Water Ceremony Empty Cups

As you offer a bit of water during the annual water ceremony in-gathering service, the Social Justice Team  invites you to also place an empty paper cup next to the congregational vessel in solidarity with Palestinians, civilians in war-torn Sudan, and Indigenous communities in Canada under drinking water advisories.

Unitarians across America are augmenting the traditional In-gathering Water Ceremony to express solidarity with those denied access to water. This blog post from Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East provides reasons and resources for ways to express solidarity.

The day before the Water Ceremony, decorate the cup with a keffiyeh pattern,  a photo of healthy Palestinian children, or another hopeful graphic to acknowledge another community.  UUs across America are taking this prayerful action in recognition of and solidarity with the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza who are denied potable water by Israel. Palestinian civilians are dying en masse of starvation, thirst, preventable disease, and weapons of war. This summer, the General Assembly of the UUA passed the “Solidarity with Palestinians” Action of Immediate Witness, calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

At our EGM in June, the  VanU congregation passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel/Gaza and a return of all hostages.  The Social Justice team hopes that this expression of solidarity will  spur discussions that may lead to the understanding and the transformation of the conditions faced by those who are denied access to clean water. There will be a table set up under the portico after the September 8th service. We will have handouts and a signup sheet if you would like to be involved in further discussions.