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  • We ask blessings on this, our church home. May this building be a tool to continue the good work of our helping hands, our loving hearts, and open minds. May this home be safe harbor for all who sail upon the sea of Life, and a beacon of hope to those on rough waters....
    Blessing | By Jennifer Stokes | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Building/Space Dedication, Commitment, Community, Empathy, Generosity, Gratitude, Home, Responsibility, Reverence, Stewardship, Vision, WorshipWeb
  • "Why a flaming chalice?” the question comes. It’s the cup of life, we answer. A cup of blessings overflowing. A cup of water to quench our spirits’ thirst. A cup of wine for celebration and dedication. The flame of truth. The fire of purification. Oil for anointing, healing. Out of chaos,...
    Chalice Lighting | By Lisa Doege | January 22, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anger, Anti-Oppression, Beliefs & Principles, Brokenness, Courage, Disaster or Crisis, Healing, Oppression, Solidarity, Sorrow, Tradition, Truth
  • "It was still dark that morning in 1942 when the Gestapo rousted from bed the Jews of Bobawa, a Polish village. In the confusion, twelve-year-old Samuel Oliner slipped away and hid on a roof, still in his pajamas. The next afternoon, when he dared to look around, the ghetto was silent....
    Sermon | By Scott W. Alexander | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Compassion, Judaism, Parents, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Self-Respect, Unity
  • Overview: Organize a discussion and develop a relationship with the local or regional School of the Americas Watch (SOA) organization dedicated to addressing the military school in Geogia run by the US Army and held responsible for violent, repressive and corrupt leadership training of Latin...
    Complete Service | By Joseph Lyons | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: International, Justice, Nonviolence, Peace, Violence, War
  • Overview: An awesome involving activity that helps people to answer those tough questions about Unitarian Universalism (UU). Gets people to open up and lets everyone learn about each other. Not to mention it's a lot of fun! Theme or Background: The theme is explaining your UU faith and heritage.
    Activity | By Barbara Wells ten Hove | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Faith, Playfulness, Religion
  • Overview: Infuse beads with spirit in a slow deliberate ritual...then bead them on to a ribbon. We think for a moment, then pass them to a friend for the weekend to hold and care for! Theme or Background: General, friends, Friday night at a con bonding and trust. Materials involved: Four special,...
    Complete Service | By Alex Rollin | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Community, Friendship, Service, Trust, Youth/Teens
  • We are whole, even in the broken places, even where it hurts. We are whole, even in the broken places, the places where fear impedes our full engagement with life; where self-doubt corrupts our self-love; where shame makes our faces hot and our souls cold. We are whole, even in those places where...
    Meditation | By Beth Lefever | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Brokenness, Self-Respect, Shame, Wholeness, Worth
  • Overview: A Soulful Sundown worship on abundance, exploring the interwoven nature of emptiness and fullness Theme or Background: spiritual abundance and the cyclical paradox of emptiness and fullness Materials Involved/Altar: set in our usual way with fabric and strips....
    Complete Service | By UU Church of Berkeley, Kensington, CA | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Caring, Direct Experience, Limitations, Transformation, Wisdom
  • Overview: New Year Ritual or Transition Ritual Theme or Background: Burn an effigy to welcome the new year, or any major transition....
    Complete Service | By Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge, Young Adult Group | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Earth-Centered, Letting Go, Life Transition, Regret, Transformation, Youth/Teens
  • Overview: Lead people in a reflection of where they are, or where they have just been. Then turn personal dreams into community dreams. Theme or Background: To look at our dreams for the future, and make those dreams collective dreams, Based on the most famous line Dr. Martin Luther King's most...
    Complete Service | By Jonathan Craig | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 6th Principle (World Community), Community, Connections, Direct Experience, Hope, Secular, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism, Youth/Teens
  • Overview Appropriate for up to 20 people. Everyone comes into the space, and there is a box waiting with instructions for taking worship "out of the box" Theme or Background A boom box, readings, altar materials, etc. are contained in a box in the middle of the room....
    Complete Service | By Sonya Sukalski | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Letting Go, Limitations, Playfulness, Unitarian Universalism, Youth/Teens
  • Overview: spontaneous themed worship, to explore the forces of Chaos. Theme or Background: Chaos Materials involved: chalice, readings. E.E....
    Complete Service | By Carolyn Croissant Clay Dewey | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Courage, Fear, Letting Go, Mystery, Wholeness
  • Introduction As we continue to seek out the stories of hope in our world in the new year, there are also some things we would very much like to put behind us from the old year. The ushers have given you scraps of paper on which to inscribe those things from which we would seek to unburden ourselves.
    Ritual | By Victoria Weinstein | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Change, Direct Experience, Ending, Fire Communion, Healing, Letting Go, New Year, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Transformation
  • To “invoke” is to “call forth” and is traditionally associated with calling upon God. You can also think of it as invoking the spirit of your community—its vision of justice, its playful energy, or its familial feeling. Invocations can also serve to introduce the theme that you’ll be...
    Opening | By Erik Walker Wikstrom | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
  • If the “opening words” called people to worship and opened the time and space for this purpose, the closing words bring the service to an end and prepare people to return home. If the service has been thematically tied together, the words can be a summation, a parting thought, a final nugget for...
    Closing | By Erik Walker Wikstrom | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
  • Recorded music (e.g., Mozart's Requiem; Arvo Pårt's Lamentate) will be playing as the background. Spoken introduction as people prepare to walk in silence: Let us open our minds and hearts to the power of healing that is in us and in the world around us....
    Ritual | By Melanie Morel-Ensminger | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Christianity, Climate Justice, Disaster or Crisis, Earth, Environment, Grief, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness
  • Overview: Like the maypole tradition this worship involves a circle dance that weaves a fabric of many colors. We just leave out the pole! Theme or Background: Fun, dancing, interdependent web, different colors make the weave. Materials Involved: An 8 foot non-elastic ribbon for each participant.
    Complete Service | By Alex Rollin | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: May Day / Beltane
  • Overview A great worship to remind you of what the deeper emotion of love means to you. Doesn't take too much preparation. Theme or Background Revisiting past Love in our lives Materials Involved Paper, markers, tape....
    Complete Service | By Duncan Metcalfe Eric Loftman | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Love
  • Please join me in a spirit of prayer or meditation as you are moved. Blessed and holy night, silent night, full of truths too awesome to bend into words, we sit in the glow of ages, wound round stories that teach us some of what it means to be human, and some of what it means to see God. The...
    Meditation | By Anya Sammler-Michael | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christmas Eve / Christmas
  • While most of us have heard the term, Winter Solstice, we don't necessarily know what it means. Many years ago, when I first started celebrating the solstice, a scientist explained it to me in a way that made sense. Learning from him, I wrote a reflection on the solstice that gives his scientific...
    Meditation | By Barbara Wells ten Hove | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Winter Solstice / Yule
  • We pause now on the edge of the New Year— An artificial beginning to be sure—but still a time to reflect. Like Janus, the god for whom January was named, we glance back at past joys and sorrows That what has past can guide us Toward what is yet to be. Let us reflect for a moment on some of the...
    Ritual | By Joan Kahn-Schneider | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Letting Go, Life Transition
  • Introduction to a New Orleans Jazz Funeral Welcome to a new tradition for our church—a New Orleans-style jazz funeral for the old year. This service offers opportunities for reflection on the past year, a chance to “bury” whatever that was negative or hurtful to us in 20xx, and looks forward...
    Ritual | By Melanie Morel-Ensminger | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Hope, Letting Go, Memorial Services, Mourning, Multiculturalism, Remembrance Day, Wholeness, Multiculturalism
  • T... starts out with Turkey and with Tofu, and Together, H...reminds us of Happiness, may it grow beyond all measure. A...means All who are returning, a reunion in Fall, N...for Newcomers to our Fellowship, and hearty welcome to all! K...for Kind friends with whom we will share dinner, S... means...
    Chalice Lighting | By Maureen Killoran | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Abundance, Community, Fall, Food, Gratitude, Happiness, Integrity, Playfulness, Relationships, Thanksgiving, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism
  • ‘Tis the Season . . . of advertisers run amok and ambitions amplified beyond belief . . . of Martha Stewart moments mixed with desert island dreams . . . when even the most dedicated holiday-hopper admits perfection isn’t possible and “good enough” is how the season ought to be. ‘Tis the...
    Meditation | By Maureen Killoran | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Prayer Practices
  • We come together today to celebrate, honor, hold and support your new life. We recognize the complexity that is gender, while also recognizing the complexity that goes into living a life that openly and honestly challenges the simplicity of our culturally imposed binary gender system. It takes...
    Ritual | By Del Mulhern | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Courage, Earth-Centered, Gender, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Reconciliation, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness
  • It was December. I was in a new school in a new place and there were new teachers and new classmates. And we were living in a new house too. Also there was no snow in Florida. That was a lot of new things at once. I didn’t like it. At least I had my bicycle—it was my old bicycle so it wasn’t...
    Story | By Orlanda R Brugnola | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Children, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, Generosity, Home, Joy, Parents
  • According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a commissioning is "the act of granting certain powers or authority to carry out a particular task or duty." In many churches there is a common misconception that the leaders of the church run things—that the Board or the Council of Chairs has all...
    Ritual | By Erik Walker Wikstrom | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), Governance, History, Stewardship, Unitarian Universalism
  • Introduction: Ours is welcoming community where we find connection; ...a spiritual community where we find meaning; Ours is a sharing community where our joys are amplified; ...a caring community where our sorrows are lessened; We take this moment to reflect on our joys and sorrows and acknowledg...
    Ritual | By Scott Phillips | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Community, Joy, Relationships, Sorrow, Unitarian Universalism, Youth/Teens
  • Dear Goddess, Mother, and Source Your womb is all of creation Your love is mother's milk Please grant us support during this transition Please help us move through this next stage Please carry us in arms of support, grace, and love So that we may bring new life to this ministry So that we may gro...
    Meditation | By Julianne Lepp | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Earth, Earth-Centered, Paganism, Transformation
  • Spirit of Life and love known by many names and worshipped in a rainbow of ways Infinite Mystery, Spark of Ah-ha and Ahhh and Awe Conspiring energy of interdependent co-arising Be with us now. Surround us. Push us forward. Pull us together....
    Meditation | By Tandi Rogers | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Courage, Grace, Love, Mystery, Unitarian Universalism
  • The Persian poet Rumi challenges us: "Come, come, whoever you are: wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving: Ours is no caravan of despair, come, yet again come." And we come, from rich heritages of liturgy and pomp; We come, from burning legacies of angry gods and threats of hell-fire....
    Opening | By Anne Slater | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Diversity, Islam, Unitarian Universalism
  • LEADER: Truth manifests itself with its own force. Let us ride on the power of its revelation with a heart ready to receive, to forgive, and to learn.Source: UU Congregation of Quezon City, Philippines...
    Closing | By Ma Theresa "Tet" Gustilo Gallardo | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Revelation, Truth, Unitarian Universalism
  • Leader: It is a miracle that no one is ever empty-handed; there is enormous power in having no possessions but the self to give and to receive what can be and become.
    Reading | By Ma Theresa "Tet" Gustilo Gallardo | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Generosity, Humility, Simplicity, Unitarian Universalism
  • Let us reach the place of self, the place that is not alien to truth. Let us wash over with peace and serenity, with fierce longing for light and heart; with living strength flowing in our veins, bringing ourselves into fearlessness and into trust.
    Opening | By Ma Theresa "Tet" Gustilo Gallardo | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Courage, Peace, Trust
  • A Haitian prayer book, entitled God Is No Stranger, includes the following words: “Father, I have learned that one strong in calculation is called a ‘mathematician.’ You are the greatest mathematician because You can count all the people yet still see each one of us.” Those words find new...
    Meditation | By John Gibb Millspaugh | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Caring, Compassion, Courage, Disaster, Unitarian Universalism
  • Some came here to be blessed with answers in a tumultuous world. Let us hope too, however, that many of us have been blessed with questions to direct us with a clarity of mind to steer our logic towards kindness and justice always.
    Closing | By Ma Theresa "Tet" Gustilo Gallardo | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Humanism, Justice, Kindness, Reason, Unitarian Universalism
  • Spirit of Life, hold us in our pain and comfort us in our grief. Our grief feels boundless; our rage eats at us. We feel pain for all the wild creatures of the Gulf and the wetlands....
    Meditation | By Melanie Morel-Ensminger | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Earth, Environment, Grief, Secular, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness
  • We mourn the lost lives—the eleven workers who died—and we know the heaviness that hangs over their families. We mourn the lost livelihoods. Many have had their lives changed: shrimpers, fishermen, those whose income depends on tourists, and those who work on oil rigs. They have been hit hard.
    Reading | By Becky Post | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Animals, Change, Disaster, Earth, Grief
  • Ode to Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a hole. There’s a hole. There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There is oil from the hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s crude oil from the hole in the bottom of...
    Music | By Christina Larson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Disaster, Earth, Environment, Justice, Secular
  • Order of Service Welcome Chalice Lighting : "In our time of grief:" (#454, SLT) Opening Song: “We are a Gentle Angry People” vs. 1,2,6 (#170, SLT) Prayer: "A Prayer of Sorrow" (#478, SLT) Reflection A Silent Witnessing Song: “Comfort Me” (#1002, STJ) Sharing The Congregation Song: “Blue...
    Complete Service | By Darcey Elizabeth Hegvik Laine | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Direct Experience, Disaster, Earth, Earth-Centered, Environment, Unitarian Universalism
  • Earth’s blood, product of ancient deaths, source and flowing stream for civilizations, protector of many human lives, still spurts but barely abated into Gulf waters, host to countless lives of every kind, geo-bio-hazard threatening all lives of every kind for many miles and for months or years t...
    Meditation | By Taylor Watson Burton-Edwards | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Christianity, Direct Experience, Disaster, Earth, Environment, Grief, Vulnerability
  • The journey was a long one. We started on an airplane, a 16-hour trip crossing the international date line. A van for an hour, then another hour’s plane ride. A pedi-cab trip, and a four hour van ride. Then another hour’s drive up a windy mountain road, turning off the road onto a rocky, bumpy,...
    Sermon | By Vail Weller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Direct Experience, Generosity, Globalism, International, Justice, Poverty, Privilege, Unitarian Universalism, Universalism
  • We covenant together to share hope with each other and with the world.
    Reading | By Lucas Hergert | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Covenant, Hope, Justice, Love
  • Whitman Jones had just turned nine. That was good. But he was going to a new school in a new town, and that was bad. In his old school he knew everyon—they had been in classes with him for years. In this new school he didn’t know one single person. Not only that, the first day didn’t go well...
    Story | By Orlanda R Brugnola | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Animals, Compassion, Forgiveness, Friendship, Reconciliation
  • It was not a city. It was not a large town. But it was not a small town. It was—just average, you might say. Except for one thing. There was a Storyteller in the town. That’s Storyteller with a capital S. The Storyteller had arrived one day without advance notice (or as some people would put it,...
    Story | By Orlanda R Brugnola | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Imagination, Mystery, Revelation, Tradition, Wonder
  • Why Christmas? Especially to one who doubts? Are you not being hypocritical? Unitarian Universalists, with their penchant for secular humanism are fond of arguing the validity of Christmas: Is it a Christian holiday? A pagan holiday? A secular holiday?...
    Opening | By Lenny Scovel | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christmas Eve / Christmas
  • Leonard Cohen sings to us there’s “a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” I believe this is one of the most important insights we can have. And so, today I want to talk about that crack, that wound we each have. Today let’s reflect a little about something perhaps a bit...
    Sermon | By James Ishmael Ford | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Justice, Spiritual Practice, Wholeness, Yom Kippur
  • Every June, representatives of the congregations in the Unitarian Universalist Association gather for the annual General Assembly. Each year as we do so, we try to shed some light on a local issue of justice, and we invite people of all faiths to join us in working to make our world a better place.
    Sermon | By Michael J. Tino | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Anti-Oppression, Caring, Immigration, Justice, Secular, Solidarity, Unitarian Universalism, Anti-Oppression, Immigration
  • Once more the year's turned round. We've come full circle on this small planet, Spinning down the grooves of change, Another revolution completed around the sun. Another year older ... Another set of rings on the tree ... As seasons parade in endless procession The people's troubles and prayers...
    Meditation | By Gary Kowalski | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Hope, Immanence, Revelation, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism, Wonder
  • We are five days away from what is has come to be traditionally celebrated as the birth of Jesus of Nazareth....
    Sermon | By David A Miller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 6th Principle (World Community), Advent, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Generosity, Grace, New Child, Revelation, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism

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