The Water Communion, also sometimes called Water Ceremony, was first used at a Unitarian Universalist (UU) worship service in the 1980s. Many UU congregations now hold a Water Communion once a year, often at the beginning of the new church year (September).
Members bring to the service a small amount of water from a place that is special to them. During the appointed time in the service, people one by one pour their water together into a large bowl. As the water is added, the person who brought it tells why this water is special to them. The combined water is symbolic of our shared faith coming from many different sources. It is often then blessed by the congregation, and sometimes is later boiled and used as the congregation’s “holy water” in child dedication ceremonies and similar events.
From Tapestry of Faith Curricula
Unitarian Universalist Perspectives
- UU World Articles on the Water Communion
- Interconnections Article: Changes to Water Service Bring Deeper Meaning
- Lifting Water Communion above privilege and trivia , a blog post by Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern
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Fire lifts us up and invigorates us with purpose, while Water helps us settle down into being.Chalice Lighting | By Sage Phipps-Hinkle | December 3, 2025 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Change, Creativity, Nature, Water Communion, Worship -
In the beginning, the Earth spoke.… And water, ever flowing, taught that life is movement and change.Affirmation | By Kimi Floyd Reisch | August 12, 2025 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Change, Commitment, Connections, Earth, Justice, Water Communion, Wisdom, Worship -
During your congregation’s water ceremony, UUs for Justice in the Middle East invite you to place an empty paper cup next to the congregational vessel in solidarity with Palestinians.Ritual | By Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East (UUJME) | August 28, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Freedom, Human Rights, Justice, Oppression, Peace, Solidarity, Trauma, War, Water Communion, Worship -
A water communion liturgy that asks that we listen for God’s voice in the waters.Ritual | By M Jade Kaiser | August 28, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Earth, Earth Day, Environment, Interdependence, Nature, Responsibility, Reverence, Water Communion, Worship -
Give thanks for all the waters that be—for bays and gulfs and shining seas!Responsive Reading | By Patricia Montley | August 20, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Earth, Environment, Interdependence, Nature, Water Communion, Worship -
The water of tears, the water of cleansing and renewal, the water of nourishment, and the water of change.Ritual | By Madelyn Campbell | July 1, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Change, Grief, Healing, Nature, Water Communion, Worship -
Water sustains, gives, and yields to / Life.Reading | By Melissa Jeter | March 24, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Earth, Earth-Centered, Imagination, Nature, Water Communion, Worship -
Watershed moments are turning points, moments that permanently alter an understanding.Opening | By Martina Thompson | August 5, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Earth-Centered, Nature, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion, Worship -
How might Unitarian Universalists acknowledge the sacred sources of people's water, in the annual Water Ceremony, without creating a parade of privilege and/or centering the ritual around an open mic?Leader Resource | March 3, 2020 | From WorshipLabTagged as: Water Communion -
This story is great to be acted out by four women (of applicable ages for each direction) around a large bowl/vessel....Story | By Katie Sivani Gelfand | January 7, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Generations, Imagination, Listening, Nature, Sacred, Spirituality, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion, Women -
There are so many spiritual lessons from the natural world and—in a season filled with Ingatherings and Water Communions—this is one for me: oxbow lakes as a beautiful combination of resiliency, strength, and flexibility.Reflection | By Tim Atkins | September 11, 2019 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Beginnings, Direct Experience, Discernment, Earth, Earth-Centered, Environment, Homecoming / Ingathering, Journey, Nature, Power, Resilience, Strength, Water Communion -
Settle your mind upon the strength, the power that is yours. Draw that strength into your heart. Draw it up into your soul. As we gather together the many waters of this community, we need each of your power, each of your resilience, each of your love to make us whole.Meditation | By Jamila Batchelder , Molly Housh Gordon | September 4, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Earth, Earth-Centered, Imagination, Nature, Resilience, Self-Respect, Strength, Water Communion -
Rain falls upon the surface of the earth, and pulled by gravity each drop begins to flow downhill. Drop merges with drop, flowing together, into a trickle, a streamlet, a creek, a mighty river, flowing onward. Some of the water seeps down into the earth itself, as groundwater, or deep aquifers,...Time for All Ages | By Molly Housh Gordon, Jamila Batchelder | September 4, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Body, Climate Justice, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth-Centered, Imagination, Nature, Playfulness, Science, Secular, Water Communion -
We gather together this morning tenderly—like drops of dew on a leaf of grass hopefully—like gathered raindrops in a cloud gleefully—like water rushing in a stream to the sea deeply—like groundwater pulled up from a well We gather from every direction, for another year of growth and depth,...Opening | By Molly Housh Gordon | September 4, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Community, Earth, Earth-Centered, Homecoming / Ingathering, Interdependence, Nature, Water Communion -
This was written as a blessing for pouring out the Water Communion waters onto a memorial garden. Like water that swells rivers and fills the ocean, the memories of those we have loved rush through us. Sometimes they are quiet, almost as if we have forgotten—and then suddenly, they flood our...Ritual | By Amy Zucker Morgenstern | September 4, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Direct Experience, Generations, Grief, Humanism, Imagination, Interdependence, Nature, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Remembrance Day, Secular, Water Communion -
In our water ritual, we bring water from the places we live or the places we may have visited and pour it in one container. All of the water mixes together, and every drop has some of the molecules of water from every place....Reading | By Myke Johnson | June 25, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Connections, Direct Experience, Earth, Interdependence, Nature, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion -
We gather as many drops, each winding our own path down life’s surfaces and ruts. Here we pool together as a single body, flowing together for a time. Together we are a stream, at times even a river, for with our shared force we can travel toward oceans of meaning and seas of connection.Chalice Lighting | By Leslie Takahashi | December 7, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Community, Connections, Earth, Earth-Centered, Meaning, Nature, Playfulness, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion -
It is not by chance that you arrived here today. You have been looking for something larger than yourself. Inside of you there is a yearning, a calling, a hope for more, A desire for a place of belonging and caring. Through your struggles, someone nurtured you into being, Instilling a belief in a...Opening | By Kimberlee Anne Tomczak Carlson | September 14, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Abundance, Acceptance, Caring, Coming Out, Commitment, Community, Flower Communion, Home, Homecoming / Ingathering, New Member Ceremony, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion -
Happy new year! Happy new year for our beloved community. Happy new school year....Opening | By Debra Haffner | September 14, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Beginnings, Community, Homecoming / Ingathering, Inclusion, Judaism, Rosh Hashanah, Unitarian Universalism, Vision, Water Communion -
May all our hours together be blessed as this one has been: by open-hearted sharing, learning from one another, and making beautiful harmonies together. And may we greet everyone we encounter with the same acceptance and grateful kinship, until we meet again. Blessed be.Closing | By Amy Zucker Morgenstern | September 14, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 6th Principle (World Community), Acceptance, Community, Honesty, Relationships, Service, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion