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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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  • Two fireworks exploding in a deep black sky. The two explosions each take the shape of a dandelion, with streaks of white light coming out of a colorful center. The firework on the left is pale green, with red at the center; the one on the right ranges from yellow in the center to red and purple at the edges.
    Rejoice! May this time of worship celebrate what we know at our core.
    Opening | By Rebekah Savage | October 30, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Faith, Gratitude, Joy, Transformation, Worship
  • In the foreground there is a mostly leafless sapling, standing in a field of brown grass. In the distance, at the far edges of the field, there much larger trees, still with green leaves.
    Justice is our prayer. We affirm in covenant with the Beloved Community that is possible.
    Opening | By Rebekah Savage | October 30, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Community, Equity, Growth, Interdependence, Justice, Patience, Worship
  • A Black person's hands, cupped together, hold a polished, red heart-shaped stone.
    “What is the most loving, life-affirming choice I can make in response to life’s circumstances?”
    Reflection | By Takiyah Nur Amin | October 30, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Anti-Oppression, Conscience, Contemplation, Direct Experience, Discernment, God, Interfaith, Living Our Faith, Love, Power, Self-Respect, Spirituality, Worship
  • A murmuration of birds, seen from a distance. The birds form a black cloud of varying density, seen against a sky streaked with clouds. The clouds near the horizon show a touch of red from the rising or setting sun.
    May our time together honor all the hopes we hold within; may our time together bless us with the gifts of inspiration, comfort and renewal.
    Opening | By Rebekah Savage | October 29, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Community, Creativity, Growth, Home, Hope, Peace, Purpose, Strength, Wholeness, Worship
  • A black-and-white photograph of a white man sitting on a bench outside of a building, wearing sneakers, black pants, and a warm cloth coat. The man’s head is bent down, his forearms rest on his knees, and his hands are clasped between his knees. It looks as though he is troubled, or lost in thought.
    Figuring out the why doesn’t really help me. My work is to figure out the how.
    Reading | By Karen Brigid Taliesin | October 29, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Challenge, God, Living Our Faith, Meaning, Pain, Spirituality, Worship
  • Several arms and hands with different skin tones are intertwined and connected.
    Originally designed for the Safety Conference Threats from Without, Care from Within, this short worship service recording offers a time of refuge and centering during troubled times. View it alone or as a group.
    Sermon, Video | By Rosemary Bray McNatt, Mariela Pérez-Simons, Jules Taylor | October 23, 2024 (reviewed November 2024) | From WorshipLab
    Tagged as: Congregational Action, Resilience, Trauma, Worship
  • Two hikers wearing backpacks, seen from behind, hiking on a path in the woods.
    Only when my knowledge is combined with uncountable others does Truth emerge.
    Reflection | By JD Stillwater | October 23, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Worship
  • A woman cups her forehead in her hand, as if crying. She holds a coffee mug in the other hand. In front of her, on a lap desk, is an open journal and a lit candle.
    After the shattering, all that remains is another ordinary day.
    Reflection | By Donna Moriarty | October 16, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Brokenness, Despair, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Grief, Healing, Hope, Parents, Purpose, Sorrow, Spirituality, Strength, Worship
  • A map of the world from 1862, drawn using the Mercator projection. The oceans are shown in off-white, while the nations of the world are colored in pale shades of blue, red, and pink, as well as white.
    I don’t want a smoothed-out, disproportionately aggrandized faith that attempts to draw all comers to its one self-righteous place at the top of the map of humanity… Instead, I want an imaginative and wandering faith of holy cartographers…
    Reading | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | October 15, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Compassion, Connections, Diversity, Inclusion, Listening, Living Our Faith, Resilience, Transformation, Worship
  • A tree with a large reddish-brown trunk and many branches, whose green leaves create a canopy that covers the sky from our perspective. A portion of another large tree can be seen to the left. The lighting seems to make the tree and the ground at its feet glow.
    When your mind is silent… the forest suddenly becomes magnificently real and blazes transparently with the Reality of God.
    Quote | By Thomas Merton | October 15, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Contemplation, Immanence, Mindfulness, Nature, Sacred, Silence, Worship
  • Against a pale blue cloudless sky we see a leafless tree on a small rise in the desert. The light brown earth surrounding the tree is mostly covered by dark grey-green scrub. Behind the tree there is a rocky outcropping.
    Silence is never merely a cessation of words… Rather, it is the pause that holds together—indeed, it makes sense of all the both spoken and unspoken.
    Quote | By John Chryssavgis | October 14, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Contemplation, Immanence, Mindfulness, Sacred, Silence, Worship
  • A small pile of painted rocks outdoors; one, painted with stripes, says LOVE
    We need one another so that when our own little spring of hope dries up, there is a community well from which we can drink.
    Affirmation | By Julia Hamilton | October 9, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Disaster or Crisis, Worship
  • A cluster of Black volunteers, wearing matching blue T-shirts, talk and smile outdoors. Similarly-dressed volunteers chat in the background, implying a large group event.
    The work of justice can’t be carried out by one person–or even a few diverse people.
    Reflection | By Antoinette Scully | October 9, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: #UUTheVote, Worship
  • A parent holding the hand of a small child approaches a red van with an open door, where North Carolina Army National Guard Soldiers work with a school cafeteria worker to distribute breakfast meals.
    There will be help and community and kindness....
    Meditation | By Elizabeth Barish Browne | October 8, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Disaster or Crisis, Humanism, Worship
  • In a gym-turned-polling station, multiple adults stand at individual voting booths filling out ballots. An American flag and "vote" are stenciled on the side of one partition.
    A worship collection celebrating democracy as a promise and a practice
    Leader Resource | October 7, 2024 | From WorshipLab
    Tagged as: #UUTheVote, Activism, America, Democracy, Worship
  • A close-up of a leaf, whose many closely-spaced veins are colored green and red. The first impression is of an abstract pattern of curving parallel lines.
    Let us continue to grow as citizens of our communities, our nation, and our world. Let us work to build the common good, for ourselves and the generations to come.
    Closing | By Shari Woodbury | October 5, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Community, Earth, Generations, Growth, Worship
  • Dark, heavy clouds over the ocean, seen from the coast. Behind the nearly-black clouds, near the horizon, we see indirectly the brightness of the sun. Its light gives a golden glow to the parts of the ocean and sky that are not in deep shadow from the clouds.
    Voice still and small, as we turn inward we listen for you. Deep inside all, this Easter morning, open our hearts to hear you in the figure of Jesus.
    Prayer | By Shari Woodbury | October 5, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christianity, Community, Compassion, Courage, Death, Easter, Grief, Hope, Love, Pain, Truth, Worship
  • A black and white photograph of two hands — one perhaps older, one perhaps younger — holding one another. The hands are starkly lit against a black background.
    This prayer is designed to be woven into the song “Comfort Me,” #1002 in Singing the Journey.
    Prayer | By Shari Woodbury | October 4, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Caring, Community, Compassion, Despair, Empathy, Growth, Healing, Hope, Interdependence, Joys & Concerns, Music Sunday, Suffering, Worship
  • Looking from inside a room through a set of four tall arched windows, we see a garden with some tall purple salvia-like flowers. Beyond the garden a wide grassy field stretches to the horizon, where there are trees and hills.
    There is no separation, here, of the sacred from the profane. No setting apart from the natural world.
    Opening | By Shari Woodbury | October 4, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Beauty, Body, Connections, Interdependence, Nature, Sacred, Spirituality, Spring, Worship
  • In a muddy field under a gray sky, people in raincoats kneel in the mud, harvesting vegetables to stack in plastic crates.
    I care that fascism is not just approaching, but is already here, rising, like this cresting river.
    Reflection | By Karen G. Johnston | October 2, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: #UUTheVote, Disaster or Crisis, Worship