I first attended a Unitarian Universalist church on Father's Day, 1995 (first Sunday in June, for those of you who live outside the U.S.) Now, having been one of Jehovah's Witnesses for the previous 23 years, I found it quite a shock to walk into a holiday service of any kind. A good thing I had six months to decompress before the Christmas service rolled around! 

After the opening announcements (given by assorted members of the congregation, and not read out by an elder, the way I was used to), the service began with an act that shocked me to the bone.

On the altar (an assemblage of varnished wooden cubes; this is a small, plain church) stood a shallow brass bowl on a graceful stem. The church president struck a match and lit a stubby candle concealed in it. I glanced at the Order of Service (how odd, but convenient, that a church service should have a program, I thought). This was "the lighting of the Chalice." The congregation watched in easy silence as the flame leaped up. The minister spoke calmly (and very briefly) about the chalice as a symbol of their common faith.

"My God," I thought. "This is idolatrous! But....

"All it proves is that everything's a parable. Everything means something. This particular symbol only means that a human institution, let alone an object, can contain the divine spark, the natural flame, or at any rate that men can sustain something they could not themselves create.

" It's beautiful. I take back everything I ever said against the use of images in worship."