We Bless This Sanctuary

NOTE: All or part of this ritual can be used to bless a sacred space. We blessed our newly renovated sanctuary for the qualities and attributes we were trying to create with our renovations. Between each blessing, we sang a hymn, had a children’s story, took the offering, had a choir anthem, and so on.

Opening Words

Since ancient times, shaman, priests, and elders blessed sacred spaces as well as the communities that gathered in them. And so we too gather to bless this space and to bless those who will use it now and in the years to come.

Chalice Lighting

We light this chalice to honor our past,
for the founders and prophets of Unitarian Universalism
who paved the way for our liberal religion in the world
and also for the individuals
who gave birth to our religious community here.

We light this chalice to honor our present,
for our search for truth and meaning,
our nurture of diverse spiritual paths,
and our service to the cause of love and justice,
acknowledging our sacred responsibility
to live our principles with integrity.

We light this chalice to honor our future,
for a kinder and fairer world,
for a people and a planet made whole
by the Spirit of Life.

CHIMES

Blessing for Inclusivity

We bless this space and each other with our intention for inclusivity.

May this truly be a sanctuary for all of us, for those who have passed, who are already here and those who have yet to arrive, a place where we embrace and celebrate diversity in all its forms. May open-hearted hospitality be our passion and custom, and may we cherish and ensure this building as a place where each of us has the opportunity to be heard, understood and accepted. May we invite full participation in religious life so that no one is left out of this beloved community to which we dedicate ourselves.

CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE
We bless this sanctuary as a place of love and peace.

CHIMES

Blessing For Intergenerational Community

We bless this space and each other with our intention for becoming an intergenerational community.

May this truly be a sanctuary for all ages, where we learn and grow together – young and old alike. May we worship together, laughing, singing and sharing as one community. May we make room for one another, for the youngest infant cooing in a parent’s arms, for the youth leading the cry for justice, and for the elder boldly proclaiming our Unitarian Universalist principles. May we support each other across the generations, respecting and appreciating both our struggles and our passions.

CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE
We bless this sanctuary as a place of love and peace.

CHIMES

Blessing For Creativity

We bless this space and each other with our intention for creativity.

May this truly be a sanctuary that sparks the imagination and sparkles with beauty. May this be a place of self-expression for the unfolding of possibilities and potentials. Here may the creative gifts of music, dance, art, conversation, thinking, problem-solving, teaching, reflection, poetry, story-telling, and leadership be free flowing, nourishing our minds, hearts, and spirits. May this space serve as a canvas for future creativity.

CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE
We bless this sanctuary as a place of love and peace.

CHIMES

Blessing For Love and Service

We bless this space and each other with our intention for love and service.

May this truly be a sanctuary that inspires us to live out our faith by serving the cause of love and justice in the world. May our hearts be made kind and our spirits emboldened to act. May the fire of our commitment burn boldy because we know that all beings long as we do for laughter, nurture, sustenance, rest and care.

CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE
We bless this sanctuary as a place of love and peace.

CHIMES

Blessing For Connection

We bless this space and each other with our intention for connection.

May this truly be a sanctuary that radiates with the warmth of relationship. May it be a place that nurtures and sustains human kinship, offering shelter and comfort, and creating bonds of affection and care. May it provide opportunities for collaboration and interfaith work that does not end at these walls, but reaches out into the larger community and world. May we be woven ever more artfully and lovingly into the interconnected web of life of which we are all a part.

CONGREGATIONAL RESPONSE
We bless this sanctuary as a place of love and peace.

Meditation

I invite you to pause for a moment,
to bring your full awareness to this sanctuary, this sacred space.
To breathe. To remember your breath.

Often when we meditate, we close our eyes.
But this morning, I invite you to keep your eyes open.
To open your eyes, your ears, your hands, your hearts.

Notice the aliveness of your own body.
Can you hear your own heart and your own breath?
Can you feel it?
Notice also the aliveness of those around you.
And the aliveness of this sacred space.

Let your senses be awakened here,
opened to color and shape,
to sound and light,
to music and breath
to the Spirit of Life
that animates all things.

This is a house of worship,
our house of worship.
We gather here to give worth and meaning to our lives,
to honor the presence and mystery of the divine
that greets us in our coming in and our going out,
in our very being,
in our being here.

We who have come here today
to this house of worship
have brought our whole selves,
all of who we are,
our exuberance and our worries,
our grudges and our awakenings,
our distractions and our callings,
the storms and joys of being human.

We have brought our dreams for this religious community
and our passions for the values we cherish most.
I invite you to bring to your consciousness
your dreams for our house of worship,
for this community of love and care.

What dreams do you bring?
What blessings will you offer?
What word of hope and inspiration do you carry?

Let us take a moment of silence together.
In the silence allow a word or a phrase
to come to mind,
a word of blessing, a word of hope,
a word of intention.

We will end of our silence at the sound of the chimes.

Silence
CHIMES

May this sanctuary be blessed as a place of love and peace.

Closing Circle

What word of intention and blessing do you offer for our sanctuary?