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

As we repent in full body and form, secure our names and the generations to come as you have done through time. God who blessed the womb of life, save us once again.

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

The Magnificat is a courageous and subversive song of praise; a call to social justice.

It’s complicated, sorting out where Jesus fits into my life as a witch. But he hasn’t gone away.

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

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

Every time we open ourselves to one another, we become more human.

Advent encourages us to be present in each moment of waiting.

The flame that is our promise of universal salvation can never be extinguished.

As we gather in this sacred moment, the Holy Spirit settles among her people.

Let us imagine washing the feet of someone who has wronged us. Their feet, too, are calloused and muddy from the road.

Coming out is vulnerable, intimate, and holy.

You can crush Love down, bury it, cover it over, but it will rise.

It’s as if something was born from nothing.

The story tells of a woman heavy with child, traveling with her partner to be counted in a census declared by a distant ruler unaware of the lives disrupted or the life that is to come....

Each Advent, my empathy for Mary’s situation returns.

Love calls me to rest when I feel disconnected

Help us to see that for the smallest, the humblest, the least of these burns the brightest star.

A triumph of love over death is the core of the Easter message.

Easter is a holiday of miracles.

Why do we so readily hand over what's priceless for a meager sum of money—or a major sum, for that matter?

Maundy Thursday means that followers of Jesus serve.

"As people become more afraid and insecure, they do not know how to access their own soul, move to prayer, or toward their better instincts. At that point, the easy and comforting response is to quote some Scripture, some authority, or some legal principle. It takes away one’s anxiety rather...

"Most of us have been led to believe that prophets 'foretell' the future. That is true, and it is also misleading. It is not the point here. Prophets are seers of the big patterns; they see what is always and forever true. Prophets like Isaiah know how God acts by watching and listening, and they...

"There are two moments that matter. One is when you know that your one and only life is absolutely valuable and alive. The other is when you know your life, as presently lived, is entirely pointless and empty. You need both of them to keep you going in the right direction. Lent is about both. The...

We are left with a new sense of ourselves as God’s people.

Impermanence, mortality, ashes, dust: this is the truth of being human.

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.

Sometimes, there is no reprieve from the pain of this world. Sometimes, it is too big and too obvious to ignore.

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

I learned the hard way that there is a deep difference between the Jesus that Black folks worship and the Jesus that white Christians worship.

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.

Goddess, Make me an instrument of peace Where there is hatred, let me know love Where there is injury, healing Where there is doubt, reassurance Where there is challenge, compassion Where there is pain, rest O Divine Mother, Grant that I may Not so much seek to control as to co-create, To be...

[Written for two voices, here set for Worship Association (WA) and Minister (M)] WA: Perhaps some here have outgrown mystery. Maybe you have doubts about Santa, Or have forgotten the magic of a newborn child. M: One might easily lose touch with awe, In the struggle to do it all, Or simply to...

Spirit of Life and Love, Holy God, Source Eternal, in our midst yet still ever so elusive: To breathe your sacred name is a blessing. Your world become, Your will be done here, on Earth, inspired by our aspirations to do and be better people. May we have all that we need to survive, live, and...

God, teach us to consider also how others experience the world. To understand how my reality and their reality are different and yet they share qualities of the same core desire. Teach us to listen for shared feelings, for places of connection. Teach us to be curious and open to hearing differences.

“The favoured method of showing the supremacy of the Christian belief was the destruction of the holy trees of the Germans. These were trees, usually old oaks or elm trees, dedicated to the gods....

When some people think of Easter, they think of a bunny rabbit. Others would point to other fertility symbols and signs of Spring, springing forth out of the ordinary, the plain, the seemingly dead: butterflies, flowers, and the like. Christians might think of the empty cross, or of a cross with...

"After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it....

Spirit of Life On this night, may we bear witness to the guiding lights: the lights in the sky That call us to gather, and to give of ourselves To celebrate new life....

[for 2-3 voices, alternating] On this eve of mystery and magic, let us enter into the Christmas story as if we were there on the holy night. What part will we play this year? Are you the mother, trusting your body to know what to do when the time of birth comes?...

Everything is about to change. And it already has. It will be. It was. It is. The dawn you eagerly await to end the long, cold darkness is already full sun far off in the east. Yet even after light’s return spring is months away. Thirty long years pass after His birth before the Messiah comes.

The innkeeper isn’t part of most Nativity sets. No one sings carols about innkeepers. There don’t seem to be any paintings that include them. But we can imagine the scene: Bethlehem is crowded with people coming home for the census. It’s late at night when the innkeeper responds to a knock on...

We all know loss and pain. Let none of it divide us. In the rising sun today Let us do together what we cannot do alone: Roll away the stones that close our hearts.

We gather together on this Christmas Eve as fellow sojourners looking for light, for hope, for peace, and for love. We gather as people from many backgrounds, many faiths, many cultures, and many spiritual paths. But as we light this chalice, we gather as one body looking to the Nativity for its...

In this time of waiting, may we hold the world in our hearts. In this time of waiting, may we hold each other's hands. In this time of waiting, may we be thoughtful and introspective. In this time of waiting, may we delight in the darkness and all it teaches us. In this time of waiting, may we...

Advent is about expectation—radical expectations that undo the status quo—and anticipation: a skillful search for the places where liberation rises from the ashes.

Each week until Christmas, we light a new candle on the Advent wreath, a circle of evergreens.