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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

Search Words for Worship Services

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Displaying 1 - 20 of 297

  • A red fox looks into the camera, which is positioned on the yellow stripe separating the two sides of a county road. We see the otherwise empty road receding far into the distance, but the fox is prominent in the foreground. Blurred bushes and trees — yellow, orange, and dark green — line the sides of the road.
    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 WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Connections, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Environment, Nature, Sacred, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Above a cityscape, in a black-and-white photo, a lone crow or corvid spreads its wings mid-flight.
    Crows found ways to adapt to our concrete forests but we have not yet found ways to make sure we are in balance with the rest of creation.
    Reflection | By Christine Slocum | April 17, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Interdependence, Nature, Worship
  • A white and brown shofar resting on a piece of blue satin.
    If you have come here tonight on Rosh Hashanah and feel that there is nothing to examine, no wound in your life to heal, no relationship to repair—then I hope you will listen especially closely to the shofar.
    Quote | By Angela Buchdahl | April 4, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Grief, Healing, Judaism, Reconciliation, Rosh Hashanah, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Behind clouds that are faintly lit by the last light of day, a thin crescent moon and a few stars are visible in the blue/black sky.
    There in the deep sack of night, a tiny Hope was born. 
    Poetry | By Jennifer Pratt-Walter | March 29, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Beginnings, Birth, Earth-Centered, Hope, Joy, Love, Peace, Sacred, Winter Solstice / Yule, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Roughly 100 white and reddish-brown mushrooms growing on a decaying tree trunk. Most are seen from above, emphasizing their round caps.
    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 WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Compassion, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Freedom, Growth, Interdependence, Nature, Relationships, Trust, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • A table full of friends raises their glasses--colored glass goblets--in the air outdoors.
    What “toast, boast, and oath” might you offer this January?
    Reflection | By Sarah Klinger Osborne | January 3, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Beginnings, Choice, Contemplation, Integrity, New Year, Searching, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Worship
  • A light-skinned Black person's arms cradle a tiny infant whose bare foot soles face the camera.
    Fear not, the angels would text me. Hallelujah, I’d write back.
    Reflection | By Marcus Liefert | December 20, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Advent, Awe, Children, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, Family, Hope, Parents, Wonder, Worship
  • A mountain range is silhouetted by the orange dawn behind it. Most of the sky is still dark, and time-lapse trails of the paths of the stars show the spinning of the Earth.
    The fulcrum of the Earth tilts toward goodness and I will ride along…
    Reading | By Jennifer Pratt-Walter | December 13, 2023 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Balance, Beauty, Earth, Earth-Centered, Good, Nature, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Through a thick forest, a reindeer peeks out at the camera
    Spirits of winter, I celebrate you!
    Reflection | By Erica Shadowsong | December 13, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Animals, Earth-Centered, Generations, Goddess, Imagination, Spiritual Practice, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule, Worship
  • A sketch of Mary, with a crown of stars and a fist raised. Around her are the words "Cast down the mighty" and "Send the rich away"
    The Magnificat is a courageous and subversive song of praise; a call to social justice.
    Reflection | By Laura Dobson | December 6, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Activism, Advent, Anti-Oppression, Christianity, Courage, History, Justice, Multiculturalism, Worship
  • A vibrantly orange and crimson sky, at sunset, with the silhouette of an evergreen tree in front of it.
    Love this world, she whispers.
    Poetry | By Rebecca Ann Parker | November 30, 2023 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Beauty, Brokenness, Earth, Love, Wholeness, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • a person touches a Ghanti bell on a Hindu altar, in front of statues of Ganesha and Lakshmi
    Welcome abundance, welcome prosperity, welcome love, and welcome light.
    Responsive Reading | By Michael J. Tino | October 10, 2023 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Diwali, Goddess, Hinduism, Multiculturalism, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • From the ground level, the camera points up at a tree canopy beneath a blue sky.
    Is it not a marvel?
    Poetry | By Jennifer Pratt-Walter | September 20, 2023 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Animals, Awe, Body, Earth, Earth Day, Nature, Wonder
  • A close-up of bright pink peacock flower buds, with a couple of flowers opening.
    I am singing/of the wonder of how roots/so love the buds they bid them grow...
    Poetry | By Jennifer Pratt-Walter | September 20, 2023 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Beauty, Earth, Earth-Centered, Flower Communion, Nature, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    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 WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Family, Generations, Integrity, Love, Memorial Services, Truth, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Six cylindrical vases are filled with colored liquid, so that together they form a rainbow. This photo captures the bottom of each vase and the reflection of their color on a blank surface.
    I would have loved it as a kid to have a church that encouraged us to listen to our heartfelt yearning of self.
    Reflection | By Zeb Green | June 7, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Coming Out, Direct Experience, Gender, Identity, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Pride Sunday, Truth, Worship
  • A hand opens a door, revealing a restroom.
    I belong, and you belong, and we belong—just as we are.
    Reflection | By Li Kynvi | May 31, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Body, Courage, Direct Experience, Humanism, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Oppression, Pride Sunday, Privilege, Secular, Worship
  • Against a dark field, five neon arrows in blue, pink, and yellow point in the same direction.
    Is a calling a feeling of joy, of completeness in your work?
    Reading | By Megan Foley | May 22, 2023 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Calling, Direct Experience, Leadership, Ordinations, Unitarian Universalism, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • A person's hands scoop green material into a full compost bin, filled with flowers, eggshells, and colorful vegetable matter.
    The miracle of grace is available to us even when it has been left untended.
    Reflection | By Jennifer Hundley-Batts | May 3, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Abundance, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Food, Grace, Nature, Patience, Stewardship, Summer Solstice, Worship
  • A tiny chickweed seedling still has the cap of its seed pod, while the tiny seedling next to it is unfurling its tiny green leaves.
    Remind me that life is magical and mysterious.
    Reflection | By JD Stillwater | April 19, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Awe, Beauty, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Nature, Stewardship, Wonder, Worship