Borderlands Unitarian Universalist
self guided
New Year Ritual
Let's be honest, beginnings and endings are not as simple as changing calendars or counting down to midnight. They are complex, not at all linear, and come in fits and starts. If you have ever found love or lost it, you know what I mean.
Our New Year Ritual invites you to guide yourself through your own beginnings and endings all at your own pace. Do you need to Bring In 2021 with a resolution? Or do you need Ring Out 2020? Or do you need to mix and match as your heart tells you? I hope that somewhere in this New Year Ritual you find what you need.
Helping us find our needs and address them are three musical pieces. If you have your volume up, you will already be enjoying "Auld Lang Syne" by our Baja 4 Music Coordinator, Chris Tackett. If you choose to Ring Out, you'll have the opportunity to view the video "For the Sake of Old Times" and hear the voices of a Birmingham Choir lifted in the question "Should 2020 be forgotten?" If you choose to Bring In, you'll be treated to our own Randy Lynn Mitchell's song "On the Last Day of December." Each song has guided me through this time, and I'm grateful to each performer for their talent and gifts.
Wherever your journey out of 2020 and into 2021 takes you, please know that you are not alone. As we have learned over and over again, where the road takes one of our BUU Members, Friends, and Guests we go together as a community of faith.
And always go knowing that I love you,
Rev. Matthew
Our New Year Ritual invites you to guide yourself through your own beginnings and endings all at your own pace. Do you need to Bring In 2021 with a resolution? Or do you need Ring Out 2020? Or do you need to mix and match as your heart tells you? I hope that somewhere in this New Year Ritual you find what you need.
Helping us find our needs and address them are three musical pieces. If you have your volume up, you will already be enjoying "Auld Lang Syne" by our Baja 4 Music Coordinator, Chris Tackett. If you choose to Ring Out, you'll have the opportunity to view the video "For the Sake of Old Times" and hear the voices of a Birmingham Choir lifted in the question "Should 2020 be forgotten?" If you choose to Bring In, you'll be treated to our own Randy Lynn Mitchell's song "On the Last Day of December." Each song has guided me through this time, and I'm grateful to each performer for their talent and gifts.
Wherever your journey out of 2020 and into 2021 takes you, please know that you are not alone. As we have learned over and over again, where the road takes one of our BUU Members, Friends, and Guests we go together as a community of faith.
And always go knowing that I love you,
Rev. Matthew
Before you choose to Ring Out or Bring In...
Find a quiet time and space to make yourself comfortable. Breathe deeply and know you are sharing in a ritual of our community. Review the options below and note where you are draw to go.
If you are able, light a chalice or candle and speak these words aloud adapted from the writing of the Rev. Lisa Doege:
If you are able, light a chalice or candle and speak these words aloud adapted from the writing of the Rev. Lisa Doege:
For the new year,
just days old,
beginning today,
always beginning:
I light this flame,
symbol of faith, perseverance, and hope,
in astonished thanksgiving and irrepressible praise.
For beginnings that
emerge out of endings,
appear amidst continuity,
become visible in hindsight:
I light this flame,
symbol of faith, perseverance, and hope,
in astonished thanksgiving and irrepressible praise.
For all the times,
and all the ways,
I have begun anew,:
I light this flame,
symbol of faith, perseverance, and hope,
in astonished thanksgiving and irrepressible praise.
just days old,
beginning today,
always beginning:
I light this flame,
symbol of faith, perseverance, and hope,
in astonished thanksgiving and irrepressible praise.
For beginnings that
emerge out of endings,
appear amidst continuity,
become visible in hindsight:
I light this flame,
symbol of faith, perseverance, and hope,
in astonished thanksgiving and irrepressible praise.
For all the times,
and all the ways,
I have begun anew,:
I light this flame,
symbol of faith, perseverance, and hope,
in astonished thanksgiving and irrepressible praise.
Ring Out
CLICK HERE to share in BUU's annual ritual of ringing out the old year.
You'll have the opportunity to:
You'll have the opportunity to:
- Meditate on those we have lost in 2020
- Contemplate the events of the year
- Ring out the old with 12 chimes
Bring In
CLICK HERE to join in a new tradition of brining in the new year.
You'll have the opportunity to:
You'll have the opportunity to:
- Listen to "The Last Day of December" by Randy Lynn Mitchell
- Contemplate a new resolution
- Ring in the new with the sounds of a singing bowl