"Ancestor Day" -- UUSE Virtual Worship, October 25, 2026

Gathering Music (Mary Bopp)

Welcome and Announcements (Rev. Josh Pawelek)

Centering

Calling the Quarters

"To the Four Directions"

Music by Mary Bopp

Words adapted from Joan Goodwin's "To the Four Directions"

Jenn Richard, vocals

Mary Bopp, piano

Chalice Lighting

"What is Remembered Lives"

by Starhawk and Lauren Liebling

Opening Hymn

#1009 "Meditation on Breathing"

by Sarah Dan Jones

When I breathe in, I'll breathe in peace

When I breathe out, I'll breathe out love.

Story

"The Next Place"

by Warren Hanson

Hymn

#1002 "Comfort Me"

by Mimi Bornstein-Doble

Comfort me, comfort me,

comfort me, oh my soul. Comfort me, comfort me,

comfort me, oh my soul.

Sing with me, sing with me ...

Speak for me, speak for me ...

Dance with me, dance with me ...

Comfort me, comfort me ...

Joys and Concerns

Musical Meditation

Offering

MARC, Inc. provides the opportunity for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live meaningful lives of independence, choice, inclusion, and continuous personal growth. MARC, Inc. was founded in 1952 by seven families who were working together to support their children who were living with disabilities. Today, they have a campus on Sheldon Road in Manchester where they provide multiple services and programs, in addition to managing eleven residential homes. MARC supports almost three hundred individuals from twenty-seven towns in the Greater Hartford area.

UR Community Cares

UR Community Cares' mission is to keep older and disabled neighbors supported in their homes and active in their communities. Their programs include: "Neighbors Helping Neighbors," which provides volunteer support so that older adults and people with physical disabilities can live safely at home; "Cycling Without Age Manchester," which deploys an e-bike rickshaw to provide free recreational rides for older and disabled residents in Charter Oak Park and along the East Coast Greenway; the UR Community Tech Center, which offers free technology support and volunteers to answer questions about smartphones, tablets, laptops; and UR Vision Resources, a 100-page printed Blind/Vision Impaired Directory to ensure more people know what services are available.

Offering Music

"Starlight"

by Muse

Jennifer Richard, guitar and vocals

Mary Bopp, piano

Rev. Josh Pawelek, drums

Remembering Our UUSE Ancestors

Remembrances

Reading

"We Remember Them"

Structured by April Rosario, with words by Sylvan Kamens & Jack Riemer

Closing Hymn

#103 "For All the Saints"

Words by William Walsham How

Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams

For all the saints who from their labors rest,

who thee by faith before the world confessed,

thy name most holy be forever blest. Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou wast their rock, their shelter, and their might;

their strength and solace in the well-fought fight;

thou, in the darkness deep their one true light. Alleluia! Alleluia!

O blest communion of the saints divine!

We live in struggle, they in glory shine;

yet all are one in thee, for all are thine. Alleluia! Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the conflict long,

steals on the ear the distant triumph-song,

and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. Alleluia! Alleluia!

Extinguishing the Chalice

Closing Circle

May faith in the spirit of life

And hope for the community of earth

And love of the light in each other

Be ours now, and in all the days to come.