• An attractive, clear vase or pitcher
• Clear plastic drinking cups for all participants
• A large, glass bowl for mingling water
• Plain white paper and markers for all participants

• Fill a clear vase or pitcher with water.

Gather participants around the table where you have placed the vase or pitcher, the plastic cups, and the large bowl. Tell them, in these words or your own:

Many Unitarian Universalist congregations hold a water communion at the end of the summer, in which participants of all ages bring "living waters" from wherever their travels led them and mingle them for later use by the congregation in ceremonies, such as a child dedication.

Tell the group you will enact a water communion together, to demonstrate how all water is connected, just as all things are connected by the Spirit of Life.

Indicate the water in the clear vase or pitcher. Point out that water molecules never stop existing, they just get recycled over and over, so that water molecules from the local tap could have once been in the Amazon River, in a New England pond, in the blood of a tiger in India, in the saliva of a salamander, in the local swimming pool, or in snow on top of the Rocky Mountains. See if the children can think of more places where a water molecule in the vase or pitcher might once have been.

Give each child a plastic cup to hold. Pour into each cup some water from the pitcher or vase. Ask the children to close their eyes and meditate on their own experiences with water and think of their own personal "water stories" they could share with the group. Prompt them by suggesting they might have had an experience with a river, a creek, a pond, a puddle, a fish bowl, a swimming pool, a lake, a bathtub, a rain storm, or an ocean. Allow a few minutes of quiet time.

Then, gather the group around the large bowl. Invite each participant to share his/her personal water story and pour water from the cup into the bowl. As each child pours his/her water, have them recite, "This water is part of the living water that makes up our world."