Watercolors

“…‘How come we don’t talk about our seven principles more?’…‘Why don’t we have more services about our principles?’…‘What exactly are our seven principles?’.

It’s kind of like this…

You have a favorite watering hole.
A waterfront piano bar in the village that you frequent about once a week (give or take), for a happy hour.
Pretty cool staff at this place, in your humble opinion. A senior bartender. An assistant. Live music (the good kind). Kid-friendly. Dog-friendly. Close to home. Brand new-ish building. Plenty of parking. And always plenty of coffee.
The pub’s regulars are faithful and quite festive.
Once a year, you all even spend one of these happy hours decorating the bar with flowers.  Fancy, right?
You do a lot of listening at this place. Some singing and toe-tapping. You share some of the comforting and challenging events of your life with the other barflies, here and there. You even help clean-up and set-up, from time to time (it’s communal, that way).
The drinks are free – and donations are also freely given by the bar’s member-owners (and gratefully received). Not unlike a co-op.
They always serve you a cool glass of water when you pull up a stool – as you’re deciding your pleasure for that moment.
Sometimes you get your usual. Sometimes you get a 2-for-1 special. Sometimes all the patrons just throw random requests into a box on the bartop, and the bartenders whip up improvised concoctions on the fly.
One of the smiling faces at the door always hands you a list of what they’re serving that day when you first walk in.
That menu doesn’t often list ‘water’ as an ingredient in anything. Many of the bar’s usual suspects are clear that everything on the menu contains water, though it isn’t always obvious. Every wine, cocktail, juice blend, iced coffee, and hot tea starts and ends with water.
Water is the principal ingredient in everything the place produces – even in the stone pond on the patio.
The bar actually prides itself on its water. It’s the fancy kind – artesian well, purified, filtered, reverse osmosis, cage-free, free range, free trade, conflict-free, local, sustainable, etc.
Once a year, you all even dedicate one of these happy hours to sharing your own special water from wherever you each call home. But the bar’s water is particularly special to all of you. It’s much of what drew you to the space in the first place – and why you’ve become one of the faithful. Many swear they’d been drinking this water all their lives (long before they found the bar).

 Many of you can taste the water in the bar’s offerings – some can even feel it.

Other attendees like to know more explicitly what they’re drinking sometimes. They’re curious as to how exactly the water fits into the recipes. Some of the thirstier among you would like to be able to make some of these concoctions on their own (away from the bar), and for their loved ones. Every now and then, they’d like to talk about just the water, and they bend the barkeepers’ ears accordingly –
“…“…‘How come we don’t talk about our water more?’…‘Why don’t we have more ‘water specials’?’…‘What exactly is our water?’.

Some of UUCC’s regulars (and irregulars) may remember that last summer’s special was focused on our faith tradition’s ‘food’, in a sense – our six sources. Be it known that this summer’s special will be our water – our seven principles.
Seven services, each crafted to speak specifically to the heart of one of our seven principles –

1. Sunday 7/1 – 2^nd  Principle (Justice, equity and compassion in human relations)

2. Sunday 7/8 – 5^th Principle (The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large)

3. Sunday 7/15 – 6^th Principle (The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all)

4. Sunday 7/22 – 4^th Principle (A free and responsible search for truth and meaning)

5. Sunday 7/29 – 3^rd Principle (Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations)

6. Sunday 8/12 – 1^st Principle (The inherent worth and dignity of every person)

7. Sunday 8/19 – 7^th Principle (Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

I’ll be behind the counter for almost all of these – and so will some smiling faces (member-owners) from among UUCC’s faithful.
We invite you to come to the service (the ‘happy hour’) crafted around your favorite principle.
We warmly welcome you to also attend the ‘happy hours’ for the other principles (you might discover new favorites), as well as our services on 8/5, 8/26, and 9/2.
Our entire summer menu is special, in our humble opinions.
Nothing watered-down, we promise.

We’d also love for you to read our weekly ‘In-Between-Sundays’ blog posts – as they will also pair snugly with that week’s principle.

Live music. Good vibrations. Good libations. Good conversations.
Plenty of parking. Plenty of coffee.
Plenty of water and, hopefully, not too much ice.
Come, come, whoever you are…

What’s your pleasure (principle)?,
Anthony