A disclaimer, I have a deep love for Unitarian Universalism and I feel that deep in my soul, I have always been UU, but without the language to put around it. However, we are in our third year attending the UU where I serve as minister and I just started my second year as their minister. I am not an expert on Unitarian Universalism, but I do have a reverence for it and I am still learning.

UUs consider themselves “creed free” meaning you do not have to ascribe to a particular dogma in order to be a part of the community.

Because we are a “creed free” people, we don’t celebrate sacraments in the same way as other religious traditions. There are a few ceremonies and rituals that are specific to UU and they are breathtakingly beautiful.

One of those rituals is Flower Communion (or Flower Ceremony). Flower Communion was created by Rev Dr Norbert Capek (b 1870 Bohemia d 1942 Dachau). Dr. Capek was a disenfranchised Catholic who was ordained a Baptist and met his third wife (he was widowed twice with 9 children) Rev. Maja Capek while he was studying for is PhD in New York. The family moved to Prague after WWI, where they founded the first Unitarian Church there. (There’s more to this - story. I’ll link a YouTube video below)

Being raised Catholic and ordained a Baptist, Dr Capek, now working in the Unitarian tradition, missed a bit of the sacrament and tradition that had raised him, but wanted to be inclusive of those with different beliefs around communion, so he created a flower communion service to be celebrated on the last Sunday before the church’s summer break (the first one was June 4th, 1923.) Capek instructed congregants to bring a flower to be placed in the communion vase where he would consecrate the flowers and then invited congregants to the altar in silence to select a (different from the one they brought) flower. The ceremony was meant to give a sense of belonging to all who came.

**Pause for a relevant side quest:

Back peddling a bit to 1870, Julie Ward Howe (Unitarian and Abolitionist) advocated for a Mother’s Day of Peace to be established. For 25 years, Mothers Day of Peace was celebrated on June 2nd. Anna Jarvis (Methodist) later pushed for a Mother’s Day Holiday to be established on the second Sunday of May to commemorate the death of her own mother. In 1914 the holiday was officially recognized in the US as the second Sunday in May.

The vicinity of Julie’s Mother’s Day of Peace (June 2) to Norbert’s first flower communion date (June 4) have brought these two separate histories together in such a way that many UUs celebrate Mother’s Day with flower communion in May.

**Returning from Side Quest:

In 1940 Rev Maja Capek, traveling in the US without Norbert, brought the flower communion to the Unitarians in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Because of WWII breaking out, Rev Capek was unable to return home and she wouldn’t find out until after the war ended that Dr. Capek and one of his daughters had been killed.

The Capek family had founded 6 churches in the Czech Republic, the largest of which had more than 3,000 members and he was seen as a threat to the Reich.

From one of the UU Flower Communion liturgies:

“When the Nazis took control of Prague, they found Dr. Čapek's gospel of the inherent worth and beauty of every human person to be – as Nazi court records show – "...too dangerous to the Reich [for him] to be allowed to live."

Dr. Capek was killed in a medical experiment in Dachau.

This story reminds me of the famous “flower power” photo taken during a protest of the Vietnam War where a man (George Harris) is seen placing flowers in the barrel of rifles held by soldiers.

It’s a reminder, too, that there wasn’t just one group that was seen as a threat during WWII. Anything that represented a different view, was a threat.

There is power in our love. So much power that it can be seen as a threat.

There is power in our remembering. So much power that it can give us a sense of peace even when the world seems upside down.

There is power in the flowers. Power to remember….to remember that we belong…to remember the promise of life renewed…to remember what it feels like to hope.

Beloved, I hold each of you in light and close to my heart. Be safe. Be steadfast in your convictions. You are not alone. Peace be with you.

Blessed Be.

References:

https://www.uua.org/worship/lab/flower-ceremony-centennial

https://youtu.be/0gBFO94-Wao?si=78xnGDgDlUoq31sM