A pocket-sized and durable little book of readings and songs to comfort and inspire.

Call for Submissions

Second Edition of Bless All Who Serve

A Unitarian Universalist Military Meditation Collection A Skinner House Books Project

We are pleased to announce a call for submissions for a second edition of Bless All Who Serve, a UU collection of meditations, prayers, reflections, and readings for military chaplains, service members, veterans, military families, and all who minister in military-connected communities.

The original collection has served as a meaningful resource for UU military chaplains and others seeking words of grounding, care, courage and hope in settings shaped by service, sacrifice, grief, resilience and community. The second edition will renew the collection for the present moment, lifting up a broader range of voices, identities, experiences and theological perspectives within Unitarian Universalism.

We invite submissions that speak to the lived realities of military life, service and ministry, including:

• Deployment, separation, and homecoming

• Courage, fear, and moral injury/complexity

• Grief, loss, remembrance, and honoring the dead

• Spiritual resilience and grounding in difficult times

• Justice, peace, conscience, and the complexities of service

• Blessings for ceremonies, rites of passage, and daily use

• Prayers or meditations for pluralistic, interfaith, and secular settings

Submissions may include original prayers, meditations, blessings, chalice lightings, short reflections, poems, or ritual language. Pieces should generally be brief enough to use in worship, small groups, counseling, memorial services, military ceremonies, or personal spiritual practice.

Submission Guidelines: 

Submissions should be 55 words or less for prose, or 54 lines or less for poetry, not counting the title and byline. The poetry line count does include blank lines.

Submissions of original work or accurately credited published work by others are both welcome.

Authors of published submissions will receive an honorarium of $100-$200.

Submissions due 9/1/26.

Form for submissions HERE

Questions may be directed to: 

The editorial team: Rev. Bret Lortie, Rev. Dr. Rebekah A. Savage, and Mary Benard at blessall@uua.org

In this second edition, we hope to gather words that can accompany those who serve, those who wait, those who remember, those who grieve, and those who seek spiritual nourishment amid the demands of military life. We seek pieces that are honest, spacious, spiritually grounded, and deeply humane.

May this renewed collection bless all who serve, always.

Bless All Who Serve

The first book to explore the idea and effect of moral injury on veterans, their families, and their communities.

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Determined to find meaning in the midst of war, Captain George Tyger reflects on his faith, his prejudices, and his privilege, and shares the unique perspective he has gained while serving and ministering in a war zone.

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