International Council of Unitarians and Universalists Global Chalice Reading

The International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) distributes a new Chalice Lighting Reading each month. Congregations are invited to use it during worship services, and to introduce it as a Global Chalice Lighting.

This is a terrific resource for congregations that have an international vision, and wish to have a ritual element of that vision regularly included in worship services.

Global Chalice Lighting for February 2013

The International Council of Unitarians and Universalists announces the 114th in its monthly series of global chalice lighting readings. Congregations worldwide are invited to participate.

All ICUU-affiliated groups have been asked to submit brief chalice lightings for the project. Every month, a reading will be distributed to Unitarian and Universalist congregations around the world. We ask each congregation to use the reading for at least one worship service in the designated month, identifying it as the “Global Chalice Lighting” for that month and naming the group which submitted it. Readings will be circulated in English and, where different, in their original language.

It is hoped that the ICUU Global Chalice Lighting Project will enhance the worship experience in our congregations and raise awareness of the international dimensions of our religious movement. This Global Chalice Lighting is submitted in French and English by the Eglise unitarienne francophone. It is to be used during February 2013.

Embraser le monde
danser avec cette flamme toujours rallumée
la revoir briller dans nos yeux quand nous nous recueillions ensemble
l'espérer dans d'autres regards, pas encore croisés,
afin qu'aucun être ne manque à son appel

Résister à l'ennui, au découragement,
à la litanie de nos propres manquements et des injustices du monde
et transfigurer le monde au fond de nos cœurs
afin d'en percevoir la beauté à sa lumière
 

Setting the world ablaze
dancing along with the ever rekindled flame
I can still see it in our eyes as we were sharing our prayers
and hope to see it shining in new eyes, yet unknown
that no being may be missing

Let us resist despondency and boredom
and the litany of our own failures and of the injustices of the world
and transfigure the world inside of our hearts
that we may perceive its beauty in its light

Submitted by Eglise unitarienne francophone (EUfr)