LESSON 16 – WORSHIP, SEPTEMBER, 2008

Adapted from Rev. Glenn Turner

Chalice: “…may we grow to know and cherish that unity which in each moment warms our hearts, flowing from each to each, making us, part with part, wholeness we could never be alone.  Thus may we find a kinship with all life, reaching across all barriers of race, philosophies and creeds, making us one with everything that lives from the inmost atom to the brightest star.”

Adapted from Robert Weston

Check-in:

Reading:  According to former Starr King School for the Ministry president Robert C. Kimball, “Unitarian Universalists are people who like to go to church.”  Worship-or for those who do not identify with that term, the Sunday morning program – is the most specifically religious way in which UU theologies manifest themselves in congregational life.  While there are many kinds of events and activities in the lives of most UU congregations, it is the Sunday morning service that brings together the bulk of the people in UU communities.  Consistent with the etymology of the word itself, through worship UUs ascribe worth;  through congregational worship, we form a community around shared ascriptions of worth.  Many people suggest that worship is one means by which we find a common religious expression in the presence of diversity.

From Engaging Our Theological Diversity

Quotes from the Common Bowl:  see attached

Life Questions:

• How do you define worship?  What about the definition above…”to ascribe worth?”  What does that mean to you?What elements of our worship service do you think contribute to the spiritual aspect of our community?
• Describe your ideal worship service.
• Do you prepare yourself for worship?  How?
• What do you think is the purpose of worship?
  

Closing Ritual:

We extinguish this flame but not the light of truth,

The warmth of community

Or the fire of commitment

These we carry in our hearts until we are together again.

Check-out:

Lesson 16 Quotes – Worship

September 2008

In the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread; no one can worship God, or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.

Woodrow Wilson

The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.

Sir Richard Francis Burton

An authentic life is the most personal form of worship.  Everyday life has become my prayer.

Sarah Ban Breathnach

A person will worship something, have no doubt about that.  We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will win out.  That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character.  Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I do good I feel good; when I do bad I feel bad.  That is my religion.

Abraham Lincoln

Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.

Benjamin Franklin

Your sacred space is where you find yourself again and again.

Joseph Campbell

Most people in American mainstream Protestant congregations do not come to church predisposed to worship…The basic experience of worship, in which we offer something and are transformed by what happens in the offering – that basic experience…is foreign.  Indeed they have been prepared to expect something quite the opposite.  The basic model for what we do together in our affluent, consumer-oriented society is not offering, but acquisition…It’s as if the event has to reassure us that in the end, it’s all really about us and who we are.  Robin W. Loving from Engaging Our Theological Diversity