More on the Easter Communion

I received this email recently, and the sender gave me permission to share it here.

I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed the Easter Communion. I thought it was a lovely way to celebrate community and to embrace traditions other than our own (a truly Unitarian concept). I was shocked that anyone had such a "problem" with it.

The truth is, every religion has beautiful elements and as Unitarians, we should have no problem honoring those elements and stepping outside of our notions of what is and isn't Unitarian. I hope that the Unitarian communion will return next year and that perhaps, with a little pre-emptive encouragement and mind-opening sermon, people will see how a long standing christian tradition can take on new meanings for each individual in the congregation.

I was raised Unitarian (at Eliot Chapel no less), and the only thing I've ever wanted more of in my church is more ritual and ceremony because, like paintings or music, I think they can become unique spiritual experiences for each person who opens their heart to it. Isn't that a large part of what Unitarianism is?

Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I loved the Easter service and think that the communion was a wonderful symol of coming together and sharing. Thank you.

Laura L. Hepburn

UU Communion Connection?

UU Communion Connection?

After church on Easter Sunday, someone asked why our Unitarian Universalist church would have communion. After all, wasn’t that Christian?

I think are several fold implications: communion is a Christian activity; UUs, are not by and large, Christian. So why the ceremony?

Of course the reality is that both Unitarianism and Universalism were (and still are), historical Christian doctrines. While it is true that most UUs would not consider themselves, or be considered by others, as traditional Christians, it is true that there are at least 6 sources to our faith, including “Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.”

The Christian communion service was based on Jesus’ last supper– itself a Jewish Passover meal. Long before Passover, religious people used food and drink to cement their bond, and to recall religious rituals.

Similarly, at Eliot Unitarian Chapel, we use Bread Communion (the Sunday before Thanksgiving) to recall our various cultural heritages, and how they inform who we are in our local and regional areas. We sing ‘America the Beautiful’ even if we’re unhappy with our current political administration, because we find it important to be reminded that despite our diverse backgrounds, we commit to a common ideal.

Similarly, when we celebrate a Universalist Christian communion at Easter, we are reminded that “we need not believe alike to love alike,” in the words of Unitarian martyr, Francis David.

Easter communion is a ritual to remind us of the life and deeds of Jesus. We do not affirm some sort of gnostic “blood and body” theology, and we don’t tend to subscribe to the notion that “Jesus died for our sins.” Instead we remember his amazing ministry in just 3 short years and how it changed history forever. That’s the connection.

–Daniel