Over the last few decades, a new ritual has caught on with many Unitarian Universalist congregations. It is called the Flower Communion. This ritual may be done during the final service of the church year, when by tradition many of our congregations break for the summer. Other UU congregations may chose to hold a Flower Communion at another time in the spring. The congregation in Taunton began to observe this ritual three years ago at its final service in June.
This beautiful ritual is a way to symbolize the wonderful richness and complexity of our religious communities... as we bring our colorful flowers together. We each bring flowers to the service, whether grown in our gardens or purchased from a florist, and put them in a large vase or a basket. At the end of the service, we each take a flower... one different from the one we brought. This symbolizes how we share our uniqueness, our gifts and our friendships.
The Flower Communion service originated in Czechoslovakia, at the Prague Congregation of Liberal Religious Fellowship. This fellowship was founded in February 1922 by the Reverend Norbert âapek, its minister, and his wife Maja. They had the support of the American Unitarians Association, including enough money to support the family as they did this work of church building. Initially the Prague services were entirely lectures, a practice which does not seem to be spiritual at all. You may wonder how they called themselves a "religious fellowship."
The majority of the congregation's members were formerly Roman Catholics, which was the state-sponsored church of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They had left the Roman Catholic Church when Czechoslovakia became independent. And thus they were wary of anything that was reminiscent of the mass. The âapeks, seeking to add some spiritual dimension to the service, first introduced singing of hymns (written by Dr. âapek) in the fall of that year. Then he created a Flower Communion, which was first celebrated the following spring on June 24th.
Each member of the fellowship was asked to bring a single flower. The service began with the flowers being placed in a large vase in the middle of the hall. The flowers symbolized the members, each unique and free, joining together in fellowship and accepting each other regardless of their differences. At the end of the service, each member was to take one flower. As the âapeks described it: "just as [each flower] comes without making any distinction where it came from and whom it represents, to confess that we accept each other as brothers and sisters without regard to class, race, or other distinction, acknowledging everybody as our friend who is human and wants to be good."
The church grew tremendously and thrived for many years. Among its members were former Catholics, liberal Jews and orthodox Protestants, bound together by a positive, liberal message of Brotherhood... or as we might say today "the bond of humanity."
Sadly, Czechoslovakia was taken over by the Nazis in 1939. Dr. âapek continued to give sermons to boost the spirits of his congregation. He was careful to cloak his messages of hope and resistance in parables. But eventually the dreaded Nazi police, the Gestapo, found his sermons of brotherhood and love too dangerous and subversive. He was finally arrested and sent to the Dachau concentration camp. In October 1942, when he was an old man of 72, Norbert âapek was put to death in a gas chamber.
The rest of the family had escaped the Nazis and came back to America, where they had lived for a few years before. Maja âapek introduced the Flower Communion in the spring of 1940 at the First Parish Church in Cambridge. It caught on and became very popular across our UU denomination. Many churches follow the tradition of making it the last service before summer vacation. In many, it is also an occasion of remembrance of Norbert Capek and the many brave things he did for religious and political freedom and the equality of all people in his home country.
In many churches, the Flower Communion is an intergenerational service. In some, the children distribute the flowers to the people seated in the congregation. In one church in Brooklyn, New York, the people join hands as the flowers are consecrated, emphasizing the unity of the congregation.
Soon after her husband's death, Maja Capek wrote about what the flower ceremony meant to him. She wrote: "I was a bit dismayed recently over the fact that some churches use [this service] as a substitute for Easter... Norbert never meant it to be this. Capek's only motivation was to stress and bring about brotherhood. As a symbol he used flowers because in the name of a flower ... no wars were waged as was the case with the cross or the chalice. The flowers are used as symbols of the gifts which each person can make to the church and through the church to other persons. The exchange of flowers means that I shall walk, without reservation, with anyone, regardless of social status or former religious affiliation, as long as he is ready and willing to go along in search of truth and service."
This, then, is the meaning of the Flower Communion. Let us begin our celebration.
Richard Henry, Norbert Fabián Capek: A Spiritual Journey. Boston: Skinner House Books, 1999.
Dorothy Boroush, "Flower Communion Facts," in The Flame (UU Women's Heritage Society), Vol. 6 No. 2 (April 1997)