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An unlit chalice on a church altar

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.

LEADER RESOURCE 2 Rituals to Welcome a New Child
a medieval window from the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, Scotland, depicting the Nativity
Islamic prayer beads or Subha inside the Süleymaniye Moque (Istanbul).
An altar filled with candles, photos, and flowers

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 51

  • A loaf of bread and goblet of juice for communion at church.
    As we gather in this sacred moment, the Holy Spirit settles among her people.
    Chalice Lighting | By Phoenix Bell-Shelton Biggs | October 18, 2022 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christianity, Communion (Christian), God, Love
  • A vibrant colourful sunset or sunrise sky over limestone pavement landscape and a wind-bent English Hawthorn tree at Twisleton Scar, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, UK
    I wasn’t really “born this way.” I grew this way.
    Reflection | By Heather McDuffee | September 28, 2022 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: #Pride, Choice, Coming Out, Friendship, God, Identity, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Marriage, National Coming Out Day, Transformation, Trust, Worship
  • A vibrant colourful sunset or sunrise sky over limestone pavement landscape and a wind-bent English Hawthorn tree at Twisleton Scar, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, UK
    Coming out is vulnerable, intimate, and holy.
    Homily | By Heather McDuffee | September 27, 2022 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #Pride, Acceptance, Christianity, Coming Out, Courage, Direct Experience, Family, Friendship, God, Identity, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, National Coming Out Day, Transformation, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    "Most of us have been led to believe that prophets 'foretell' the future. That is true, and it is also misleading. It is not the point here. Prophets are seers of the big patterns; they see what is always and forever true. Prophets like Isaiah know how God acts by watching and listening, and they...
    Quote | By Richard Rohr | February 25, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christianity, Contemplation, Courage, Discernment, God, Lent, Revelation
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    We are left with a new sense of ourselves as God’s people.
    Affirmation | By Walter Brueggemann | February 19, 2021 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christianity, God, Lent, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • A glowing paper star lantern appears to hang in a window, with a winter scene outside.
    Advent is about the new story being written in our lives.
    Quote | By Jes Kast | September 10, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christianity, God, Hope, Spirituality, Vulnerability, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • A 9-cell montage of Angel DeVida, Drag Queen, in amazing make-up and jewelry.
    The drag show was heaven broken open, given to us for the evening. Everything for a little while was perfect—and I saw the face of my God.
    Reflection | By Jami Yandle | July 1, 2020 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Freedom, Gender, God, Identity, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Pride Sunday, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Sacred, Sexuality
  • A spiral of rainbow-spectrum light
    Reader 1: We come today to gather together as Unitarian Universalists. Reader 2: We come today to join in the spirit of love and the service of life. Reader 3: We come today to be part of the stream of this living tradition. All: In our gathering, may we be blessed. Reader 1: Our shared faith is...
    Responsive Reading | By Monica Jacobson-Tennessen | January 2, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Commitment, Direct Experience, God, Justice, Living Our Faith, Love, Ordinations, Service
  • A white rose lays on the street next to a commemorative plaque, or Stolperstein, in Weisbaden Germany that honors a victim of the Holocaust.
    God of our hearts, God of our understandings, God who gives us hope and inspires us to commitment, God who commands us to remember: We come together today with hearts contrite and broken; We come together with minds awake, comprehension striving against incomprehension; We come together in hope...
    Prayer | By Paul Oakley | August 3, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Death, God, Holocaust Remembrance / Yom Ha'Shoah, Judaism, Solidarity, Suffering
  • a rainbow array of shiny glitter flakes
    Gracious God, Is it the glitter? Some people think it's the glitter that makes the Pride parade like heaven. Pearly gates and streets of gold - surely heaven has as much glitter as a Pride parade. There’s definitely enough glitter there to make a person believe that the Pride parade is like...
    Prayer | By Lori Walke | June 25, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Christianity, God, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Pride Sunday, Unitarian Universalism
  • A pale pink Gerbera daisy, with its green stalk in front of a pale blue background
    Within the heart of the flower, the fountain of beauty Within the heart of the community, a fire that warms and dances Within the heart of each of us, a spark of the spirit of life. Holy, holy, holy.
    Chalice Lighting | By Amy Zucker Morgenstern | May 29, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Beauty, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, God, Nature, Paganism, Sacred, Wonder
  • Six panels, each one in a different color of "Peep"-shaped bunny, with the words Every + bunny's + welcome + at + Westfield + Church
    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 WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Christianity, God, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Love, Pride Sunday, Unitarian Universalism
  • A white message on red field, with text boxes: "Every day I thank (please check one) God, The Universe, The Unnamed, The Spirit, Earth Mother, All of the Above, None of the Above... FOR YOU
    Image | By Tim Atkins, Jessica Ferguson | February 9, 2018 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Agnosticism, Atheism, God, Gratitude, Love, Paganism, Playfulness, Unitarian Universalism, Valentine's Day
  • An assortment of brightly colored holiday sweaters, in profile, lined up as they hang together
    An adequate Christmas would have you calm and open, taking it in, accepting whatever is. Slow it all down like you might be, in some way, attuned to the pace of the Eternal. If you need, you can fake it at first.
    Reflection | By Jake Morrill | November 29, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Advent, Balance, Challenge, Choice, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Courage, Direct Experience, Family, God, Self-Care, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality, Thanksgiving, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • With blurred multicolored Christmas lights in the background, a small Jesus-in-the-manger from a nativity scene is in half-light.
    I was talking to someone recently about the story of her church-going life, and she told me about a time in her life that she stopped coming to church. Many people who have a story about their church-going life also have a story about taking a break from church—when they stopped going, sometimes...
    Reflection | By Robin Bartlett | November 26, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christianity, Despair, God, Hope, Inclusion, Presence
  • Six wild geese, in flight against a pale sky
    "The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things. It must lose itself in love. By its very nature, it must seek God, who is love." —Mechthild of Magdeburg, 13th century Germany For twelve years, Daisy has been the...
    Reflection | By Jake Morrill | March 8, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Animals, Christianity, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, God, Imagination, Lent, Love, Nature, Presence, Sacred, Searching, Unitarian Universalism
  • A close-up of a shepherd figurine from a nativity creche, with a sheep draped over his shoulder. In the background, another figure is visible.
    O God, who moves among the stars of the cold clear sky, whose voice whispers in the silence of falling snow, whose silence stills our hearts and leaves us wondering and waiting. Lord, We are seeking Christmas, searching in this season for a hidden door to a forgotten room in the house of our very...
    Prayer | By Tom Schade | January 18, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Friendship, God, Relationships, Searching
  • A hazy, pink-tinged photo of christmas lights in purple, green, and white
    Your first Christmas, your last Christmas, this Christmas, and the redemption of the whole world are all happening right now, forever.
    Meditation | By Quinn G. Caldwell | December 14, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Advent, Awe, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Connections, Direct Experience, Family, Generations, God, Redemption, Spirituality, Tradition, Wonder
  • An icon of the black Madonna from St. Mary's church (Marienkirche) in Danzig.
    This hymn text was written to accompany the tune St. Louis, commonly known as "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (#246 in Singing the Living Tradition). O Holy Darkness, loving Womb, who nurtures and creates, sustain us through the longest night with dreams of open gates....
    Music | By Jann Aldredge-Clanton | December 12, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Anti-Oppression, Awe, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, God, Mystery, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wisdom, Women
  • One set of hands hold a plate with a loaf of bread, while another set of hands breaks a piece off for communion.
    Dearly beloved, the story is told that a man named Jesus dined nearly two thousand years ago among his disciples on the eve of his arrest and crucifixion. Some say that Jesus took bread, spoke of it as his body, broke it into pieces and passed it among them to eat....
    Blessing | By Barnaby Feder | December 8, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Christianity, Communion (Christian), Community, Earth, Faith, Food, Generosity, God, Gratitude, Hospitality, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality