Chalice and Advent Wreath on UU chancel.

A chalice and advent wreath share the altar at Starr King UU Church in Hawyard, CA.

Advent is a season of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the nativity of Jesus. The name derives from the Latin adventus, meaning "coming." Marked over the course of the four Sundays before Christmas, Advent is traditionally celebrated with an advent wreath: a ring of evergreen with three purple candles and one pink one (or four purple candles) that represent: Hope, Love, Joy (pink) and Peace.

(In Eastern Orthodox churches, which use the Julian calendar, Advent begins earlier and lasts 40 days rather than four weeks.)

Faith Without Borders

For everything there is a season—a time to die and a time to be born. With the arrival of winter’s low dark sky, communities around the world look to the miracle of light as a sign of rebirth and a source of hope. We celebrate the promise of new life and recommit ourselves to the protection of everyone’s right to his or her own radiant humanity.

Celebrating the winter holidays, thus, is an excellent opportunity for Unitarian Universalist congregations to express their commitment to our Sixth Principle: We covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all. See Sixth Principle Resources for winter holidays.

Unitarian Universalist Perspectives

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Displaying 51 - 92 of 92

  • I am always in a bit of a shock when December 1st arrives on the calendar. I always feel like there should be at least another week beyond Thanksgiving before I can even contemplate the next holiday....
    Reading | By Cynthia Frado | December 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Advent, Birth, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Compassion, Hope, Mindfulness, Unitarian Universalism, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder, WorshipWeb
  • Mary: Hi! Are you on the way to the hill country, too? I’m going to the hill country. I'm on my way to see my cousin Elizabeth. I can’t wait to tell her what happened: the Angel Gabriel came to me and said that I’m going to have a baby, and that I should name him Jesus. The angel said, “He...
    Script | By Lyn Cox | December 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Children, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Family, Mothers, Parents
  • Sheet Music (PDF) - In the darkness of the winter, quiet hearts beneath the sky, we are waiting for the daystar and a holy newborn’s cry. Friends and family here have gathered, gathered here from near and far, sharing hearts and...
    Music | By Ruben Piirainen, Suzelle Lynch | December 16, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Advent, Awe, Children, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Family, Hope, Love, Salvation, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder
  • This prayer was written to accompany the Advent hymn "People, Look East," #226 in Singing the Living Tradition. Spirit of the Living God, turn our faces to the East to look for your presence. Turn our faces in any and every direction from which you draw near to us....
    Prayer | By Fr. Austin Fleming | December 7, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Awe, Immanence, Transcendence, Wonder
  • A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more. ~ Matthew 2:18 I read those words aloud from the pulpit once a year, on Christmas Eve: a night when we celebrate the birth of hope and possibility and...
    Meditation | By Lisa Doege | December 3, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Advent, Birth, Brokenness, Children, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Hope, Judaism, Parents, Peace, Violence
  • December twenty-fourth, The Flaming Chalice (1965). The Unitarian Service Committee adopted the flaming chalice as their logo in 1941. Years later, in 1965, at the West Shore Church in Cleveland, OH the youth led a Christmas service opened by ritually lighting a chalice....
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, Identity, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarianism, Universalism, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December twenty-third, “O Holy Night” (1855). The first English translation of "O Holy Night" was by Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, who tweaked the original French author's socialist themes and images to advance Dwight's own abolitionist cause. Not only was the French author a...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, International, Unitarianism, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December twenty-second, The First Unitarian Church Founded in Transylvania (1557). Despite recognition under the 1557 Act of Religious Toleration and receiving the king's patronage, the Unitarian church in Transylvania has faced frequent persecution....
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, International, Unitarianism, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December twenty-first, the Winter Solstice. (The point along the Earth’s annual solar orbit when the northern hemisphere is at its furthest point from the sun). The last harvest of the year is celebrated shortly before the Winter Solstice. In ancient times people would feast knowing the months...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Death, Earth, Earth-Centered, Nature, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December twentieth, first of Elliot’s Ariel Poems, “The Journey of the Magi” (1927). "Magi" is Unitarian T. S. Eliot’s first of 5 Christmas poems published after his ambivalent choice to join the Anglican church. Many believe that Eliot's feelings about his new church are reflected by the...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Unitarian Universalism, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December nineteenth, "The Many Moods of Christmas” (1963). Robert Shaw was best known as the conductor of his namesake Chorale. In its day, "Many Moods of Christmas" was the quintessential sound of the season. Even today, the album sells well around the holidays and choirs continue to perform it...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Unitarianism, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December eighteenth, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" (1962). Amid the anxiety of the Cuban missile crisis, Unitarian Noel Regney wrote the text for “Do You Hear What I Hear?” as a protest song. The music was composed by his then-wife, Gloria Shayne Baker. The song's allusions to the Bible stories of...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Peace, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Unitarianism, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December Seventeenth, Rod Serling’s Christmas Specials (1963). Though Jewish, Rod Serling always loved Christmas (maybe because his birthday was December twenty-fifth). He became a Unitarian Universalist while in college and later joined the Unitarian Community Church of Santa Monica. He wrote...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Science, Secular, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December sixteenth, Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales (1835). When the man he loved married a woman, Danish Unitarian Hans Christian Andersen wrote one of his first and most beloved fairy tales of a mermaid's tragically unrequited love. His timeless tales include several Christmas classics...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Unitarianism, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December fifteenth, the First American Christmas Tree (1832). Unitarian Minister Charles Follen delighted his son and party guests with a Christmas tree as he had growing up in Germany. They had postponed the festivities until New Years so that British author and Unitarian Harriet Martineau could...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, Unitarianism, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December fourteenth, “I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day” (1865). Unitarian Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Wrote "Christmas Bells" (a poem later set to music and renamed "I Head the Bells On Christmas Day") just months before the end of the Civil War. The poem captures the despair felt by the...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, Unitarianism, War, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December thirteenth, first department store Santa (1890). Department storeowner James Edgar delighted customers’ children by walking about the store on weekends dressed in a Santa costume. Edgar aspired to broad-mindedness in his religion, and though not a member he attended the Unitarian church...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, Secular, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December twelfth, Christmas Day is Clara Barton’s Birthday (1821). Clara Barton, Universalist and founder of the American Red Cross, is a hero of our liberal religious faith. We remember her around the holidays season since she was born Christmas Day, 1821. But in the season when we recall the...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Healing, Health, International, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular, Universalism, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December eleventh, Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" (1843). Unitarian Charles Dickens impacted the way Christmas is celebrated today more than any other individual. "A Christmas Carol" has been credited with popularizing everything from turkey dinners and family gift exchanges to holiday...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, Redemption, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December tenth, Christmas Scenes in "Little Women" (1868). Unitarian Louisa May Alcott wrote over a dozen Christmas-themed stories and poems in addition to the Christmas scenes in "Little Women.” Her description of a holiday with the March family nurtured a growing sense of American nostalgia for...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, Secular, Unitarianism, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December ninth, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (1849). "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” was written by Unitarian Minister Hamilton Sears while recovering from a nervous breakdown. The melancholy carol’s conspicuous omission of any reference to Jesus or his birth has drawn criticism from orthodox...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, Unitarianism, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December eighth, first Christmas Tree in the White House Blue Room (1912). From the New York Times, December 26, 1912: "With the President and Mrs. Taft at Panama, their son and daughter established a new precedent at the White House in the way of a Christmas party to-night....
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Christmas Eve / Christmas, History, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December sixth, The Modern Look and Lore of Santa Claus (1863). Universalist Thomas Nast produced over seventy illustrations of Santa. It is from Nast that the world first learned of Santa's red suit, that he gives coal if you're naughty, and even that Santa, as a world citizen, belonging to no...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Playfulness, Secular, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December fifth, "Jingle Bells" (1857). First performed at a Thanksgiving event by the Sunday school children from the Unitarian Church in Savannah, GA who were led by the church music director and the song’s composer James Pierpont. “Jingle bells” was published in 1857, but only gained...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December fourth, the earmuff is invented (1873). Lifelong Unitarian Chester Greenwood received the Patent for the first earmuff when he was 15. His factory manufactured the new winter wear for over 60 years. However, Chester himself worked as a mechanic in a bike shop he opened using profits from...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • December third, Currier and Ives (1834). Founded by Unitarian Nathaniel Currier, the Currier and Ives Printing Firm published an annual set of winter images....
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 23, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, America, Arts & Music, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Winter
  • December first, "Over The River And Through The Woods" (1844). The song "Over the River and Through The Woods" is based on a poem by Unitarian author and human rights champion Lydia Maria Child. Inspiration for the poem came from her own childhood memories of Thanksgiving at her grandparents’...
    Image | By Ralph Yeager Roberts | November 11, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, IllUUmination, Unitarianism, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • During the Advent season, we celebrate the qualities of faith, hope, love, and joy. Yet these must be viewed through the prism of paradox. No Faith is worthy without the capacity to doubt all things—for then it is only credulity. No Hope is possible without the specter of defeat in the wings—for...
    Meditation | By David O. Rankin | May 28, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Discernment, Doubt, Faith, Hope, Leadership, Love, Sorrow, Wisdom, Worry
  • Like those shepherds who were on the hillsides with their flocks, like those wise ones in their observatories with their telescopes and astronomical charts, we find our daily work interrupted by these holidays. Like them, we can’t keep on working, we have to listen to singing angels, we have to...
    Meditation | By Mary Wellemeyer | May 13, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Awe, Beginnings, Calling, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Journey, Searching, Vision, Work
  • For those of us who follow the Christian tradition, now is the season of advent, a time of waiting. And whether or not we are Christian I believe that Unitarian Universalists and progressives of any or no faith have something to learn from this Christian season of advent this year. Because we are...
    Reading | By Annie Gonzalez Milliken | February 19, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Activism, Advent, Anti-Oppression, Change, Christianity, Direct Experience, Empathy, Race/Ethnicity, Unitarian Universalism
  • Something has changed in me this winter. In the past I’ve focused on how long winter is, How miserable I find it, and how it seems so interminable. This winter, I find myself thinking instead That every day, every hour, every minute Brings us just that much closer to spring. We all experience...
    Poetry | By Tess Baumberger | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Acceptance, Advent, Agnosticism, Atheism, Brokenness, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Despair, Earth-Centered, Humanism, New Year, Strength, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • Waiting to be born, again, into the morning, onto the day, from dark warm comfort, of my bed full of sleep and blankets, back into bright spring-scented air with all its life and branches....
    Reading | By Tess Baumberger | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Advent, Birth, Christianity, Hope, Letting Go, Patience, Unitarian Universalism, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • Asked if he was lonesome in his hut on Walden Pond, our neighbor Henry Thoreau famously replied, “How could I be lonely? Don’t I live in the Milky Way?” Thoreau doubtless would have been encouraged by the recent discovery of Kepler-22, a planet just 600 light years from earth right in the...
    Reading | By Gary Kowalski | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Advent, Awe, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, Science, Wonder
  • When used as a responsive reading, "We are waiting" is the congregational response. This is the season of anticipation, Of expecting, of hoping, of wanting. This is the time of expecting the arrival of something--or someone. We are waiting. This is the time of living in darkness, in the hues of...
    Responsive Reading | By Leslie Takahashi | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Advent, Balance, Calling, Christianity, Contemplation, Hope, Unitarian Universalism, Vision
  • ‘Tis the Season . . . of advertisers run amok and ambitions amplified beyond belief . . . of Martha Stewart moments mixed with desert island dreams . . . when even the most dedicated holiday-hopper admits perfection isn’t possible and “good enough” is how the season ought to be. ‘Tis the...
    Meditation | By Maureen Killoran | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Prayer Practices
  • We are five days away from what is has come to be traditionally celebrated as the birth of Jesus of Nazareth....
    Sermon | By David A Miller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 6th Principle (World Community), Advent, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Generosity, Grace, New Child, Revelation, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism
  • As frozen earth holds the determined seed, this sacred space holds our weariness, our worry, our laughter and our celebration. Let us bring seed and soul into the light of thought, the warmth of community, and the hope of love. Let us see together, hear together, love together. Let us worship.
    Opening | By Laura Wallace | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Advent, Caring, Community, Earth-Centered, Hope, Love, Nature, Sacred, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • God of life and beauty: We pray for the quietness of snowflakes, knowing that love is quiet. We pray for the kindness of small acts, knowing gentleness is fragile....
    Prayer | By Lucinda S Duncan | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Compassion, God, Kindness, Living Our Faith, Service, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • 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 WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Beauty, Belief, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, God, Listening, Searching, Tradition, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder
  • Spirit of Life, The beginning of the holiday season is filled with temptations to conspicuous consumptions, and pleas for generosity. The contrasts between the values represented by this time of year, and our ability to fulfill them, remind us how great the distance can be between aspirations and...
    Prayer | By Wayne B. Arnason | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Balance, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Hanukkah, Patience, Service, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • Advent, adventus, means waiting. And the holiday season is nothing if not waiting—to get done the chores; to find the right gift; to find time for quiet moments; to accept that our loved ones will not be as we wish them to be....
    Chalice Lighting | By David Breeden | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Forgiveness, Generosity, Hope, Justice, Love, Patience, Peace, Strength, Winter, Wisdom
  • Holy One, known by many names -- Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer -- you make your presence known to us in the sunshine of winter, in the dance of the flame, and in the lingering embrace of a trusted one. Fill us this day with your warmth, your power, your strength. Help us to see our lives with a...
    Prayer | By Marta Flanagan | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Freedom, Gratitude, Letting Go, Purpose, Sacred, Winter Solstice / Yule