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Upcoming Online Services
June 7: Still Proud, Rev. Joan Montagnes We may not be able to hold a parade this year, but it is still LGBTQ Pride Sunday! Love is Love. Click here for login information to use Zoom. Previous Sunday's Service
May 31: Passing Through, Sarah Martin, Director of Religious Education This Religious Education Sunday, we celebrate our volunteers, our children and youth, the changes to which they've adapted this year, and the thresholds they are crossing during uncertain times. R.E. Spring Play is finally here!
Click here for the video! Every year our Spring Equinox service at the UU Church of Buffalo includes a no rehearsal participatory play. Unfortunately this year, March 22 was our first Zoom service and we didn't get to have our play. It's a month and a half late, but due to the enthusiasm and hard work of 20 of our children and a handful of stalwart adults, we have something of a play put together! Thank you to all the parents and caregivers who worked so hard to get these clips together. Thank you to all our actors who did a FABULOUS job. Special thank you to Jonathan Vogtle for the original music! 
We are a compassionate, thoughtful,
and diverse religious community who nurture and challenge each other to deeper understanding, meaning and purpose in our lives. We use our hearts and our heads (and a good deal of humor) to make a difference not only in our lives, but the lives of those beyond our doors. Learn more about our beliefs, our services, and our history in the About Us tab. Visitors are always welcomed to our worship services! |
Once upon a time, in Czechoslovakia, on a June Day in 1923 when Nature was proclaiming the arrival of summer, a Unitarian minister named Norbert Capek was worried for the people. The First World War had recently ended, and people were in in need of healing and restoration. They were scattered in body and soul. Norbert felt the need for a ritual that would bind people more closely together and give them hope; something a little different from the traditional Christian communion service.
As he pondered this need, he walked. As he walked, Norbert felt the grace of the flowers wash over him. Blooms and blossoms splashed color up hillsides and across meadows, in people’s gardens and over roadside medians. He had an idea. The next Sunday all the people in the congregation were asked to bring a flower to church and lay the flower upon the altar. Vibrance and beauty heaped to overflowing in vases the size of washbasins. Norbert blessed the flowers, each a unique messenger of love. A gorgeous, messy bouquet of community. Then every person came up to the altar and took from the vase a flower different from the one they brought. There was enough for all and still the altar was graced by their gifts. This was the first Flower Communion Ceremony, a living, sharing communion to bring the people together in body and soul. Throughout his ministry, Rev. Norbert Capek called for faith, peace, justice and love. Values we hold high in our worship services today. His congregation understood and enjoyed the Flower Communion with more passion and compassion as the years passed and the Second World War broke. It gave them hope, and reminded them that despite the desperate days, they were not alone. They were together, body and soul. Sadly, Norbert’s liberal religious voice was a threat to the Nazis, so they sent him to a concentration camp where he died. Norbert Capek lives on every June when Unitarian congregations around the globe celebrate the Flower Communion together. We hold ours on the last Sunday of the regularly scheduled church year. That’s Sunday, June 21. We need the ritual even more than usual this year. Care for our bodies and souls has forced us to drift into an unnatural isolation. We can no longer gather each week at church. We need a living, sharing ritual to celebrate our blessed, gorgeous, messy community. Continued ... |
Our Vision
We will gather in loving community, creating a shared vision of compassion and dignity for all,
to radically transform the world in which we live.
We will gather in loving community, creating a shared vision of compassion and dignity for all,
to radically transform the world in which we live.
Share-the-Plate June – Feedmore WNY
FeedMore WNY is working diligently to serve our community during this crisis in delivering much-needed food into the hands of those who need it most. We have taken on hundreds of older adults who need home delivered meals service, and our partner pantries and soup kitchens are serving more community members than ever. Our mobile pantry distributions are expanding delivering to more locations in Western New York and volunteers are packing and distributing emergency food kits to struggling families. Monetary donations are greatly appreciated help provide food and meals for those in need.
FeedMore WNY is working diligently to serve our community during this crisis in delivering much-needed food into the hands of those who need it most. We have taken on hundreds of older adults who need home delivered meals service, and our partner pantries and soup kitchens are serving more community members than ever. Our mobile pantry distributions are expanding delivering to more locations in Western New York and volunteers are packing and distributing emergency food kits to struggling families. Monetary donations are greatly appreciated help provide food and meals for those in need.