We gather again from sundry places. Some have cleaved the far spaces of the air. Some have crossed the lanes of the sea. Some have steered a tortuous way through the busy roads of the land. Some have trodden the paths of quietness.
We have seen sunshine and storm. We have taken our ease beside still waters. Our children have played the summer through.
We have read the unfamiliar face, heard the foreign tongue, seen the tiered city of other men's affairs and the good fields of their husbanding.
Back again.
We open our lives to the pressure of our daily work. May we stay strong to face our tasks, large-minded to do them well, large-hearted to try uncovenanted works.
Ingathered.
Let meditation lead us to sources of strength. Creative energy moves swiftly through space, turns the cone of night to glorious morning, tilts the season of the year to ripening. Its power has poured upon our planet till rugged crust, toiling water and seething air have brought life to stem and limb, and uncertain thoughts flashing across the brain of men.
May we be instruments of that power and shape the unfinished earth into playgrounds of peace and homes of quietness.
An hour is not enough to reach the bounds of creation, nor tell the valiant story of men, nor mingle with our brethren of the earth.
Yet a minute can be too long to bear ecstasy or grief. Let us learn the timelessness of time while gathered to our sacrament.
Source: 'The Gathered Church' in Mason, Leonard (1967), Bold Antiphony: Meditations in Contrasting Moods, Lindsey Press, 18, as in 'The Gathered Church' in Whittam, Margaret and Whittam, Peter (eds.) for REYD of GA Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (1980), We Pause in Reverence; RE Sunday Service, Religious Education and Youth Department, General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, 4. Lines have been joined.
Responsive Reading
Leader: The Church of tomorrow will not strive to save men from the world; it will save men in the world.
Cong. It will make honest and whole the cravings and appetites of men, leading to the joys of fullness and self-realisation.
Leader The church will seek to serve the whole man and the whole community; from it will come the hopes and ideals for a better world.
Cong. From the church will come the challenge of free minds to the evils of every age. It will fight all men and all groups who prey on their fellows.
Leader No one shall be too mighty, too rich, or too famous; no tradition shall be too revered, no shrine too sanctified;
Cong. All shall be weighed in the scale of human values, for this is the church of men, and them alone it will serve.
Leader There will the mother come with her infant and there will the child be introduced to the world;
Cong. There will he learn the meanings man has found in the skies, the fields, the hills and the valleys, and the cities of men.
Leader There will he learn to weigh the meaning of his days, to gather into his mind the wisdom of his ancestors,
Cong. To know why men call one thing right and another wrong, and to treasure beauty, mercy, and justice in the deep places of his being.
Leader As common as life itself, as strange as the air he breathes, as reasonable as his own mind, the friendly companion of his days.
Cong. Such will be the church when it is free from the magic and the darkness of the centuries.
Leader It will be the hub, the centre of our life together, weaving the strands of our business into a pattern, a design, a meaning -
Cong. Uniting us with our companions on the journey, helping us in our pilgrimage along the road between the cities of birth and death.
Source: 'The Church of Tomorrow' in Unitarian Universalist Association (1964), Hymns for the Celebration of Life, Boston USA: Beacon Press, number 459, as in 'The Church of Tomorrow' in Whittam, Margaret and Whittam, Peter (eds.) for REYD of GA Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (1980), We Pause in Reverence: RE Sunday Service, Religious Education and Youth Department, General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, 12-13.
Our lives are forged through the pressures of daily tasks. We must stay strong to face them, large-minded to do them well, large-hearted to try the new and strange.
And then we come here.
We gather again from different places. We can come by car, or bus or rail, or by foot. It's noisy out there but some have already embraced the quiet mind during their journeys.
We can come through sunshine and storm. Or perhaps we are as playful as the changes in the weather. But we can make it calm out there.
We may well have passed an unfamiliar face, heard a different tongue, and seen a variety of happy, sad and tired faces. Along the way we passed the results of creative endeavour as in the momuments of our streets.
But, here we are, inside this place. Ingathered.
Let meditation lead us to sources of strength. Creative energy moves swiftly through space, turns the cone of night to glorious morning, tilts the season of the year to ripening. Its power has poured upon our planet till rugged crust, toiling water and seething air have brought life to stem and limb, and uncertain thoughts flashing across the brain of men.
May we be instruments of that power and shape the unfinished earth into playgrounds of peace and homes of quietness.
An hour is not enough to reach the bounds of creation, nor vision the world of the imagination, nor tell the people's valiant story.
Yet a minute can be too long to bear ecstasy or grief. Let us learn the timelessness of time while gathered within our sacrament of space.
After 'The Gathered Church' in Mason, Leonard (1967), Bold Antiphony: Meditations in Contrasting Moods, Lindsey Press, 18, as in 'The Gathered Church' in Whittam, Margaret and Whittam, Peter (eds.) for REYD of GA Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (1980), We Pause in Reverence: RE Sunday Service, Religious Education and Youth Department, General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, 4.
Responsive Reading
Leader: The Church of tomorrow doesn't save in the afterlife but enhances our place in the world. Let's start today.
Congregation: It will make honest and whole our discipline for fulfilment, leading to the joy of realisation.
Leader: From the Church comes the hope and idealism for a better world; the Church builds the individual and the community.
Congregation: From the Church comes the challenge of free minds to the evils of every age. It will contest all who prey on others.
Leader: No one can be too mighty, too rich, or too famous; no tradition can be too revered, no shrine too sanctified.
Congregation: All become weighed on the scale of human and ecological values, for this is the Church to realise them.
Leader: The parent brings the child and the child catches the greater vision.
Congregation: The child learns the grander future and makes it one's own.
Leader: The wisdom to come builds on the shoulders of our ancestors.
Congregation: So that we all learn what is right and to treasure beauty, mercy, and justice in the depth of being.
Leader: We grow into spiritual friendship and the cultivation of the discussive, reasonable mind.
Congregation: And the Church intends to be free from the magic and the darkness of the centuries.
Leader: Here becomes the hub, the centre of our life together, weaving the strands of our business into a pattern, a design, a narrative of community:
Congregation: The Church uniting us as individuals on this our journey, helping us in our pilgrimage along the road.
After 'The Church of Tomorrow' in Unitarian Universalist Association (1964), Hymns for the Celebration of Life, Boston USA: Beacon Press, number 459, as in 'The Church of Tomorrow' in Whittam, Margaret and Whittam, Peter (eds.) for REYD of GA Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (1980), We Pause in Reverence: RE Sunday Service, Religious Education and Youth Department, General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, 12-13.
Adrian Worsfold
Pluralist - Liberal and Thoughtful