so.

The Communion Prayer
In the name of Providence, which implants in the seed the future of the tree and in the hearts of men [and women] the longing for people living in [human] love; in the name of the highest. in whom we move and who makes the mother [and father], the brother and sister what they are; in the name of sages and great religious leaders, who sacrificed their lives to hasten the coming of [peace and justice]—let us renew our resolution—sincerely to be real brothers and sisters regardless of any kind of bar which estranges [one from another]. In this holy resolution may we be strengthened, knowing that we are God's family, that one spirit, the spirit of love, unites us, and [may we] endeavor for a more perfect and more joyful life. Amen.

People come up and take flowers as we sing #64 Oh Give Us Pleasure in the Flowers Today

Closing Words: by William Sinkford

In the presence of these flowers, 
These representatives of Creation’s profound beauty:
Diverse and Unique, but Related and Interdependent,
These flowers which come to us as gifts from we know not where
And which we, in turn, choose to bring to our shared and common altar
As gifts to one another
In their presence we turn our thoughts to the mystery beyond mysteries
to the most sacred—which we never understand fully 
but which we are granted revelatory glimpses of
in each of these flowers, 
in each of your faces, 
and through relationships with neighbors near and far
May they remind us of grace we have known in days past:
Forgiveness we have been granted, and provided.
Love, unearned and shared.
Recovery, begun and established.
Generosity, unforeseen and most sacred.
And may they inspire us now, and in days to come:
To seek, 
To notice, 
To embrace and, 
To re-create beauty.
To give unto the world=2 0as exuberantly as these flowers.