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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Please join me in a spirit of prayer or meditation as you are moved. Blessed and holy night, silent night, full of truths too awesome to bend into words, we sit in the glow of ages, wound round stories that teach us some of what it means to be human, and some of what it means to see God. The...Meditation | By Anya Sammler-Michael | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christmas Eve / Christmas -
While most of us have heard the term, Winter Solstice, we don't necessarily know what it means. Many years ago, when I first started celebrating the solstice, a scientist explained it to me in a way that made sense. Learning from him, I wrote a reflection on the solstice that gives his scientific...Meditation | By Barbara Wells ten Hove | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Winter Solstice / Yule -
We pause now on the edge of the New Year— An artificial beginning to be sure—but still a time to reflect. Like Janus, the god for whom January was named, we glance back at past joys and sorrows That what has past can guide us Toward what is yet to be. Let us reflect for a moment on some of the...Ritual | By Joan Kahn-Schneider | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Letting Go, Life Transition
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Introduction As we continue to seek out the stories of hope in our world in the new year, there are also some things we would very much like to put behind us from the old year. The ushers have given you scraps of paper on which to inscribe those things from which we would seek to unburden ourselves.Ritual | By Victoria Weinstein | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Change, Direct Experience, Ending, Fire Communion, Healing, Letting Go, New Year, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Transformation
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To “invoke” is to “call forth” and is traditionally associated with calling upon God. You can also think of it as invoking the spirit of your community—its vision of justice, its playful energy, or its familial feeling. Invocations can also serve to introduce the theme that you’ll be...Opening | By Erik Walker Wikstrom | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
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If the “opening words” called people to worship and opened the time and space for this purpose, the closing words bring the service to an end and prepare people to return home. If the service has been thematically tied together, the words can be a summation, a parting thought, a final nugget for...Closing | By Erik Walker Wikstrom | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
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Spirit of Life, hold us in our pain and comfort us in our grief. Our grief feels boundless; our rage eats at us. We feel pain for all the wild creatures of the Gulf and the wetlands....Meditation | By Melanie Morel-Ensminger | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Earth, Environment, Grief, Secular, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness
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We mourn the lost lives—the eleven workers who died—and we know the heaviness that hangs over their families. We mourn the lost livelihoods. Many have had their lives changed: shrimpers, fishermen, those whose income depends on tourists, and those who work on oil rigs. They have been hit hard.Reading | By Becky Post | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Animals, Change, Disaster, Earth, Grief
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Ode to Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a hole. There’s a hole. There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There is oil from the hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s crude oil from the hole in the bottom of...Music | By Christina Larson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Disaster, Earth, Environment, Justice, Secular
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Earth’s blood, product of ancient deaths, source and flowing stream for civilizations, protector of many human lives, still spurts but barely abated into Gulf waters, host to countless lives of every kind, geo-bio-hazard threatening all lives of every kind for many miles and for months or years t...Meditation | By Taylor Watson Burton-Edwards | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Christianity, Direct Experience, Disaster, Earth, Environment, Grief, Vulnerability
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Introduction: Ours is welcoming community where we find connection; ...a spiritual community where we find meaning; Ours is a sharing community where our joys are amplified; ...a caring community where our sorrows are lessened; We take this moment to reflect on our joys and sorrows and acknowledg...Ritual | By Scott Phillips | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Community, Joy, Relationships, Sorrow, Unitarian Universalism, Youth/Teens
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Dear Goddess, Mother, and Source Your womb is all of creation Your love is mother's milk Please grant us support during this transition Please help us move through this next stage Please carry us in arms of support, grace, and love So that we may bring new life to this ministry So that we may gro...Meditation | By Julianne Lepp | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Earth, Earth-Centered, Paganism, Transformation
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The Persian poet Rumi challenges us: "Come, come, whoever you are: wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving: Ours is no caravan of despair, come, yet again come." And we come, from rich heritages of liturgy and pomp; We come, from burning legacies of angry gods and threats of hell-fire....Opening | By Anne Slater | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Acceptance, Diversity, Islam, Unitarian Universalism
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LEADER: Truth manifests itself with its own force. Let us ride on the power of its revelation with a heart ready to receive, to forgive, and to learn.Source: UU Congregation of Quezon City, Philippines...Closing | By Ma Theresa "Tet" Gustilo Gallardo | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Revelation, Truth, Unitarian Universalism
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Leader: It is a miracle that no one is ever empty-handed; there is enormous power in having no possessions but the self to give and to receive what can be and become.Reading | By Ma Theresa "Tet" Gustilo Gallardo | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Generosity, Humility, Simplicity, Unitarian Universalism
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Let us reach the place of self, the place that is not alien to truth. Let us wash over with peace and serenity, with fierce longing for light and heart; with living strength flowing in our veins, bringing ourselves into fearlessness and into trust.Opening | By Ma Theresa "Tet" Gustilo Gallardo | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Courage, Peace, Trust
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A Haitian prayer book, entitled God Is No Stranger, includes the following words: “Father, I have learned that one strong in calculation is called a ‘mathematician.’ You are the greatest mathematician because You can count all the people yet still see each one of us.” Those words find new...Meditation | By John Gibb Millspaugh | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Caring, Compassion, Courage, Disaster, Unitarian Universalism
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Some came here to be blessed with answers in a tumultuous world. Let us hope too, however, that many of us have been blessed with questions to direct us with a clarity of mind to steer our logic towards kindness and justice always.Closing | By Ma Theresa "Tet" Gustilo Gallardo | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Humanism, Justice, Kindness, Reason, Unitarian Universalism
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T... starts out with Turkey and with Tofu, and Together, H...reminds us of Happiness, may it grow beyond all measure. A...means All who are returning, a reunion in Fall, N...for Newcomers to our Fellowship, and hearty welcome to all! K...for Kind friends with whom we will share dinner, S... means...Chalice Lighting | By Maureen Killoran | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Community, Fall, Food, Gratitude, Happiness, Integrity, Playfulness, Relationships, Thanksgiving, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism -
‘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 WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Prayer Practices