Unitarian Universalists honor and celebrate a wide range of holidays and occasions over the course of a year. Unlike other faith traditions that use a single lectionary (a collection of scripture readings appointed for a given day or occasion), the topics and themes for Unitarian Universalist worship services are usually chosen independently by worship leaders in congregations. These include unique UU traditions, like the Flower Ceremony, as well as holidays from other faith traditions, such as Christmas or Beltane.
View and download the 2023-24 UUA Worship Calendar (PDF), which includes faith-based and secular holidays that UU congregations often celebrate. The calendar also includes monthly worship themes used in popular theme-based ministry programs. To download or print, follow the link and use the File menu, then select the Landscape layout option.
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The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish truth....Reading | By Martin Luther King, Jr. | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Christianity, Commitment, Dignity, Justice, Justice Sunday, Love, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism, Violence -
The more we try to say precisely what is in our hearts, the more we find that we are speaking for multitudes of strangers the world over. The deeper we get down to our own fundamentals, the more deeply we represent those of other people. Like all human beings, I live on borrowed time....Reading | By Jack Mendelsohn | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Death, Meaning, Mystery, Purpose, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness -
For many of us this Sunday service is where we come together to examine what gives our lives worth and to make sense of the seemingly incomprehensible events around us. Our time in this sanctuary is not mundane; it is a special time where we wrestle with many of the fundamental questions about life.Homily | By Brian Ferguson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Activism, Connections, Earth, Interdependence, Money, Prophetic Words & Deeds
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To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk exposing our true self. To place our ideals—our dreams—before the crowd is to risk loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk despair. To try is to...Reading | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Failure, Hope, Love, Secular, Trust, Vision, Vulnerability
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Seeds, scattered on fertile ground, are warmed by the sun and fed by the soil. They sprout and grow, producing great fields of grain. The grain is harvested and ground into flour and shipped across the nation....Ritual | By Michael J. Tino | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Body, Christianity, Community, Food, Gratitude, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism -
It’s really complicated honey. I’m only now understanding it myself. We weren’t really thinking about it like you and your friends do. It’s not that we didn’t care about how it would impact you; we weren’t really thinking about you at all. Oh that’s sounds terrible, I’ll say. I...Sermon | By Scott Tayler | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Environment, Generations, Healing, Responsibility, Unitarian Universalism
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Wealth, bounty, scarcity, money, are complex—layered with meaning. We use money all the time, frequently worry over it, try to manage it—but to really think about it is pretty daunting. Money is a tool in a world based upon exchange; it can’t be avoided. At one time people exchanged goods,...Homily | By Hilary Landau Krivchenia | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Judaism, Justice, Money, Relationships, Responsibility, Unitarian Universalism, Wealth
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"Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone;...Quote | By Reinhold Neibuhr | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Faith, Hope, Love, Salvation
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"Humans are part of the web of life. What we do to the planet, what we do to other species, and what we do to other people, we end up doing to ourselves."...Quote | By John Robbins | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Interdependence, Nature, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Responsibility
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A person is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred, that of plants and animals as that of other men and women, and when one devotes oneself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.Quote | By Albert Schweitzer | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animal Blessing, Animals, Connections, Earth, Earth Day, Humanism, Interdependence, Sacred -
NARRATOR: We know Ralph Waldo Emerson. We know the sage of Concord who gave us the doctrine of “self‐reliance” and the belief in the “Oversoul.” He was the leader of the Transcendentalist movement, and is remembered as one of the most important cultural figures of the nineteenth century.Script | By Mark W. Harris | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
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"She wore this circle of friends, when I first knew her, as a necklace of diamonds about her neck. They were so much to each other that Margaret seemed to represent them all, and to know her was to acquire a place with them. The confidences given her were their best, and she held them to them....Quote | By Ralph Waldo Emerson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: America, Friendship, History, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Women
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"She possessed more influence on the thought of American women than any woman previous to her time."...Quote | By Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: America, History, Power, Secular, Women
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"I accept the universe."...Quote | By Margaret Fuller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance
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"Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow."...Quote | By Margaret Fuller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Growth, Purpose, Searching
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"The ship struck at ten minutes after four A.M., and all hands, being mostly in their nightclothes, made haste to the forecastle, the water coming in at once. There they remained; the passengers in the forecastle, the crew above it, doing what they could. Every wave lifted the forecastle roof and...Quote | By Henry David Thoreau | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Death, Despair, History, Pain, Unitarianism
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"The position I early was enabled to take was one of self‐reliance. And were all women as sure of their wants as I was, the result would be the same. But they are so overloaded with precepts and guardians who think that nothing is so much to be dreaded for a woman as originality of thought or...Quote | By Margaret Fuller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Authority, History, Power, Purpose, Self-Respect, Women
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"What Woman needs is not as a woman to act or rule, but as a nature to grow, as an intellect to discern, as a soul to live freely and unimpeded."...Quote | By Margaret Fuller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Freedom, Growth, History, Power, Self-Respect, Women
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"Let it not be said, wherever there is energy or creative genius, ʹShe has a masculine mind.ʹ This by no means argues a willing want of generosity toward Woman. Man is as generous towards her as he knows how to be. Wherever she has herself arisen in national or private history, and nobly shone...Quote | By Margaret Fuller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: History, Men, Respect, Self-Respect, Women
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"We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would have every path laid open to Woman as freely as to Man. Were this done, and a slight temporary fermentation allowed to subside, we should see crystallizations more pure and of more various beauty....Quote | By Margaret Fuller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: America, Equity, Freedom, History, Men, Self-Respect, Women