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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As must be obvious to every one of you, these are times of great tension and conflict in America. Much of this turmoil in our nation is focused on what many observers have called The Culture Wars...the very vocal and visible battles that are occurring on many fronts to determine whose values,...Sermon | By Scott W. Alexander | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Culture, Grace, History, Salvation, Tradition, Universalism -
We believe there is a place at God’s table for each and every child of earth Hey, ain’t that good news! We believe the giver of life has been given many names and loves the givers of all of them Hey, ain’t that good news! We are more interested in getting heaven into people now than getting...Reading | By John Corrado | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Belief, Good, Identity, Revelation, Unitarian Universalism
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There was an elderly man in England named Arthur Flowerdew. He’d lived his whole life in the seaside town of Norfolk, and had left England only once, to journey to the French coast. All his life, however, Arthur Flowerdew had been plagued by vivid mental pictures of a great city surrounded by...Sermon | By Wayne B. Arnason | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Buddhism, Death, Growth
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The gospels are full of stories about Jesus healing. The healing stories represent some of the most moving images in Scripture. They are the most important miracle stories that were used to convince the world that Jesus was the Son of God during the first five centuries of the Common Era....Sermon | By Wayne B. Arnason | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Body, Healing, Health, Humanism, Illness
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I am a man and I am a woman; I am a boy and I am a girl. And I am a Unitarian Universalist I am young and I am old and I am middle-aged. And I am a Unitarian Universalist...Reading | By John Corrado | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Diversity, Humanism, Multiculturalism, Multiculturalism, Unitarian Universalism
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O Creative Spirit of Life, in which we live and move and have our being:We give thanks for all of nature's bounties.We give thanks for caring friends and compassionate neighbors.We give thanks for the communion of those who seek to serve others.Each of us carries our private griefs and burdens.Meditation | By Bruce Southworth | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Caring, Service
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Rev. James Madison Rasnake was the best Baptist minister in Georgia. His first career had been as a lawyer, and he was known for his splendid reasoning abilities. After creating a well-known law practice, he found his true calling—ministry—in particular, the Baptist ministry. In 1896 he was...Story | By Denise Tracy | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: History, Salvation, Universalism
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Happiness is a deep, persistent and universal obsession for humanity. As one of my correspondents asked, "Why isn’t happiness the only thing that matters?" From the very beginning Americans (in particular) have made happiness a central piece of their national quest....Sermon | By Scott W. Alexander | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Generosity, Happiness, Psychology, Purpose, Relationships
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How shall we address thee who art the One of a thousand names yet ever nameless? O Vishnu, Maya, Kali, Ishtar, Athene, Isis...Great Mother of Creation, womb of the universe, The Feminine Divine….Blessed art thou who hast given life to all And receiveth us at the end, forever thine... Jupiter,...Meditation | By Richard M Fewkes | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Buddhism, God, Goddess, Hinduism, Islam, Multiculturalism, Multiculturalism, Reverence, Transcendence
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We come to this time and this place: To rediscover the wondrous gift of free religious community; To renew the faith in the holiness, goodness, and beauty of life; To reaffirm the way of the open mind and full heart; To rekindle the flame of memory and hope; and To rekindle the vision of an earth...Reading | By David C Pohl | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Faith, Good, Hope, Vision
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Because of those who came before, we are;in spite of their failings, we believe;because of, and in spite of, the horizons of their vision,we, too, dream.Let us go remembering to praise,to live in the moment,to love mightily,to bow to the mystery.(No.680, Singing the Living Tradition)...Closing | By Barbara J Pescan | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Generations, Purpose, Tradition, Vision
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Take a moment right now to visualize in your mind’s eye the first American Thanksgiving feast which our Pilgrim forebears shared with their Native American neighbors on the shores of Massachusetts Bay in the Fall of 1621. If you’re like me, you imagined a pretty pleasant and peaceable scene—a...Sermon | By Scott W. Alexander | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Courage, Gratitude, History, Suffering
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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,...Reading | By Mark D. Morrison-Reed | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Death, Love, Meaning
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At one point in her novel Fly Away Home, American writer Marge Piercy has a mother say of her daughters: “The girls had been raised Unitarian (Universalist), which seemed a nice, sensible compromise between having no religion at all and having to lie about what we believed. Enough religion to be...Sermon | By Scott W. Alexander | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Belief, Commitment, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Religion, Unitarian Universalism
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Living your Unitarian Universalism (UUism) means... If a grieving neighbor needs some companionship, you brew the pot of coffee and sit down to listen. Living your UUism means......Reading | By Anonymous | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Identity, Integrity, Interdependence, Living Our Faith, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Unitarian Universalism
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The womb of stars embraces us; remnants of their fiery furnaces pulse through our veins. We are of the stars, the dust of explosions cast across space. We are of the earth: we breathe and live in the breath of ancient plants and beasts....Reading | By Joy Atkinson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Birth, Earth, Earth-Centered
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"It was still dark that morning in 1942 when the Gestapo rousted from bed the Jews of Bobawa, a Polish village. In the confusion, twelve-year-old Samuel Oliner slipped away and hid on a roof, still in his pajamas. The next afternoon, when he dared to look around, the ghetto was silent....Sermon | By Scott W. Alexander | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Compassion, Judaism, Parents, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Self-Respect, Unity
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This morning, I want us to grapple with one of the most universal and troubling facts of human existence. Though every last one of us would have it otherwise, it is an unavoidable reality that during our lifetimes people close to us will become sick, suffer great pain, and, in some cases, die. It...Sermon | By Scott W. Alexander | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Illness, Presence, Relationships, Suffering
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Elie Wiesel was just a wide-eyed and innocent adolescent when he and all the other Jews of the Transylvanian village of Sighet were jammed into cattle cars one April night in 1944 by SS troops, and shipped to Auschwitz....Sermon | By Scott W. Alexander | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Brokenness, Christianity, Despair, Evil, God, Judaism, Searching
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An Austrian millionaire was in the news this month for giving away all of his fortune. Why? "For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness," he said....Sermon | By Vail Weller | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Generosity, Money, Responsibility, Stewardship, Transformation