Ingathering is one of my personal favorite parts of the year. Unitarian Universalist congregations tend to run on the academic year, and Ingathering is the Sunday where everyone comes back from vacation and refocuses their energy on the community. It's really refreshing. In some congregations (such as mine!) Ingathering is traditionally celebrated with Water Communion, where everyone brings in water from wherever they've been over the summer, and water is the overarching metaphor of the service. A lot of people recite physical lists of destinations, which is the dull part of the ritual; others make more out of the celebration and give the congregation a quick brief of where they were spiritually or emotionally while they were away. Ingathering is my favorite uniquely UU tradition (at least among those that take place in the sanctuary on Sunday morning).
During the sermon today I learned that Water Communion is a feminist tradition. According to its originators, who were compiling a book of feminist theology titled Wellsprings, the metaphor of water liberates women from concepts of female servitude that are ingrained in many theologies. I found this to be true because it centers on universal, human, even animist ideas. And it's beautiful, in short. Our bodies are made of water. Without it, our very cells dry up and die off. Water connects us to the world; we need it, and, in these troubling times for the environment, we are also its protectors.
Where was our family this summer? Our water was from the first visit in many years of my two grandparents - a wonderful visit that brought much joy, although it left joy as well as the knowledge that they're aging steadily, and all our thoughts are with them, particularly my father's.
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