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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“Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.”...Quote | By Peter A. Levine | March 4, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Brokenness, Direct Experience, Empathy, Healing, Humanism, Secular, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Trauma -
So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment. We are utterly open with no one, in the end—not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, not child, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we...Quote | By Brian Doyle | March 4, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Brokenness, Healing, Love, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Vulnerability -
We all have our foibles; pieces of ourselves that we both admire and occasionally revile. These gifts and struggles exist in tandem.Reflection | By Alix Klingenberg | March 4, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Body, Compassion, Direct Experience, Discernment, Self-Care, Self-Respect -
an original retelling Daedalus was a brilliant inventor, and he had made a career, even a legend of himself for being able to create the seemingly impossible. So when he decided to escape from his tower prison by flying over the ocean like a bird, his son, Icarus, had no doubt he would do it. It...Story | By Erica Shadowsong | March 4, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Children, Conscience, Courage, Creativity, Freedom, Humility, Individualism, Parents, Searching -
In 1919, Henry Hallam Saunderson, minister of the First Parish Church (Unitarian) of Brighton (MA), decided to create “wayside sermons,” liberal messages that would make people stop, read, and search their conscience.Leader Resource | March 3, 2020 | From WorshipLab -
How might Unitarian Universalists acknowledge the sacred sources of people's water, in the annual Water Ceremony, without creating a parade of privilege and/or centering the ritual around an open mic?Leader Resource | March 3, 2020 | From WorshipLabTagged as: Water Communion -
If God’s name is love, then God compels us to resist the fall to sinful violence by pushing back with muscular resolve against the social structures that confine our capacity to care. A universalist God for a tragic era is not a gauzy, hymn-singing force of personal devotion that draws us...Quote | By Nancy McDonald Ladd | February 29, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Commitment, God, Living Our Faith, Purpose, Responsibility, Universalism -
Vibrant, thriving congregations arise from a meaningful worship life—which is based on the presence & energy that its leaders bring to worship. In this post, we’ll explore practices and skills that empower worship leaders to strengthen and deepen worship. Beginning Assumptions When people are in...Leader Resource | By Erika Hewitt | February 26, 2020 | From WorshipLab -
Worship planning is an act of hospitality. ...Leader Resource | February 26, 2020 | From WorshipLabTagged as: Hospitality, Relationships -
Stories are a powerful tool in worship, especially multigenerational worship.Leader Resource | February 26, 2020 | From WorshipLab -
Sermon sparks are brief teasers of sermons that have been written and delivered by UU clergy.Leader Resource | February 26, 2020 | From WorshipLab -
Before I birthed my baby, he was a possibility, a kick against my insides. With that first cry, first breath, he became a person in the world.Reflection | By Caitlin Cotter Coillberg | February 26, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Beginnings, Birth, Body, Children, Death, Direct Experience, Family, Grief, Mothers, Sacred -
If we aren’t willing to ask the important, uncomfortable, and even scary questions, we won’t get to larger and deeper truths.Reflection | By Katie Romano Griffin | February 19, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Direct Experience, Humanism, Responsibility, Searching, Secular, Truth -
Pleasure reminds us to enjoy being alive and on purpose... Pleasure—embodied, connected pleasure—is one of the way we know when we are free. That we are always free. That we always have the power to co-create the world. Pleasure helps us move through the times that are unfair, through grief and...Quote | By Adrienne Maree Brown | February 15, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Beauty, Body, Direct Experience, Humanism, Joy, Love, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Sexuality, Spiritual Practice, Wholeness -
A lot of us feel like our lives should have come with instructions. Or maybe they did, but we lost the only copy a long time ago.Reflection | By Elea Kemler | February 12, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Brokenness, Caring, Change, Direct Experience, Friendship, Humanism, Interdependence, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Trust, Vulnerability -
We are not automatic lovers of self, others, world, or God. Love does not just happen.Quote | By Carter Heyward | February 7, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Choice, Commitment, Direct Experience, Love, New Member Ceremony, Relationships, Valentine's Day, Weddings and Commitment Ceremonies -
I come from a long line of strong Black women. My grandmother used to share stories about how she caused “trouble” in town when a white man hired her to put up the displays in his store window. At that time, all the Black women in town worked as domestics in the homes of white ladies, or in the...Reflection | By Rayla D. Mattson | February 5, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Friendship, Generations, Integrity, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Truth, Women -
We have so many opportunities to bless each other in this world, but they don’t always announce themselves as moments of profound transformation.Reflection | By Lindasusan Ulrich | February 5, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Acceptance, Body, Direct Experience, Diversity, Fat Liberation, Friendship, Humanism, Kindness, Relationships, Secular, Youth/Teens -
Surround yourself with skillful teachers. Let them teach you, but don't let them do it for you. That learning is yours to do.Reflection | By Karen G. Johnston | January 22, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Arts & Music, Beauty, Brokenness, Creativity, Direct Experience, Growth, Humanism, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular -
One: To become is a life long process. Nothing is constant, not even the self. We evolve in the midst of narratives meant only for some and ways of being made narrow by fear and power. We must, then, have the courage to listen to the truth of our own lives, to the wisdom that comes from within—...Litany | By enfleshed | January 21, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Change, Connections, Direct Experience, Growth, Humanism, Interdependence, Love, Relationships, Sacred, Transformation, Valentine's Day