Samhain  

Order of Service - Script 

for Sunday: 

October 30, 2022

Happy New Year tomorrow, according to the ancient Celtic calendar. 

NIUU, Jeanie Donaldson, Chris and Connie Johnson, Pastor Fred 

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Prelude - Jeanie Donaldson 

Welcome and Announcements: 

Come into this circle of love and compassion,

Come into this community where we can dream and

Believe in those dreams—

Welcome to North Idaho Unitarian Universalists where we accept, we support, we transform:  Ourselves, Our Community. Our world.   

Lighting the Chalice: Chris

We light our chalice as we hold in our hearts the light of UU faith that leads us through our lives’  experiences. We find meaning in the light of this open-ended faith. Even as daylight diminishes toward the Winter Solstice in a couple of months, we celebrate the brightness of love and light in our hearts. 

Opening Words: ­ Connie

We celebrate today both an ending and a new beginning. Samhain (Sahm when), beginning tomorrow evening and ending on Tuesday evening, means “summer’s end.” This holy day marks the beginning of the new year on the ancient Irish Calendar. As we share the sacred hours, we remember those who came before us as well as those who will come after us. Moving through this time of transition we rejoice in the turning of the wheel of time and of our lives. So mote it be. 

Hymn #108 - My Life Flows On in Endless Song: 

 

1 - My life flows on in endless song above earth's lamentation.

I hear the real, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife I hear its music ringing.

It sounds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing?

 

2 - While though the tempest loudly roars, I hear the truth, it liveth.

And though the darkness round me close, songs in the night it giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that Rock I'm clinging.

Since Love prevails in heav’n and earth, how can I keep from singing?

 

3 - When tyrants tremble in their fear and hear their death knell ringing,

when friends rejoice both far and near, how can I keep from singing?

In prison cell and dungeon vile, our thoughts to them are winging.

When friends by shame are undefiled, how can I keep from singing? 

Covenant: 

Love is the spirit of this church, and service its law

This is our great covenant:

To dwell together in peace,

To seek truth in love,

And to help one another. 

Greeting each other  (Those present in person can leave our seats for this, if we wish.) 

Joys and Concerns (with lighting of candles of caring) 

Story: Fred

A Deeply Personal Samhain Story by Fred Toerne

Most of my life, Halloween has been an important time of celebration for me. In my middle years, I not only learned of its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, I also learned how to pronounce its ancient Celtic name. :-) 

Celebrations of this high holy day in my own life have included trick-or-treating as a child, haunted houses, later on, parties, and visits to theme parks. I fondly remember one such visit to Astroworld in Houston. (That theme park was closed on October 30, 2005, seventeen years ago today.) For my visit to the park in the Halloween season in the 1990’s, I wore a set of vampire teeth. Otherwise, I was dressed as a more or less normal human being. While I was relaxing on a park bench, a member of the Astroworld staff sat down next to me in costume and with excellent monster makeup, intending to scare me. I opened my mouth to show off my vampire teeth and growled. The staff member was startled and a little bit scared of me! What fun! 

I have many stories of fun times around this season. 

The most important one for me personally involved my deepening relationship with UU faith. In 2006 I had been a widower for almost a year, and I was not searching for a new relationship, but, as I told a friend, my heart and mind were open. 

At the UUCP in Moscow, Idaho, I was attending planning sessions for a special Samhain worship service. There I met a wonderful woman whose name was Beth Miller. 

I was asked to serve as High Priest for the service we were planning, and a close friend of Beth’s was asked to serve as High Priestess. The service we prepared was among the most meaningful of my life, not only (but mostly) because Beth and I got to know each other as we were preparing it. Her friend, the High Priestess, later observed, “I’ve never seen two people who had so much in common!” 

That same friend was present in our home and at her bedside as Beth died on September 11, 2018. 

Meditation: Chris

The deeply personal stories of life and death bring us to our meditation on Samhain, since the Holy Day has many levels for us to think about concerning our human life and the transition that comes to us with our human death. 

Samhain  (pronounced Sawm when) is a time of remembering. We hold in our hearts the names and stories of people who have been important in our lives and who have made the transition from this life into whatever comes after. Remembrance is the powerful and meaningful use of our minds to make present the people and things that went before, to quote a line from a beautiful Beatles song. Here is the verse in which that line occurs: 

Though I know I'll never lose affection

For people and things that went before

I know I'll often stop and think about them

In my life I love you more 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0tOm2mjWAw 

So now, to complete our meditation, think deeply and remember people that went before, with eyes open or closed as you may prefer, naming them silently in our hearts or aloud as we may wish. 

(Pause for silence or speaking of names to be remembered.)

Fred will give today’s sermon.

Sermon: 

Happy Halloween tomorrow! 

Happy New Year, too, as I said in the blurb for this week. 

Blessed Samhain especially, as well! 

Since tomorrow marks the Celtic New Year, and the High Holy Day of Samhain, I wish for us all a meaningful observance of this thin time for everyone to appreciate, not to fear. 

For those of us who love nature and who find an important part of our spirituality in the celebration of the natural world, this thin time gives us an opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the creatures, plants and animals, all around us. 

The term, “thin time” refers to the veil that separates ordinary experience from a deeper appreciation of spirituality. 

As you probably know well by now, when I speak of spirituality, first and foremost I’m referring to breathing. 

We ourselves and all living things breathe. 

So at this thin time we turn our attention to breath, life, and therefore also to the spirits of all living things around us. 

There is nothing spooky about it. 

Western European culture has surrounded this holy time with fear and negativity as a way of attacking and opposing traditional, pagan, nature based spirituality. 

I’m not trying to attack our own culture and traditions, but rather to look closely at the roots of the things we believe and why. 

If we think of Halloween or Samhain as a scary time, we are missing the most important point of this high holy day. 

The point, quite simply, is breath itself. 

My own preference in my personal spiritual practice is to focus my awareness on the spirit, the breath, of everything around us. 

There are many realities surrounding us that we are not aware of simply because we are not paying attention. 

The holy day tomorrow is a perfect opportunity to look more closely at the burgeoning life around us than we normally do. 

As the season changes to a time of less sunshine and warmth, all living things are making preparations for our own survival. 

Speaking of survival leads us to think about more than the next immediate moment. 

The terms eternity and eternal life come to mind when I speak about more than the next immediate moment. 

When we think about the subjects of eternity and eternal life, especially at Samhain, they are too important to ignore. 

The single most important thing I can say about eternity is that it is not the same concept as life after death. 

It is not a quantity (of life), not even an infinite number; it is a quality of life. 

The Buddhists among us, including, and maybe especially, Venerable Chonyi, who spoke to us earlier this month, give us a wonderful view of that quality of life. 

It is rooted in compassion, and it involves letting go of our own preconceived notions of how things are and how they must be. 

One delightful way of expressing the principle in our day-to-day lives is the saying, “Don’t believe everything you think.” :-) 

An eon, referring to an age of the world, especially a new age, is a way of understanding the word, eternal, so eternal life is life in and of this new age in which we are living. 

Ours is a time for all kinds of people to be learning from each other. 

Buddhists have plenty to teach. 

Adherents to any religion - and no religion - have plenty to teach. 

The one necessary principle for teaching others is that we cannot claim to have exclusive access to the only truth. 

Insisting that all others must agree with us about matters of faith is a serious impediment to sharing any insights we might otherwise have been able to share. 

The claim that one religion and that religion only can give access to eternity keeps most of the insights from that religion away from other people. 

At the same time, a willingness to learn from each other provides an opportunity to expand horizons and truly to help each other. 

That kind of sharing is an important aspect of our purpose in life. 

Our own UU tradition is a different way of faith than most religions. 

We do not require doctrinal agreement. 

In fact, the most basic agreement we require is the recognition that we are all of value. 

Such a recognition is like an invasion of eternity into our ordinary times. 

Again, eternity means a quality of life, and that quality is an opportunity for us to learn from each other and to help each other day by day, in much the same way as our congregation’s covenant promises (... when we say, “and to help one another”). 

Most importantly, our experience of Samhain includes relationships, those we share with all manner of forms of life. 

One way we share relationships is that many of us have been adopted by animals. 

We call them pets, but sometimes I wonder who is really the pet, and who is training whom, ourselves or the animals we claim belong to us. 

No doubt it’s true that we belong to them as much as - or even more than - they belong to us. 

I guess the simplest way of saying it is that we belong to each other. 

One of my friends whose spirituality is deeply earth-centered has described the relationship well, particularly as it involves cats: 

She says, “Cats do not make good pets, but we do, and so they keep us around!” 

Cats have long had a special relationship with spirituality and so also with Samhain. 

The ancient Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet, is an important example of cats at this time of year. 

She is a powerful goddess, and those who do not care for cats can simply ignore her, sometimes at their peril. 

Here is her portrait, especially for Samhain. (Share it.) 

https://in.pinterest.com/pin/432275264243228090/ 

If you are owned by a cat or another beloved animal - like a dog - you have a special responsibility for the care of their well being. 

At this time of year, cats are often in special danger. 

Their relationship with spirituality causes fear in some humans. 

Please keep that in mind and plan to keep the cats in your household indoors and safe especially at Samhain (Halloween). 

If the cat in your life is black, the need to protect her or him is particularly important. 

We don’t need any superstitions about cats and other creatures. 

We do need the creatures! 

Especially at this time of year, they need us as much as we need them, and the mutual care between us is a taste of a better world, a world of eternal life in the best sense, here and now. 

I have a simple song I shared with the Animal Blessing group. 

I’m going to sing it three times. (It’s quite short!) 

You are most welcome to join in when you are comfortable doing so: 

Fur and feathers and scales and skin, 

Different without but the same within. 

Many a body, but one the soul, 

By all creatures are the gods made whole. 

Amen 

So let it be 

Blessed Be! 

Congregational Response 

Offering Information 

Charity of the Month Connie

Youth Emergency Services 

YES of Pend Oreille County

 

YES is committed to supporting homeless and at-risk young people; promoting stability, growth and the ability to thrive.

We create space for transformation.

 

You can help!

YES serves homeless youth ages 12-24 in Pend Oreille County, WA. Young people have left home for any number of reasons and are struggling to exist on their own. Many live on the streets.

​To provide critically needed housing, food, clothing and medical care, YES needs financial support. 

Always Needed:

New Socks

New Underwear

Warm Clothes

Sleeping Bags

Towels

toiletries

Bedding

Shoes

School Supplies Needed:

Backpacks

Protractors

Mechanical pencils

Glue sticks

Pens

Pencils

Highlighters

Markers

Eraser

College ruled paper

Art Supplies

Non-scuff gym shoes of all sizes (6 to 13 for men and women)

Ways to Donate

$30.00 will buy a backpack.

$50.00 will buy the school supplies to fill the backpack.

$35.00 will buy a pair of gym shoes.

$115.00 will cover the cost of a backpack filled with school supplies and a pair of gym shoes.

Directly at our office or via mail:

For financial donations, please make checks payable to Youth Emergency Services.

Our physical and mailing address is:

Youth Emergency Services of Pend Oreille County

229 N Calispel AVE

Newport, WA 99156

 

Donations

to our Charity of the Month, NIUU pledges and regular church offerings can be mailed to NIUU at:

North Idaho Unitarian Universalists

PO Box 221

Coeur d'Alene, ID 83816

NIUU

P.O. Box 221

CDA ID 83816

Extinguishing the Chalice : Connie

As we extinguish the chalice flame, receiving its light into our hearts, we reflect upon the changes in the world of nature. Death and rebirth are part of the universal Circle of Life. Annual plants die and feed the soil. Trees shed leaves that will also feed the soil. Nature prepares for the dying of winter and the new life of Spring. So do we prepare externally and internally for death and new life. 

Blessed Sahm when and Happy Halloween! 

Closing words: Chris

Blessed Lady, Hallowed Lord

By Martha Kirby Capo

Blessed Lady, Hallowed Lord,

Let me hear your Holy Word.

When the Veil is thinned tonight,

Let me see with Sacred Sight.

Closing Circle