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Rites of passage are an important part of human life whether we are members of a religious community, consider ourselves "spiritual but not religious," or are completely secular. Our loved ones gather with us to celebrate our greatest happiness or alleviate our deepest pain. Our joys are multiplied and our sorrows divided in a communal context in which ritual, whether religious or secular, is involved. This site is primarily devoted to weddings, but it is my pleasure and an honor to assist you with commitment and vow renewal ceremonies, child dedications and baptisms, or memorial services and funerals - any ritual for which you feel a professional celebrant would be most appropriate.

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In this Section:

Curriculum Vitae
Unitarian Universalism
Ann at UUCB
Other Rites

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Dedication Ceremony for Mia Gagliardo

Sunday, May 02, 2010

I had the pleasure of officiating her parent's wedding ceremony a few years ago

and the honor of presiding at her big brother Kane's dedication as well.

I have included a sample of each kind of service on this page, but they are by no means the only way in which child dedications or memorial services must be. These types of services are as unique as wedding ceremonies.

Child Dedication Ceremony

The adoption or birth of a child is an occasion for great joy and a cause for celebration. In my ministry, I have found that many parents would like to ritually welcome the child into their family but are not members of a religious community with established baptism rites. Some parents wish to publicly acknowledge the great gift their child is without pledging the child's life to a particular denomination. Some parents like the social aspect of the ritual in which the child is presented to their family and friends and their status as new parents is affirmed. Family and friends have an opportunity to pledge their support and dedication to the well-being of the child, physically, psychologically and spiritually.

Whatever the reason, a child dedication ceremony is a lovely way to bring families and friends together to celebrate the gift of a child. Such ministry is my calling and an honor to provide aside from my part-time parish duties at the UU Church of Brevard. I do not charge set fees for child dedications but instead accept a voluntary gratuity.

Opening Words

It is with great pleasure that we gather today to not only witness the dedication, blessing and naming of this child, but to make our own commitments to her physical and spiritual welfare. These two parents, ____ and ____, ask us to make a bond, a sacred covenant, whereby our hearts, minds and souls embrace the great gift they present to us all, the gift of a child.

Responsive Reading New Life Comes To Us, George Kimmich Beach

New life comes to us as a gift. Each new life makes its demand, exacts our attentiveness, enlists and organizes our energies, and blesses us.

May we be worth of the gift and glad receivers of the blessing.

New life appeals to us. Each new life is helpless and so calls forth our help, is weak and so calls forth our strength, is innocent and so calls forth our wisdom.

May we be wise in our strength, and ever-strong in our help.

New life grows. Each new life ventures first words, first steps, first essays in the art of living. Each grows, ever surpassing the life that was for the life that shall be.

May we patiently wait, and watch in wonder.

New life bears untold promise. Each new life has a story to tell, and we shall listen. Each new life goes forth from us, laying the child’s sovereign claim on whole realms of being we had called our own.

God of grace, may they be blessed, whatever the pathways they follow, whatever the life they claim as their own.

 Question of Intent: Parents

____ and ____, who presents this child to be dedicated this day?

We do

Do you now promise that, to the best of your human abilities, you will help this child to an appreciation of truth and beauty,  uprightness of character and love.

We do

Question of Intent: God Parents

____ and ____, are you ready to dedicate yourselves to her?

We are prepared. We dedicate our minds and hearts to this child and to her parents.

Dedication of Name

____ and ____, please tell me by which name you wish your daughter/son to be known.

She/He is to be called __________.

It is our hope that you wear this name honorably and live in peace and courage. That many will come to look upon your name and find it blessed. May the love you now receive be an intimation of the love you will in turn give to others as you assume the responsibilities of your own life.

With the blessing and love of her/his parents, it is my honor to anoint this child in the name of god’s community into which we welcome her/him. ____, I touch your brow with water from nature’s infinite sky, water that touches every shore and nourishes every living thing. In so doing I dedicate your life to the good of all humankind and to your own true growth.

I also give you this flower, unique in all its natural beauty, separate and distinct from all other flowers found in creation, to express symbolically our hope that all your life long you will unfold and blossom just as you must, in all of your own unique and natural beauty.

Communal Affirmation (Please stand)

Will you strive to love and cherish this family in times of struggle as well as gladness?

We will love and cherish them always.

Will you be worthy guardians of this young life and build a community in which she will grow old surrounded by beauty, embraced by love and cradled in the arms of peace?

We acknowledge the divine spark within each child and gladly accept the responsibility.

Blessing of the Child

May the blessing of the light be with you always, light without and light within. May the sun shine upon you and warm your heart until it glows like a great fire so that others may feel the warmth of it. And may the light of your eyes shine like two candle lights in a window at night, bidding the wanderer to come in out of the dark and the cold. And may the blessing of the rain be upon you, the sweet and tender rain; may it fall upon your spirit as when flowers spring up and fragrance fills the air. May the blessings of the great rain wash you clean and fair, and may the storms always leave you stronger and more beautiful. When the rains are over, may there be clear pools of water, made beautiful by the radiance of your light, as when a star shines, beautiful in the night, pointing the way for all of us.

Presentation of the Family

I now present to you, ________, along with her parents ____ and ____, a new, loving family on this earth within the enduring extended human family in the presence of all that is sacred and holy.

 

Memorial Service

Funerals and memorial services are times of great stress regardless of the deceased's spiritual and religious beliefs. These occasions become more so when the grieving family does not have a religious community prepared to embrace them in their grief and lead the commemorative service. Friends and family wish to gather to remember their loved one but may be limited to what the funeral home has to offer or left to figure something out on their own. The former usually results in a service that falls short of honoring the uniqueness of the individual and the latter can become an added burden on an already grieving family.

An experienced celebrant can not only structure a service for your unique needs, but a trained minister can also provide the temporary pastoral care that may be needed dependent upon the situation. Such ministry is my calling and an honor to provide aside from my part-time parish duties at the UU Church of Brevard. I do not charge set fees for memorial services but instead accept a voluntary gratuity.

Opening Words:

 

Let us be honest with death. Let us not pretend that it is less than it is. It is separation. It is sorrow. It is grief. But let us neither pretend that death is more than it is. It is not annihilation. As long as memory endures, ____’s influence will be felt.. It is not an end to love—humanity’s need for love from each of us is boundless. It is not an end to joy and laughter—nothing would less honor a soul than to make our lives drab in counterfeit respect. Let us be honest with death, for in that honesty we will understand him better and ourselves more deeply.

 

Candle Lighting:

 

Though our spirit be but the feeble glow of a single flame, for the one who keeps it burning bravely to the end, death is not defeat. We light our candle today to honor the life and living of ____.

 

Reading:

As he was particularly drawn to the ocean and loved sailing this poem from Henry Van Dyke is recited in ____’s honor.

 

Gone From My Sight

I am standing upon the seashore.

A ship at my side spreads her white

sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength

I stand and watch her until at length

she hangs like a speck of white cloud

just where the sea and sky come

to mingle with each other

Then someone at my side says;

"There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight.  That is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull

and spar as she was when she left my side

and she is just as able to bear her

load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone

at my side says, "There, she is gone!"

There are other eyes watching her coming,

and other voices ready to take up the glad

shout, "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

 

 

Address:

 

We have gathered here to acknowledge the passing of ___, who was known and well-loved. When someone we cherish dies, family and friends gather with sorrow in their hearts. At times when we must face death and loss, we need one another’s company for understanding and support. Just to be together, to look into one another’s faces, takes away some of our loneliness and draws our hearts together in the healing we can offer one another. At such times, the various faiths that sustain us separately come together in a harmony that acts across all creeds and assures us of the permanence for human goodness and hope.

 

So we have gathered here this evening in grief and sorrow, but we have also gathered to celebrate a life. We have come together to give thanks that we knew him, to express our gratitude for the days and years we were able to share with him. We are here to remember and memorialize a man who knew the pleasure of hard work and felt most at home in a natural environment.

 

By remembering the best of this person, by recalling our fondest memories, by honoring the principles, values and dreams which guided his life, some of ____’s enduring qualities flow into us, that we ourselves might experience his guidance in the days ahead.

 

 

Sharing from Family and Friends:

 

We are here for all these things. But our first spiritual task is to face, full and unafraid, the reality of this death. We best do that by sharing with one another. I invite you at this time to share your thoughts about ____ this evening.

 

<Personal Remembrances>

 

Reading:

 

In keeping with ___’s appreciation for nature I thought perhaps this perspective on death might be fitting.

 

Do not stand at my grave and weep;

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

 

When you awaken in the morning's hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there, look to the sky.

 

 

Closing Words:

 

Leaves should not fall in early summer. Winter should not follow on the heels of spring. Yet when they do, we can and must speak for life. For there is no answer to death but to live vigorously and beautifully. We give respect and dignity to the one we mourn only when we respect and dignify life and move toward its richest fulfillment.

 

Let us honor the life of ____ by living, ourselves, more nobly and lovingly in the days ahead. As you return to the routines of your lives, go in great peace, dear friends, and may an abiding peace go with you.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are in need of temporary independent ministry in Brevard County, Florida. It is my pleasure and an honor to be of assistance in your time of joy or sorrow.

Peace,

Rev. Ann Fuller

 


Email: brevardminister@cfl.rr.com                  Phone: 321-255-9086

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