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Saturday Morning Devotional, General Assembly 2015

Captions were created during the live event, and contain some errors. Captioning is not available for some copyrighted material.

Logo for General Assembly 2015 in Portland Oregon.

The theme of General Assembly 2015 in Portland, OR, was Building a New Way.

General Assembly 2015 Event 402

Program Description

Seeking wisdom and loving kindess on this fourth day of General Assembly? Meditation and a dreamscape of music, with singing bowls, oboe, and improvisational piano, will center our spirits in this morning worship. Featuring musicians Wil Sederholm, Yuri Yamamoto and Andrea Newall.

Speakers

  • Rev. Cecilia Kingman
  • Susan Peck

The following final draft script was completed before this event took place; actual words spoken may vary.

Prelude

Musicians/Singers:

  • Yuri Yamamoto, piano;
  • Wil Sederholm; crystal bowls;
  • Andrea Newall, oboe;
  • Susan Peck, djembe

Invocation and Chalice Lighting

Rev. Cecilia Kingman, Worship Leader: Good morning, dear people. Welcome to this fourth day of General Assembly, and to this centering worship service. We begin with the lighting of our chalice.

The words for our chalice lighting this morning are from the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church, of Edmonds, Washington, where I serve with my colleague the Rev. Eric Kaminetzky and our Director of Music, Wil Sederholm, who is here with me.

Each Sunday morning we speak these words.

Will lights the chalice.

Chant “Simply Trust”

Susan Peck, GA Music Coordinator: I bid you good morning, gentle friends. We invite you to help us create an ocean of beautiful sound to invite people into this space. Harmony Grisman, a musician and healer from Point Reyes, California, wrote this chant based on a haiku by Japanese buddhist Kobayashi Issa. We will sing the chant a number of times to let the music do its work. The words are brief: Simply trust. Don’t the leaves flutter down...just like that?

Prayer, Musical Meditation

Rev. Cecilia Kingman: Will you join me in the spirit of meditation and prayer? Close your eyes if you like, or simply soften your gaze. Feel the earth holding you. Feel the security of gravity’s pull upon you. Breathe deeply, into your ribs and belly and down into the earth. Feel your breath filling you.

Notice your thoughts as we begin our day. Perhaps your heart is heavy or your body tired or your mind excited. Breathe in, and once again feel the earth holding you. Offer yourself a prayer of lovingkindness.

Call to mind those whom you love, their faces and voices, and consider all their hopes and hurts, and send them a prayer of lovingkindness. Feel the presence of all those around you now, the many friends and strangers in this room, and hold them in a prayer of lovingkindness.

Breathe in again. Now let us extend the circle of our concern into ever widening circumference, beyond ourselves, beyond our own kith and kin, beyond friendships and political alliances, beyond nations. Let us offer a prayer of lovingkindness for all people, even for those whom we fear or hate. Breathe and send this prayer of love outward.

Now let us love beyond our own species. Let us call to mind the many creatures of this world, and all creation: from the depths of the green ocean to the space between the stars, from the shiny black beetle to the great sheets of ice, from the newly hatched chickadee to the ancient mountain who has seen all the ages of humans pass by. Let us hold all of these beings in our prayer of lovingkindness.

Musical Interlude

Musical Interlude (trio with oboe, speck/djembe): instrumental of Singing the Journey #1031 "May I Be Filled With Lovingkindness"

Benediction

Rev. Cecilia Kingman: As we begin our work today, let kindness carry us. Let wisdom surround us.

Let us remember that it is by our words and actions that we create Beloved Community. Amen.