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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A meat eater comes up to a vegan: “Did you hear about the new study saying vegans are more likely to go blind? I guess it’s because you don’t get the proper nutrition.” The vegan replied, “Nah, it’s just from reading all of those tiny ingredient lists.” Vegans (vegetarians who don’t...Sermon | By LoraKim Joyner | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Animals, Compassion, Food, Food Justice, Responsibility -
Working to feed the hungry and obtain adequate food for poor people in our society has long been central to my own justice and service work. When I was in high school, I spent many weekends volunteering with a group called Youth Service Opportunities Project....Sermon | By Michael J. Tino | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Abundance, Body, Direct Experience, Earth, Food, Food Justice, Unitarian Universalism
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On a deeper level, do we consider what we are eating and whether its origins are compatible with our personal values? Since the beginning of time, dietary practices have been incorporated into the religious practices of humanity....Reading | By Gerri Kennedy | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Body, Ethics, Food Justice, Nature, Prophetic Words & Deeds
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I [do not] mean to present myself as some kind of bodhisattva of compassion. However, in my better moments—at least in my more conscious moments—while I’m eating, I do try to imagine the lives and even the deaths of the creatures who nourish me. I try to think of the freedom and exhilaration...Reading | By Lillian Nye | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Activism, Animals, Body, Earth Day, Ethics, Food, Food Justice, Nature, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism, Work -
"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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To me democracy is an exciting, living practice, what we do every day. To most democracy doesn’t relate to our daily lives and it sure isn’t much fun. I now see that to engage in democracy, to jump into this living practice we all need something tangible to act on... Because food is our most...Quote | By Frances Moore Lappe | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Commitment, Democracy, Direct Experience, Food, Food Justice, Meaning
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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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"I am absurdly fearful, and various omens have combined to give me a dark feeling. I am become indeed a miserable coward, for the sake of Angelino. I fear heat and cold, fear the voyage, fear biting poverty....Quote | By Margaret Fuller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: America, Death, Fear, History, Unitarianism
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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
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"I never lived, that I remember, what you call a common natural day. All my days are touched by the supernatural, for I feel the pressure of hidden causes, and the presence, sometimes the communion, of unseen powers. It needs not that I should ask the clairvoyant whether a spirit‐world projects...Quote | By Margaret Fuller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, History, Mystery, Presence, Wonder