A man named Itaru Sasaki missed his deceased cousin, so he set up a phone booth in his garden in Ōtsuchi, Japan. Although the phone was not connected to anything, he found it comforting to pick up the phone and speak to his cousin. After the devastating tsunami of March 2011, Sasaki invited anyone to use the 風の電話 (kaze no denwa), the “wind phone,” and tens of thousands have found it healing to call their dead relatives and friends.
For our annual remembrance service, we will have an altar of mementos and photos of those we have loved and lost, at UUCPA in the past year and in our lives at any time. We will speak their names, and using our own wind phones, we will also have the opportunity to speak to those who have died.
For the in-person, 9:30 service, you are invited to bring photos and mementos. For the online, 11:00 service, you are invited to send digital photos to Amy by Friday noon so that she can create an online altar of photos, names, and mementos.
Worship leader: Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern
Special music: Veronika Agranov-Dafoe, piano
Follow along in the order of service:
- 9:30 am order of service: bit.ly/uucpa_oos_20211031_930
- 11:00 am order of service: bit.ly/uucpa_oos_20211031
Photo credit: Ōtsuchi wind phone, Matthew Komatsu (https://longreads.com/2019/03/11/after-the-tsunami/),
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