We light this chalice, so that by its light we may read ALL the books…

We call for the freedom and the right for all stories to be freely shared.

Holy Reconciler, help us make peace with each other.

If love is a law, how may I follow it with more faithfulness?

New lyrics for #358 to correct its original ableism.

In that city, music spills from concert rooms both large and small...

Spirit of Life who dwells before and between and beyond all words… we open ourselves to you.

I experience the creative impulse as living just under the surface of the daily grind: tugging; imploring, When do we all get to sing together again?

music arises from depths unknown often without words but never without meaning and spirit rises from deep within me seducing my body to join the song first a tremor in the soul, then tapping of toes breath aligns with breath, heart beats in syncopation and a stuttering buzz in my throat becomes a...

We're grateful to Linda Hirschhorn for sharing her song, created in March 2020 and inspired a Bertolt Brecht quote: "In the dark times will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing about the dark times.” Linda invites your feedback...

Surround yourself with skillful teachers. Let them teach you, but don't let them do it for you. That learning is yours to do.

May I always remember that Tango, like life, is a dance of the people. It’s meant to be shared, not practiced in isolation.

As a hospital chaplain, I often listen to painful stories. We call it compassionate presence, but I may be crying inside. When words fail, I pray and sing.

As flame is to spirit, so spirit is to breath, and breath to song. Though we extinguish the flame in this sanctuary, may we tend it in our hearts until we meet again.

See now the daybreak of our love: Through it may we be lifted, For when the nightfall closes in, May strength anew be gifted. Yes! Love endures on this good Earth. Our steadfast hope we’re bringing; We sing a truth no creed can end. How can we keep from singing? Good people gather to proclaim new...

It's hard to feel gratitude for something when you're focusing on what’s wrong with it.

Eternal Spirit, from whom all things come and to whom all things return, We gather this morning in community seeking to live in the harmony. Each of us here gathered lives out our lives knowing our own story, our own private melody. Life – at its highest and its sweetest – is a sharing. Life is...

God is not a distant force, far away. God is in the beating of our hearts and the backbeat of a funky baseline. God is in a four-on-the-floor drum fill, and in the achy joints and sore muscles the day after.

The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras taught that the universe was composed entirely of numbers, and numbers corresponded to music. So the entire universe, all of reality, including us, was composed of numbers and music. The seven planets of the ancient world each resonated a frequency outward...

Music is my solace and my comfort, the one thing that’s always with me. I feel its vibration deep in my soul; it’s my spiritual practice. Music tells the story of my life.

“Now,” the yoga instructor said, “begin to chant GOD GOD GOD as you vigorously circle your arms.” Oh boy, I thought, Here we go. Of course it couldn’t just be arm circles.

I wanted so badly to break free and let loose—but I just couldn't. I was stuck in my own false ideas of the congregation's expectations of me. Luckily, there’s still time.

In our congregations, how often do we assume that preachers, music directors, and other worship leaders are there to fulfill our personal preferences?

The chalice is the container— the space where the musicians and the listeners gather. The oil is the fuel— the hours of practice and the life experiences of everyone in the room. The wick is the instruments and vocal cords through which the music will flow. And the flame—the flame!— is the...

Hush: Somebody’s calling your name— Can you hear it? Calling you to a past not quite forgotten, Calling us to a future not fully imagined? Hush, hush: Somebody’s calling our name. What shall we do? Note: this benediction is part of an entire Promise & Practice...

Joy Unspeakable is not silent, it moans, hums, and bends to the rhythm of a dancing universe…. For our free African ancestors, joy unspeakable is drum talk… For enslaved Africans during the Middle Passage, joy unspeakable is the surprise of living one more day… For Africans in bondage in the...

The most important lesson pottery has taught me is to not be attached to the final product—the process matters more than the product.

Last summer at General Assembly, I walked out of the sanctuary we had made from the convention center space. As tired as I was, I returned more and more to my deeply introverted default of self, and I passed a woman who had to stop to talk with me....

The 7 Jobs Capitalism Asks of All of Us: 1. Measure Self Worth by Work: Don’t believe in the inherent goodness of people. Instead decide that everyone’s worth is only as much as they achieve. 2. Accept that Oppression is the Norm: This starts with adultism the moment we are born and conditions...

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a time when particular songs get sung; one of them is "Lift Every Voice and Sing." It gets sung in school, in church, and at various MLK day celebrations or over the course of Black History Month....

"What we need is here" is a perfect, simple song by Episcopalian priest Rev. Amy McCreath. Its five words are the closing sentence of a Wendell Berry poem, "The Wild Geese," which inspired Amy to write this tune....

It's in one tiny moment in time / for life to shine to shine Burn away the darkness You've got one tiny moment in time / for life to shine to shine To burn away the darkness I will be light. — “I Will Be Light” by Matisyahu About six months ago, I got a new tattoo. It’s a lit match on my...

An awakening passed through the whole theatre, and as if touched by some invisible hand, the people stood, clapped, shouted with joy, laughed, and wept… It was blessed to be connected to—no, to be a part of a community—a people. —Volker Kühn, in his essay about a cabaret performance during...

Spirit of life and love, we know you by many names or perhaps no name at all— yet together we know this is a holy night. We come from many different traditions or perhaps no tradition at all — We have celebrated decades of Christmases, or this might be only our first or second time at a...

The wheel of the year has turned again. Once more the Thanksgiving season has arrived. How shall we sing our song of gratitude now? For what shall we give thanks? For this moment; for friends near and far; for our breath; for love; for courage and clarity; for strength; for delight; for laughter;...

Our first breath is followed by our first song Lusty, loud and primal A solo that announces to the world, “I have arrived!” We are the music. As toddlers hearing our first reggae beat We let our spines and hips bend and sway in response As natural as the beat of our hearts We are the music. The...

My friends, when you go from here know that our hearts are always in a holy place, for we are always connected to one another. Know that deep down, our hearts beat in one universal rhythm. May we each find the sacred space to hear it.

"When we hear our voices each other's words, then our heart is in a holy place." from #1008, "When Our Heart Is in a Holy Place," in Singing the Journey.

Let us go out into the world singing. Let us go out into the world singing songs that proclaim liberty. Songs that turn ashes into garlands Songs that bind up the afflicted and those who mourn. Songs that, like oaks, have roots that go deep and stand strong. Let us go out into the world singing....

This prayer's author suggests that for each paragraph of the prayer, an accompanist (on piano or some other instrument) softly play the hymn that's indicated at stanza's end. For clarity, these instructions are included below....

December twenty-third, “O Holy Night” (1855). The first English translation of "O Holy Night" was by Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, who tweaked the original French author's socialist themes and images to advance Dwight's own abolitionist cause. Not only was the French author a...

December twentieth, first of Elliot’s Ariel Poems, “The Journey of the Magi” (1927). "Magi" is Unitarian T. S. Eliot’s first of 5 Christmas poems published after his ambivalent choice to join the Anglican church. Many believe that Eliot's feelings about his new church are reflected by the...

December nineteenth, "The Many Moods of Christmas” (1963). Robert Shaw was best known as the conductor of his namesake Chorale. In its day, "Many Moods of Christmas" was the quintessential sound of the season. Even today, the album sells well around the holidays and choirs continue to perform it...

December eighteenth, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" (1962). Amid the anxiety of the Cuban missile crisis, Unitarian Noel Regney wrote the text for “Do You Hear What I Hear?” as a protest song. The music was composed by his then-wife, Gloria Shayne Baker. The song's allusions to the Bible stories of...

December Seventeenth, Rod Serling’s Christmas Specials (1963). Though Jewish, Rod Serling always loved Christmas (maybe because his birthday was December twenty-fifth). He became a Unitarian Universalist while in college and later joined the Unitarian Community Church of Santa Monica. He wrote...

December sixteenth, Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales (1835). When the man he loved married a woman, Danish Unitarian Hans Christian Andersen wrote one of his first and most beloved fairy tales of a mermaid's tragically unrequited love. His timeless tales include several Christmas classics...

December fourteenth, “I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day” (1865). Unitarian Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Wrote "Christmas Bells" (a poem later set to music and renamed "I Head the Bells On Christmas Day") just months before the end of the Civil War. The poem captures the despair felt by the...

December thirteenth, first department store Santa (1890). Department storeowner James Edgar delighted customers’ children by walking about the store on weekends dressed in a Santa costume. Edgar aspired to broad-mindedness in his religion, and though not a member he attended the Unitarian church...