Spirit of life and love, we have gathered here in search of answers to hard questions. We have come in search of understanding, in search of community. We have come in search of hope and healing.Let this be a place not only of searching, but of discovery. Let this be a place of learning, but of...

Spirit of life and hope, we turn our minds and hearts again toward thee. Awaken us again to the mysteries that humble us, the realities that orient us, the truths that judge and guide us, the beauty that informs and ravishes us, the love that nurtures us, the fellowship that sustains us, the...

Out of the earth Rises light, Rises life, Rises spring. May we join with the miracle that is springtime, and enter into life with lightness and joy. Out of the spirit Rises faith, Rises hope, Rises love. May we join with the miracle that is Easter time, and enter into life with hope and love....

One of the old ones stood up into the morning light and spoke to those who had come back to the river: "Now we have come again to this place; it is a good thing. My life apart from you is not as strong. "Yes, I have danced and I have told the stories at my own fire and I have sung to all the six...

May we come into this building hallowed by generations of thoughtful worship. May we come into the company of this congregation, enlightened by reason and moved by concern. May we come with open minds and warm hearts....

Let there be joy in our coming together this morning. Let there be truth heard in the words we speak and the songs we sing. Let there be help and healing for our disharmony and despair. Let there be silence for the voice within us and beyond us. Let there be joy in our coming together.

Leave aside the little thoughts that distract you from the depths of your soul, For this is a holy place, and now is a holy time. Join with the others in this room, this community of seekers, and together, let us find our Sabbath.

In this quiet hour may our spirits be renewed. In this gathering of friends may we be ready to extend ourselves to those in need, and with trust to receive the hand that is offered. In this community of ideals may we remember the principles that guide us and reflect upon those things that give...

Children of the earth and sky, we are nurtured, sustained, given warmth and light from above and below. Supported by earth's strong, firm crust, we build our homes, till the fields, plant our gardens and orchards....

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child... Here may you find a warm greeting a kind word a gentle touch Sometimes I feel like I have no friend... Here may you find a community of support a pulse of liberation a vision of hope Sometimes I feel I am almost gone......

Once more, the earth has turned toward the light of the sun. As we are bathed in the light of a new day, So may we greet the dawning of fresh possibility. Once more, we awaken from our slumber....

As frozen earth holds the determined seed, this sacred space holds our weariness, our worry, our laughter and our celebration. Let us bring seed and soul into the light of thought, the warmth of community, and the hope of love. Let us see together, hear together, love together. Let us worship.

As surely as we belong to the universe we belong together. We join here to transcend the isolated self, to reconnect, to know ourselves to be at home, here on earth, under the stars, linked with each other...

In gathering In the fall In the church In the quiet In the noise In thought In the spirit In anticipation In calm In the beginning In the end In transition In gratitude In hope In love In faith In unison Ingathering.

We are here today to recognize the completion of your program of study for this Coming of Age ceremony and to celebrate with you the faith you have come to accept through this year of questioning and investigating. Some of you were brought to a Unitarian Universalist church to be Dedicated and...

We seek life’s meaning in the wonder of morning In the freshness of springtime, And in each others hearts and minds. Yet still we hope for something more, A break in the ordinary, An infusion of the unexpected, An explosion of glory, A miracle, Revealing more than we hope to understand.

We bid you welcome on this first Sunday of the new year. Like Janus we gather with part of us looking backward and part of us looking forward. We gather on the edge of the new year saddened by our losses, cherishing our joys, aware of our failures, mindful of days gone by....

The Bridging Ceremony celebrates the transition of our youth from their high school experience into young adulthood. It is a time of tremendous change—and stress—for our youth. It is a time when many of them will leave our particular church community to travel to other cities, into higher...

"Holy One, You knit me together in my mother's womb." This is the voice of Psalm 139: "[I] was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth." Let us remember and celebrate, this morning, that each of our bodies was woven together in the depths of...

Welcome to all our siblings this morning. We enter into this half circle of diversity, Celebrating the ways that we upright walking two-legged wanderers share With the four-leggeds lounging, lunging and leaping among us, With Winged warblers, With slithering, sliding snaky beings, With circling...

Leader: Whether you have come here with heart full or heart empty, with spirits high or low, rested or tired, hopeful or despairing, Congregation: Whether we have come here out of habit, conviction, loneliness, or curiosity, Leader: You belong here because you are here, and all that you have and ...

It is a good morning to be together! When winter's darkness spreads across the land, and cold seeps through our thickest coats, we hurry here, drawn by the warmth of faces familiar and new, to the welcoming walls of this house. Here, for this hour, we open ourselves to new understanding,...

Whatever the need that brings you to this special place and hour, know most surely that it is best served through eager receptivity of mind and heart....

What life have we, if we have not life together? There is no life not lived in community, and no community not lived in celebration and praise! Adapted from lines from T. S. Eliot's "The Rock."...

Welcome to this place of possibility! This is love's hearth, the home of hope, a refuge for minds in search of truth unfolding, ever beautiful, ever strange. Here, compassion is our shelter, freedom our protection from the storms of bigotry and hate. In this abode, may we find comfort and courage.

Welcome to this common, sacred space. Common, because we are all welcome. Sacred, because here we transform the ordinary and attend to the profound. We carry with us our regrets, doubts, fears, stories, laughter; may they inspire our worship....

We summon ourselves from the demands and delights of the daily round: from the dirty dishes and unwaxed floors; from unmowed grass, and untrimmed bushes; from all incompletenesses and not-yet-startednesses; from the unholy and the unresolved....

We have come into this room of hope where our hearts and minds are opened to the future. We have come into this room of justice where we set aside our fear to name freely every oppression. We have come into this room of love where we know that no lives are insignificant....

We gather together to face ourselves honestly, to forgive ourselves gently, to love one another fervently.

We gather together in this space to honor and understand our lives. We bring our pasts and would share them, our dreams and would express them. We use words, song, silence, and gesture....

"We gather together": familiar words to many of us. "We"—called here not by name, not by special invitation—but we who are here, who, walking by the door, come in; who come anonymously, burdened and borne by our visions, yearnings, despairs, solitudes. "Gather"—called here not by law, not by...

We gather this day to seek in the midst of our fragmented selves the unity which enfolds us all; to summon in the midst of the everyday that secret taste of danger, that peace which beckons beyond the trifles and deepens the human heart; to open our self-righteous selves to that judgment which we...

We gather on this Sabbath morn to worship in spirit and truth; to raise a joyful noise to the Eternal Mystery; to reconfirm our covenant to seek wisdom in love; to strengthen our commitment to the common good. We come from many paths to explore that which is hidden; to consider the ways of our...

We gather in community to rest from our labors, to greet our neighbors, and to open our being to insight and intuition of that greater reality of which we are a part. May we find in our time together inspiration and renewal....

We gather here to worship: to seek the truth, to grow in love, to join in service; to celebrate life's beauty and find healing for its pain; to honor our kinship with each other and with the earth; to create a more compassionate world, beginning with ourselves; to wonder at the mystery that gave ...

(This was written for the opening worship at a district board retreat....

We come together today in praise and thanksgivingfor the gift of life itself.Someone gave birth to us and some of us havegiven birth.All of us have been mothered in our time,All of us have mothered.Let our time today be one of recognition-- That we arrive from so many places,Joy and...

We come to this hour knowing that it is but an hour. Yet out of all the hours in the week this is one that is set apart: an hour that is saved, an hour that is savored. It is a time for us to recognize what gives life meaning. It is a time to honor what we value. It is a time to celebrate our lives.

We come to love a church, the traditions, the history, and especially the people associated with it....

We are people of all ages who enter this space bringing our joys and our concerns. We come together in hope. We greet each other warmly with our voices and our smiles. We come together in peace. We light the chalice to symbolize our interdependence and our unity. We come together in harmony. We...

We are here that we might have life and have it more abundantly, so that we might share it with others. Come, let us join together as a generous people.

We are called to gather in worship as a beloved community. We are called to set aside distractions and anxieties, that we might touch deeper springs and be renewed. We are called to seek and to share comfort for the hurts that afflict....

Water! Earth! Air! Fire!...

To this house we come bringing our boldest dreams—seeking here the inspiration and strength to make them be! To this house we come hoping to bury broken dreams, to be sustained through their pain and to discover new ones amidst their tears. We come here lonely, isolated from meaningful human...

There are some heights to which we have not risen, and never will; there are some depths to which we have not fallen, and never will, we pray. Somewhere between there are places where we can reach up and reach out for the strength we need for our journey. This is such a place. Thus we pause for...

Spirit of life, come to us to break down barriers; to widen horizons; to make us less judgmental. Help us to see the larger picture and the kinder conclusion; to love and let live; to embrace and forgive; to sustain and care....

Spirit of life, be present with us this hour. Join us today as we gather in a wider search for truth and purpose. In this quest, may we greet one another with open hearts and minds; may we inspire each other to consider new questions and seek deeper meaning; and may we cultivate wisdom and...

Here in this sanctuary of ancient dreams and wisdom and beauty we come to grow, to be healed, to stretch mind and heart, to be challenged, renewed; to be helped in our own continuing struggles for meaning and for love; to help build a world with more justice and mercy in it; to be counted among t...

From the power of our memory and history, With high hopes for the days that lie ahead, We gather to craft the destiny we share with one another. We gather with faith in the practice of democracy. We gather with hearts and minds open To the wisdom in every voice among us. In our gathering, May we...

For our community gathered here, for the spirit that called us together and drew us to this place: We give thanks this day....