ERUUF Christian Fellowship

Newcomers are always welcome. Come join us!

• When: 2nd and 4th Sundays, 4:00-5:30pm     (check the ERUUF calendar for possible cancellations around holidays)
• Where: Straube Chapel in the ERUUF Sanctuary
• Contact: David Chandek-Stark
• Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

(Jan 2010)     2nd Sunday book discussion -- A Wind Swept Over the Waters: Reflections on 60 Favorite Bible Passages, by John Nichols.  Copies available at the ERUUF bookstore, or at your favorite local or online bookseller. 

What do we do?

We pray together, sing together, share joys and sorrows, read and discuss scripture, celebrate communion (4th Sundays), and read and discuss the writings of contemporary liberal Christian authors. Our services are led by members of the group, and we celebrate communion with homemade bread, wine and grape juice. Our group leadership style is informal, participatory and democratic in spirit.

Who are UU Christians?

As Unitarian Universalists we subscribe to no creed. We affirm that there are many paths to the divine, and no one spiritual tradition has a monopoly on truth or salvation. We also find special nourishment and meaning in the spiritual practices and scriptures of the Christian tradition as we understand and interpret them. Each of us witnesses in our own unique way to the power and authority of Jesus' teaching and presence in our life. We hope and strive, however falteringly and imperfectly, to work for the Kingdom of justice and love about which Jesus and the Hebrew prophets before him preached. And we seek to grow together in our love of God and our fellow human beings.

For more information on UU Christians, please visit the website of the Unitarian-Universalist Christian Fellowship (UUCF) at http://uuchristian.org/. For a more personal perspective, one of our own members writes a blog on her experience as a UU Christian at http://liftingthespirit.blogspot.com/.

ERUUF Christian Fellowship Service

An outline of how our service is typically structured.

Chalice Lighting/Opening Words

Invitation

Hymn or Silence

Psalm
Read by leader or responsively, chosen from the Lectionary or by the leader

Check-in / Business

Confession [on Communion Sundays]

Scripture Reading
Reading chosen from the Lectionary, or by the leader

Discussion and/or Lectio Divina
Discuss the Scripture reading or another reading chosen by the leader
[Book discussions are held during this time on 2nd Sundays]

Prayers
Choose a prayer to be read by the leader, responsively, or in unison.

Leader: Let us offer prayers for our joys and concerns and those of others.
[Spoken and silent prayers]

Leader: As Jesus taught those who would follow him, we now pray:
Our Father ...

Celebration of Communion [4th Sundays]
A hymn may be sung before the Communion Prayer or after the Thanksgiving Prayer

Communion Prayer
Breaking of Bread, Sharing of Cup
Thanksgiving Prayer

Hymn (optional)

Closing Words/Chalice Snuffing

Communion Prayer

An example of our celebration of communion

[All Gather in a circle. Bread is lifted]
Leader: Blessed are you, God, Mother and Father of all creation,
Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, bread of our lives.
Wheat that must fall to the ground and die and be ground between stones before it gives life.
Yeast of your love which is within us, growing in patience. Honey that reminds us of the sweetness of everyday life.

[Wine and juice are lifted]
Blessed are you, God, Holy Spirit of Life,
Through your bounty, we have this fruit of the vine to offer,
This fruit of our lives grown up under the sun, watered by your rain,
Our lifeblood poured out that we might become blood kin.

We share this bread and cup of our life that we might become one in the spirit of Jesus.
In hope that all the people of the earth might be one body,
In hope that all the people of the earth might become blood kin,
We eat this bread and drink this cup.
Amen.