Water Communion
This amazing late summer / early fall ritual celebrating our interconnectedness is where we mingle the life giving waters from our voyages in the summer months to exult in our reunion and honor the substance which composes, connects, and cleanses us. This water is used for other important rituals throughout the year, including Child Dedications. And don't fret, you can always bring water from home if you forgot to sequester it from trips, or in the event that you did not travel. Either way, we won't know the difference, and any water you contribute will always be sacred to this community!
Holiday Pageant
Each year we look at the holiday season in a different way. We have employed a variety of pageant experiences, no two look or feel exactly the same. Most recently we enjoyed great success with our first "No-Rehearse" pageant that told the story of the birth of Jesus from the stable animal's point of view.
Easter Donation Hunt
For Easter, our children hunt for a terrific cause! All the donations they collect between services will go to The Gathering Place, "Denver's only daytime drop-in center for women, their children, and transgender individuals experiencing homelessness and poverty". The children are divided by age--hunting for donated items such as pastas, rice, ramen, dried beans, women's and children's underwear / socks, toiletries, and feminine hygiene products. After the hunt, the items receive a "bubble blessing," and then we package them up to be taken to The Gathering Place. Participants are able to choose from a variety of edible treats in exchange for their help!
Day of Remembrance
This worship service in late October is for families and friends of First Unitarian and is devoted to remembering and honoring our loved ones who have passed on this year.We have intergenerational music, interactive activities, and testimony during the worship. You are invited to bring photos and items that remind you or were cherished by your loved ones, as we have 3 altars dedicated to deceased pets, friends, and family, respectively. One major tradition for this service is to bring food that the deceased loved one enjoyed to place on the altars. Please do so, as you are inspired.
And finally, in the spirit of the holiday, you are also invited to dress up in your favorite costumes for this special service. This is a celebration of lives well lived!
Child Dedication
For any families interested in enacting a sacred bond between their children and our exceptional congregation. It is a beautiful ritual, performed twice annually by our very own Rev. Mike Morran. We would be truly honored to have your family participate in this lovely ceremony.
Flower Communion
Our Mother's Day Flower Communion began as a Unitarian ritual in Czekoslavakia during WWII. Rev Norbert Capek believed that, despite the German occupation, this ceremony would be a way for people to say that they were still free in their hearts, that they were intricately connected to nature and the divine, and that they were bound together as a community. He thought that a flower made a perfect symbol for a human being, because each and every flower is different, and each one is beautiful in its own way.
On the cay of the Communion, everybody is invited to bring in one flower, putting all of them together in the front of the church. After a ceremony of blessing, every participant takes a flower with them as a token of connection and celebration.
We celebrate Mother's Day with in this way because flowers, as symbols of reproduction and fertility, are the perfect representation of the beauty of motherhood and all the gifts come with it.