Home

Memorial Service

Please join us for our upcoming service.

Memorial Service Readings

…there is no more ridiculous custom than the one that makes you express
sympathy once and for all on a given day to a person whose sorrow will
endure as long as his life. Such grief, felt in such a way, is always "present";
it is never too late to talk about it, never repetitious to mention it again.
(Marcel Proust)

Gracious Spirit, Creator of Life, Carrier of Hope, make your presence known
among us. Enable us to be brave in our remembering, honest in our sorrow, and
open in love and compassion to each other. Help us to seek not so much an answer
to our questions, but, rather, a new way of living. Help us to seek not so much an
end to our sorrow, but, rather, the patience to mourn and grieve. Enable us to
remember with joy the lives of those we have loved. Send us your peace. Amen.

Psalm 23
The Lord is my Shepherd;
I shall not want;
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters;
He restores my soul;
He leash me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Thou anoints my head with oil.
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-10
For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to wound, and a time to heal;
a time to break down and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to deep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
We have seen the business that God has given us to be busy with.
And that God has made everything meaningful in its own time.

from The Prophet (Kahlil Gibran)
Farewell to you and the youth I have spent with you.
It was but yesterday we met in a dream.
You have sung to me in my aloneness, and I of your longings have built
a tower in the sky.
But now our sleep has fled and our dream is over, and it is no longer dawn.
The noontide is upon us and our half waking has turned
To fuller day, and we must part.
If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more,
We shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.
And if our hands should meet in another dream we shall
Build another tower in the sky.

Memorial
We come here together to treasure the memory of our loved ones. In times of
silence and distress their memories bring us new hope and courage in our journey
toward the future. In times of search and adjustment their memories bring comfort
and strength. We are grateful that we were part of their lives, they a part of ours
and that, together, we shared the gift of life.

Litany of Remembrance (From the Jewish Tradition)
One: In the rising of the sun and its going down,
All: We remember them.
One: In the blowing wind and the chill of winter,
All: We remember them.
One: In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of Spring,
All: We remember them.
One: In the blue sky and warmth of Summer,
All: We remember them.
One: In the rustling of leaves and the beauty of Autumn,
All: We remember them.
One: In the beginning of the year and when it ends,
All: We remember them.
One: When we are weary and in need of strength,
All: We remember them.
One: When we are lost and sick at heart,
All: We remember them.
One: When we have joys we yearn to share,
All: We remember them.
One: So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are part of us,
All: as we remember them.
One: We pray that nothing of our loved ones' lives will be lost, but that they
will be of benefit to the world; that all they held sacred may be respected by
those who follow them; that everything in which they were great may continue to
mean much to us. We ask that they go on living in us who have loved them so
deeply, in our hearts and minds, in our courage and conscience.
All: Amen.

Pastoral Prayer (From the Christian Tradition)
Gracious God, whose ways are not our ways
and whose thoughts are not our thoughts,
grant that your Spirit may intercede for us
with sighs too deep for human words.
Heal our wounded hearts made heavy by our sorrow.
Through the veil of our tears and the silence of our emptiness,
assure us again that ear has not heard, nor eye seen,
nor human imagination envisioned,
what you have prepared for those who love you.

Benediction (From the Unitarian Tradition)
May the Love which overcomes all differences,
which heals all wounds,
which puts to flight all fears,
which reconciles all who are separated,
be in us and among us now and always.