Photo by Dea Brayden.

Sunday before Thanksgiving. Themes can include gratitude to God, gratitude for loved ones, gathering the family together, breaking bread together, Native American perspective on the holiday, Puritans, remembering those less fortunate.

From Tapestry of Faith Curricula

Unitarian Universalist Perspectives

Guest at Your Table

Guest at Your Table is an annual tradition in which congregation members take home a box featuring people that the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) has worked with recently. These people are your 'guests,' and you are asked to share your blessings with them each meal by putting your spare change in the box. As you give to your guests, you can learn about them by reading the Stories of Hope booklet. UUSC uses the funds raised through this program to support their human-rights work in the United States and around the world!

Most congregations begin their Guest at Your Table celebration on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, but please check your congregational calendar for your opening date.

Some congregations celebrate bread communion at this service. This ritual can include the breaking and passing around of bread throughout the congregation. Congregants eat the bread, or feed it to one another, while being led in a reflection about gratitude, sharing and being together in community.

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Displaying 21 - 35 of 35

  • We are hungry We are eating our daily bread and bowing our heads and yet we are hungry We are thanking the farmer and the farm worker and yet we are hungry We are speaking in spaces for food that is healthy and still we are hungry We are tiring of slogans that say Feed the Children and mean feed ...
    Meditation | By Debra Smith | February 11, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Christianity, Communion (Christian), Democracy, Direct Experience, Food, Food Justice, Generosity, Human Rights, Humanism, Justice, Justice Sunday, Poverty, Prayer Practices, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Spiritual Practice, Table Grace, Thanksgiving, Transcendence, Transformation, WorshipWeb
  • Image | By Jennie Freiberger | February 1, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Arts & Music, Autumnal Equinox, Playfulness, Seven Principles, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism
  • Once, many grey autumns ago, I came upon a tree. The tree, a poplar, had dropped all of its leaves but for one, just one. Exactly one leaf remained near the topmost part of the tree, fluttering in the breeze like a little reddish-brown flag....
    Meditation | By David M. Horst | January 25, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Autumnal Equinox, Connections, Contemplation, Despair, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth-Centered, Letting Go, Nature, Reverence, Samhain, Thanksgiving, Winter Solstice / Yule, WorshipWeb
  • This script is intended to take place over the arc of a worship service or children's chapel. People Needed: Narrator (can be Worship Leader) and Five Villagers....
    Script | By Tiffany Sapp | January 11, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 6th Principle (World Community), Abundance, Community, Food, Generosity, Gratitude, Stewardship, Thanksgiving, Unity, WorshipWeb
  • Introduction The Cornbread and Cider Communion is a tradition in some of our congregations. With gratitude for our freedom and for our abundance, let us celebrate this ritual today mindful of Syrian and other refugees who are unable to go home, those for whom we pray safe passage and a welcoming...
    Ritual | By Dawn Skjei Cooley | November 24, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Body, Communion (Christian), Food, Gratitude, Immigration, Interdependence, International, Solidarity, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism
  • I heard the Second Brandenburg Concerto played in honor of Bach’s 300th birthday, and I was swept away. I remembered a story about the people who send messages into outer space. Someone suggested sending a piece by Bach. The reply was “But that would be bragging.” Some say we get what we...
    Reading | By Robert Walsh | November 18, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Arts & Music, Awe, Beauty, Direct Experience, Gratitude, Humility, Thanksgiving, Wonder, Worth
  • 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 WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Abundance, Community, Fall, Food, Gratitude, Happiness, Integrity, Playfulness, Relationships, Thanksgiving, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism
  • Once there was and once there was not a family of dogs. Like many dog families, there were dogs that had wandered off the street and dogs with fine pedigrees and dogs from the shelter and dogs who had been born into the family. They ran together. They played together....
    Story | By Naomi King | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animal Blessing, Animals, Direct Experience, Gratitude, Thanksgiving
  • Eternal God, Source of All Creation, we would give substance to our thankfulness by resolving to make right use of the gifts we have received from thy bounty. With thy gift of the senses we would fashion and preserve a world of beauty for all....
    Meditation | By Robert Walsh | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Abundance, Beauty, Compassion, Discernment, Gratitude, Justice, Peace, Responsibility, Searching, Thanksgiving, Truth
  • Let us rejoice for the families who have gathered this Thanksgiving to express their thanks and to celebrate the bounty of their lives. Let us join together in support of those whose families are far away, with distances in many forms. Let us hold one another in gentle reverence this holiday of...
    Meditation | By Elizabeth M Strong | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Community, Death, Family, Gratitude, Illness, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism
  • Each of us will be grateful this Thanksgiving in differing ways, Gathered in our separate families, Each with our own distinct recipes, customs and traditions; For some will have pies of mince, And others of pumpkin or apple; And some will dine early And some sit down late to the meal, Passing on...
    Meditation | By Gary Kowalski | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: America, Family, Food, Generations, Gratitude, Secular, Thanksgiving
  • Every day we experience hunger and yearning: for food, for approval, for respect, for love, for meaningful work, for any and enough work, for home, for family, for friends, for health, for healing, for hope, for the departed, for the newly arrived, for the green trees, for the cool clean waters, ...
    Meditation | By Naomi King | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Connections, Gratitude, Healing, Health, Humanism, Love, Meaning, Purpose, Relationships, Secular, Spirituality, Thanksgiving, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism
  • Let us join hands and hearts in gratitude on this wondrous day, where we have the abundance of our lives before us. We remember, on this day of bounty, all those who do not have enough, who are afraid, who are lonely, and who suffer....
    Meditation | By Naomi King | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Abundance, Commitment, Compassion, Connections, Fall, Food, Generosity, Gratitude, Poverty, Secular, Spirituality, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism
  • Seeds, scattered on fertile ground, are warmed by the sun and fed by the soil. They sprout and grow, producing great fields of grain. The grain is harvested and ground into flour and shipped across the nation....
    Ritual | By Michael J. Tino | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Abundance, Body, Christianity, Community, Food, Gratitude, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism
  • I [do not] mean to present myself as some kind of bodhisattva of compassion. However, in my better moments—at least in my more conscious moments—while I’m eating, I do try to imagine the lives and even the deaths of the creatures who nourish me. I try to think of the freedom and exhilaration...
    Reading | By Lillian Nye | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Activism, Animals, Body, Earth Day, Ethics, Food, Food Justice, Nature, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism, Work