In an era when it is becoming clear that industrialized nations under a system of global corporation-controlled capitalism need to change quickly and dramatically for the benefit of all life, we will be called to experience generosity, gratitude, and hope in new ways.

Prayers to be said on the four Sundays of Advent while lighting the Advent candle wreath.

I look up and experience her music as a Beatitude of Peace, a feathery sonnet that rings of grace and hope...

There in the deep sack of night, a tiny Hope was born. 

Fear not, the angels would text me. Hallelujah, I’d write back.

Turn toward the thaw, and turn toward the rebirth of spring with New Hope.

Welcome, all who seek renewal in a weary world.

What if sometimes it’s about sparking potential into possibility, and possibility into existence?

“Verily with hardship comes ease...” (Quran; 94:5-6)

Remind us that resilience is in our bones, that peace will prevail on earth

What’s your most memorable story about getting lost? What do you remember about finding your way home?

Be kind. Be brave. Be just. Be merciful.

The circle of evergreens reminds us that life and love will never end.

Can we enfold other people in the way we long to be enfolded?

Our family secret is soul-sucking depression.

We come together in one faith.

We face a challenge to democracy.

Can we find space for lifting our heads in wonder—that we’re still striving, still trying together

May we open our hearts to the abundance of creation.

People of faith are experts in human kindness.

We have a holy obligation to bring about paradise on this earth; each generation helps us do that.

This burning flame represented hope during the bleakness of World War II.

May our beacon of hope give you respite

May we tend our Soul Fire through these challenging and trying times

It is in gathering that we find our hope.

Light the fire of the Future

Here we gather to celebrate hope, and the infinite possibilities of love.

May we be with one another in solidarity and struggle.

Easter is a holiday of miracles.

I am afraid and exhausted from the constant fear. I don’t know who to trust for information about the virus.

The stories remind us there is still and always joy in this world, but it usually comes right alongside the struggle.

This year, the Advent season seems particularly seized by a spirit of the expected, the longing.

Hope continues, uncertain and true, like candlelight, ready to spark again.

Advent is about the new story being written in our lives.

The chalice, as a symbol of Unitarian Universalism, arose as a beacon of hope in an atmosphere of tyranny. The chalice arose as a sign of promise that the marginalized would neither be forgotten nor ignored, because they are beloved and precious from the perspective of the Holy. This morning, we...

I hope that this Great Silence, which has come alongside the suffering, holds the beginnings of our healing.

We kindle this flame, Honoring the doorways in our souls: The windows through which we gaze at one another The balconies where we catch glimpses of sky The thresholds we stand on this morning Wondering, hoping, fearing, dreaming.

See how the winds have shaped her hands to hold hope? So tenuous, it trembles like a hummingbird’s heart. She gently carries hope to a nest in the midst of the maelstrom and tilts it into the bowl of tiny feathers and mosses. Hope is so hard to cup. She might need your help when it seeps through...

Hope rises. It rises from the heart of life, here and now, beating with joy and sorrow. Hope longs. It longs for good to be affirmed, for justice and love to prevail, for suffering to be alleviated, and for life to flourish in peace. Hope remembers. It remembers the dreams of those who have gone...

Jesus had no political power. He lived his whole life in the shadow of the Roman empire, and that empire killed him. Yet Jesus healed the sick, he listened, he moved among the ordinary people, in the lowly places.

Spirit of life and love, We gather together in different ways this morning, From computer screens, from telephones, from car radios, We gather, reaching out across the wires, waving from a safe distance, To come together in religious community....

I’m confident in our human ability to together muscle our way into renewing our world.

Here I am, God, here I am. Here I am with the dishes in the sink, the dust on the shelves, the skin on my hands which is drying out and starting to crack. My appetite has gone, without any other bodies to remind my body of itself. I can pray for salvation but my bones know this is all there is....

We light this flame For the art of sacred unknowing. Humbled by all that we cannot fathom in this time, We come into the presence of what we do know, Perhaps the only thing we can ever know: That Love is now and forever The only answer to everything And everyone In every moment.

In a time of uncertainty, when everything around us is changing constantly— each day new developments, rising numbers, changing guidelines; when the world we live in suddenly seems upside-down and topsy-turvy: We light our chalice to remind ourselves of our grounding in our faith....

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...

For the new year, just days old, beginning today, always beginning: We light our chalice, symbol of faith, perseverance, and hope, in astonished thanksgiving and irrepressible praise. For beginnings that emerge out of endings, appear amidst continuity, become visible in hindsight: We light our...

We are never numbers to be tallied for turnout. We are more than a sum. Together, we are the hope and courage.

Thresholds. We cross them every day. From room to room, from outside to inside, and back again, from here to there, from anywhere to everywhere, from age to age. Each threshold offers an opportunity for change, for renewal, for transformation, from what we were and what we are to what we can be....

Reader 1: Flaming chalice, symbol of our living tradition, we kindle you for light Reader 2: Light in this darkest season of the year Light to reveal the sources of greed and hate among us Light to guide our way forward together Reader 1: Chalice Flame, we kindle you for love Reader 2: Love to ke...