“Share! Grow ever closer.”

“Share! Grow ever closer.” is both a spoken formula and a statement of practice in the Church of All Worlds: sharing water marks trust and belonging, while growing closer names the continuing relationship that the rite establishes. Its movement from a toast at a shared meal to Mike’s words under attack gives the expression a final force as an appeal for connection even in the face of violence.

Meaning and Use

The phrase joins two actions. “Share!” is a call to participate; “Grow ever closer” describes what that participation is meant to foster. The wording appears in the Church’s water-sharing practices, where drinking together is not merely symbolic hospitality but a solemn commitment to trust, mutual candor, and lasting partnership. Jill explains to Patricia Paiwonski that the bond is permanent and serious, while making clear that Patricia may refuse without losing their friendship. Mike likewise urges her not to accept if her faith or her own heart gives her reason to decline. The invitation’s force thus depends on willing participation rather than compulsion.

The Nest gives the phrase a social and ceremonial setting. Patricia shows Ben Caxton the Innermost Temple, a circular, unfurnished room centered on a pool, and explains that new brothers are received there. When Ben declines her offer to share water or swim, she answers, “Waiting is,” treating readiness as part of the practice rather than pressing him to take part. In the Nest, sharing water also names a formal service: members gather to welcome new brothers, usually a couple, into the community. People may share water in everyday life, but the ceremony marks a more deliberate transition into lasting membership.

Ritual, Belonging, and Growth

The expression’s promise is embodied in the accounts of people who have entered the Nest. Sam and Ruth were chosen by Mike for water-sharing when they had only reached the Third Circle, earlier than the usual progression. Ruth recalls that their first experience of thinking in Martian prompted Mike and Jill to offer them water after a Third Circle service. Their subsequent movement through the inner circles was rapid but difficult: the training demanded discipline, and Ruth was frightened by the prospect of merging herself with the others. At the Innermost Temple, the candidates entered the pool as the Nest called them to share the water of life. Ruth describes that welcome as a decisive passage into a home from which she no longer wished to emerge.

That account clarifies the expression’s double emphasis. Growing closer is not an instant sentiment but a process supported by language learning, practice, and help from the community. Entry into the Eighth Circle begins a further stage of sharing; the later move into the Ninth Circle and the Nest makes membership communal and lasting. The phrase can therefore accompany a sip of water, but its meaning extends across training, ritual, and the formation of a new social bond.

Repetition and Final Resonance

At the close of the book, Jubal raises his cup and says, “Share!” Duke answers, “Grow ever closer.” They drink broth made from Mike, savoring and honoring their donor. The exchange gives the familiar words a changed context: sharing remains an act of communion, but now it also carries grief and remembrance. Jubal’s calm happiness accompanies his recognition of how far Mike had grown from the eager, naive young man he first knew. The meal makes the phrase an expression of kinship with Mike at the moment of his death, rather than a promise of ordinary future life together.

The wording also recalls Mike’s last televised appeal. Bruised and bleeding as rocks strike him, he offers water and peace; when the glass is shattered and he is struck in the mouth, he looks into the camera and calls his audience brothers. His words, “Drink deep. Share and grow closer without end. Thou art God,” expand the shorter formula into a final statement of the Church’s teaching. Across these scenes, the phrase changes scale—from a personal invitation to a communal response, and finally to a message offered to people attacking its speaker. Its repeated imperative insists that closeness is something to enact: through shared water, welcome, remembrance, and an offered peace.