News: February 13, 2026
Dear Members and Friends,
A ministerial colleague recently shared on her social media a poem titled “Communion.” It led me to begin thinking again about ritual, and how ritual can be valued yet problematic in a pluralistic, non-creedal UU context.
Rituals have been described as regular, repetitive, rule-determined patterns of symbolic behavior that alter the internal or external state of an individual or group. Whew. We typically associate rituals with religious rites, like a wedding ceremony, communion, or lighting the chalice. But I believe those here in Texas might agree that a Friday-night hometown high-school football game would meet the definition.
There is something comforting about the predictability of ritual. Knowing that on Sunday we will sing hymns, join in prayer, and listen to a sermon. And the order pretty much stays the same. On Friday, we drive to the high-school stadium, know there will be four quarters, a concession stand, and a band marching onto the field at halftime.
Rituals not only celebrate the deepest values of a culture, they also create, maintain, and legitimize that culture. So, they don’t easily transfer from one culture or belief system to another. Some who have rejected the beliefs of their childhood find they nevertheless miss the sense of ritual at those services.
Norbert Čapek was the founder of the modern Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia. His parishioners, who had rejected the Catholic Communion and the symbolism of the bread and wine, still longed for ritual. So he created the Flower Communion in 1923. Today, the Flower Communion has become an annual ritual in many UU churches to celebrate beauty, human uniqueness, diversity, and community.
UUs have created other variations on the theme of communion. Besides the Flower Communion; we have the Bread Communion, usually near Thanksgiving; and the Water Communion.
Unitarian Universalists have six shared values that emerge from love. The Water Communion reminds us of one of these values, Interdependence. We are dependent on the earth, its resources, and its waters. We are also dependent on one other. We need community and love.
More similar to the Christian Eucharist, or Holy Communion, is the UU tradition of communion in the historic style of Unitarians from Transylvania (now Hungary and
Romania). Because where I went to seminary is affiliated with the Disciples of Christ, we would have communion every week in chapel. When I, or another UU, would preach, we would use the Transylvanian style of communion.
Done with maximum eye contact between the recipient and server, the bread and wine are distributed wordlessly. Both parties are truly and silently communing with one another, understanding their joint responsibility to help and heal the world.
Rev. Csaba Todor clarifies, “There is no metaphysical meaning in the wine and the bread. They symbolize the substance of our life now and the possibilities of the future. The focus of communion is on the people who are here for communion. We believe in a community of people who are alive, and community with a world of faith beyond physical reality.”
This is the poem I referred to earlier by the former Poet Laureate of Northfield, MN.
“Communion” by Rob Hardy
There's no bread.
The bakers have gone into hiding.
The seats at the table are empty.
The Twelve are out marching with the thousands.
The streets are filled with a new song.
Only Judas sits at Target Plaza, counting his silver, while Pontius Pilate issues a carefully-worded statement.
Meanwhile, the centurions have quotas to fill.
But out on the streets there's a Communion.
Jesus takes the city in his hands and says,
"This is my body, broken for you.”
Holding you in hope and love,
Rev. D. Scott Cooper
Associate Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston
scott@firstuu.org
A ministerial colleague recently shared on her social media a poem titled “Communion.” It led me to begin thinking again about ritual, and how ritual can be valued yet problematic in a pluralistic, non-creedal UU context.
Rituals have been described as regular, repetitive, rule-determined patterns of symbolic behavior that alter the internal or external state of an individual or group. Whew. We typically associate rituals with religious rites, like a wedding ceremony, communion, or lighting the chalice. But I believe those here in Texas might agree that a Friday-night hometown high-school football game would meet the definition.
There is something comforting about the predictability of ritual. Knowing that on Sunday we will sing hymns, join in prayer, and listen to a sermon. And the order pretty much stays the same. On Friday, we drive to the high-school stadium, know there will be four quarters, a concession stand, and a band marching onto the field at halftime.
Rituals not only celebrate the deepest values of a culture, they also create, maintain, and legitimize that culture. So, they don’t easily transfer from one culture or belief system to another. Some who have rejected the beliefs of their childhood find they nevertheless miss the sense of ritual at those services.
Norbert Čapek was the founder of the modern Unitarian Church in Czechoslovakia. His parishioners, who had rejected the Catholic Communion and the symbolism of the bread and wine, still longed for ritual. So he created the Flower Communion in 1923. Today, the Flower Communion has become an annual ritual in many UU churches to celebrate beauty, human uniqueness, diversity, and community.
UUs have created other variations on the theme of communion. Besides the Flower Communion; we have the Bread Communion, usually near Thanksgiving; and the Water Communion.
Unitarian Universalists have six shared values that emerge from love. The Water Communion reminds us of one of these values, Interdependence. We are dependent on the earth, its resources, and its waters. We are also dependent on one other. We need community and love.
More similar to the Christian Eucharist, or Holy Communion, is the UU tradition of communion in the historic style of Unitarians from Transylvania (now Hungary and
Romania). Because where I went to seminary is affiliated with the Disciples of Christ, we would have communion every week in chapel. When I, or another UU, would preach, we would use the Transylvanian style of communion.
Done with maximum eye contact between the recipient and server, the bread and wine are distributed wordlessly. Both parties are truly and silently communing with one another, understanding their joint responsibility to help and heal the world.
Rev. Csaba Todor clarifies, “There is no metaphysical meaning in the wine and the bread. They symbolize the substance of our life now and the possibilities of the future. The focus of communion is on the people who are here for communion. We believe in a community of people who are alive, and community with a world of faith beyond physical reality.”
This is the poem I referred to earlier by the former Poet Laureate of Northfield, MN.
“Communion” by Rob Hardy
There's no bread.
The bakers have gone into hiding.
The seats at the table are empty.
The Twelve are out marching with the thousands.
The streets are filled with a new song.
Only Judas sits at Target Plaza, counting his silver, while Pontius Pilate issues a carefully-worded statement.
Meanwhile, the centurions have quotas to fill.
But out on the streets there's a Communion.
Jesus takes the city in his hands and says,
"This is my body, broken for you.”
Holding you in hope and love,
Rev. D. Scott Cooper
Associate Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston
scott@firstuu.org
