Every Sunday is a celebration at UUFM. Here are some special commemorations that link us to other UUs across the country and the world and to other communities that share are values.

Ingathering & Water Communion (September)

After the more outdoor and leisurely pace of the glorious summer months and the Labor Day holiday, we move back into the more typical work and school routines by beginning a new program year. We mark our act of homecoming by acknowledging water as the source of all life and the element that connects us one to each other.

International Day of Peace (September)

Each year around September 21, we re-dedicate our Peace Pole and remind ourselves to be models for our children of peace seeking and peace making. WE bless our young ones’ backpacks during this ceremony.

Halloween/Samhain/All Souls (October)

The veil thins and we celebrate the journey from life to death, into the darkness of reflection and contemplation, in ways that honor our pagan, Christian, and American cultural roots. We encourage lots of shapeshifting, pranking, and silliness across all ages.

Bread Communion (November)

The harvest is in and the time for turning to the warmth of the oven and the hearth is upon us. In this celebration the Sunday before Thanksgiving, we share the stories and the loaves of bread that connect us to our pasts and which we wish to pass forward to the next generations.

Winter Solstice (December) 

An outdoor celebration with fire, we share music and readings from our pagan sources that connect us to the acknowledgement of the gifts of the darkness and our seeking for light and new beginnings.

Christmas Eve (December)

An indoor nighttime service recognizing our Christian heritage and the poignancy of the birth of a vulnerable child into a hostile time. On this most holy night, we celebrate all children and all those outcast and alone.

Earth Communion/Vernal Equinox (March)

As the balance of light and darkness begins to shift, we celebrate with sources from our pagan heritage. We begin to imagine a verdant landscape again and to coax seedlings to grow, ready for the warming of the soil and the heat of the sun.

Earth Day (April)

On this day, we commemorate the youth movement which jarred in all of us awareness of climate change and its effects on human and more-than-human life alike.

Memorial Service (May)

Organized yearly by long-time congregant Tony Filipovitch, we commemorate the loss of members of our community within the context of the wider losses of prominent folk local, national, and international. Thus we mark the natural rhythm from life to death.

Flower Communion (June)

The very first Flower Communion was celebrated on June 4,1923. Dr. Norbert Ĉapek created the ceremony for his Prague congregation to celebrate unity within diversity. Ĉapek’s murder in 1940 by the Nazis amplified this ritual as a symbolic stand against fascism and injustice. Our Flower Ritual is about the beauty of diverse people moving together against the forces that would torment and oppress. Now more than ever, our ritual is necessary and healing. We bring flowers and share flowers to mark our human differences and our oneness as a community.