Community Corner
"Earth To Earth, Ashes To Ashes, Dust To Dust," This Time With Daffodils (Video)
Sunrise Easter Service At Surf Club Evokes Wide Range Of Religious Traditions And Cycle Of Life
Twenty-seven men, women, and children attended the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society beachside Easter service at Madison Surf Club Sunday. The service included readings and music, and concluded with a tossing of freshly cut daffodils into Long Island Sound.
We asked Judy Bruce-Mangle, director of religious education, to explain the congregation’s Easter service to us.
“We come out of a Judeo-Christian tradition and so we have a wide spectrum of theological belief within Unitarian Universalism. At Easter we try in many ways to meet the needs of individuals in the congregation so we have some hymns from the Christian tradition that have been somewhat adapted and we have created other meaningful parts of the service that have to do with spring and earth-centered spirituality.”
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She said the daffodil part of the service was intended to evoke the portion of the Book of Common Prayer that says "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
"We come and we go through the cycle of life and we leave and the idea of going back to the beautiful water, seeing we have it, is a way of symbolizing that idea of coming, flowering and going back to the sea. It’s a cycle of life basically.”
