Water Communion - 2013

Today, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fort Myers, we celebrate our Water Communion. Of all the singularly UU celebrations, this beautiful ceremony is my favorite. It also marks the anniversary of my family's first attendance to the UU church. Perhaps that's why I am so particularly attached to this service, and why I am especially honored to be leading the Time for All Ages at UUCFM. I wanted to share the story I have selected to tell the youth and adults of my church with all of you. I hope that you can draw some peace and comfort from this old tale and feel the spirit of giving that binds us all together.


For those of you who don't know, the Water Communion is a truly beautiful ceremony that celebrates everything the individual members of the congregation bring to the whole UU community. The water can symbolize our talents, our spirituality, our faith, our love, our personality, and everything else that makes us uniquely beautiful. Each family brings water from home and at an appointed time they pour it into a communal vessel. As the waters mingle, we celebrate the mingling of our personal faiths, strengths, skills, personality, humor, hopes and goals to create the amazing community that is our church.

The story I told this morning celebrates the benefits of a community like ours, namely the amazing gift that whenever a congregation member has a need, they can turn to this network of wonderful people and their needs will be met. It's called The Rainmaker's Apprentice and it goes a little something like this...

Once, a Rainmaker and her apprentice were on a great journey. As they traveled, they wandered into a forest. All around them were lush, tall trees with branches that stretched up so high they almost touched the sky. The sounds of a bouncing, babbling brook could be heard dancing among the tree trunks. Under their feet, the ground was soft with leaf loam and moist moss. The apprentice was so inspired by all of the wonderful growth of this forest that she decided to call down the rains.

That night, she did her best rain dance, swaying back and forth and concentrating on the power and majesty of the stormy skies. As she slept, she dreamed of rain skipping down through the leaves of the forest to land in the cushioning moss on the floor. However, when she woke up... there was no rain. Between the tops of the trees, the apprentice could only see clear skies! She was very saddened by this, but the Rainmaker assured her "another time, you will call the rains."

A few days later, the Rainmaker and her apprentice walked out of the forest and found themselves in a meadow. The grasses were so tall and swayed frantically in the breeze. Wild flowers grew all over, especially around the sparkling pond that was fed by a small creek that came down into the meadow from the distant mountains. The apprentice was so inspired by all of the wonderful growth in the meadow that she decided she would try again to call down the rains.

That night, the apprentice did an even better dance, focusing all her energy into the flow of the water. She sang her best rain songs and as she slept, she dreamed of rain falling so heavily in the meadow that the pond swelled over its banks. However, when she woke up... there was no rain! Clear skies and a bright sun greeted the apprentice in the morning and her heart almost broke. She was so saddened by her failure to call down the rains. However, the Rainmaker kindly reassured her that "another time, you will call the rains."

The Rainmaker and her apprentice continued on their journey, passing through the mountains and emerging into a dry and dusty desert. After a few days walking through the hot red sand, their water supply was all used up! The Rainmaker told the apprentice to call down the rains. The apprentice shook her head, saying, "I couldn't make it rain in the forest or the meadow, where rain is plentiful - how can you expect me to make it rain here?"

The Rainmaker insisted, however, and so the apprentice began to perform a rain dance. It wasn't a very good one at all. In fact, it was a pretty bad dance. No matter how much she tried, the apprentice just couldn't get her mind off of the heat and the dust of the desert to think about rain. She was just plain miserable. That night, she dreamed only of the heat of the desert and the lack of rain.... but when she woke up, the sky was black with storm clouds!

"I don't understand this!" said the apprentice to the Rainmaker, "how come my bad dance worked when my best efforts failed?" The Rainmaker replied, "in the forest, we didn't need the rain. In the meadow, we didn't need the rain. However, here in the desert, we desperately needed the rain! You must take faith, apprentice, that when you have a need, you can ask and you will receive!"

In the same way that the apprentice was able to call down the rains when she needed them, so too can we call upon the talents and aid of our congregation when we need. Whether we're a child needing help with a homework assignment, an adult needing help with the supervision of their child, whether in good times or bad, loss or gain, or any other crisis or celebration, we have the ability to turn to one another and state our needs. As a community, we must take faith in the fact that in reaching out to one another, our needs will be met. It is this very exchange that keeps our congregation connected and alive - calling down the rains to help one another and support one another in our time of need.

- Jenn Blosser