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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In gatherings we are stirred like the leaves of the fall season rustling around sacred trees, tossed hither and yon until we come to rest together, quietly, softly . . . We come to gather strength from each other. We come to give strength to each other....Poetry | By Marta I. Valentín | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Community, Covenant, Direct Experience, Gratitude, Power, Strength, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness -
I got off work at 7 pm and did the thing where you chase the bus a little bit but then realize you won’t make it and walk sheepishly back to the bus stop. I’m already an hour late to Sunday night singing at the Lucy Stone Cooperative, a UU affordable housing co-op in Boston. I’m still...Reading | By Elizabeth Nguyen | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Commitment, Community, Conflict, Direct Experience, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability
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I’ve always had a tough time falling asleep. As a child, I was skeptical about the whole idea of sleep. I thought, “Who needs it anyway? Can’t we just be awake all the time? Isn’t that what life is all about?” So it is not surprising that, when my now mother-in-law asked me a few years ago...Reading | By Nic Cable | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Choice, Direct Experience, Growth, Identity, Unitarian Universalism, Vision, Youth/Teens
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We are all dying, our lives always moving toward completion. We need to learn to live with death, and to understand that death is not the worst of all events. We need to fear not death, but life— empty lives, loveless lives, lives that do not build upon the gifts that each of us has been given,...Poetry | By Mark D. Morrison-Reed | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Commitment, Death, Direct Experience, Fear, Living Our Faith, Playfulness
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We float on a sea hidden beneath dry surfaces covered by stones. Isn’t this why we drink and dive so deeply go down to the sea in ships risk drowning, again and again? Isn’t this why Moses parted the waters to begin his journey? Why Jesus crossed the waters to comfort and challenge us? We were...Poetry | By Stephen M. Shick | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Awe, Nature, Reverence, Sacred
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I have been wondering what the morning glories know. Is it envy that compels these vines to strangle other flowers arising in their path? Or perhaps self-preservation, to climb these walls, forsaking humbler beings, winding greedy stems around the trellis in their hungry pursuit of light. Still,...Poetry | By Terri Pahucki | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Earth-Centered, Joy, Nature, Reverence
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Why did I listen to Your calling, O God? Why did I step out on faith, O Love? Why did I lift my feet, ignore my fear, and run toward the unknown? Now I am far from home. My heart aches for my familiar land, for people who greeted me with kisses. I can’t see the way back—it doesn’t exist. I...Poetry | By Angela Herrera | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Despair, Direct Experience, Fear, Home, Listening, Searching
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Fill me with anxiety, O Life! Electrify me, make me nervous Beyond any staid concern For those things which challenge Placid, flaccid ways, anachronisms of being. Keep me tense, a-tiptoe, Blinking at the novel, Reaching out for those things Just beyond my fingertips; So that I may make patterns,...Poetry | By Arthur Graham | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Change, Choice, Transformation, Wonder
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A good anger swallowed clots the blood to slime —Marge Piercy But what is to be done with it, this anger that dare not be swallowed? Should it be diluted with denial, cooled with indifference? Should it be sweetened with good intentions, softened with lies? Should it be spewed out red hot over...Poetry | By Stephen M. Shick | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Anger, Direct Experience, Salvation -
Walk the maze within your heart: guide your steps into its questioning curves. This labyrinth is a puzzle leading you deeper into your own truths. Listen in the twists and turns. Listen in the openness within all searching. Listen: a wisdom within you calls to a wisdom beyond you and in that...Poetry | By Leslie Takahashi | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Direct Experience, Listening, Searching, Truth, Unitarian Universalism, Wisdom
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“So...what do you want to do with your life???” There was a time when this question haunted me like an existential crisis. Some might call it being in my twenties, but I certainly didn’t feel that such pain was just “to be expected.” I remember pouring over inspirational books. I found few...Reading | By David Ruffin | March 23, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Challenge, Character, Direct Experience, Identity, Purpose, Searching, Unitarian Universalism, Youth/Teens
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Lay Leader: Our church family is constantly changing. People come and go. Babies are born. Children grow up. People commit themselves to one another. Loved ones and friend among us come to the end of their lives. Individuals move into our community and church life. Others leave us, moving away to...Ritual | By Chip Roush | March 19, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Community, Ending, Leadership, Letting Go, Ministerial Transition, Service, Unitarian Universalism
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Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land to a good and broad land, a land...Meditation | By John Nichols | March 19, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Freedom, God, Integrity, Judaism, Passover (Pesach)
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When the escape from Egypt was certain, when the last furious wave had closed over their enemies' heads and the dangerous waters lay smooth again, when the Israelites could finally turn toward the future without fear that the past would snatch them back--what did they see before them? Not the...Meditation | By Kathleen McTigue | March 19, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Fear, Judaism, Passover (Pesach), Searching, Tradition, Transformation
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They had no idea where they were going, when they left that night, in the dark, without lights, without shoes, without bread, their children smothered against them so they would make no noise....Meditation | By Victoria Safford | March 19, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Courage, Faith, Freedom, Identity, Journey, Judaism, Passover (Pesach), Purpose, Searching, Tradition
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Committed to respond to the call of a wounded world… We join together this day with loving hearts, hands and minds. Embracing the interconnected web of water, air and earth… We light a fire of sustaining hope, ever bright with love and justice. May we bring forth this day new wisdom, strength...Opening | By Lynn Harrison | March 18, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Climate Justice, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Home, Nature, Responsibility, Unitarian Universalism -
During the hot Nebraska summers of my childhood, I spent hours, high in my treehouse, devouring the books I found in the small collection my parents had acquired from the estates of various relatives. One of my favorites was A Wonder Book, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retelling of classical myths. My...Reading | By Barbara Rohde | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Climate Justice, Commitment, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Interdependence, Nature, Responsibility, Unitarian Universalism
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Of course truth is hard. It is a rock. Yet I do not think it will fall upon me And crush me. I do not think they can hammer it to bits And stone me. Help me place the rock in the strong current Of these rushing waters. I must climb upon it. I must know how truth feels....Poetry | By Barbara Rohde | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Climate Justice, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Nature, Strength, Truth, Water Communion -
Nature provides ready metaphors for peace and justice. Jesus' peaceful kingdom is described as a mustard seed that grows into a large bush, providing shelter to all. the Hebrew prophet Amos cried for justice to roll down like water, and we sing, "I've got peace like a river" and "strength like a...Reading | By Stephen M. Shick | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Climate Justice, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Justice, Nature, Peace, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Vision
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The road of history is long, full of both hope and disappointment. In times past, there have been wars and rumors of wars, violence and exploitation, hunger and homelessness, and destruction of this earth, your creation....Prayer | By Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley, Clyde Grubbs | March 17, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Climate Justice, Courage, Generations, Justice, Leadership, Progress