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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Many of us have stories about God. A college student once told me how he asked questions about God in his childhood church and the leaders did not know how to answer. He decided that God must not be real....Sermon | By Susan Maginn | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Agnosticism, Atheism, God, Love, Religion, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarianism, Universalism, Worth -
Please speak the response when you hear: "...this season brings forth many feelings" Response: We find comfort in naming these feelings; we find some peace in being together All around us are bright lights and merry messages Yet in our heart not all is joyful There is grief with the loss of...Reading | By Debra Faulk | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christmas Eve / Christmas, Despair, Grief, Pain, Peace, Sorrow -
Since the time human beings became conscious of their existence, of the reality that they will die, and of the awareness that birth creates new life, they have wondered where they came from, why they were there and what happened to them when they died. They regarded these happenings with awe and...Sermon | By Elizabeth M Strong | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Humanism, Reason, Science
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Thursday marks the bicentennial of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Different though they and their influences were, both contributed to a tectonic shift in ideas. Neither arrived at his culminating treatise: Darwin’s 1859 The Origin of Species and Lincoln’s 1865 Emancipation...Sermon | By Leaf Seligman | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Humanism, Marriage, Race/Ethnicity, Relationships
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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 -
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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A former South African paramilitary commander looks across his dining room table into the interviewer's camera. He is in his early sixties, overweight, with short gray hair. He wears glasses and a polo shirt. It's late morning. He explains: "We were at war. We believed that if the Blacks were...Sermon | By David Schwartz | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), Conscience, Dissent, Spiritual Practice
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For five thousand years, or more,more than two hundred fifty generations,human beings have been invoking spiritual power.My predecessors, and yours,have gathered togetherto make sense of their livesand their place in the cosmos.And they have spoken aloud,and invited what they conceived as sacred ...Opening | By Matthew Johnson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Generations, History, Indigenous American, Meaning, Mystery, Power, Purpose -
This service was written for a Children’s Chapel of children and youth from preschool to eighth grade. It could be adapted for an all-ages worship service.Complete Service | By Kathy Underwood | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Spiritual Practice, Spirituality
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Overview: Harvest, Balance, and Mulching for Spring Theme or Background: Equinox/Harvest Time Materials involved: Apples for folks to share, paper leaf cutouts, pens, bowl of water, bell or gong Details: Opening Words: Robert T....Complete Service | By Austin Putman | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Autumnal Equinox, Balance, Contemplation, Earth, Earth-Centered, Food, Nature, Paganism, Samhain -
"Whatsoever you wish that others do unto you, do so to them; for this is the Law of the Prophets."—Matthew 7:12 I should probably get one thing clear at the outset: I don’t claim to know much about stability, much less to possess it. In fact, when I think about what I’ve experienced in life,...Sermon | By John A. Buehrens | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Change, Commitment, Grace, Strength
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"When we seek wisdom," says one Native American spiritual leader, "we go up on the hill and talk to the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka. Four days and four nights, without food and water. And we listen. And God speaks." Roy Phillips, minister of the Unitarian Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, writes about...Reading | By John A. Buehrens | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Contemplation, Searching, Solitude