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.
Search Words for Worship Services
Toggle to filter resultsAvailable filters:
Changing a filter will refresh results (and remaining options) immediately. Searching by keyword or changing the number of items per page requires use of the "Search" button.
Displaying 1 - 50 of 96
-
Today, we are charged to remember. To know that as we live together in community, we are also in community with the silently singing lives in the vast congregation of the earth as well... Let us remember, and then act.Reading | By Irene Glasse, Rebekah Savage | April 24, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Connections, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Environment, Nature, Sacred, WorshipWeb, Worship -
It takes courage to bring our trust forward and invite another person to meet us there. This sometimes sure, often shaky, surrender is an opportunity to discover something deeper than the confines of our individual experience.Reading | By Adaku Utah | January 21, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Compassion, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Freedom, Growth, Interdependence, Nature, Relationships, Trust, WorshipWeb, Worship -
The fulcrum of the Earth tilts toward goodness and I will ride along…Reading | By Jennifer Pratt-Walter | December 13, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Beauty, Earth, Earth-Centered, Good, Nature, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule, WorshipWeb, Worship -
In our lived lives, family comes in different shapes and sizes and constellations.It is in this variety—this diversity—that our lives are made fuller and our individual selves made more whole. It is in this variety, it is in this diversity, that we look back to the ancestors, recognizing no...Reading | By Karen G. Johnston | August 17, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Family, Generations, Integrity, Love, Memorial Services, Truth, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Is a calling a feeling of joy, of completeness in your work?Reading | By Megan Foley | May 22, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Calling, Direct Experience, Leadership, Ordinations, Unitarian Universalism, WorshipWeb, Worship -
I don’t know exactly when it happened, but something began to change.Reading | By Tess Baumberger | March 13, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Aging, Caring, Change, Coming-of-Age, Direct Experience, Generations, Humanism, Life Transition, Secular, WorshipWeb, Worship -
We all want to feel at home, somewhere, somehow....Reading | By Christian Schmidt | October 18, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Home, Judaism, Searching, Sukkot -
There’s never been a time in the United States history when black rebellions did not spark existential fear among white people.Reading | By Michelle Alexander, Leslie Alexander | May 12, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), America, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Freedom, History, Juneteenth, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, WorshipWeb, Worship
-
Water sustains, gives, and yields to / Life.Reading | By Melissa Jeter | March 24, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Earth, Earth-Centered, Imagination, Nature, Water Communion, WorshipWeb, Worship -
It’s as if something was born from nothing.Reading | By Anya Sammler-Michael | March 1, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas
-
Grief is welcome, a sacred part of the mourning.Reading | By Kari Kopnick | March 1, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Balance, Challenge, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Compassion, Despair, Empathy, Grief, Winter Solstice / Yule, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Čapek turned to the beauty of the countryside; to the beauty of flowers.Reading | By Teresa Schwartz, David Schwartz | June 16, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Flower Communion, Unitarianism, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Why do we so readily hand over what's priceless for a meager sum of money—or a major sum, for that matter?Reading | By Jill Duffield | March 5, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Character, Christianity, Ethics, Integrity, Leadership, Lent, Money, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Maundy Thursday means that followers of Jesus serve.Reading | By Jill Duffield | March 3, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Humility, Lent, Service, WorshipWeb, Worship -
The soul of America has yet to be born.Reading | By Peggy Clarke | November 16, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), America, Democracy, Generations, History, Humanism, Indigenous Peoples Day, July 4th, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular -
Ironically, Americans who self-identify as not racist—whether they're conservatives, moderates, liberals, radicals, progressives—they don't realize… that we are connecting ourselves to a history of slave traders who self-identified as not racist (although they didn't use that term). We're...Reading | By Ibram X Kendi | January 16, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), America, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, History, Identity, Juneteenth, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Oppression, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity -
A seed knows how to wait. Most seeds wait for several years before starting to grow; a cherry seed can wait for a hundred years with no problem. What exactly each seed is waiting for is known only to that seed. Some unique trigger-combination of temperature-moisture-light and many other things is...Reading | By Hope Jahren | January 9, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Child Dedication, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Environment, Growth, Humanism, Nature, New Child, Patience, Secular, Climate Justice -
The first time I was told that I was too queer to be a congregation's minister, they asked, "What will the neighbors think?,” as if it were the most natural question in the world. It was then that I understood how grace works: it’s costly. It requires us to be uncomfortable, to get outside...Reading | By Chris Rothbauer | January 9, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Anti-Oppression, Coming Out, Direct Experience, Diversity, Identity, Inclusion, Integrity, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Living Our Faith, National Coming Out Day, Oppression, Pride Sunday, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Solidarity -
Do not be afraid of the darkness. Dark is the rich fertile earth that cradles the seed, nourishing growth. Dark is the soft night that cradles us to rest. Only in darkness can stars shine across the vastness of space. Only in darkness is the moon's dance so clear....Reading | By Stephanie Noble | November 19, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Beauty, Earth, Earth-Centered, Nature, Secular, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule -
In our water ritual, we bring water from the places we live or the places we may have visited and pour it in one container. All of the water mixes together, and every drop has some of the molecules of water from every place....Reading | By Myke Johnson | June 25, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Connections, Direct Experience, Earth, Interdependence, Nature, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion -
When some people think of Easter, they think of a bunny rabbit. Others would point to other fertility symbols and signs of Spring, springing forth out of the ordinary, the plain, the seemingly dead: butterflies, flowers, and the like. Christians might think of the empty cross, or of a cross with...Reading | By Lisa Fischbeck | April 11, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Beauty, Christianity, Easter, Mystery -
What images comes to mind when I say, “Labor Day”? Chances are you think of the holiday weekend and celebrations with your loved ones, the Federal Holiday, Unions and the cause of a working wage and benefits, maybe the history of the struggle of working people to have a fair share of the profits...Reading | By Jennifer Willet | February 5, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Aging, Caring, Community, Compassion, Dignity, Disability, Economy, Education, Generations, Interdependence, Labor Day -
Everything is about to change. And it already has. It will be. It was. It is. The dawn you eagerly await to end the long, cold darkness is already full sun far off in the east. Yet even after light’s return spring is months away. Thirty long years pass after His birth before the Messiah comes.Reading | By Mandie McGlynn | January 7, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Beginnings, Change, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Contemplation, Ending, Faith, Growth, Hope, Journey, Justice, Life Transition, Paganism, Patience, Winter Solstice / Yule, WorshipWeb -
The innkeeper isn’t part of most Nativity sets. No one sings carols about innkeepers. There don’t seem to be any paintings that include them. But we can imagine the scene: Bethlehem is crowded with people coming home for the census. It’s late at night when the innkeeper responds to a knock on...Reading | By Anne Dilenschneider | January 2, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Abundance, Anti-Oppression, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Compassion, Discernment, Empathy, Hospitality, Inclusion, Judaism, Kindness, Living Our Faith, Responsibility, WorshipWeb -
In 1617, a few years before English settlers landed, an epidemic began to spread through the area that became southern New England. It likely came from British fishermen, who had been fishing off the coast for decades. By 1620, ninety to ninety-six percent of the population had died. It decimated...Reading | By Myke Johnson | November 4, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: America, Anti-Oppression, History, Indigenous American, Race/Ethnicity, Thanksgiving -
Every October and November in the United States, we find ourselves in a season of false and misleading stories about European settlers and Native Americans. First there’s the story that Columbus discovered America in 1492. Then there’s the story about the Pilgrims and the Indians at the first...Reading | By Myke Johnson | November 4, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: America, Anti-Oppression, History, Indigenous American, Race/Ethnicity, Thanksgiving -
I like to think that after many years of living together, our family has developed a certain sense of equilibrium, a certain ease with each other. From time to time, of course, differences arise and sometimes, and, occasionally, an act of outright rebellion....Reading | By Carl Scovel | September 4, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, Power -
Recently, I ordered 4-foot-tall rainbow bunnies for my church. Just after I hit “order,” I wondered if we really needed them. Later that day, one of my parishioners sent me a picture taken in front of a local church: on the lawn was an enormous banner with a picture of the Holy Family, and the...Reading | By Jonathan Chapman | April 25, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Christianity, God, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Love, Pride Sunday, Unitarian Universalism -
Our communities of memory and promise are founded upon covenants because we all need a defense against the impulse of immediate feelings that challenge our best intentions. It is necessary to be reminded from time to time of what you said you were going to do, and what you really want, over and...Reading | By Kendyl L. R. Gibbons | February 21, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Building/Space Dedication, Business Meetings, Commitment, Community, Connections, Covenant, Homecoming / Ingathering, Installations, Integrity, Interdependence, Living Our Faith, Ordinations, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism, Unity -
Yesterday, a new employee—a white guy—walked into the bakery where I work. “Hi,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve met you yet.” He told me his name. “I’m Jabari,” I replied. “Are you American?,” he asked. I hesitated. “Yeaaaaaaaaaah.” “Well, it’s just that your name is...Reading | By Jabari S. Jones | July 31, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), America, Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Direct Experience, Humanism, Identity, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Secular -
Each of us has gifts and wounds from those who fathered us. This is inevitable; even the best fathers in the world disappoint their children sometimes. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to grow up. But I know that some wounds are deeper than others. Some people’s hearts have been broken by their...Reading | By Myke Johnson | April 13, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Children, Family, Father's Day, Fathers, Generations, Growth, Healing, Humanism, Pain, Parents, Secular -
Every mother has a different story, though we tend to group them together. We like to think that partnered moms have it good and single moms have it rough, but the truth is that we're a diverse bunch....Reading | By Cheryl Strayed | March 15, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Children, Direct Experience, Family, Fathers, Humanism, Identity, Love, Money, Mother's Day, Mothers, Parents, Relationships, Sacrifice, Secular -
Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson, is a novel that takes the form of a letter or journal that a dying, elderly Congregationalist minister in Gilead, Iowa, writes to his 7-year old son in 1956 – written so that one day the boy will know something about his father’s life and character. In this passage...Reading | By Marilynne Robinson | March 10, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Animal Blessing, Animals, Awe, Calling, Christianity, Faith, Leadership, Ministry, Ordinations, Power, Sacred, Unitarian Universalism, Wonder -
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a radical. He was called “the most dangerous man in America” by the FBI and had a 17,000 page FBI file at the time of his death. It wasn’t just KKK members or those in positions of power who disagreed with him or hated him. As Cornel West explains in...Reading | By Aisha Ansano | February 27, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 6th Principle (World Community), Activism, America, Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Direct Experience, History, Humanism, Justice, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Multiculturalism, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity -
We gather at Thanksgiving, in some sense, to retell the creation myth of our country. In this myth is our very best and our very worst: a boldness; a care for the common good; a wish to say we before I. Yet from even before the first Thanksgiving feast, it’s a story of theft and violence, and a...Reading | By David Schwartz | November 15, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), America, Anti-Oppression, Freedom, Generations, History, Humanism, Indigenous American, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Thanksgiving -
Our first breath is followed by our first song Lusty, loud and primal A solo that announces to the world, “I have arrived!” We are the music. As toddlers hearing our first reggae beat We let our spines and hips bend and sway in response As natural as the beat of our hearts We are the music. The...Reading | By Renee Ruchotzke | November 12, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Arts & Music, Direct Experience, Humanism, Music Sunday, Secular, Unity -
People have always known that fire was special. Long, long ago, before people made matches or candles or even made houses, people knew that fire was special. There was the great fire in the sky, the sun, which made the earth warm and made night into day....Reading | By Elizabeth Harding | October 27, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Direct Experience, Fire Communion, Generations, Imagination, Nature, Secular, Spiritual Practice, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism -
I understand participation in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) as a spiritual practice or discipline. While the word discipline may want to make us run and hide, a spiritual practice or discipline is meant to help us find our center. Approaching my participation in the CSA as a spiritual...Reading | By Nicole Janelle | July 10, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Community, Contemplation, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Family, Food, Food Justice, Gratitude, Nature, Spiritual Practice, Summer Solstice, Table Grace, Wonder -
To become an anti-racist faith community, the key question for a white/white majority community is not “How do we get people of color to join our faith community?” It is, instead, “How can we make a prolonged, spiritually-rooted, engaged commitment to uprooting white supremacy within our...Reading | By Chris Crass | May 9, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Direct Experience, Freedom, Justice, Living Our Faith, Purpose, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Seven Principles, Solidarity, Unity -
For decades prior to my mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, we had suffered a strained relationship born from her alcoholism. When I learned she had Alzheimer’s, my hope for forgiveness and reconciliation drained away, along with her cognitive abilities. But the world of Alzheimer’s teems...Reading | By Jade C. Angelica | April 18, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Aging, Caring, Children, Direct Experience, Family, Forgiveness, Mother's Day, Mothers, Transformation -
One day, your church was born. Maybe it was a gathering of saints, called together for the common worship of a wrathful god, ceaselessly praying between bouts of decrying the evil of Christmas or dancing. Or maybe a few brave souls answered a notice in the newspaper, curiosity piqued by the...Reading | By Sean Neil-Barron | February 26, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), Building/Space Dedication, Business Meetings, Change, Child Dedication, Community, Creativity, Direct Experience, Generations, Installations, Leadership, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Purpose, Religion, Sacred, Unitarian Universalism, WorshipWeb -
Bruises are a part of roller derby — a celebrated part. It’s not uncommon for players to take pictures of their biggest, most colorful shaped bruises: bruises that go deep into your tissue, and come out in amazing blues, purples, and blacks that eventually fade to greens, browns and yellows. A...Reading | By Dawn Skjei Cooley | February 23, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Body, Commitment, Direct Experience, Healing, Justice, Multiculturalism, Privilege, Race/Ethnicity, Secular -
When we talk about a liberal theology and ethic of sexuality, we need to start in our vulnerable, needy bodies, in real life, in the struggle to navigate our embodied neediness with others in an embrace of the still-possible mutual wholeness and transformation. Any theology of sex that doesn’t...Reading | By Gretchen Haley | February 22, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Body, Coming Out, Gender / Sex Change, Healing, Intimacy, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Multiculturalism, Sexuality, Wholeness -
Today, you join in membership. This is a moment of excitement and possibility. And although I don’t wish to pull you out of this moment, I need to talk to you for a bit about a moment in your future....Reading | By Liz James | February 11, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Commitment, Community, Covenant, Inclusion, Living Our Faith, New Member Ceremony, Reconciliation, Relationships, Strength, Teamwork, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism, WorshipWeb -
I am always in a bit of a shock when December 1st arrives on the calendar. I always feel like there should be at least another week beyond Thanksgiving before I can even contemplate the next holiday....Reading | By Cynthia Frado | December 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Advent, Birth, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Compassion, Hope, Mindfulness, Unitarian Universalism, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder, WorshipWeb -
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 WorshipWebTagged as: Arts & Music, Awe, Beauty, Direct Experience, Gratitude, Humility, Thanksgiving, Wonder, Worth -
They will march, walk, wheel, dance, shimmy and shake Block upon block of undulating color, flesh, banners, signs, clothing or lack thereof Hands raised, hands linked, apart, together Singing, shouting, chanting, silent, Joyous, tearful, nervous, afraid, proud, defiant, angry, happy, delirious,...Reading | By Lois Van Leer | June 9, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Inclusion, Joy, Justice, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Pride Sunday, Sexuality, Transgender Day of Remembrance -
The first time I ever played “Taps” was at summer camp when I was ten years old. That was the year I started playing trumpet, so I can only imagine how it sounded. I know there was no way that I could have hit the high note near the end. The first time I played Taps in honor of those who died...Reading | By Paul S Sawyer | May 11, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), America, Death, Direct Experience, Grief, History, Memorial Day, Military, Military Service, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular, Veterans Day, War -
Today we light our candle of remembrance. On April 19, 1943 the Jewish community in the Warsaw ghetto rose up against their captors in a valiant effort to regain their freedom and return a common humanity to those intent on destroying their very existence....Reading | By Karen Mooney | April 27, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Anti-Oppression, Brokenness, Direct Experience, History, Holocaust Remembrance / Yom Ha'Shoah, Human Rights, Humanism, Identity, Judaism, Prayer Practices, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Solidarity -
The Resurrection is to me the most difficult story in the Bible. John 20:31: Jesus said unto Thomas, "Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." To elaborate on this, I look at three characters in the story. Mary Magdalene, a woman...Reading | By Ricardo Williams | April 13, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Commitment, Doubt, Easter, Faith, Presence