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Flower Communion
Flower Communion, also known as Flower Ceremony, Flower Festival, or Flower Celebration, is a ritual service common in Unitarian Universalism, though the specific practices vary between congregations. It is usually held on the last Sunday of worship in late May or June, as some congregations recess from holding services during the summer. Some congregations hold the ceremony earlier in the spring, sometimes coinciding with Mother's Day or Easter.
During the ritual, congregants contribute flowers to a central location, and later the flowers are distributed among the participants.
The Flower Celebration as it is celebrated today was initiated in Prague on 4 June 1923 by Norbert Čapek, who was also the founder of the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia. He saw the need to unite the diverse congregants of his church, from varying Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish backgrounds, without alienating those who had left these traditions. For this reason he turned to the beauty of nature and had a communion of flowers instead of the Eucharist. Though Unitarian Universalists often refer to the ritual as a Flower Ceremony, Festival, or Communion, Čapek's term "Oslava Květin" is more accurately translated as "Flower Celebration", a term which continues to be preferred by Czech Unitarians today.
The ritual was brought to the United States in 1940 by the Rev. Maja Čapek, Norbert's wife, with the first flower communion being observed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was widely adopted by the American Unitarian churches, and their successor Unitarian Universalist congregations.
The ritual was later brought from the United States to Britain by Rev. Eric Shirvell Price.
Earlier Unitarian "Flower Services", documented in Midwestern U.S. Unitarian congregations beginning circa 1880, were somewhat different in form from Čapek's service.[citation needed]
In its essentials, the ritual involves the following:
The actual order of service varies widely in different congregations, and often closely resembles the ordinary order of service. Other service elements might include a sermon, the blessing of or a prayer over the flowers, a reading by Norbert Čapek, the history of the ritual, and hymns.
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Flower Communion
Flower Communion, also known as Flower Ceremony, Flower Festival, or Flower Celebration, is a ritual service common in Unitarian Universalism, though the specific practices vary between congregations. It is usually held on the last Sunday of worship in late May or June, as some congregations recess from holding services during the summer. Some congregations hold the ceremony earlier in the spring, sometimes coinciding with Mother's Day or Easter.
During the ritual, congregants contribute flowers to a central location, and later the flowers are distributed among the participants.
The Flower Celebration as it is celebrated today was initiated in Prague on 4 June 1923 by Norbert Čapek, who was also the founder of the Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia. He saw the need to unite the diverse congregants of his church, from varying Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish backgrounds, without alienating those who had left these traditions. For this reason he turned to the beauty of nature and had a communion of flowers instead of the Eucharist. Though Unitarian Universalists often refer to the ritual as a Flower Ceremony, Festival, or Communion, Čapek's term "Oslava Květin" is more accurately translated as "Flower Celebration", a term which continues to be preferred by Czech Unitarians today.
The ritual was brought to the United States in 1940 by the Rev. Maja Čapek, Norbert's wife, with the first flower communion being observed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was widely adopted by the American Unitarian churches, and their successor Unitarian Universalist congregations.
The ritual was later brought from the United States to Britain by Rev. Eric Shirvell Price.
Earlier Unitarian "Flower Services", documented in Midwestern U.S. Unitarian congregations beginning circa 1880, were somewhat different in form from Čapek's service.[citation needed]
In its essentials, the ritual involves the following:
The actual order of service varies widely in different congregations, and often closely resembles the ordinary order of service. Other service elements might include a sermon, the blessing of or a prayer over the flowers, a reading by Norbert Čapek, the history of the ritual, and hymns.