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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Out of the earth Rises light, Rises life, Rises spring. May we join with the miracle that is springtime, and enter into life with lightness and joy. Out of the spirit Rises faith, Rises hope, Rises love. May we join with the miracle that is Easter time, and enter into life with hope and love....Opening | By Elizabeth M Strong | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Easter, Transformation -
One of the old ones stood up into the morning light and spoke to those who had come back to the river: "Now we have come again to this place; it is a good thing. My life apart from you is not as strong. "Yes, I have danced and I have told the stories at my own fire and I have sung to all the six...Opening | By Barbara J Pescan | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Buddhism, Connections, Friendship
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May we come into this building hallowed by generations of thoughtful worship. May we come into the company of this congregation, enlightened by reason and moved by concern. May we come with open minds and warm hearts....Opening | By Kenneth R Warren | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Service, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism
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Let there be joy in our coming together this morning. Let there be truth heard in the words we speak and the songs we sing. Let there be help and healing for our disharmony and despair. Let there be silence for the voice within us and beyond us. Let there be joy in our coming together.Opening | By Carl Seaburg | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Joy, Redemption, Silence
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Leave aside the little thoughts that distract you from the depths of your soul, For this is a holy place, and now is a holy time. Join with the others in this room, this community of seekers, and together, let us find our Sabbath.Opening | By John Gibb Millspaugh | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Community, Reverence, Sacred, Searching
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In this quiet hour may our spirits be renewed. In this gathering of friends may we be ready to extend ourselves to those in need, and with trust to receive the hand that is offered. In this community of ideals may we remember the principles that guide us and reflect upon those things that give...Opening | By Gary Kowalski | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Service, Spirituality, Unitarian Universalism
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Deep calls unto deep, joy calls unto joy, light calls unto light. Let the kindling of this flame rekindle in us the inner light of love, of peace, of hope. And "as one flame lights another, nor grows the less,” we pledge ourselves to be bearers of the light, wherever we are.Chalice Lighting | By Gordon B McKeeman | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Calling, Caring, Commitment, Community, Covenant, Hope, Journey, Joy, Love, Peace -
For holy days on which we recall the old stories, we light the flame. For Passover which reminds us of the courage and strength of those seeking freedom in the past, we light the flame. For Easter which reminds us that love is our greatest challenge, we light the flame....Chalice Lighting | By Dillman Baker Sorrells | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Challenge, Christianity, Community, Courage, Easter, Freedom, History, Judaism, Love, Passover (Pesach), Sacred, Searching, Strength, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism -
Easter gets its name from the Teutonic goddess of spring and the dawn, whose name is spelled Oestre or Eastre. (The origin of the word east, the direction of the rising sun, comes from various Germanic, Austro-Hungarian words for dawn that share the root for the word aurora, which means “to...Reading | By Adrianne Ross | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Easter, Paganism, Vernal Equinox -
May means Mother’s Day. I’m going to trust Hallmark and daddies and six year-olds and grown-up kids who are mommies themselves to honor the mothers among us as they deserve to be honored—with brass bands, flags flying, breakfast in bed (and kitchens cleaned up afterwards). I wish for those...Reading | By Katie Lee Crane | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Children, Family, Fathers, Mother's Day, Mothers, Parents -
Emmanuel means "God is with us." Who is your Emmanuel? Who is your "God is with us," the one you were promised, the one you have been waiting for? For the ancient prophet Isaiah, he was a boy soon to be born who would guide the people of Judah back to peace and harmony with God....Meditation | By Sarah Movius Schurr | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Beauty, Belief, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, God, Listening, Searching, Tradition, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder -
Dear God, hear and bless Your beasts and singing birds; And guard with tenderness Small things that have no words...Prayer | By Anonymous | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Animals, Awe, Children's Sabbath, Compassion, God, Nature
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In this familiar place, listen: to the sounds of breathing, creaking chairs, shuffling feet, clearing throats, and sighing all around Know that each breath, movement, the glance meant for you or intercepted holds a life within it....Prayer | By Barbara J Pescan | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Body, Community, Connections, Presence, Silence, Unitarian Universalism
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For dragonflies, butterflies, Caterpillars on leaves, Lizards, wild turkeys, and tigers and deer, We give thanks! For sunset and seashells And starfish and sand, Octopus, jellyfish, and hammerhead shark, We give thanks!...Prayer | By Gail Forsyth-Vail | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Children, Earth, Earth-Centered, Gratitude, Nature
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Spirit of life, help me remember that all animals belong. Bless the bats for eating mosquitoes. Bless the crows and buzzards for cleaning up the dead, and bless even the snakes, who keep the mice out of the rice. Each of them is important. And each does good in its own way. Blessed be.Prayer | By Eliza Blanchard | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Earth-Centered, Purpose, Service
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In English This is a prayer for all the travelers. For the ones who start out in beauty, who fall from grace, who step gingerly, looking for the way back. And for those who are born into the margins, who travel from one liminal space to another, crossing boundaries in search of center. This is a...Spanish | Meditation | By Angela Herrera | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Home, Journey, Multiculturalism, Multiculturalism, Partner Church Observation, Vision -
As we leave this hallowed place, may our feet remember its feel, So that wherever we walk, we know ourselves to be on hallowed ground. May we know that we are kin with every soul, every star, every stone and leaf of grass. And may our words be gentle and our touch be kind. Blessed be.Closing | By Amy Zucker Morgenstern | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Reverence
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Introduction to a New Orleans Jazz Funeral Welcome to a new tradition for our church—a New Orleans-style jazz funeral for the old year. This service offers opportunities for reflection on the past year, a chance to “bury” whatever that was negative or hurtful to us in 20xx, and looks forward...Ritual | By Melanie Morel-Ensminger | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Hope, Letting Go, Memorial Services, Mourning, Multiculturalism, Multiculturalism, Remembrance Day, Wholeness
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Spirit of Life and love known by many names and worshipped in a rainbow of ways Infinite Mystery, Spark of Ah-ha and Ahhh and Awe Conspiring energy of interdependent co-arising Be with us now. Surround us. Push us forward. Pull us together....Meditation | By Tandi Rogers | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Courage, Grace, Love, Mystery, Unitarian Universalism
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Am I a guest here. Here in this House. Are you? Are we guests here. Here in this House. And, whose House do we inhabit? In the small world of our lives the borders between us: easements, fences, gates, hedges—serve to delineate, to separate us. To remind us of where my property begins and ends.Reading | By Alicia R. Forde | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Anti-Oppression, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, History, Immigration, Immigration, Indigenous Peoples Day, International, Responsibility, Secular