Edit Header for Worship Opening Search

Unitarian Universalists use different terms for the words that begin a worship service, including call to worship, invocation, and opening words. These words invite the congregation from their separate lives and to the common place and time of the worship hour.

(In Unitarian Universalist worship if there are Opening Words there is generally not an Invocation, and vice versa.)

Search Words for Worship Services

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10

  • A pitcher of flowers rests on the windowsill inside a room reseembling a chapel
    These opening words are formatted for two readers, as indicated below....
    Opening | By Shari Woodbury | January 16, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Direct Experience, Home, Humanism, Listening, Secular, Self-Respect, Unitarian Universalism
  • A bright sun dawns in the Anaheim (California) hills.
    We are Unitarian Universalists. When we lift up our Seven Principles, some of us think of them as a form of theology—but they are more important to our collective than that: they do not tell us what we should believe; they tell us how we should be. They tell us how we should act in the larger...
    Invocation | By Viola Abbitt | October 15, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Commitment, Community, Direct Experience, Integrity, Listening, Living Our Faith, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Reconciliation, Unitarian Universalism
  • Chalice and Altar
    Here, today, in this place and with these people, May we listen so that we can hear; May we hear so that we can feel; May we feel so that we can know; and May we know so that we can change ourselves and this world. May this chalice we light, Light our Way.
    Chalice Lighting | By Erik Walker Wikstrom | July 13, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Body, Change, Community, Listening, Purpose, Reverence, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism
  • Against a black backdrop, a person's hands reach gracefully toward the sky.
    Listen! Can you hear it? The Spirit is calling. It calls us in the silence and through the noise and busyness of our daily lives. It calls us in the brightness of the day and the darkness of the night, in times of hope and despair. Listen! Can you hear it? The Spirit is calling. It doesn't matter...
    Opening | By John Saxon | April 6, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Calling, Direct Experience, Listening, Purpose, Spirituality, Transcendence
  • Against an indigo sky, people sit gazing into a sparking campfire.
    Come sit by our fire and let us share stories. Let me hear your tales of far off lands, wanderer, and I will tell you of my travels. Share your experience of the holy with me, worshipper, and I will tell you of that which I find divine. Come and stay, lover of leaving, for ours is no caravan of...
    Opening | By Jennifer Kitchen | January 11, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Community, Direct Experience, Empathy, Homecoming / Ingathering, Hospitality, Journey, Listening, Love, Personal Stories
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    Listen. Listen to silence. Listen to the wind. Listen to the stars. Hear trees. Dance. Dance to the beat of your neighbor’s heart. Dance to the rhythm of your childhood dreams. Sing. Sing and hum a wordless song to the tune of your rushing blood. And Pray. Pray with a fever that makes you sweat...
    Opening | By Jessica Purple Rodela | March 2, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Listening
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    From beyond the playful summer clouds, beyond the earth's thin blue line, from beyond the bright moon and meteor showers, we hear the call to look and listen carefully, to turn away from a world that buys and sells happiness, to fully experience the luring whisper of your heart's truth. Why not...
    Opening | By Susan Maginn | February 20, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Body, Calling, Direct Experience, Environment, Listening, Nature, Transcendence, Unitarian Universalism
  • A person reaches their arms to the sky as the sun rises.
    (May be read responsively) We light this chalice to affirm that new light is ever waiting to break through to enlighten our ways: That new truth is ever waiting to break through to illumine our minds: And that new love is ever waiting to break through to warm our hearts. May we be open to this...
    Chalice Lighting | By Charles A. Howe | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Birth, Calling, Grace, Growth, Healing, Hope, Listening, Love, Truth, Vision, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    From beyond the playful summer clouds, beyond the earth's thin blue line, from beyond the bright moon and meteor showers, we hear the call to look and listen carefully, to turn away from a world that buys and sells happiness, to fully experience the luring whisper of your heart's truth. Why not...
    Opening | By Susan Maginn | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Community, Direct Experience, Listening, Presence
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    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 ...
    Opening | By Gary Kowalski | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Beauty, Courage, Earth, Healing, Listening, Mystery, Searching, Unitarian Universalism, Wisdom