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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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22
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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 -
Hold us gently as we gather closer together, comforting each other, healing each other.Prayer | By Vanessa Titang | May 26, 2022 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Community, Disaster or Crisis, Transcendence, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Every year, I tell the congregation not to worry about mistakes because there aren’t any; there is only us, telling an old story about love getting born into this aching world.Reflection | By Elea Kemler | December 18, 2019 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Community, Direct Experience, Forgiveness, Love, Playfulness, Tradition, Transcendence, Unitarian Universalism -
Perhaps for a moment the typewriters will stop clicking, the wheels stop rolling the computers desist from computing, and a hush will fall over the city....Poetry | By Rebecca Ann Parker | November 21, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Interdependence, Love, Mystery, Sacred, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule -
Spirit of Life On this night, may we bear witness to the guiding lights: the lights in the sky That call us to gather, and to give of ourselves To celebrate new life....Prayer | By Carter Smith | February 7, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Birth, Caring, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Community, Faith, Happiness, Hope, Love, Presence, Relationships, Transcendence -
This has been published with "they/their" pronouns; please use the most fitting pronoun in your setting. Claimed by death, we remember [Name]'s life Blessings for a life well lived Blessings for their peaceful departure Blessings for their shared friendships Blessings for their humor and wisdom...Blessing | By Addae Ama Kraba | January 17, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Acceptance, Death, Ending, Gratitude, Grief, Journey, Letting Go, Love, Memorial Services, Sacred, Transcendence -
My beloved people, I cannot pretend, And so I will not tell you, That everything is okay right now. That there is no reason to be angry, That you must be optimistic Or at peace. I cannot pretend these things, And so I won't tell them to you. But now our chalice is lit, And so all I ask in this...Chalice Lighting | By Rev. Molly Brewer | October 10, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Anger, Disaster or Crisis, Fear, Love, Transcendence, Universalism -
This is a prayer for when words fail, for when they are not big enough or small enough to slip into the little cracks left in our hearts by life’s unbearable pressures....Prayer | By Leslie Takahashi | July 17, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Challenge, Community, Disaster or Crisis, Fear, Hope, Power, Suffering, Transcendence, Unitarian Universalism, Unity -
We lean in expectation into all that is being born in us at this Holy time of the year...Ritual | By Erika Hewitt | December 2, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Faith, Spiritual Practice, Tradition, Transcendence, Wholeness -
Blessed Lady, Hallowed Lord, Let me hear your Holy Word. When the Veil is thinned tonight, Let me see with Sacred Sight.Invocation | By Martha Kirby Capo | August 11, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Earth-Centered, Immanence, Mystery, Paganism, Presence, Reverence, Samhain, Transcendence -
This welcome was written for a Sunday after a national crisis. Whether you’re here because worshiping with us is part of your routine or whether you feel like our country has been stopped in its tracks and it’s impossible to return to normalcy, on this morning we gather to proclaim that we...Welcome | By Erika Hewitt | July 10, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Anger, Balance, Connections, Despair, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Hope, Humanism, Mourning, Pain, Purpose, Relationships, Transcendence, Unitarian Universalism -
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 WorshipWebTagged 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 -
Holy grandparents of the Universe...energies of creation...endless mysteries of life: You are the music that sounded before our world was born, sound and silence woven throughout the ages, far beyond the most profound wisdom humanity has been able to touch....Prayer | By Maureen Killoran | January 25, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Connections, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Hope, Humility, Paganism, Prayer Practices, Presence, Transcendence, Wonder, WorshipWeb -
To the Weaver of Molecules, the Spinner of Stars the Impulse that gives birth to the Universe, to the Earth, to Me In the deepest, darkest night of my wintered soul I wrap myself in the blanket of my sadness and grief, pain and suffering, doubts and concerns, fears and questions, and look out fro...Meditation | By Cynthia Frado | December 8, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Agnosticism, Depression, Direct Experience, Growth, Healing, Imbolc / Brighid's Day / Candlemas, Indigenous American, Meditation Practices, Mourning, Sadness, Secular, Transcendence, Transformation, Trust, Twelfth Night / Epiphany, Unitarian Universalism, Winter Solstice / Yule, WorshipWeb -
This prayer was written to accompany the Advent hymn "People, Look East," #226 in Singing the Living Tradition. Spirit of the Living God, turn our faces to the East to look for your presence. Turn our faces in any and every direction from which you draw near to us....Prayer | By Fr. Austin Fleming | December 7, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Awe, Immanence, Transcendence, Wonder -
Let us be attendant now upon hope, faith, and love. Let us know ourselves to be in the presence of the Source and Ground of these things and everything, everything known and unknown, everything known and to-be-known, everything known and never-to-be-known. Here, in the conjunction of past and...Meditation | By Richard F. Beil | May 14, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Faith, Honesty, Hope, Installations, Justice, Love, Ministerial Transition, Peace, Sacred, Service, Solidarity, Transcendence
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When I think of power, strength, sheer physical force, I think of an avalanche. Tons of thundering snow come falling down the side of a steep mountain with the speed and irresistable force of a locomotive or freight train. In an instant an avalanche can sweep away everything in its path. But...Homily | By Gary Kowalski | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 6th Principle (World Community), Christianity, Earth, Earth-Centered, Easter, Flower Communion, Nature, Sacrifice, Transcendence, Transformation
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In the hours before the birds stream airborne with chiming voice, a silent breath rests in the pines, and upholds the surface of the lake as if it were a fragile bubble in the very hand of God. And I think, this is how we are called....Meditation | By Kimberly Beyer-Nelson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Calling, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Nature, Transcendence, Wonder -
Early spring awakens memories of a deeper cold and hopes of a warmer wetness, sprouting seeds and budding branches. Gray trees on gray sky screen eyes from all that lies waiting: the color of a million flowers, the feathers of migrating songbirds, the blossoming smiles of friends. Soon we will no...Meditation | By Stephen M. Shick | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Autumnal Equinox, Beginnings, Communion (Christian), Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Journey, Nature, Transcendence, Transformation, Vernal Equinox -
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 -
Great Rainbow Arch your bright light your seven colours your cool dew link sky and earth above the Christmas stable. Hold us all in your encompassing arms. Forgive our exclusion of others earth and life and child. So may we too forgive those who have excluded us. Save us from the darkness of deep...Meditation | By Andrew M Hill | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Earth, Earth-Centered, Forgiveness, Nature, Presence, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule -
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