In keeping with April’s focus on our 7th principle Respect for Earth, CVUUS Sangha members offered a Zen Buddhist perspective.
Order of Service – How to Be a Climate Activist without Having Your Heart Broken: A Buddhist Perspective
Prelude: Nature Sounds and Bells – Kate Gridley
Welcome and Announcements – Becky Strum
Call to Worship: from the writings of David Loy – Colleen Brown
Chalice lighting: A responsive reading from Rebecca Solnit – Dinah Smith
Hope is tough and hope gives strength
Hope is often seen as weakness, because it’s vulnerable,
but it takes strength to enter into that
vulnerability of being open to the possibilities.
Hope is tough and hope gives strength
We all benefit when we explore what gives people that strength.
Hope is tough and hope gives strength
In these times, we need to ask each other what stories, what questions, what memories,
what conversations, what senses of themselves and the world around them give them hope.
Hope is tough and hope gives strength
We can find more hope, and more strength, in the hope and strength of others.
Hope is tough and hope gives strength
Hymn #1064 – Blue Boat Home – Music by Peter Mayer, video created by Scott McNeill
Responsive reading – Jack Carter
The 3 Tenets of the Zen Peacemaker Order by Roshi Bernie Glassman (adapted):
I aspire to approach each person and each situation with a “not knowing mind,”
a mind free of judgment and pre-conceived notions, relying only
on what I see with my eyes, hear with my ears,
touch with my body and taste with my mouth.
To bring greater peace to myself, others, and the world.
I wish to bear witness to the joy and suffering of all around me,
To bring greater peace to myself, others, and the world.
And it is my intention that loving action and compassion will arise from these practices,
To bring greater peace into myself, others, and the world.
A Time for All Ages: Can we all be Bodhisattvas? – Colleen Brown
Hymn #1009: Breathing In, Breathing Out – Kate Gridley
The Collection: The Meaning of Dana – Dinah Smith
Musical Interlude: Cathedral of Pines, by Paul Winter
Singing the Kids Out: Let Us Open Our Eyes – Kate Gridley
Sharing of Joys and Sorrows – Becky Strum
Guided Meditation – Colleen Brown
Readings: From Dogen and Joanna Macy – Jack Carter
Sermon: How to Be a Climate Activist Without Having Your Heart Broken: A Buddhist Perspective – Bobbie Carnwath
Hymn #123: Spirit of Life – Music by Carolyn McDade, sung by the Orange County Unitarian Universalist Choir. Pictures can be found on Google Images
Closing Words / Benediction: The Evening Gatha – Dinah Smith
Postlude: Chanting with Thich Nhat Hahn from Plum Village