Vespers
Resources & ExamplesAll Souls DC Vespers Service:
Awakening: The Enlightenment of Buddha December 5th, 2012, 7:00pm All Souls Church, Unitarian Order of Service Liturgy Vespers Candle-lighting Ritual at All Souls DC
while singing "Stay With Me" Starr King Vespers Service:
Vespers in a Time of Turning January 28th, 2015, 5:30pm Starr King School for the Ministry Order of Service 
Pacific Central District
UU Ministers Association Vespers Service: That We May Be Restored April 14th, 2015, 7:30pm Saint Francis Retreat Center, San Juan Bautista, CA Order of Service |
Why Vespers?
As a youth growing up in Unitarian Universalism, I worshipped at night with my fellow teens and advisors, sitting together in a darkened room lit by a chalice and candles. We shared silence, poetry, ritual, and simple rounds and chants, sung repeatedly, as we sunk deeper into contemplative spiritual space.
I loved Sunday morning worship, with its excellent musicians, thought-provoking sermons, and joyous sense of community welcome, but my spirit was moved by nighttime contemplative youth worship in a different way. As a minister, I seek to create worship experiences that touch the soul in many ways. Contemplative musical worship styles exist across religious traditions – from Sufi Dhikr to Buddhist Mantra Chanting to Hindu Kirtan to Christian Monastics chanting the Liturgy of the Hours. Why not contemplative musical worship for Unitarian Universalists as well? 
While serving as intern minister at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington DC, I piloted an evening Vespers service based on the “Taizé” style of worship. In a darkened room filled with candlelight, congregants gathered for prayer, silence, a candle-lighting prayer ritual, and the singing of short chants and rounds repetitively and meditatively. The services immediately drew a strong following, offering congregants a introspective, meditative, and beautiful evening worship service that calmed their hearts and nourished their spirits.
Before each service, I gathered musicians to run through the eight short chants we would be singing; singers learning simple harmonies, violinists, guitarists, and flutists rehearsing simple arpeggios and descants, percussionist finding rhythms and sounds that intensified the music. In a church with a large, formal, and highly professionalized music program, this was an opportunity for amateur musicians to bring their gifts in service of the spiritual deepening of the community, and offered a way for singers too busy to commit to regular choir rehearsals a chance to sing together in worship. With 20+ musicians and 100-150 congregants gathering for each service, I was soon asked to institutionalize the services so they could continue after my internship ended. After consulting the other ministers and musical staff, I recruited a lay team to learn how to run this type of worship and to form a spiritual leadership community that could carry these services forward. My role as musical leader and liturgical leader was divided up, with musical leadership taken over by the incoming music director, and liturgical leadership shared on a rotating basis amongst the ministers on staff and lay leaders.
Since then, I have brought similar musically-rich Vespers services to the students, staff, and faculty community at Starr King School for the Ministry, offered a workshop on them at General Assembly, shared resources with dozens of curious colleagues nationally, and supported the similar services that sprang up at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, where I now serve. |
I have consistently heard that these services are some of the most moving that congregants have ever attended. An All Souls congregant said that services calmed his mind in a way that he almost never experienced due to the way his Autism functioned. Congregants have come to Vespers in spiritual preparation for upcoming surgeries. A Veteran, recently returned from active duty, said Vespers helped him recover from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Young Adults often found the services to fit more easily into their schedules then Sunday mornings. Children sink into a state of wonder and awe at the beauty and simplicity of the candlelight and singing.
I have gathered an extensive library of music and resources for these services; drawn from our UU hymnals, the Christian Taizé tradition, the Pagan community, Jewish contemplative communities and more.
I hope to create or nurture a similar Vespers program in the next congregation I serve, and explore other types of alternative services.
I have gathered an extensive library of music and resources for these services; drawn from our UU hymnals, the Christian Taizé tradition, the Pagan community, Jewish contemplative communities and more.
I hope to create or nurture a similar Vespers program in the next congregation I serve, and explore other types of alternative services.
