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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Let this year be a clean slate for new beginnings.Prayer | By Addae Ama Kraba | March 29, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Courage, Creativity, Empathy, New Year, Peace, WorshipWeb, Worship -
There in the deep sack of night, a tiny Hope was born.Poetry | By Jennifer Pratt-Walter | March 29, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Beginnings, Birth, Earth-Centered, Hope, Joy, Love, Peace, Sacred, Winter Solstice / Yule, WorshipWeb, Worship -
What “toast, boast, and oath” might you offer this January?Reflection | By Sarah Klinger Osborne | January 3, 2024 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Beginnings, Choice, Contemplation, Integrity, New Year, Searching, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Worship -
May we each find the balance point we needClosing | By Michelle Collins | September 15, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Change, Ending, Life Transition, Limitations, Transformation, WorshipWeb, Worship -
May we remember that we each carry inside of us a spark of the Divine.Blessing | By Beth Monhollen | July 24, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Acceptance, Beginnings, Grace, New Year, WorshipWeb, Worship -
I’m proud to belong to a living religious tradition that embraces evolution, both scientifically and spiritually.Reflection | By Tim Atkins | January 4, 2023 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Beginnings, New Year, Spiritual Practice, Worship -
Let’s breathe and remember that it is not the device that has value; the value is found in the connections which the device allows us to sustain.Ritual | By Dayna Edwards | August 30, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Backpack Blessing, Beginnings, Secular -
For the new year, just days old, beginning today, always beginning: We light our chalice, symbol of faith, perseverance, and hope, in astonished thanksgiving and irrepressible praise. For beginnings that emerge out of endings, appear amidst continuity, become visible in hindsight: We light our...Chalice Lighting | By Lisa Doege | January 8, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Faith, Gratitude, Homecoming / Ingathering, Hope, New Year, Unitarian Universalism -
One of my most treasured New Year’s traditions is coming up with a word for the year: a single word that I want to be the theme for my entire year. When I’m questioning what’s the right thing to do, I will look to my word of the year for guidance.Reflection | By Tim Atkins | January 1, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Beginnings, Direct Experience, Integrity, Letting Go, New Year, Purpose, Spiritual Practice, Vision -
There are so many spiritual lessons from the natural world and—in a season filled with Ingatherings and Water Communions—this is one for me: oxbow lakes as a beautiful combination of resiliency, strength, and flexibility.Reflection | By Tim Atkins | September 11, 2019 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Beginnings, Direct Experience, Discernment, Earth, Earth-Centered, Environment, Homecoming / Ingathering, Journey, Nature, Power, Strength, Water Communion -
We gather together this morning tenderly—like drops of dew on a leaf of grass hopefully—like gathered raindrops in a cloud gleefully—like water rushing in a stream to the sea deeply—like groundwater pulled up from a well We gather from every direction, for another year of growth and depth,...Opening | By Molly Housh Gordon | September 4, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Community, Earth, Earth-Centered, Homecoming / Ingathering, Interdependence, Nature, Water Communion -
Spirit of Life that goes by so many names… Spirit of Love that has taken so many shapes on our earth over the millennia of human habitation here… we open our hearts to make room for you. With the innocence and imagination of a child, help us to hear the beauty and the magic in the Christmas...Prayer | By Shari Woodbury | January 21, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Community, Contemplation, Courage, Empathy, Faith, Healing, Hope, Humility, Love -
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 -
I invite you now to join me in the spirit of meditation and imagination. Find a comfortable position in your seat and close your eyes. Take a deep breath and try to find the restorative power of air and water in the breath. We must breathe to live, but our bodies also need water to survive. Our...Meditation | By Israel Buffardi | December 7, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 6th Principle (World Community), Beginnings, Body, Commitment, Courage, Creativity, Generations, History, Judaism, New Year, Power, Rosh Hashanah, Searching, Spiritual Practice -
Happy new year! Happy new year for our beloved community. Happy new school year....Opening | By Debra Haffner | September 14, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Beginnings, Community, Homecoming / Ingathering, Inclusion, Judaism, Rosh Hashanah, Unitarian Universalism, Vision, Water Communion -
We call forth the life of our faith by igniting our chalice. This spark of new beginnings invites us into a sacred space to reflect where we have been and where we are going. Even knowing that this particular flame will intentionally end with our ritual extinguishing, we fear not its end… For we...Chalice Lighting | By Katie Sivani Gelfand | May 31, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Challenge, Courage, Direct Experience, Divorce / Separation, Earth-Centered, Ending, Fear, Humanism, Job Loss, Journey, Leaving Home, Letting Go, Life Transition, Mystery, Secular, Unitarian Universalism -
Tell me the story of my birth, and help me understand how you were changed the day I entered the world. Help me know love, deep in my bones.Reflection | By Mandie McGlynn | May 9, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Beginnings, Birth, Child Dedication, Children, Direct Experience, Family, Father's Day, Fathers, Humanism, Love, Mother's Day, Mothers, Parents, Secular -
Let us ground ourselves in gratitude: using the colorful paper and something to write with, we prepare for our Gratitude Confetti ritual. Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/on-being-column-the-hardship-we-accept/"…; I encourage myself to remember that being grateful...Ritual | By Karen G. Johnston | January 23, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Ending, Gratitude, Humanism, Integrity, New Year, Secular, Unitarian Universalism -
As we come together, let us pause to take stock of the year now concluding: its moments of happiness and hurt, its times of accomplishment and failure, and its occasions of inspiration and fear. We add these experiences to the tapestries of our years, and look bravely towards a new horizon.Opening | By Paul Vachon | January 23, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Contemplation, Direct Experience, Ending, Humanism, New Year, Secular, Unitarian Universalism -
Week by week, the candles remind us that fear and hopelessness recede as more warmth enters the world.Ritual | By Erika Hewitt | November 26, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Beginnings, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Ending, Faith, Hope, Letting Go, Patience, Spiritual Practice -
This is the season of endings and beginnings.Opening | By Erika Hewitt | November 26, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Beginnings, Ending, Letting Go, New Year, Patience, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality -
Fire consumes, and casts a bright light. May our chalice flame consume our regrets for the past, our fears about the future, and our worries about today. May it light for us a path of joy and peace.Chalice Lighting | By Debra Burrell | November 21, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Beginnings, Direct Experience, Ending, Fear, Joy, Letting Go, New Year, Peace, Presence, Regret -
We gather with a hunger for reconciliation. What is done cannot be undone. What is done next must now be done with care. We gather because we are hopeful, Because we have visions and dreams of a brighter future. That there may be more than vision in this room, These are the wounds we must heal...Prayer | By Anne Barker | August 22, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Beginnings, Community, Forgiveness, Healing, Indigenous Peoples Day, Listening, Peace, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism, Unity -
We are on a journey. We didn’t plan it. We didn’t have time for the bread to rise. We may find ourselves in the wilderness, hungry, thirsty, Doubting that we should have ever come. But look around: We are not alone. It is our journey together: A journey to our better selves, A journey to a...Closing | By Debra Haffner | July 4, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Community, Connections, Courage, Doubt, Journey, Judaism, Passover (Pesach) -
The new year calls us forward, filled with mystery. As we turn toward that new year, we take a final glimpse of the past year, and reckon with all that it held for us. There are baskets moving through the aisles with pens and something called flash paper. It’s specially treated paper that...Ritual | By Erika Hewitt | December 15, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Beginnings, Direct Experience, Ending, Fire Communion, Letting Go, New Year, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Spiritual Practice, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism, Vision -
This has been published with "they" pronouns; please use the most fitting pronoun in your own setting. Minister: I call (intern name) to the pulpit. Congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Church of (name), we have begun a new thing by bringing (intern) into our midst, to learn the practice of...Ritual | By Michelle Buhite | October 12, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Commitment, Community, Growth, Leadership, Ministerial Transition, Purpose, Relationships, Service, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism -
All that we have been separately and all that we will become together is stretched out before and behind us like stars scattered across a canvas of sky. We stand at the precipice, arms locked together like tandem skydivers working up the courage to jump. Tell me, friends: What have we got to lose?Meditation | By Leslie Ahuvah Fails | October 6, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Beginnings, Body, Calling, Commitment, Courage, Homecoming / Ingathering, Installations, Interdependence, Judaism, Ordinations, Playfulness, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Trust, Unitarian Universalism -
May the next ten days be days of reflection, introspection, and peace.Closing | By Debra Haffner | September 29, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Connections, Judaism, Letting Go, Rosh Hashanah -
Each person (mostly children but some adults will have brought their backpacks too) comes forward with their backpack and stands in a group. The prayer follows, then worship associates give each person a “luggage tag” bearing a flaming chalice logo. Spirit of Life and Hope and Love, for many of...Blessing | By Maureen Killoran | August 1, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Backpack Blessing, Beginnings, Caring, Challenge, Children, Community, Courage, Fear, Friendship, Joy, Love, Unitarian Universalism -
[Names], as you step forward into your next chapter, we send with you our fondest hopes and blessings. May life bring enough challenge to fuel your dreams, enough affirmation to honor your gifts and enough nurture to give your spirit peace. Believe in your vision. Follow your dreams....Blessing | By Maureen Killoran | June 3, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Beginnings, Bridging, Bridging Ceremony, Coming of Age, Community, Generations, Growth, Home, Hope, Humanism, Love, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism, Young Adults, WorshipWeb -
One: Spirit of Guiding Love, we give thanks today for all of the people who followed a dream, and whose vision, persistence, labor, and commitment have given us the gift of this labyrinth. All: Bless this labyrinth and all who use it....Litany | By Kristin Grassel Schmidt | May 31, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Beginnings, Building/Space Dedication, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Ending, Healing, Home, Journey, Mystery, Paganism, Secular, Spiritual Practice, Transformation -
What makes us human beings so uniquely wonderful in this puzzling universe is that we never give up on love. Against all odds, with no guarantee of being loved in return, out of the hate and hurt so often handed us, in the face of the sad suffering history has let us see, we go on loving....Quote | By David Richo | May 19, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Beginnings, Connections, Courage, Direct Experience, Hope, Love, Meaning, New Child, New Year, Relationships, Respect, Self-Respect, Valentine's Day, Wonder -
This ritual was designed as part of a worship service/fire communion. Please see that holiday description for more details. Leader: Today’s service is about letting go, metaphoric cleansing and quenching of thirst, setting of intentions, self-anointing, healing, new beginnings and possibilities.Ritual | By Lois Van Leer | May 3, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Earth-Centered, Fire Communion, Hope, Letting Go, New Year, Purpose, Spiritual Practice, Wisdom -
Having let go, Set our intentions, Named our curiosity, Committed our energies, And given ourselves over to lives of balance, purpose and meaning, Let us begin again In love...Closing | By Lois Van Leer | May 3, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Ending, Hope, Journey, Letting Go, Love, New Year
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EARTH, clay from which we are made and to which we will return. Soil, rich and aromatic, crumbling in my fingers, dark under my nails. This, cleansing dirt, the natural filter for aquifers, holds life....Meditation | By David Snedden | April 5, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Beginnings, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Environment, Humanism, Imagination, Imbolc / Brighid's Day / Candlemas, Interdependence, Nature, Spring, Summer Solstice, Vernal Equinox, Climate Justice -
For all those who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, may this day be another affirmation of divine love and promise; For all those who see the eternal story of new spring and life beginning anew, may you breathe deeply of a season of promise and hope. For all who are experiencing despair or...Closing | By Alex Holt | April 4, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Beginnings, Christianity, Courage, Direct Experience, Easter, Hope -
We light this chalice on the brink of a new year Letting go of what has been Open and hopeful for what may come Renewed, restored, ready To live Life fully anew May we move forward with intention. Note: this chalice lighting can be read in unison or responsively.Chalice Lighting | By Lois Van Leer | January 14, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Chinese New Year, Ending, Healing, Health, Hope, Letting Go, New Year, Purpose, Rosh Hashanah, Strength, Vision, Wholeness -
I knew a man who had printed on his stationary this proverb: “Nothing is settled. Everything matters.” It established a certain ambience for reading his letters, as if to say: what you are about to read is to be taken seriously, but is not final. I remember him and his proverb sometimes,...Meditation | By Robert Walsh | January 10, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Choice, Direct Experience, Integrity, Letting Go, Mystery, New Year
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As the first hint of green begins to peek through the barren ground As that little sprig grows into a healthy stem As that stem grows into a stalk and forms a bud As that bud slowly opens with each new day To form a yellow daffodil Let us be, like that first hint of green, renewed by the warm of ...Chalice Lighting | By Jennifer McGlothin | October 20, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Abundance, Awe, Beauty, Beginnings, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Easter, Flower Communion, Growth, Health, Interdependence, Nature, Secular, Spring, Unitarian Universalism, Vernal Equinox -
Image | By AmyBeth Gibbs | September 17, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Beginnings, Forgiveness, God, Judaism, Love, Rosh Hashanah, Tradition, Wonder, Yom Kippur -
Dear God: Good Friday is gone—a dark day on the calendar, A time of suffering—with more losses than gains, And more pain than we thought we could bear. We are tired of crying, We are tired of burying, We are tired of mourning. But Easter is here—and we who survived are prepared For the turning...Meditation | By David O. Rankin | May 28, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Death, Easter, Grief, Hope, Joy, Love, Pain, Sorrow, Transformation
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What a gathering—the purple tongues of iris licking out at spikes of lupine, the orange crepe skirts of poppies lifting over buttercup and daisy. Who can be grim in the face of such abundance? There is nothing to compare, no need for beauty to compete. The voluptuous rhododendron and the plain...Meditation | By Lynn Ungar | May 25, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Beauty, Beginnings, Community, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Growth, Happiness, Nature, Spring -
Like those shepherds who were on the hillsides with their flocks, like those wise ones in their observatories with their telescopes and astronomical charts, we find our daily work interrupted by these holidays. Like them, we can’t keep on working, we have to listen to singing angels, we have to...Meditation | By Mary Wellemeyer | May 13, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Awe, Beginnings, Calling, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Journey, Searching, Vision, Work
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Note: This ritual combines fresh water with water from the previous year that has been boiled and filtered. The combined water is poured over the hands into the common bowl. Minister: The ancient Greek philosopher Heracltus of Ephesus is famous for one belief. He taught his students that...Blessing | By Charlie Dieterich | April 22, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Beginnings, Body, Caring, Children, Earth-Centered, Education, Generations, Gratitude, Growth, Homecoming / Ingathering, Humanism, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Purpose, Teacher Recognition, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion, WorshipWeb -
Keeper of our journeys, Today we mark and celebrate a significant moment in the lives of these young people Who this year assume the responsibility of becoming licensed drivers. We ask that they might be gifted with wisdom to make good choices as they navigate the roads ahead....Blessing | By Gary Kowalski | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Beginnings, Choice, Discernment, Freedom, Health, Journey, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Respect, Responsibility, Youth Sunday, Youth/Teens
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Leader: Every endeavor begins with a first step, and encounters darkness and difficulty along the way. Response: We know the darkness of ignorance, of fear, and of tyranny. Leader: Yet we know the dawning of the light, the beginnings of hope, and the renewal of life....Chalice Lighting | By Charles F Flagg | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beginnings, Challenge, Courage, Discernment, Doubt, Faith, Fear, Hope, Journey, Palm Sunday, Power -
(May be read responsively) For every time we make a mistake and we decide to start again: We light this chalice. For every time we are lonely and we let someone be our friend: We light this chalice. For every time we are disappointed and we choose to hope: We light this chalice.Chalice Lighting | By Maureen Killoran | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Acceptance, Beginnings, Community, Compassion, Forgiveness, Healing, Letting Go, Meaning, Relationships, Sorrow, Unitarian Universalism, Yom Kippur -
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