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An unlit chalice on a church altar

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.

LEADER RESOURCE 2 Rituals to Welcome a New Child
a medieval window from the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, Scotland, depicting the Nativity
Islamic prayer beads or Subha inside the Süleymaniye Moque (Istanbul).
An altar filled with candles, photos, and flowers

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  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    We affirm the power of Love to heal what is broken, to hold us together across pluralities of diverse religious practices and beliefs, to hold us when things fall apart, to grow our capacities, and to guide us as we return again and again in our families and communities to side with Love.
    Quote | By Sheri Prud’homme | April 25, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #UUAGA, Growth, Healing, Love, Pluralism, UUA Bylaws, Vision for UUism
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    In a patchwork quilt, each piece of fabric contains a story in itself—where, when, and how it was made; what other garment or fabric it once was part of; who created and touched the fabric. Sewn together, the quilt collectively tells other stories…
    Quote | By Sheri Prud’homme | April 25, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #UUAGA, Community, Interdependence, UUA Bylaws, Vision for UUism
  • A greyscale silhouette of a person extending their open hand towards the viewer. The image is highly foreshortened, with the hand looming large in the image and the person seemingly far away.
    We proclaim with Love on our side: Our bodies are sacred. Our minds are blessed. Our spirits are beloved.
    Chalice Lighting | By Karishma Gottfried | April 24, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Body, Fat Liberation, Grace, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Love, Sacred, Worship
  • A red fox looks into the camera, which is positioned on the yellow stripe separating the two sides of a county road. We see the otherwise empty road receding far into the distance, but the fox is prominent in the foreground. Blurred bushes and trees — yellow, orange, and dark green — line the sides of the road.
    Today, we are charged to remember. To know that as we live together in community, we are also in community with the silently singing lives in the vast congregation of the earth as well... Let us remember, and then act.
    Reading | By Irene Glasse, Rebekah Savage | April 24, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Connections, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Environment, Nature, Sacred, Worship
  • Inside a car, a young adult sits behind the driver's seat. In the passenger seat is someone implied to be a driving instructor due to the clipboard he's holding.
    When I remember to orient myself within the bigger picture, it recalibrates my perspective.
    Reflection | By Kat Liu | April 24, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Balance, Worship
  • "Trees of Justice Grow Everywhere Love is Present" visual and pneumonic for remembering Article 2 values.
    Remembering the proposed Unitarian Universalist Association's Article 2 values is as easy as counting on your fingers!
    Time for All Ages | By Emily C. Jones | April 19, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #Article2, Equity, Generosity, Interdependence, Justice, Love, Pluralism, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism
  • Above a cityscape, in a black-and-white photo, a lone crow or corvid spreads its wings mid-flight.
    Crows found ways to adapt to our concrete forests but we have not yet found ways to make sure we are in balance with the rest of creation.
    Reflection | By Christine Slocum | April 17, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Interdependence, Nature, Worship
  • “Priestess of Delphi,” an 1891 painting by John Collier. A woman in a brown dress, with her face partially shadowed by a red fabric hair covering, sits on a tall stool over a crack in the earth below her, from which visible fumes are rising. She holds a shallow bowl in her right hand and a laurel branch in her left.
    Some geologists believe that gases from the earth caused the Delphic oracle’s fits of passion and her prophecies. But the scientific answer does not mean the Greeks were foolish to believe they had a relationship with Apollo; it does not erase the relationship they had with their gods.
    Time for All Ages | By Julie Rigano | April 12, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Belief, Faith, Mystery, Nature, Reason, Science, Worship
  • Large waves crashing on barely-visible rocks.
    Disturbance opens the terrain for transformative encounters… Humanists, not used to thinking with disturbance, connect the term with damage. But disturbance, as used by ecologists, is not always bad—and not always human.
    Reading | By Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing | April 10, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Change, Environment, Interdependence, Nature, Worship
  • A beaver dam on a pond in a grassy mountain meadow, surrounded by pines and other trees.
    All organisms make ecological living places, altering earth, air, and water... In the process, each organism changes everyone’s world.
    Reading | By Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing | April 10, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Connections, Environment, Interdependence, Nature, Science, Worship
  • In a dark room, white-hot molten metal is poured from a crucible into a mold. We see leather-clad arms holding a long-handled tool to help guide the flow.
    Here we engage in a holy alchemy, finding beauty in the ordinary and life in the present.
    Opening | By Kim Mason | April 6, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Beauty, Community, Connections, Solidarity, Transformation, Worship
  • A photo looking directly up into the Tiffany glass dome of the Chicago Public Library's Preston Bradley Hall. Seven concentric circles, each composed of thousands of blue or white panes of glass, surround the central chandelier, itself composed of hundred of translucent white panes of glass.
    A centering practice for meetings, gatherings or worship in person or online.
    Meditation | By Lauren Wyeth | April 4, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Body, Connections, Contemplation, Immanence, Love, Mindfulness, Spiritual Practice, Worship
  • A white and brown shofar resting on a piece of blue satin.
    If you have come here tonight on Rosh Hashanah and feel that there is nothing to examine, no wound in your life to heal, no relationship to repair—then I hope you will listen especially closely to the shofar.
    Quote | By Angela Buchdahl | April 4, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Grief, Healing, Judaism, Reconciliation, Rosh Hashanah, Worship
  • Close-up photo of the veins and midrib of a green leaf.
    We come from many places—along different paths, bringing different truths.
    Chalice Lighting | By Pat Uribe-Lichty | March 31, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Community, Diversity, Healing, Justice, Peace, Unity, Wholeness, Worship
  • Four Advent candles in a row in front of a deep black background. All four are lit. The third from the left is pink, and the others are purple.
    Prayers to be said on the four Sundays of Advent while lighting the Advent candle wreath.
    Prayer | By Elizabeth Barish Browne | March 29, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christianity, Hope, Joy, Love, Patience, Peace, Worship
  • A hand holding a piece of chalk against a blank green chalkboard, as if poised to write. The hand is pale-skinned, and the part of the arm we see is clothed in a white shirt with cuffs.
    Let this year be a clean slate for new beginnings.
    Prayer | By Addae Ama Kraba | March 29, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Beginnings, Courage, Creativity, Empathy, New Year, Peace, Worship
  • A singing bird on a branch, silhouetted against a red and orange sunrise
    I look up and experience her music as a Beatitude of Peace, a feathery sonnet that rings of grace and hope...
    Poetry | By Jennifer Pratt-Walter | March 29, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Courage, Hope, Love, Nature, Peace, Worship
  • Behind clouds that are faintly lit by the last light of day, a thin crescent moon and a few stars are visible in the blue/black sky.
    There in the deep sack of night, a tiny Hope was born. 
    Poetry | By Jennifer Pratt-Walter | March 29, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Beginnings, Birth, Earth-Centered, Hope, Joy, Love, Peace, Sacred, Winter Solstice / Yule, Worship
  • A person with white skin holds, in their upturned palms, a strand of help. Beneath their hands we see the person's feet standing on sand.
    This is my favorite thing about seaweed: it feels so much like my neurodiverse brain.
    Reflection | By Quinn Gormley | March 20, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Honesty, Imagination, Nature, Personal Stories, Self-Care, Worship
  • A painting of a person's head, in profile. Their brain and the background are both awash in swirls of color, galaxy-like sparks and stars, and cosmic texture.
    People who aren't neurodiverse tend to frame neurodiversity as symptoms of inconvenience to people around them. For me, my ADHD means beauty.
    Reflection | By Quinn Gormley | March 13, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Beauty, Direct Experience, Identity, Multiculturalism, Psychology, Self-Respect, Wonder, Worship