Flower Communion: Unique Gifts

Rev. Amy Russell - 2008-05-11

When I was a little girl growing up outside of Washington DC, I lived in a wonderful neighborhood where there were always plenty of kids near my age running around. We gathered in the street for games of Kick the Can or Mother May I where we commandeered the street and cast nasty glances at the cars who dared to drive into the middle of our playground.

And at the end of this neighborhood street, there was an older woman that we called the “Candy Lady”. When we would be out playing, or walking by her house, she would come out and call to us and offer us a piece of candy from a large box. And then she would urge us to take another for later. Now this practice would not be allowed today since we all warn our children not to accept anything from strangers. But while we didn’t know her name, the Candy Lady seemed to us to be as safe as an aunt in our family.

I’ll never forget May Day in that neighborhood, because when we would go to our front door in the morning, there would be a little paper basket sitting on our doorsteps filled with violets or buttercups or some other little dainty wildflower. At first we didn’t know who the mysterious flower giver was, but eventually we came to find out it was the Candy Lady.

Growing up in that kind of neighborhood where people cared about each other and reached out to each other has always been for me a beacon for the kind of community where I always wanted to live. And I was very lucky to be able to raise my children in a similar community here in Dayton. I felt that my kids growing up in a small friendly community always felt that they were recognized for who they were, for their own unique qualities.

The ritual that we are participating in today, originated in 1923 in Prague. Dr. Norbert Capek, who was the founder of the modern Unitarian movement in Czechoslovakia, imagined this service as a way for his members to participate in a communion without the Christian trappings of communion. In fact, he called it the “Flower Festival” since many of his members were skeptical of anything sounding Christian. The festival invited people to each bring a flower, place it in a vase, and then to select a different flower from the vase to take home. Capek spoke about each flower representing the unique gifts of each member. It was also a symbol of equality of all people, as all people take one flower regardless of their race, class, or other distinction.

Capek described the flower festival “The sight of the many flowers was wonderful...In my sermon I put emphasis on the individual character of each “member-flower’…And when they go home each is to take one flower just as it comes…acknowledging everybody as our friend who is a human and wants to be good.”

When the Nazis took over Prague in 1940, they did not appreciate Dr. Capek’s preaching of the equality of all humans and the inherent worth of each individual. They decided this message was too dangerous and they sent him to Dachau, where he was eventually killed.

This gentle man who preached the message of human equality in a time of great violence, gave his life for this message.

The Flower Communion ritual was brought to this country by his wife, Maya Capek, and has been established as one of our most unifying rituals ever since.

Another man whom Unitarians recognize as a forebear and who preached a message of equality for all was Jan Hus. Hus was a priest in Southern Bohemia in the late fourteenth century. He was a champion of the poor and believed that the Christian religious service should have equal participation by all people. He led the service in the Czech language and he read from the Bible in the common language so that all could understand. He made communion available to all people, both the wine and the bread, when at that time the wine was reserved only for the priests. His teachings became the leader of a protest against the doctrine of the Catholic church and he was accused of heresy and burned at the stake.

Another gentle man who believed that each person is equally loved by God and has unique worth and dignity.

This Flower Communion that we practice today has its roots in these beliefs. Each flower represents each one of you with your unique personhood. Each one of you has your own joys and sorrows and wonderful gifts that you bring into this community and offer us. Our Beloved Community welcomes and accepts each of us as having wonderful and unique qualities that we bring together as sacred offerings. The flowers that we brought represent those offerings. We offer ourselves to this community just as we offer our flowers. And we carry away the love, the support, and the acceptance of this community just as we carry away a unique and beautiful flower.