On the first Sunday after Labor Day, many Unitarian Universalist congregations kick off the new congregational year with an Ingathering service, and some congregations include the Water Communion ritual (or Water Ceremony) in this service.

Themes often used include: reunion; re-gathering; re-covenanting as a community of faith; hospitality; returning home to the church community that holds us; hope; looking forward with excitement to church year. The service may be intergenerational in whole or in part.

Unitarian Universalist Perspectives

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Displaying 11 - 20 of 30

  • Our communities of memory and promise are founded upon covenants because we all need a defense against the impulse of immediate feelings that challenge our best intentions. It is necessary to be reminded from time to time of what you said you were going to do, and what you really want, over and...
    Reading | By Kendyl L. R. Gibbons | February 21, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Building/Space Dedication, Business Meetings, Commitment, Community, Connections, Covenant, Homecoming / Ingathering, Installations, Integrity, Interdependence, Living Our Faith, Ordinations, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
  • All that we have been separately and all that we will become together is stretched out before and behind us like stars scattered across a canvas of sky. We stand at the precipice, arms locked together like tandem skydivers working up the courage to jump. Tell me, friends: What have we got to lose?
    Meditation | By Leslie Ahuvah Fails | October 6, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Beginnings, Body, Calling, Commitment, Courage, Homecoming / Ingathering, Installations, Interdependence, Judaism, Ordinations, Playfulness, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Trust, Unitarian Universalism
  • Spirit of Life and Love, known by many names and yet fully known by none, we give thanks for this time and this place of renewal. We give thanks for the ability to begin again: after the disaster, after the tragedy, after the loss, after meeting the challenge set before us....
    Prayer | By Lyn Cox | September 22, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Courage, Disaster or Crisis, Diversity, Gratitude, Homecoming / Ingathering, Hospitality, Journey, New Year, Reconciliation, Rosh Hashanah, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism, Yom Kippur
  • Note: this was written for a worship service with a Wizard of Oz theme. Come you accidental pilgrims, you who find yourself on a journey of surprise and wonder. Come you who emerge into this place as an act of liberation. Come you who seek a life of mindfulness and a place to test your thoughts.
    Invocation | By Lyn Cox | September 22, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Courage, Diversity, Generations, Homecoming / Ingathering, Inclusion, Journey, Teamwork, Trust, Unitarian Universalism
  • Come sit by our fire and let us share stories. Let me hear your tales of far off lands, wanderer, and I will tell you of my travels. Share your experience of the holy with me, worshipper, and I will tell you of that which I find divine. Come and stay, lover of leaving, for ours is no caravan of...
    Opening | By Jennifer Kitchen | January 11, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Community, Direct Experience, Empathy, Homecoming / Ingathering, Hospitality, Journey, Listening, Love, Personal Stories
  • Creator of Life, Source of All Being It was from the particles of the Universe that you formed me... Iron and carbon and phosphorous Mixed with energy, passion and dreams. I was made in your image, says ancient Scripture. Made from the colors of the rainbow, Shaped with bones straight and curved,...
    Meditation | By Cynthia Frado | December 8, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Atheism, Coming of Age, Connections, Direct Experience, Diversity, God, Homecoming / Ingathering, Identity, Inclusion, Individualism, Integrity, National Coming Out Day, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Reverence, Secular, Transgender Day of Remembrance, Unitarian Universalism, United Nations Day, WorshipWeb
  • Come in, from the crisp morning air outside, come in, wearing the autumn sunlight on your face, come, carrying the turning of the seasons in your heart. Whatever and however the greatness of life is speaking to you now, you are welcome here in our circle of friends.
    Opening | By Sarah Gettie McNeill | November 11, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Autumnal Equinox, Change, Earth, Earth-Centered, Halloween, Homecoming / Ingathering, Inclusion, Nature
  • And so we gather, from the ebb and flow of our lives Thirsty for connection to ourselves Thirsty for connection to others Thirsty for connection to the larger life. As we light this chalice May all who gather here be filled: Filled with joy and hope Filled with compassion and love Here, may we be...
    Chalice Lighting | By Gregory Pelley | September 15, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 6th Principle (World Community), Agnosticism, Body, Community, Compassion, Connections, Direct Experience, Earth, Homecoming / Ingathering, Hope, Humanism, Joy, Love, Nature, Searching, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion, WorshipWeb
  • As drops of rain that find each other and build to become a track, a rivulet, a stream, a river, a sea, so are we drawn together; so are we fortunate to find each other; so are we bound together, on this shared passage toward an unknown ocean and eternity.
    Affirmation | By Elizabeth Lerner Maclay | September 15, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Community, Connections, Earth, Earth-Centered, Homecoming / Ingathering, Nature, New Member Ceremony, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism, Unity, Water Communion, WorshipWeb
  • Spirit of Life, Ground of our being, Root of unified mystery Growing into myriad branches of expression, Bring us together now....
    Meditation | By Lyn Cox | May 22, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Change, Christianity, Community, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Homecoming / Ingathering, Humanism, Interdependence, Listening, Nature, Science, WorshipWeb