Dedication Day

Lincoln's dedication day was full of love and support from family near and far, friends and the VUU congregation. After the dedication at church (script and video below) we went home and celebrated with Grandma, Memaw, Popop, Uncle Steve & Ashleigh, Jen and Rick. The celebrating included a photo shoot wearing Uncle Steve's christening gown, Uncle Steve and Great Grandma Gracie's christening rings, and the bonnet that Memaw had made in Georgia.

Lincoln,

We love you. All of you. Just as you are. Forever. 

And we aren't the only ones.

Today was a beautiful reminder of the love and growth and quest for truth happening inside all of us, and a reassurance that we are supported through that journey by so many. And for that we could not be more grateful. Never alone.

Love, Mama & Daddy

Dedication Video:

Dedication Script:

Opening Words (Reverend Andy)

The poet e.e. cummings reminds us:

“…we can never be born enough. We are human beings for whom birth is a supremely welcome mystery. The mystery of growing, the mystery which happens only and whenever we are faithful to ourselves. Life for eternal us is now.”

Address to Those Gathered (Marci)

The ceremony in which we now share is both ancient and timeless. In all parts of the earth, and from the earliest days of recorded history, parents have brought their children at an early age to a place of worship, sharing their joy and dedication with the wider community.

Traditionally, the element of water has played a symbolic part in this ceremony, for all life has arisen from the waters, and it is through water that life is sustained as it flows forward like a river.

Address to the Parents (Andy)

As parents presenting your child at this service, you invite all of us to share some of the joy and responsibility that is yours. You seek our support in your dedication to the task of fostering, with love and guidance, the fullest unfolding of the personality of your child.

Your task will often not be easy. But you accept this service to another life, knowing that your own lives will be fuller and richer in consequence.

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? If so, say ‘we do.’

Meditation/Prayer (Marci)

Please join in a spirit of meditation and prayer.

Spirit of Life and Love, we are your children. Out of the infinite we have come to you and through you. We are the old, yet every new, miracle of incarnation. Give us a chance to grow, within the warmth of your unfailing love, into souls sensitive to beauty, hearts open to love and hungry for the imperishable values of life. Do not shrink and wither us with fear, but quicken with faith the springs of courage within us. Enter with us through the gates of wonder, into the wider perspectives of tomorrow. Accept us as we grow into a fellowship of mutual respect and shared responsibility, that we in our turn may be worthy fathers and mothers of the coming generation. Amen.

Naming and Dedication

Anthony and Heidi by what name is this child known? (Parents give complete name of child)

Lincoln James Monforte, I touch your young brow with water from old nature’s infinite sky, water that touches every shore and nourishes every race of people. In so doing I dedicate your life and thought to the good of all humankind and to your own true growing.

I also give you this flower, unique in all their 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.

(Laying a hand on the child’s forehead) May the blessings of an understanding heart, strength and integrity of purpose, and love received and given, be yours and remain with you as you go forward into ever fuller life. Amen.

  

Affirmation by Those in Attendance (Marci)

Would you all please rise and join with me in saying the affirmation on the screens before you:

As we contemplate the miracle of birth, as we renew in our hearts a sense of wonder and joy, may we be stirred to a fresh awareness of life and of the divine promise of childhood. May we so live that our children will acquire our best virtues and leave behind our worst failings. May we pass on the light of courage and compassion and the questing spirit, and may that light burn more brightly in these children than it has in us.

Benediction (Andy)

We have dedicated this precious little one. May we also dedicate ourselves this day. May this occasion work its miracle in our hearts, that we may mold our lives more and more in accordance with the beauty, truth, goodness, and love we wish for this young life.