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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We pray for those with power to create peacePrayer | By Lara Cowtan | November 13, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Disaster or Crisis, Peace, Violence, War -
How can I be love instead of being anger and fear?Reflection | By DeEtte Waleed | March 29, 2023 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Disaster or Crisis, Integrity, Love, Violence, Worship -
We are broken, O God. We are broken. We gather in vigil again to mourn the death of school children and school teachers. Death and violence are the reasons that draw us together in sorrow, in anger, in anxious grief and loss....Prayer | By Douglas Taylor | December 7, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), Brokenness, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Grief, Healing, Violence -
We come this day, called by war By the suffering we inflict and endure When minds across borders fail to reason and compromise. We come this day, called by loss, The deaths of those who serve in our name, Those whose lives end before their natural course In service to a cause greater than their own.Opening | By Heather K Janules | May 29, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: America, Grief, Humanism, Memorial Day, Military, Peace, Secular, Violence -
Gracious God, the week was filled with moments when words escaped me. They would not come. Forgive me, Holy One —I know it is the preacher’s job, but there were moments when I just did not know how to pray. First, at the hospital, labor and delivery, to see the new parents. The overnight bag sat...Prayer | By Lori Walke | February 19, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), Activism, Birth, Christianity, Death, Direct Experience, Disaster, Disaster or Crisis, Spiritual Practice, Violence -
"We want our children back. There are too many gone too soon." In December 2017, Rev. Jason Shelton was invited to lead singing at the fifth anniversary of the Newtown massacre, at a vigil in front of the headquarters of the NRA. He wrote this song of lament for the occasion, because he couldn’t...Music | By Jason Shelton | February 17, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Children, Death, Direct Experience, Disaster, Disaster or Crisis, Parents, Sadness, Violence -
We, the willing, follow the threads to one another; past rightness and quips and tweets. We will find one another and persist past sunrise.Reflection | By Robin Tanner | October 4, 2017 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Children, Despair, Direct Experience, Disaster, Disaster or Crisis, Hope, Humanism, Parents, Salvation, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Violence, Vision -
What DO we do in the face of evil? Anything. Everything. Pray, protest, bake, hug, grieve, wail, laugh, explain, linger, research, fight, cry. What we absolutely must not do is ignore it.Reflection | By Becky Brooks | June 14, 2017 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Anti-Oppression, Caring, Children, Community, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Humanism, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Love, Multiculturalism, Parents, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Violence -
Today, and forever, I grieve the loss of life. I grieve for the people who died in [name of most recent shooting]. I grieve for their families, friends, and co-workers. I grieve for those who were there and feel both lucky and guilty that they survived while others died. We have witnessed another...Prayer | By Keith Kron | June 16, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: America, Anti-Oppression, Disaster or Crisis, Grief, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Pride Sunday, Solidarity, Violence -
A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more. ~ Matthew 2:18 I read those words aloud from the pulpit once a year, on Christmas Eve: a night when we celebrate the birth of hope and possibility and...Meditation | By Lisa Doege | December 3, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Advent, Birth, Brokenness, Children, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Hope, Judaism, Parents, Peace, Violence -
On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, we remember those who have been murdered for being who they are, those who face violence on a daily basis, those who have lost loved ones, and those who worry for loved ones. May we come to a time when we cease to shame children around gender roles and...Prayer | By Sunshine Jeremiah Wolfe | February 19, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Anti-Oppression, Gender, Identity, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Suffering, Transgender Day of Remembrance, Violence, Wholeness -
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish truth....Reading | By Martin Luther King, Jr. | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Christianity, Commitment, Dignity, Justice, Justice Sunday, Love, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Seven Principles, Unitarian Universalism, Violence -
All violence is framed by blood. Our scars are the red line reminders— for the survivors, and all who follow later. See them, and do not turn away from the violence that drew them. Feel the scars you know, and hear the ones whispered about— They are guides. They are pathways, as much as they are...Meditation | By Kathleen McTigue, Eric Cherry | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Authority, Conscience, Courage, Disaster or Crisis, Discernment, Healing, Oppression, Politics, Responsibility, Violence, Wisdom
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Let us join our hearts and minds together in the spirit of prayer: O Holy One, that unites all who are estranged and challenges all who preach division and exclusion, We see that unity so often in the eyes of a child, who sees neither race or creed in any eyes that look back, but only whether tho...Prayer | By Kathleen Rolenz | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Generations, God, Memorial Day, Military Service, Peace, Veterans Day, Violence, War