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Ship of Fools: First Church UCC, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

The Mystery WorshipperThe Mystery Worshipper Shipmate
edited January 2020 in The Mystery Worshipper

imageShip of Fools: First Church UCC, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Feathers, water, oil and fire usher in the New Year at this First Watch service

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Comments

  • UrgandaUrganda Shipmate
    Fascinating! It seems that with the best will in the world, you can't just invent ritual.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Or perhaps, on the other hand, you can!

    Feathers??
  • UrgandaUrganda Shipmate
    You can invent a show but only repeated use will make it a ritual.

    Very symbolic things, feathers.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Urganda wrote: »
    You can invent a show but only repeated use will make it a ritual.

    Yes, that is so.

  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    A member of the congregation explained the symbolism behind it, but I was only half listening to her. Something about casting off the old, as a bird will shed feathers, and then having "the old" blown away by the wind.

    Unfortunately there was no breeze to speak of, and as we cast off our feathers they simply fell to the ground. Oh, well, at least they got trampled on afterwards.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    Ah - the best-laid plans, and all that...
    :grimace:
  • PDRPDR Shipmate
    edited January 2020
    I must admit I was a bit puzzled by the description of the service as it seemed to be a putting together of discordant traditions, so I had a quick peek at their website to see which variety of UCC they were. That can make quite a difference to how they function given that the UCC is a merger of four different denominations. Around here UCC usually means '(German) Reformed' in disguise, but over the mountain they are usually old Congregational churches and much more progressive in theology.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    Correct. Their Wikipedia entry is instructive. The United Church of Christ is quite liberal, quite forward-thinking, and actually quite attractive. I did think, however, the First Watch service, with its inclusions from pagan traditions, was a bit over the top.
  • UrgandaUrganda Shipmate
    Brooding on that, I wonder what you mean by pagan?
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    I'm not sure if it was said, or if I merely inferred it, but I had the impression that the thing with the feathers was an American Indian tradition. There were some other prayers that were not Christian (or Jewish or Muslim).

    Also, I was slightly uncomfortable with anointing my neighbor with oil. It was mentioned that oil is a part of Christian rites of passage: baptism, confirmation, ordination, last rites. But (this was not mentioned) it's always liturgically blessed oil and anointing is always by ordained clergy. I am not clergy, and the oil we used was just a tiny bottle of scented bath oil. As I anointed my neighbor, I said, "You are a child of God," and as she anointed me, she muttered a similar sentiment but she was much more wordy. It made me uncomfortable.
  • UrgandaUrganda Shipmate
    So Pagan is something that makes you feel uncomfortable? Or is it anything that doesn't trace its roots back to Abraham?
  • Alan29Alan29 Shipmate
    Amanda B Reckondwyth wrote: »
    I'm not sure if it was said, or if I merely inferred it, but I had the impression that the thing with the feathers was an American Indian tradition. There were some other prayers that were not Christian (or Jewish or Muslim).

    Also, I was slightly uncomfortable with anointing my neighbor with oil. It was mentioned that oil is a part of Christian rites of passage: baptism, confirmation, ordination, last rites. But (this was not mentioned) it's always liturgically blessed oil and anointing is always by ordained clergy. I am not clergy, and the oil we used was just a tiny bottle of scented bath oil. As I anointed my neighbor, I said, "You are a child of God," and as she anointed me, she muttered a similar sentiment but she was much more wordy. It made me uncomfortable.

    Our RC parish has healing Masses where lay folk anoint the sick alongside the priest - analogous to eucharistic ministers. It happens in non-liturgical settings in prayer groups etc too.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Amanda B Reckondwyth wrote: »
    Also, I was slightly uncomfortable with anointing my neighbor with oil. It was mentioned that oil is a part of Christian rites of passage: baptism, confirmation, ordination, last rites. But (this was not mentioned) it's always liturgically blessed oil and anointing is always by ordained clergy.
    In episcopal traditions, yes. In other traditions—including the Reformed, in which the UCC sits—not necessarily.

    Scented bath oil, though? Blech.

  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    Mine was lemon. The person to my left had myrrh. :angry:
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    *sings*

    Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
    Breathes a life of gathering gloom...
    :grimace:

    In the C of E, various licensed lay ministers, e.g. Readers, can also anoint with oil e.g. at Healing Services. The oil used is, indeed, that blessed by the Bishop on Maundy Thursday, or thereabouts.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Shipmate
    Urganda wrote: »
    So Pagan is something that makes you feel uncomfortable? Or is it anything that doesn't trace its roots back to Abraham?

    Well, I like to know who I'm praying to -- is it Jehovah or Gitche Manitou? At least we didn't pray to Diana as the waxing crescent moon set over the cityscape. I did think of Emily Dickinson, though: The Moon was but a Chin of Gold.
  • UrgandaUrganda Shipmate
    I have an Orthodox Jewish friend who uses Pagan as a general term of abuse
  • PDRPDR Shipmate
    I first became acquainted with the liberal/progressive side of the UCC when I lived in New York State briefly. I ended up at a service and asked a member what UCC stood for, and she shot back "some people think its is Unitarians Considering Christ, but it actually stands for..." and then gave me a potted history of their church, which had been congregational. I have got a somewhat different impression of the denomination in my present environment where they come across as no more liberal than the PCUSA, but that is mainly because most of the UCCs around here are of German Reformed origin.
  • Choir DroneChoir Drone Shipmate Posts: 13
    PDR wrote: »
    I first became acquainted with the liberal/progressive side of the UCC when I lived in New York State briefly. I ended up at a service and asked a member what UCC stood for, and she shot back "some people think its is Unitarians Considering Christ, but it actually stands for..." and then gave me a potted history of their church, which had been congregational. I have got a somewhat different impression of the denomination in my present environment where they come across as no more liberal than the PCUSA, but that is mainly because most of the UCCs around here are of German Reformed origin.

    The church was "Congregational" (capital C) and the church which joined with the Congregational Christian Churches in 1957 to create the UCC was the Evangelical and Reformed Church. In the 1920s, some churches in Southwest Pennsylvania that had been known as "German Evangelical" joined with the Congregationalists, the first melding of the German and Yankee branches of what would become the UCC.
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