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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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  • 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
  • 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