The Flower Ceremony, sometimes referred to as Flower Communion or Flower Festival, is an annual ritual that celebrates beauty, human uniqueness, diversity, and community.
Originally created in 1923 by Unitarian minister Norbert Čapek of Prague, Czechoslovakia, the Flower Ceremony was introduced to the United States by Rev. Mája Čapek, Norbert's widow.* This piece on WorshipWeb, by the Revs. Teresa and David Schwartz, tells The Story of Norbert Čapek's Flower Ceremony.
Please visit our Flower Ceremony Centennial page!
In this ceremony, everyone in the congregation brings a flower. Each person places a flower on the altar or in a shared vase. The congregation and minister bless the flowers, and they're redistributed. Each person brings home a different flower than the one they brought.
Faith Without Borders
Celebrating the Flower Ceremony is an excellent opportunity for Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations to express their commitment to our Sixth Principle: We covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all. Read Sixth Principle Resources for the Flower Ceremony.
*Note: Č is a separate latter of the Czech alphabet, pronounced like the "ch" in "chocolate." Čapek is pronounced "CHOP-ek," and Mája is pronounced "Maya."
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 27
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I am singing/of the wonder of how roots/so love the buds they bid them grow...Poetry | By Jennifer Pratt-Walter | September 20, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Earth, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Nature, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Celebrate 100 Years of the Flower Ceremony! The first Flower Ceremony was held in Prague, in June 2023, led by Rev. Norbert Čapek.Leader Resource | By Erika Hewitt | January 17, 2023 | From WorshipLabTagged as: Flower Communion, Unitarianism, Worship Tips -
Čapek turned to the beauty of the countryside; to the beauty of flowers.Reading | By Teresa Schwartz, David Schwartz | June 16, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Flower Communion, Unitarianism, WorshipWeb, Worship -
It is not by chance that you arrived here today. You have been looking for something larger than yourself. Inside of you there is a yearning, a calling, a hope for more, A desire for a place of belonging and caring. Through your struggles, someone nurtured you into being, Instilling a belief in a...Opening | By Kimberlee Anne Tomczak Carlson | September 14, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Abundance, Acceptance, Caring, Coming Out, Commitment, Community, Flower Communion, Home, Homecoming / Ingathering, New Member Ceremony, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion
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Within the heart of the flower, the fountain of beauty Within the heart of the community, a fire that warms and dances Within the heart of each of us, a spark of the spirit of life. Holy, holy, holy.Chalice Lighting | By Amy Zucker Morgenstern | May 29, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Beauty, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, God, Nature, Paganism, Sacred, Wonder -
Let us give thanks for a bouquet of people. We give thanks for children. Like tulips and iris, they multiply around us, making the world ever more filled with color, beauty, and new life. May we bless them as they replant themselves ever further from us, knowing that they need their own space to...Prayer | By Claire Feingold Thoryn | May 11, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Community, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Friendship, Gratitude, Humanism, Nature, Secular -
No hot house flowers, these, bred for perfection, dyed and trimmed, and arranged to order, clothed in ribbons and bows. Not these. No, these are hardy, raw and wild. Grown under the sky, they’ve weathered the wind and the rain and the heat. These drew nutrients from the neighborhood soil and...Meditation | By Lisa Doege | June 22, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Abundance, Beauty, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Humility, Nature, Spring, Vulnerability, Wonder, WorshipWeb
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In colors bright and essence sweet, like flowers we blossom when we meet.Doxology | By Lisa Doege | June 22, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Community, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Nature, WorshipWeb -
Laura Evonne Steinman created this coloring page (PDF) for children to use on Flower Ceremony Sunday.Image | By Laura Evonne Steinman | June 13, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Earth, Flower Communion, Nature, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarianism
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Early in the morning, before the children are awake and while the grass is still dewy, I like to walk in my garden. It’s “my” garden only because it shares the same small plot of land my family and I inhabit. The garden does not really belong to me; I belong to it—at least for the short time...Meditation | By David M. Horst | April 5, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Beauty, Contemplation, Direct Experience, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Grace, Mystery, Nature, Spiritual Practice, Summer Solstice, Vernal Equinox, Wonder -
Image | By Cynthia Landrum | January 10, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Earth, Flower Communion, Nature, Spring -
As the first hint of green begins to peek through the barren ground As that little sprig grows into a healthy stem As that stem grows into a stalk and forms a bud As that bud slowly opens with each new day To form a yellow daffodil Let us be, like that first hint of green, renewed by the warm of ...Chalice Lighting | By Jennifer McGlothin | October 20, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Abundance, Awe, Beauty, Beginnings, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Easter, Flower Communion, Growth, Health, Interdependence, Nature, Secular, Spring, Unitarian Universalism, Vernal Equinox -
What a gathering—the purple tongues of iris licking out at spikes of lupine, the orange crepe skirts of poppies lifting over buttercup and daisy. Who can be grim in the face of such abundance? There is nothing to compare, no need for beauty to compete. The voluptuous rhododendron and the plain...Meditation | By Lynn Ungar | May 25, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Beauty, Beginnings, Community, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Growth, Happiness, Nature, Spring -
When I think of power, strength, sheer physical force, I think of an avalanche. Tons of thundering snow come falling down the side of a steep mountain with the speed and irresistable force of a locomotive or freight train. In an instant an avalanche can sweep away everything in its path. But...Homily | By Gary Kowalski | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 6th Principle (World Community), Christianity, Earth, Earth-Centered, Easter, Flower Communion, Nature, Sacrifice, Transcendence, Transformation
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We gather this morning in celebration and appreciation. We rejoice in those true treasures and gifts of life that are beyond any price. We rejoice especially in the children of our church, for their music and their words, for their laughter and their song, and for the bright joy of their very...Meditation | By Sheldon W Bennett | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Children's / Religious Education Sunday, Flower Communion
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Enter into the communion of flowers with joyful hearts. Enter with reverent thoughts. It has taken long months beneath cold ground for these flowers to prepare their blooming. It has taken each of us long times of growth through sorrow and joy to prepare for our living now. The blooming season is...Meditation | By Elizabeth M Strong | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Earth, Flower Communion, Limitations, Nature, Transcendence -
Blessed be the flower that triumphs at last Over the snows, over the centuries, over the heavy feet of cattle and of soldiers treading down the fragile places of the earth....Meditation | By Michael DeVernon Boblett | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Flower Communion, Unitarian Universalism
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Each of us is a flower, with a delicate beauty uniquely our own. We may be like sunflowers, turning always towards the light. May our lives bloom like the flowers. We may be like night-blooming cereus, only displaying our fragrant petals when it is dark and we think no one can see. May our lives...Meditation | By Amy Zucker Morgenstern | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Individualism, Nature
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There are two things we can learn from a daffodil to help ourselves and each other.Time for All Ages | By Ruth E Gibson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Change, Earth, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Growth, Nature, Spring, Strength, Transformation, Vernal Equinox, Wonder
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We come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. Some of us grow in bunches. Some of us grow alone. Some of us are cupped inward, And some of us spread ourselves out wide. Some of us are old and dried and tougher than we appear. Some of us are still in bud....Opening | By Thomas Rhodes | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Diversity, Earth, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Humanism, Imagination, Nature, Secular, Unitarian Universalism