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[ Background Music ]
>>One of the joys and challenges in a growing congregation is figuring out how
to fit everyone in for Sunday worship.
And sometimes that fit isn't just about space it's about different worship styles.
The UU Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee took a deep breath a couple
of years ago and changed its second service.
>>We wanted to have something really different from our traditional service.
>>People were interested in more engagement, participation,
and more interactivity, different kinds of music.
>>So a determined group in this congregation of about 240 members began the Celebration Service.
It's planned every week by the Celebration Team and the minister with the same theme
as the traditional service but the sermon shorten to a homily and there's lots and lots
of music with the Celebration Band.
>>That's why I come to church.
I come to church so I could have a place where I can sing.
>>We select songs from more of a pop and folk genre
and we take some traditional hymns and I call it contemporize them.
But we just try to have high energy and really focus on getting the congregation moving,
and involved, and clapping, and just really singing from the heart.
>>Along with more music there's more participation like building the alter together.
>>It has sand in the little containers and a platter with a towel, a white towel on it.
And in that space we [indiscernible] each week.
It has candles to light, stones to pick up, and it's a suite in special times in the service.
I think it says that service is about the group of people
who are simple together; it's what they make it.
>>The hugs and the smiles and the generosity
that people offer during the passing of the [indiscernible].
It just feels stronger.
I think again with the connection of music and the connection
of the core direction brings that together.
>>Please prepare to face the door.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Precious God [indiscernible].
>>To everyone in the sanctuary's involved in the service.
We are asking them to get into the singing.
We have a closing circle.
[ Music ]
>>When I'm holding hands with people in the circle, or when I am singing a song
that I'm familiar with, or is new that has an energy, I feel a closeness to a spiritual self
that I am just am not able to feel in a more traditional service.
>>There's so many churches, mega churches, fundamentalist churches with this great music
that draws people in and if their message is not a positive message that Unitarian Universal has
to offer, this service gives us a chance to have music
that people can relate to, and the positive message.
And I think it gives our denomination hope
to spread our positive message to people who want to find it.
[ Music ]
>>Now while this story is partly about the more contemporary service itself,
it's also about the process and the willingness of both ministers
and members to try something new.
>>Talk to Jay and he was very willing to give this a try so we started a small group
that has changed and built and become what it is now, which is ever changing.
>>We are a [indiscernible].
We're trying it out.
We're trying to figure out what works and sometimes that just means experimenting
with something and I think that feeling of experiment pervades the whole endeavor.
>>Its okay to try things and to be open-minded to changes.
>>We are trying to invite people who may not have known that they could clap and move
at a UU Church to try just that and do it together; and so there's that feeling
of we're all trying this together and who knows what will happen.
>>And who knows what might happen if you tried something new in worship
at your congregation stretching this way to embrace creativity and flexibility
in the feeding of the spirit is certainly part of being the religion for our [indiscernible].
[ Music ]