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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Enter into the communion of flowers with joyful hearts. Enter with reverent thoughts. It has taken long months beneath cold ground for these flowers to prepare their blooming. It has taken each of us long times of growth through sorrow and joy to prepare for our living now. The blooming season is...Meditation | By Elizabeth M Strong | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Earth, Flower Communion, Limitations, Nature, Transcendence -
"Dukkha," they say. The Buddhists say, "All is dukkha." It is hard to translate, they tell us. It means literally "suffering" but the feeling of dukkha is closer to impermanence. The fact of impermanence is central to the Buddhist path to nirvana, enlightenment. Dukkha. All is impermanence....Meditation | By Elizabeth Tarbox | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Buddhism, Change, Connections, Death, Letting Go, Presence, Unitarian Universalism -
Leader: Whether you have come here with heart full or heart empty, with spirits high or low, rested or tired, hopeful or despairing, Congregation: Whether we have come here out of habit, conviction, loneliness, or curiosity, Leader: You belong here because you are here, and all that you have and ...Opening | By Krista Taves | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Community, Hospitality, Inclusion, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
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We gather together to face ourselves honestly, to forgive ourselves gently, to love one another fervently.Opening | By Philip Larson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Compassion, Forgiveness, Love
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We gather together in this space to honor and understand our lives. We bring our pasts and would share them, our dreams and would express them. We use words, song, silence, and gesture....Opening | By Judith G Mannheim | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Relationships, Taoism, Unitarian Universalism, Wonder
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"We gather together": familiar words to many of us. "We"—called here not by name, not by special invitation—but we who are here, who, walking by the door, come in; who come anonymously, burdened and borne by our visions, yearnings, despairs, solitudes. "Gather"—called here not by law, not by...Opening | By Libbie D Stoddard | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Challenge, Community, Inclusion, Interdependence, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
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Ah, how beautiful is this day. How crisp and clean the air. How clear the sky. How full of life the teeming earth. And we are alive! Yes, we feel the beat of our own hearts, the pulsing of life in our veins, the rhythm of our breathing....Meditation | By Sara Campbell | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Healing, Mystery, Strength, Unity
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Here is where it all begins. It cannot be otherwise. Here we have come to listen, we have come to hear. An old woman sat here yesterday on a park bench, a brown bag at her side, her eyes sparkling as children frolicked on a carousel. "Nice day," I said. "You're right," she said, and smiled....Meditation | By Maureen Killoran | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Compassion, Connections, Direct Experience, Listening, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism
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Gracious and loving Lord, in perfect assurance of Your presence here we pray your fulfillment of these blessings upon this minister who has been called from among these people to assume the office of pastor, preacher, prophet and servant. God, we pray that you will utterly possess N. in all of...Prayer | By Victoria Weinstein | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: God, Ministry, Ordinations
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It is a good morning to be together! When winter's darkness spreads across the land, and cold seeps through our thickest coats, we hurry here, drawn by the warmth of faces familiar and new, to the welcoming walls of this house. Here, for this hour, we open ourselves to new understanding,...Opening | By Barbara Cheatham | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Challenge, Community, Connections, Earth, Meaning, Unitarian Universalism, Unity, Winter Solstice / Yule
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Whatever the need that brings you to this special place and hour, know most surely that it is best served through eager receptivity of mind and heart....Opening | By Albert F Ciarcia | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Discernment
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What life have we, if we have not life together? There is no life not lived in community, and no community not lived in celebration and praise! Adapted from lines from T. S. Eliot's "The Rock."...Opening | By Charles A. Howe | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Community
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Welcome to this place of possibility! This is love's hearth, the home of hope, a refuge for minds in search of truth unfolding, ever beautiful, ever strange. Here, compassion is our shelter, freedom our protection from the storms of bigotry and hate. In this abode, may we find comfort and courage.Opening | By Marianne Hachten Cotter | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Hospitality
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Welcome to this common, sacred space. Common, because we are all welcome. Sacred, because here we transform the ordinary and attend to the profound. We carry with us our regrets, doubts, fears, stories, laughter; may they inspire our worship....Opening | By Amy McKenzie | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Doubt, Fear, Sacred, Searching, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
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We gather this day to seek in the midst of our fragmented selves the unity which enfolds us all; to summon in the midst of the everyday that secret taste of danger, that peace which beckons beyond the trifles and deepens the human heart; to open our self-righteous selves to that judgment which we...Opening | By John H Robinson, Jr | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Responsibility
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We gather on this Sabbath morn to worship in spirit and truth; to raise a joyful noise to the Eternal Mystery; to reconfirm our covenant to seek wisdom in love; to strengthen our commitment to the common good. We come from many paths to explore that which is hidden; to consider the ways of our...Opening | By Burton D. Carley | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Commitment, Courage, Covenant, Faith, Good, Healing, Mystery, Unitarian Universalism
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Eternal spirit, we witness bringing green growth throwing out tiny tendrils seeking support; sprouting thin twigs reaching for the bright golden sun; guiding new tubers seeking water in dark, sandy soil, Be in and amongst us this Easter morning. We gather this morning to celebrate the triumph of...Meditation | By Sam Trumbore | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Courage, Earth, Easter, Faith, Fear, Hope, Unitarian Universalism
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We summon ourselves from the demands and delights of the daily round: from the dirty dishes and unwaxed floors; from unmowed grass, and untrimmed bushes; from all incompletenesses and not-yet-startednesses; from the unholy and the unresolved....Opening | By Gordon B McKeeman | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), Beauty, Calling, Hope, Sacred, Unitarian Universalism, Vision
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We have come into this room of hope where our hearts and minds are opened to the future. We have come into this room of justice where we set aside our fear to name freely every oppression. We have come into this room of love where we know that no lives are insignificant....Opening | By Libbie D Stoddard | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), Anti-Oppression, Hope, Justice, Love, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
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We gather in community to rest from our labors, to greet our neighbors, and to open our being to insight and intuition of that greater reality of which we are a part. May we find in our time together inspiration and renewal....Opening | By Paul H L'Herrou | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Community, Friendship, Purpose, Sacred, Searching, Unitarian Universalism