Rev. Beth Dana held this ritual during SWUUW Conference 2023 in Dallas, Texas. We share here with her permission.
OPENING RITUAL
As we begin our time together, I invite you to join me in a short ritual, to remind us of where we come from and to ground us in our Unitarian Universalist faith.
Let us first pay tribute and express gratitude to our ancestors and foremothers. We are grateful for their gifts, their lessons, and their challenge… calling us to fulfill their hopes and aspirations.
[candle] With this candle, we call on and invoke our mothers, their mothers, and their mothers – our sisters and aunts – from across time and place.
[candle] With this candle, we call on the early Unitarian and Universalist women – lay people and ordained ministers – who forged the way for women’s leadership in Unitarian Universalism.
[candle] With this candle, we call on the ancestors who built, grew, and dreamed this SWUUW community [or congregation, or other women’s group] into being, and who sustained it to this day.
[candle] With this candle, we call on those who worked to build beloved community, who raised up women’s issues at the local and national level.
[candle] With this candle, I ask you to call to mind your own particular ancestors – family, mentors, spiritual guides – those whose spirits you bring into this time, those who shaped you.
I invite you to call out a name or names of ancestors who have influenced you, and whose presence you feel.
[pause]
We have welcomed this great cloud of witnesses to join us for this time together. Can you feel them?
May they guide us on your way,
And bless this space and time.
Ancestors, be with us.
[light chalice] We now light our chalice, symbol of our Unitarian Universalist faith, a ritual that marks sacred time and space. May its flame be a reminder of the spirit of our ancestors that lives on – here among us, and within each of us.
Note: This ritual was inspired by another ancestor ritual developed by Tera Little and Christina Shu https://www.uua.org/worship/words/opening/welcoming-ancestors
CLOSING RITUAL
We began our time together by remembering and calling out the names of our ancestors and foremothers, lighting candles to remember all the ways we rest on their shoulders.
Now as our time together comes to a close, we will extinguish these candles and reflect on how we will carry the flame forward.
The phoenix is a mythological bird that represents new life rising from the fire and ashes of what came before.
And so as I extinguish each of these candles, I invite you to move your arms or your hands like a rising bird. [motion with arms, and then with hands] With each candle, we will pause to meditate on how each of us will carry on the work, how we will take on the power of a phoenix rising from the fire.
[extinguish candle] As we extinguish this flame, we commit to being the mothers, sisters, aunts, and foremothers to the generations of young women yet to come. [motion and pause]
[extinguish candle] As we extinguish this candle, we commit to promoting, empowering, and nurturing the leadership of women in Unitarian Universalism. [motion and pause]
[extinguish candle] As we extinguish this candle, we commit to doing our part in sustaining this SWUUW community [or congregation, or other women’s group]. [motion and pause]
[extinguish candle] As we extinguish this candle, we commit to building beloved community, raising up women’s issues at the local and national level. [motion and pause]
[extinguish candle] As we extinguish this candle, we commit to carrying on the spirit of our own ancestors by sharing our gifts, learnings, and challenges with others. [motion and pause]
May it be so, blessed be, and amen.
