Prelude Melodia Africana I by Ludovico Einaudi
Opening Words The Season of Hope by Cliff Reed
Give thanks for Spring! Here again,
with its promise ever-new,
with its many-yellowed flowers,
its bright songbirds proclaiming
their presence to the world –
a world darkened, as ever, by human folly,
by war and suffering undeserved.
But still, give thanks for Spring,
the season of hope.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point. I will be lighting my chalice for worship at 11.00 am on Sunday morning) (words by Yvonne Aburrow)
Day and night are equal now
But day has the upper hand.
In the endless dance of dark and light
And the turning of the Wheel of the Year
A moment’s pause at the equinox
to reflect on the glory of the dance.
As we light our chalice flame,
It recalls the fire of the Sun
dancing on the hills.
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
Be with us as we gather for worship,
Each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
Even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
In this world in which Covid has not yet gone away,
And the clouds of war and climate change overshadow us.
May we keep in touch however we can,
And help each other,
However we may.
May we remember that
caution is still needed,
that close contact is still unwise.
Help us to be grateful for the freedoms we have
and to respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
Who are grieving, lost, alone,
Suffering in any way,
Amen
Reading We have many Springs, Part 1, by Kate Brady McKenna
We see the promise of Spring even in November. Spring, from November.
That promise is given to us more clearly in January.
And we see it in February, at Imbolc in the beginning, and in the middle, when the geese arrive back on the lake.
In early March, the news tells us we are in meteorological Spring. And in late March, Spring is shown to us again, when the Vernal Equinox, and the ‘springing forward’ let us feel Spring, and the coming of April proves to us that it’s here.
We feel the delight of Spring even into May. Spring from November, Spring until May.
We have many Springs.
It’s dates in the calendar, and it is not dates in the calendar. It has everything to do with the weather, and it has little to do with the weather. it is the warmth of the sun, and it is lightness and it is temperature.
It is the longer days. It is high blue skies and white clouds. It is a quality in the air. It is a feeling, a feeling we know and which goes beyond words. It is a taste, a freshness, a clarity in the air. It is the desire to stop and breathe in, rather than the need to put your face in your scarf and rush.
It is a smell, it is a sort of feeling. A fresh coldness different from the winter’s cold. A scent, of new beginnings.
We have many Springs.
It is when we don’t have to defrost the car. It is Crème Eggs in the shop. It’s leaving our hat, our scarf, our gloves, our big coat at home. It’s watching Punxsatawney Phil, the groundhog, believing he might predict the weather, and knowing he won’t. It’s wearing a teeshirt outside. It’s drying the washing outside. It’s swimming, outside, in water warmer than your cold tap. It is lunch on the garden bench, and it is tea in the light. It is getting up in the light and driving home without the car lights on. It is evenings which are light, despite the snow and hail.
We have many Springs.
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
May we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
And may our shortcomings be forgiven,
As we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
The inspiration and guidance to do right,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
And receive whatever life brings,
With courage and trust.
Amen
Reading We have many Springs, Part 2, by Kate Brady McKenna
We see it in birds as they start to fly to-and-fro with twigs, ready to build their nests; as they sing their hearts out; as they feed from our garden feeders; and we see it with the first evening sighting of a rabbit. The frogs in the pond and the lambs in the fields tell us that Spring is here.
We have many Springs.
We see it in snowdrops – beautiful winter flowers, but winter flowers carrying to us the news that hellebores are not far behind, and daffodils and crocuses and primroses, and tulips, and scyllas are following them. It is knowing there will be bluebells. We see it in trees as they bud, we see it in catkins, we taste it in when we nibble fresh hawthorn leaves.
Far from home, it is the flowering of tulip trees. We see it in the ground as the garlic springs forth, reminding us that the earth will feed us.
We have many Springs.
We feel it in our very souls. We feel it when we think of Aslan on the move. And it is intuition: we know it in our body and our spirit. It is the lifting of our hearts. Lift up your hearts! We lift them up unto the sun. We feel it when we start to expect, rather than to plod.
It is Lent, it is Candlemas, it is Easter, and like Easter, it moves. It is Imbolc, it is St Brigid, it is the equinox.
We have many Springs.
Prayer by Laura Dobson (adapted)
Spirit of Life and Love,
May we be blessed by the fertile Earth,
our foundation and bedrock,
with gratitude.
May we be blessed by the spring rains
and the glistening dew,
quenching our thirst for freedom and beauty.
May we be blessed by the shining Sun
and the growing light, renewing and revealing all as it truly is.
May we be blessed by the sweetly scented spring breeze,
sweeping away the cobwebs of winter,
and bringing us inspiration and hope.
Amen
Reading Hope by Iris Jubb
Hope is a sea bird’s eyes, cold and lost;
Hope is a heartbroken love
high in the heavens above;
Hope is the snow and the frost hiding love and loss;
Hope is a small green bud lifting the soil –
hopefully with a plan like that it won’t foil.
Hope is dark grey skies
clearing before your eyes;
Hope is clean crisp air on a spring morn –
hopefully you will cherish it till dawn.
There is hope within.
Even when the leaves fall to the ground,
beauty can still be found,
even when the warmth goes to sleep,
hope is something you can always keep.
There is hope within
When people think all hope is lost remember
all cold hearts will defrost,
and a spark of magic hides
when the cold and damp seeps in.
Hope lights a fire inside,
so remember when the sorrowed bird sings,
There is hope within
Time of Stillness and Reflection Meditation on the Equinox by Thomas Rhodes (adapted)
Over our heads, the great wheel of stars shifts,
the spring equinox manifests itself,
and for one precious instant, darkness and light
exist in balanced proportion to one another.
Within our minds the great web of neurons shifts,
new consciousness arises,
and for one precious instant, experience and meaning
exist together as revelation and epiphany.
Within our hearts the great rhythm of our lives shifts
a new way of being reveals itself,
and for one precious instant,
the nexus of the body and the seat of the soul
truly exist as one.
Let us give thanks for those times in our lives
when all seems in balance.
For those times are rare and precious.
the equinox shall pass, the revelation may be forgotten,
and our actions will not always reflect our true selves.
Let us be quiet for a moment together.
[silence]
Through our gratitude
we may remember who we are,
reflect on who we may become,
and restore the balance which brings
equanimity to our lives.
May it be so, Amen
Musical Interlude Melodia Africana III by Ludovico Einaudi
Address Spring Equinox
In the northern hemisphere, we celebrate the Spring Equinox, the day when light and dark are in balance (but moving towards longer, lighter days) on 21st March. Which was three days ago. Spring is my favourite season. After the short, grey days of winter, with their seemingly endless rain and gloomy clouds (we have apparently had the wettest February for years) it is so nice to see the odd bit of blue sky and sunshine! I try to go for a walk most days, either in the forest or round the village, depending on the weather, and I have noticed squillions of buds starting to form on the trees and in the hedgerows, and the first brave Spring flowers pushing up their heads through the soil of the verges and in people’s gardens. If the sun is shining too, the whole walk is a quiet pleasure, which sets me up for the day.
Today, as I write this address, it is another beautiful blue sky day, and Spring is well and truly here. On my walk this morning, the annual frenzy of growth was evident, at the sides of the path, in the hedgerows, and in the trees. Everywhere, there were buds and flowers and blossoms, and a thousand different shades of green. And it was beautiful. When I opened my ears, the air was full of birdsong, and deep in the forest, I heard the rat-a-tat of a woodpecker. On such a day, it feels good to be alive.
Spring has always been an important season for people, right back to earliest times. Indeed, in “the old days”, before we could fly fruit and vegetables into our shops from around the world 365 days a year, the last few weeks of Winter were hard for people, who had to subsist on dried or otherwise preserved greens and fruit until the growing season began again. Spring is also the time of year when the days start to lengthen, and the evenings and mornings get lighter, and we naturally react to that – we are creatures who need natural light, even if we don’t realise it, cocooned in our electric wombs.
I loved Kate Brady McKenna’s beautiful reflection, We have many Springs, which formed our first two readings. I thought it was a wonderful idea, asking how people perceived the arrival of Spring. And the responses were so varied – some wrote about the appearance of flowers and buds on the trees, warmer weather and blue skies, others about the differences the warmer weather made to them – being able to wear lighter clothes, being able to dry the washing outside, the joy of lighter mornings and evenings. Yet others felt it at a deeper level, at the soul level – as she wrote, “We feel it in our very souls. We feel it when we think of Aslan on the move. And it is intuition: we know it in our body and our spirit. It is the lifting of our hearts… We feel it when we start to expect, rather than to plod.”
I think it is important that we can continue to experience the wonder of Spring – the sense of divine renewal, the small annual miracles of the first flowers and the first buds appearing. They have got to be a sign of hope, that Winter cannot last forever. There is the wonderful dichotomy between the revelation of the eternal round, and the revelation of that which is new. Every Spring we encounter something never before seen, a glimpse of potential for the future. As both Cliff Reed in our opening words, and Iris Jubb in our final reading remind us, Spring is also the season of hope.
Spring is also the time when we feel renewed and have new resources of energy. Or at least, that is how I feel. It is no accident that Spring cleaning has endured as a tradition through the centuries. Partly it is a necessity (more so in times past, when people practically hibernated during the cold winter months, and Spring was the time of the big clear out). But it is almost an instinct too – it is a time for taking stock of what we have, of discarding the broken and useless, of repairing what is worn but useful, and of setting our faces forward for the year ahead. If we don’t carry out a periodic Spring clean, our lives can become cluttered and stagnant, with no space for renewal and growth. You can guess by this that I’m not just talking about physical Spring cleaning, satisfying though that is, but also about mental and spiritual Spring cleaning. It is only too easy to plod along in the same old ways, carrying out the same old duties, not realising how flat and dull our lives have become. Sometimes we need to have a good breath of fresh air blowing through our lives, revitalising us and setting us on a new path in good heart.
So I think we should take a periodic look at ourselves, take stock and move on. But the process of self-examination is not an easy one. One of my favourite theologians is the wonderful Rabbi Lionel Blue, who I listened to regularly on Thought for the Day on Radio 4. I have most of his books, which I have read and re-read, and was lucky enough to go and see him “live” once, before he died. Over the years, he has taught me that the only thing that God wants from us is for us to be more kind, more generous to everyone (including ourselves) and more honest, both with ourselves and our fellow travellers in the world. It is about listening to that inner voice, whether we call it God, or the light within, or our conscience, and about doing the right thing rather than the easy one. So that we can “remember who we are, reflect on who we may become, and restore the balance which brings equanimity to our lives,” as Thomas Rhodes suggested in the words of our Time of Stillness and Reflection.
I am so very blessed. I have a lovely husband, two wonderful grown-up children who are now establishing their own families, a nice house, good friends, a job that I love and enough money in the bank – what more could anyone wish for? But I know that without regular spiritual practices, I tend to ignore what’s going on at a deeper level, in my heart and soul. It is very easy to move out of balance, out of equanimity. And I always feel blessed by being in community with fellow Unitarians, because it is they who enable me to go deep. Being part of a loving, living Unitarian community helps me to think and reflect on matters of the heart and soul, secure in the knowledge that there are loving arms to catch me, if I fall. I think that sometimes we underestimate the importance of our own Unitarian communities to their members. There is nowhere else that I can think of where it is possible to bring your whole self, and be wholeheartedly accepted, warts and all. And that is so precious.
But are our Unitarian communities always “fit for purpose”? Are they truly places where our members can learn new things and grow into their best selves? I wonder.
I believe that all congregations (and Districts!) need a regular Spring cleaning, so that we can discard the things that aren’t working and bring in some new ideas to attract more people through our doors. I think we need to take stock of our strengths and weaknesses, then make a plan to move on. And perhaps this Spring may be an ideal opportunity to undertake this kind of evaluation. How do we want to be together in community in this year of 2024? What can we take forward from what we have learned about being in virtual community during the Covid lockdowns? Are there practices we do not want to go back to?
By the time this service is delivered, on Sunday, Unitarians in the Midlands will have gathered for our Annual General Meeting the previous day. I hope it will have been a joyful occasion as we met in community, as well as a time to get our necessary business done. Our Guest Speaker will have been Dr Mark Fox, and I hope that we will all have been inspired by his words.
And next month the General Assembly of Unitarian & Free Christian Churches will also be holding its Annual Meetings. I always enjoy attending them, as it is an opportunity to meet new people and reconnect with old friends. It is a rich and varied experience, with a mixture of business, worship, and exploration. Not to mention the launch of new books and new initiatives. I always feel renewed and refreshed by the interactions… Truly, Spring is the season of renewal, the season of new hope.
Closing Words by Linda Hart (adapted)
Spirit of Life and Love,
May the icy fingers of winter release their grip,
may you be warmed and enlivened.
May spring unfurl her blossoms all around you,
may you be opened and renewed.
And may you share the gift of warmth, and openness all through your life,
in the days to come until we meet again.
Amen
Postlude Melodia Africana II by Ludovico Einaudi