Prelude Melodia Africana I by Ludovico Einaudi
Opening Words by Alex Brianson
We gather today to share a particular kind of community – a community of faith in which each of us is free to quest for our own ways of being spiritual and religious.
We gather today to think about how we have done this until now, and how we might do this from now.
We are none of us the same as we were twenty years ago or even last week; we are none of us the same as we shall be in five weeks or ten years.
As the paths of our lives cover new terrain, may we find helpful new thinkers, concepts, and understandings of Spirit, or of the highest good in life, and new ways to interpret those we have loved long and hard.
And may we be open to the voice of wisdom, wherever – and however – we find it.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point). Words by Adam Slate
As we travel the paths that our lives reveal to us,
We are often not sure of the way, the distance, or the destination.
Nevertheless, we have each other.
We can look to one another for wisdom,
We can be grateful for each other’s companionship,
And we can seek support when we have lost hope.
We light our chalice this morning to signify that we are willing to take the journey together.
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
be with us as we gather for worship,
each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
in this world in which Covid has not yet gone away,
and the clouds of war and climate change overshadow us.
May we keep in touch however we can,
and help each other, however we may.
May we be grateful for the freedoms we have
and respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
who are grieving, lost, alone,
suffering in any way,
Amen
Reading Year’s End and Year’s Beginning by Keith Gilley
Years come, and years go, always the same, but never the same. And I have known and remember decades of life. There have been times of war and times of peace; times of hope and times of despair when hope was hard to cling to; times of love and times of desolation. And there were times of great joy, when all the pain and suffering of life were hard to credit, like believing in snow in the heat of the day, or sun-burn in a blizzard.
Yet these, and all the in-betweens, I have known. I wasn’t someone different at those times; it was the same me in all those times, the same me in continuity in each long decade of living. So are we all, people of all seasons. Can we then be people for all seasons? Celebrating, accepting, rejoicing, grieving, and sorrowing, as the die of the times is cast for us? We are here, each of us, with different burdens as with different gifts.
We would resolve to live fully, richly and wisely in all that pertains to ourselves. We would resolve to live thoughtfully, kindly and compassionately in all that pertains to others. We would be secure in the knowledge that we are all kindred, one of another, bound together in sorrow as in joy, in trial as in celebration.
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
May we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
And may our shortcomings be forgiven,
As we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
The inspiration and guidance to do right,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
And receive whatever life brings,
With courage and trust.
Amen
Reading The year gone by by Tony McNeile (adapted)
We look back at a year gone by. There have been triumphs, sometimes disasters and often periods of quietness and inertia. We have gained and possibly lost. We have promised and fulfilled, promised and not fulfilled. We have known moments of joy and moments of sadness. Our year has been better or worse than any other. Let us retain the precious memories of the year and then move on to the coming year.
In the coming year may we be bold and adventurous in our thinking. Look forward with enthusiasm, look forward with strength, feel armed by the experiences of the past. Make plans and set targets. Feel the strength in your heart that faith brings. Let us bless our families and our friends. Let us bless this community we belong to. In the coming year, may we each be a beacon of peace and love that gives hope to all. Amen
Prayer by Andrew Pakula (adapted)
Spirit of Life and Love,
With each new day, we are offered another step in life’s sacred journey, an invitation to join in the flow of life that streams around us.
Today, we may face a barren desert landscape to cross,
parched as our reserves of hope dwindle.
Some days, a lush oasis appears, offering its succulent gifts of joy to delight our hearts.
Each day, we arrive, but not to stay.
We travel on…
Pilgrims in search of the holy land that glistens in our dreams,
journeying toward a destination that we must seek,
and that none ever reach.
Spirit of the journey, God of many names.
May we step out boldly,
venturing eagerly forward,
accepting all that each mile has to offer.
May we know that within the journey itself lies our destination,
and that the holy city waits to be discovered in every heart.
Amen
Reading from Beginnings from Benedictus by John O’Donohue
Perhaps the art of harvesting the secret riches of our lives is best achieved when we place profound trust in the act of beginning. Risk might be our greatest ally. To live a truly creative life, we always need to cast a critical look at where we presently are, attempting always to discern where we have become stagnant and where new beginning might be ripening. There can be no growth if we do not remain open and vulnerable to what is new and different. I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over. …
Before it occurs, a beginning can be a long time in preparation. This is why some beginnings take off with great assuredness and one can instinctively recognise that the right direction has been chosen. Without any struggle, one enters into a fluency that seemed to have been awaiting one’s choice. Other beginnings are awkward and slow and it takes considerable time before the new path opens or welcomes one. …
When the heart is ready for a fresh beginning, unforeseen things can emerge. And in a sense, this is exactly what a beginning does. It is an opening for surprises. Surrounding the intention and the act of beginning, there are always exciting possibilities. … Beginnings … invite and unveil new gifts and arrivals in one’s life. Beginnings are new horizons that want to be seen; they are not regressions or repetitions.
Time of Stillness and Reflection Arrival: A Meditative Prayer by Mark Hutchinson (adapted)
Please relax,
We are entering states of arrival.
You are invited to imagine
– the exciting arrival of the new born
– the stepping off the plane on holiday
– the unexpected rainbow
– that moment that friendship becomes friendship.
And yes, unsettling states of arrival:
– The uniformed one stepping onto another nation’s land
as peacekeeper
as attacker
as humanitarian
– The first crime
– Unwanted arguments
– The beckoning light that means the dimming of your light on this earth.
And yet here we are in an arrival we can have every day
every hour if we choose:
arrival into the spirit of community
arrival into the community of spirit.
We arrive today into the spirit of our community
hope, love,
in the presence of a goodness outside of ourselves
We arrive today into the community of spirit
ever revealing truths
open heart and open mind
to be the loving kind
to be the living kind
that takes this arrival seriously
accepts the guidance willingly
today, and every day,
everywhere we go,
every time we speak,
with every action taken.
[silence]
Thank you
for this arrival in the spirit of community
Thank you
for this arrival in the community of spirit
Amen
Musical Interlude: Melodia Africana III by Ludovico Einaudi
Address A New Start
You may be feeling a little confused by my choice of “new year” readings, for this second Sunday in September… but bear with me. Because this month does represent a new year for so many people – for all the schoolchildren, who have gone “up a class”, for all the even younger children, starting nursery or school for the first time, and for the myriad of young people – and some older people too – who will shortly be starting university, arriving in a new city, making new friendships, learning new things.
Or we may be at the beginning of a new era in our lives. My daughter and her partner have just become parents for the first time – a very new experience. Which means that we are now grandparents three times over. And in a couple of weeks’ time, my son’s partner will be returning to work, following the birth of our second grandson last November, and I will be looking after him one day a week – also a very new experience (for both of us).
I guess what I’m saying is, that it doesn’t need to be the first of January, to celebrate, to mark, a new year. And I don’t know whether it is hot-wired into my DNA, or whether it is the fruit of having spent so many years in or around education, but for me, the new year has always begun in September. Not in January, which is a mere accident of the calendar, but in September. So for me early Autumn is the time of year when I can stop frantically planning for the future, sit still for a while, and take stock of what I have achieved during the past twelve months. It is also, very importantly, an opportunity to be grateful and to give thanks for the good things that have happened in the past twelve months. I think we don’t do this enough. And finally, it is a chance to review what has not gone so well, particularly if it was my fault, and to resolve to do better next year.
At this time of year, this time of new beginnings, I always find the words of 19th century Unitarian and Transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson, both challenging and reassuring (please excuse the exclusive, masculine language):
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year. No man has learned anything rightly until he knows that every day is doomsday. Today is a king in disguise. Today always looks mean to the thoughtless, in the face of a uniform experience that all good and great and happy actions are made up precisely of these blank todays.
Let us not be so deceived; let us unmask the king as he passes! He only is rich who owns the day, and no-one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with worry, fret and anxiety.
You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”
Good advice at any time, but particularly apposite, perhaps, at the beginning of a new year, or of a new phase in our lives. We should never forget that there is always the chance to begin anew, to forget the “blunders and absurdities” of the previous weeks, months, or years, and to start afresh. Our first reading, by former editor of The Inquirer, Keith Gilley, reminds us that we are “people of all seasons” and challenges us, “Can we then be people for all seasons? Celebrating, accepting, rejoicing, grieving, and sorrowing, as the die of the times is cast for us? We are here, each of us, with different burdens as with different gifts.”
He also suggests some wise new year resolutions: “We would resolve to live fully, richly and wisely in all that pertains to ourselves. We would resolve to live thoughtfully, kindly and compassionately in all that pertains to others. We would be secure in the knowledge that we are all kindred, one of another, bound together in sorrow as in joy, in trial as in celebration.” Which are appropriate for any time of year, I think.
This Autumn may also be the start of a new era for our MUA congregations, as they receive a visit from the Transformers team who are conducting Sustainability Audits for each congregation, on behalf of the District. We hope this process will prove to be an opportunity for all our congregations (with help and support) to examine their strengths and weaknesses, to discern what threatens their survival, and to begin to understand what new opportunities there might be for growth and thriving. I truly hope so.
As ever, John O’Donohue puts what I want to say far more beautifully than I ever could: “We always need to cast a critical look at where we presently are, attempting always to discern where we have become stagnant and where new beginning might be ripening. There can be no growth if we do not remain open and vulnerable to what is new and different. I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over.”
Yet “taking a risk for growth” can be a deeply scary process. We can feel like reluctant toddlers, dragging at the hand that is leading us gently forward, comfortable where we are, afraid of change. It is at times like this, that I find the words of Cliff Reed both sobering and consoling:
“In a world that is uncertain,
where all our plans may be swept away at any moment,
we can put no trust in the structures we erect,
the structures we inherit.
If they are all that we bequeath,
then we are bequeathing nothing that will last.
But we are human beings who have found in each other
a community of values.
It is these that unite us, inspire us, move us.
It is the love which underlies them that gives us
joy in one another, that gives us what strength we have.”
We live in a world where we are always encountering new things – new experiences, new people, new thoughts and ideas, new nudges from the Spirit. And we cannot help being changed by them. Like I said, it may take us a while, screaming, protesting, and dragging at the hand that is trying to lead us forward, but we’ll get there in the end.
Yet, how much better it would be to be open to movement, change, transformation. To embrace it, even… I honestly believe that it is up to us to keep our hearts and minds and spirits open to new experiences, so that we may grow as people. It’s also important to be nice to ourselves, to understand our natural inclination towards the status quo, and not beat ourselves up when we resist movement, change, transformation. And to understand that these things are just as hard for everyone else we know, and not to blame them when they, too, resist.
Sometimes, the new experience ahead of us can feel too big, too daunting, for us to deal with. When faced with a serious and complicated task (or a task which we feel is serious and complicated), it is human nature to procrastinate, to do that which is easiest, and to ignore that which is difficult and overwhelming.
Let me give you an example. A while ago, I read about a wonderful writing program called Scrivener and knew it would ultimately make my writing life easier. But it was such a massive temptation to carry on using the same old, less efficient software that I knew so well. Because the struggle to learn how to use a new piece of software efficiently daunted me.
So I downloaded a free trial edition and spent an evening going through the tutorial. I could see that once I’d got to grips with it, it was going to make my novel so much more fun to write. But it was packed full of unfamiliar features. In the end, I ordered a copy of Scrivener for Dummies, and gave it a proper go. Because I knew that once I’d taken the first step of actually engaging with the software, it would become easier and easier to use, as I became more familiar with it. And so it has proved.
But it is that first step, conquering our reluctant, timorous hearts, that is the most difficult. The greatest amount of energy is used when we start moving. From standing still to first step takes more energy (certainly more emotional and spiritual energy) than the following steps. Because after that, a sort of virtuous feedback loop is set up, and as we form a new habit, make a change in our lives, it becomes easier to maintain it, the longer we do it. And the same applies in our congregations, but with the bonus that we have each other for support, along the way.
I believe that this is the attitude we need to have towards the new, the different. So that we learn to embrace change, to take those first necessary steps towards the new, to make a new start, in our congregations, and in our lives.
May it be so, Amen
Closing Words
Spirit of Life and Love,
Our time together is drawing to a close.
May we have the courage to
embrace the new, and move forward,
both in our individual lives
and as congregations.
May we share the love we feel,
may we look out for each other,
sharing our joys and our sorrows,
and may we keep up our hearts,
being grateful for the many blessings in our lives,
now and in the days to come, Amen
Postlude Stella del mattino by Ludovico Einaudi