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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

Search Words for Worship Services

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  • Taken from a balcony looking down, people enter a Unitarian church building with red carpet. They are entering wooden pews with hymnals in their arms.
    Whether your congregation is layled or whether you have a professional minister (maybe you are the professional minister!), it's not always easy to fill the worship schedule.
    Complete Service | By Erika Hewitt | September 27, 2024 | From WorshipLab
    Tagged as: Worship
  • A black-and-white image of three Polaroid photographs, slightly overlapping one another, on a wooden table with visible grain. The faded and slightly blurry photos look like they are casual shots of a few people sitting on risers in a high-school or college gym, and they give the impression of having been taken long ago.
    A ritual for honoring and remembering beloved ancestors and the recently departed, with roots in both the Christian and Pagan traditions.
    Ritual | By Tiffany Fae Anderson | September 26, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Death, Family, Grief, Healing, History, Letting Go, Love, Memorial Services, Samhain, Worship
  • Two LatinX preteens, crouched on the ground, feeding three black chickens and a speckled rooster.
    Like the free-roaming roosters of the Caribbean, no one can tell me I don’t belong.
    Reflection | By Raquel V. Reyes | September 25, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Anti-Oppression, Character, Direct Experience, Identity, Integrity, International, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Vulnerability, Worship
  • The smoothly curving walls of a desert canyon, in which the many sedimentary layers of rock are visible in the red and orange stripes that follow the bends of the surface. The photo is cropped so that the pattern formed by the sedimentary layers appears to be an abstract design.
    …those of us who believe in human rights for everyone; who believe in fundamentals of fairness, of equality, of equity; who believe in recognizing injustices of past, of present, and being accountable for ending them…
    Poetry | By Charles Thomas | September 24, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Accountability, Environment, Equity, Freedom, Justice, Nature, Peace, Rights, Worship
  • A mural of a large red heart on a blue background, painted on a pair of wooden doors in a brick wall.
    Together we create a love energy more powerful than any force of oppression…
    Poetry | By Dayna Edwards | September 24, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Community, Democracy, Faith, Hope, Love, Oppression, Politics, Worship
  • A black-and-white overhead photo of about 20 books, standing on their short edges, crowded together in various directions. Viewed from above, each book looks somewhat like a fan, with the covers slightly open and the pages spreading out radially from the spine.
    This liturgy is for a ritual where the members of the congregation each bring to the service a meaningful book they would like to give away, and each member takes home a book that someone else has brought.
    Ritual | By Jami Yandle | September 23, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Arts & Music, Community, Education, Generosity, Imagination, Revelation, Wisdom, Worship
  • A group of half a dozen women, apparently part of a larger congregation, standing and singing in church. The three women in primary focus are clapping or snapping fingers.
    This liturgy provides words for a portion of a service devoted to hymn-singing. It should be possible to combine this with many of the usual elements of a congregation’s worship service. You will need to have an accompanist who can sight-read well, and it would be helpful to have a songleader.
    Script | By Kristin Grassel Schmidt | September 22, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Arts & Music, Community, Creativity, Music Sunday, Playfulness, Worship
  • A close up of a clear, bubbly beverage being poured into a clear wine glass, held by a person.
    All of us are active participants in co-creating congregational and community life.
    Reflection | September 18, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Accountability, Addiction/Recovery, Hospitality, Inclusion, Individualism, Responsibility, Worship
  • One person leading another by the hand on a city street. Our point of view is from near the right shoulder of the person being led, who is a white man wearing a long-sleeve grey knit shirt. All we see of him is his arm stretched out to the leader’s hand, which he is holding. The leader, a white woman, is wearing a jean jacket with the sleeve rolled up to just below the elbow; she is also wearing a turquoise bracelet and a red cloth bracelet. We see her arm and torso but not her head.
    Lead us to the love that holds us all and is with us always; the love that can help us through the messy and necessary life-altering work of building movements across beliefs, across difference, for change that can endure.
    Prayer | By DL Helfer | September 13, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Community, Democracy, Generations, Hope, Listening, Love, Politics, Rights, Teamwork, Worship
  • A close-up photo of one cosmos flower in a group of several. The flower’s striated petals are mostly violet, but are a deeper reddish purple near the many yellow stamens in the flower’s center.
    Ours is the work of creation. Ours is the work of inviting people into an irresistible movement, rooted in our belief that a new world is possible. And the center of our work is love, and joy, and the spirit of abundance.
    Prayer | By Lisa Garcia-Sampson | September 13, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Community, Democracy, Generations, Hope, Joy, Justice, Love, Politics, Worship
  • A glass ball, held in a person’s hand at the sea shore, acts as a lens and shows an inverted image of the sea and the sunset sky. The image in the glass ball is sharp and in focus; the actual sea and sky, visible around the ball, is out of focus.
    As we light this chalice, we kindle the spirit of the great turning: the movement for justice alive in this nation today. May we feel it in our bones, and in the stillness of this hour, may we sense it calling our name.
    Chalice Lighting | By Lisa Garcia-Sampson | September 13, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Community, Democracy, Generations, Hope, Justice, Love, Politics, Worship
  • A white wooden sign with “polling station” written on it in capital letters is attached with a zip tie to a fence surrounding a park, near a yellow turnstile gate in the fence. In the background, blurred, we see several people on a grassy lawn in the park, with trees behind them.
    As Unitarian Universalists, we believe democracy is more than a political system; it is a shared journey, a collective responsibility, and a profound act of faith in one another.
    Reading | By E. N. Hill | September 12, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Community, Democracy, Generations, Hope, Love, Politics, Rights, Teamwork, Worship
  • The painting “Our Banner in the Sky” (1861) by Frederic Edwin Church. The lower third of the painting is a dark landscape with hills, trees, and a river. The top two-thirds consists of the sky, with streaks of clouds colored red by the light of the setting sun, and a patch of starry night sky visible. A limbless tree trunk rises on the left, and combined with the red and white lines of clouds and the patch of starry sky, gives the impression of the flag of the United States flying on a flagpole.
    Oh Spirit of Life and Love, fortify us with the wisdom and tenacity of our ancestors to continue toward the promise in the founding documents of our nation: a nation where all of us are created as equals and are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
    Prayer | By Dayna Edwards | September 11, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Community, Democracy, Generations, Hope, Love, Politics, Rights, Teamwork, Worship
  • A young Black person wearing a dark blue-black durag and a white T-shirt faces away from us, with their left hand raised in a fist and their right hand holding a hand-drawn sign on white paperboard. The sign’s text, in reddish-brown ink, says: “Liberty & Justice for ALL!” The person is standing in front of a small group of people, too blurry to make out distinctly.
    Our faith also gives us hope. A faith that knows that transformation is a holy and sacred task, that affirms that the democratic process is a faithful act, that brings a generous heart and a lens of justice and liberation to all that we do, that values equality and equity and is centered in love.
    Prayer | By Dayna Edwards | September 11, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Community, Democracy, Generations, Hope, Love, Politics, Rights, Teamwork, Worship
  • In a somewhat crowded church or community center, two middle-aged men lean over a chair to embrace one another. One has greying hair and is wearing a light blue short-sleeve shirt, and one has black hair and is wearing an olive-green short-sleeve shirt.
    As we set down this work for the day, may we release with it all that has wounded us, keeping close only what has fed and enlivened our spirit... When we bless the world with our love, we are blessed in return.
    Blessing | By Jodi Cohen Hayashida | September 11, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #UUTheVote, America, Community, Democracy, Generations, Hope, Love, Politics, Rights, Teamwork, Worship
  • A man with light brown skin in a white T-shirt and with his black hair in a ponytail holds a binder and a small American flag on a stick as he stands on the porch of a house. He is turned partly away from us, and is speaking with an older man, also with light brown skin, whose gray hair falls past his shoulders onto his blue, green, and purple plaid shirt. The older man is inside the house, and the door is open.
    In these times of fragmentation... to canvass is to choose the deeper assurance of interconnectedness and to heed the call of radical, all-embracing love.
    Blessing | By Jodi Cohen Hayashida | September 11, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #UUTheVote, America, Community, Democracy, Generations, Hope, Love, Politics, Rights, Teamwork, Worship
  • A light-skinned Black woman sits in an office chair, grasping her head in exasperation and gritting her teeth. Around her, blurred, are the figures of office workers rushing by.
    What do you do when you’re really angry with someone and you can’t seem to let it go?
    Reflection | By Laura Horton-Ludwig | September 11, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Anger, Brokenness, Buddhism, Compassion, Worship
  • 40 or 50 varied and colorful lamps hanging in a display at lamp market. In the background, dimly lit, is a person working with other lamps.
    Let our hearts be welcoming of multiple truths, not holding hard or fast to closed mindedness or judgmental thinking. What can we learn from each other in the richness of our differences?
    Prayer | By Julianne Lepp | September 4, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Accountability, Community, Compassion, Connections, Diversity, Interdependence, Pluralism, Wholeness, Worship
  • A person inside a stationary car, in the driver's seat, sits with closed eyes, holding their hand to their forehead as if trying to calm down.
    Staying present to what’s real—our world, our hope, our stories—can help us embody our values.
    Reflection | By Lindasusan Ulrich | September 4, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Worship
  • A clean, empty, brown paper cup photographed against a nondescript grey background.
    During your congregation’s water ceremony, UUs for Justice in the Middle East invite you to place an empty paper cup next to the congregational vessel in solidarity with Palestinians.
    Ritual | By Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East (UUJME) | August 28, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Freedom, Human Rights, Justice, Oppression, Peace, Solidarity, Trauma, War, Water Communion, Worship