"We will only save what we love."
--Sisters of the Earth
Gathering Music
Welcome & Announcements
Centering
Prelude
"For the Love of Place"
Created by Dan Thompson for UUSE
Dan Thompson guitar, bass, drums, keys, manipulated vocal samples (video)
Introduction of Service
Chalice Lighting & Opening Words (in unison)
We light this chalice
To abet creation and to witness to it
To notice each other's beautiful face and complex nature
So that creation need not play to an empty house
--(Annie Dillard)
Opening Hymn
#21 "For the Beauty of the Earth"
Words: Folliott Sandford Pierpoint; Music: Conrad Kocher
For the beauty of the earth, for the splendor of the skies,
for the love which from our birth over and around us lies
Source of all, to thee we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind's delight,
for the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight:
Source of all, to thee we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.
For the wonder of each hour of the day and of the night,
hill and vale and tree and flower, sun and moon and stars of light:
Source of all, to thee we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of human care, sister, brother, parent, child,
for the kinship we all share, for all gentle thoughts and mild:
Source of all, to thee we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.
Joys and Concerns
Musical Response
Words of Meditation and Prayer
Musical Response
Story: "The Agreement" (Attr. Barry Lopez)
Offering
Continuing our practice of sharing our gifts with the community beyond our walls, fifty percent of the unspecified Sunday plate collections for the month of February will go to Manchester's African American and Black Affairs Council.
Offering Music
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
Music: Harold Arlen; Lyrics: Yip Harburg
Performed by Sandy Johnson, vocals & Dan Thompson, guitar & vocals
Sermon: "For the Love of ... Place" (Rev. Alison Cornish)
Closing Hymn
#1064 "Blue Boat Home"
Words: © 2002 Peter Mayer; Music: Roland Hugh Prichard
Though below me, I feel no motion standing on these mountains and plains,
Far away from the rolling ocean still my dry land heart can say:
I've been sailing all my life now, never harbor or port have I known.
The wide universe is the ocean I travel, and the earth is my blue boat home.
Sun my sail and moon my rudder as I ply the starry sea,
leaning over the edge in wonder, casting questions into the deep.
Drifting here with my ship's companions, all we kindred pilgrim souls,
making our way by the lights of the heavens in our beautiful blue boat home.
I give thanks to the waves upholding me, hail the great winds urging me on,
greet the infinite sea before me, sing the sky my sailor's song:
I was born up on the fathoms, never harbor or port have I known.
The wide universe is the ocean I travel, and the earth is my blue boat home.
Closing Words & Extinguishing the Chalice (in unison)
We extinguish the chalice here that it might glow gently in our hearts.
May it light our paths as we leave this place.
(Adapted -- Martha Musson)
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.