💗❤️🩹💧Empty Cups for Gaza - Prayerful Protest for UU Water Ceremony Ingathering
If you would like to learn more about participating in Empty Cups for Gaza, please attend our information call on Wednesday, August 21 at 1PM EST. There, we will share more about how you can take this action at your congregation, and resources for further action and education.
As Unitarian Universalist congregations across the country prepare for the church year to begin anew, many congregations begin their fall with an Ingathering Water Service - where members bring a sample of water from their summer travels or their beloved communities and add it to a communal vessel at the front of the worship hall. For many congregations, this is a cornerstone ritual of Unitarian Universalism, and a powerful tradition that holds deep meaning of what each person brings into the community to create the whole - their grief, their joys, their experiences, and their passions. Often, we use this water to dedicate babies. It is a symbol of our covenant to be a community and solidarity with one and other.
Palestinians in Gaza are not receiving sufficient food and water during the ongoing war; deaths by dehydration and starvation have already been occurring. This fall, UUs for Justice in the Middle East is inviting our national chapter membership and other UUs to participate in a symbolic protest during their water ingathering service by bringing an empty cup to the service. UUJME chapter members, UUJME local advocates, and other congregants who would like to participate can decorate a paper or reusable cup with designs (e.g., keffiyeh pattern, prayers for Palestine and peace, kites, watermelon, or the faces of healthy Palestinian children), bring that cup to the front during the ceremony, spill some “missing water” into the vessel, and then leave the cup behind beside the water ceremony