[Adapted from a liturgy by Rev. Jami A. Yandle.]
Overview
This liturgy is for a ritual where the members of the congregation each bring to the service a meaningful book they would like to give away, and each member takes home a book that someone else has brought. The ritual is highly adaptable; for instance:
- quotes from banned books can be weaved throughout the service;
- the book ceremony can be set up more like a book store, so that participants have more time to peruse and choose their book;
- at-home participants can send a book to the church and have one sent back to them;
- and so on.
Liturgy
Before the Service
Set up a table in the center or front of the sanctuary, accessible to people with all mobility needs. The table should be large enough to hold the expected number of books.
Prior to the service, communicate with the congregation about bringing in a book of their choice.
Encourage partipants to bring books that are personally meaningful or particularly important to them. Banned books are a good choice too! It’s best to stay away from books that carry no personal meaning or books that have been in a giveaway pile for years. The ritual works best when the book choices are thoughtful and meaningful.
Let the congregation know that they should hold on to their books until the appropriate moment in the service.
Script
[These words may be adapted as desired.]
Introduction
Leader: Knowledge is a sacred and powerful human right. To be fully and joyfully human is to learn, to grow in mind and spirit, and to possess a vast and diverse education derived from a holy curiosity. Unitarian thinker and theologian James Luther Adams tells us that “revelation is not sealed,” and if our minds are open to the universe, we are always students of all life has to teach us.
Never has knowledge been so accessible to us. With a few key strokes, or thumb strokes on our phones, the entire world’s learnings are at our fingertips. With screen readers, books printed in Braille, audiobooks, and the vast availability of natural resources that make printing books possible, we are surrounded by infinite possibility every day.
Unitarian Universalism is a faith of seekers and questioners. Our communion, our coming together for a larger purpose, is one of ideas and thoughts: the sharing of what lies in and upon our hearts. Today we participate in a communion of words and ideas—of those things we have found meaning in—as a way of building community between us and offering to each other the sacred right of knowledge.
We offer gratitude for all of the ways we can gain this sacred and powerful knowledge, and we offer gratitude to each other as we participate in the sharing of the knowledge and the making of meaning for our community.
We know that knowledge is sacred, and that books are a vehicle for learning. Education should never be banned. So we honor that revelation happens continually, and that the written word is one way of absorbing holy expression. We are grateful for all of the different ways humanity has created to produce and encounter the written word. And we are grateful for the way books are a great escape, a precious place of journeying, a versatile and time-honored hobby.
Ritual
[Adapt these instructions for your particular circumstances.]
Leader: Please come forward and form a line to place the book you brought on the table. Once you have dropped off your book, go back to the end of the line, so you will be ready for the second half of the ceremony.
[Give plenty of time for this, and have music or something else to help the process of reflection.]
[When the last person has placed their book, continue with these words:]
Leader: We are grateful for the sharing of books today. Now you may come up to choose a book that is new to you, to take home and cherish.
[When everyone has chosen a book, invite them to return to their seats.]
Closing
Leader: We gratefully receive the gift of knowledge from one another. Reading words and sentences others have enjoyed, and then adding our own experience to theirs, is one of many ways we come together in community. May your choices bless you deeply and may we continue to fight for the ability to learn in freedom, peace, and happiness.