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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- Advent (7)
- All Saints Day (1)
- All Souls Day (3)
- Animal Memorial (1)
- Bridging Ceremony (1)
- Child Dedication (1)
- Christmas Eve / Christmas (7)
- Disaster or Crisis (18)
- Divorce / Separation (1)
- Earth Day (1)
- Easter (1)
- Father's Day (1)
- Good Friday (3)
- Hiroshima Day (2)
- Holocaust Remembrance / Yom Ha'Shoah (1)
- Justice Sunday (2)
- Life Transition (2)
- Meditation Practices (1)
- Memorial Day (2)
- Memorial Services (1)
- Mother's Day (3)
- Mourning (1)
- New Child (1)
- New Year (1)
- Palm Sunday (1)
- Prayer Practices (1)
- Remembrance Day (2)
- Rosh Hashanah (1)
- Thanksgiving (2)
- Transgender Day of Remembrance (1)
- United Nations Day (1)
- Veterans Day (1)
- Winter Solstice / Yule (2)
- Yom Kippur (2)
- Acceptance (4)
- Activism (3)
- Anger (1)
- Anti-Oppression (4)
- Balance (2)
- Beauty (1)
- Birth (1)
- Body (2)
- Caring (1)
- Challenge (3)
- Change (2)
- Character (1)
- Children (3)
- Choice (1)
- Commitment (2)
- Community (6)
- Compassion (5)
- Conflict (3)
- Connections (4)
- Conscience (1)
- Courage (2)
- Death (3)
- Despair (9)
- Division (1)
- Doubt (1)
- Earth (2)
- Ending (1)
- Failure (1)
- Faith (3)
- Family (3)
- Fear (2)
- Food (1)
- Forgiveness (6)
- God (4)
- Grace (2)
- Grief (14)
- Healing (15)
- History (1)
- Hope (14)
- Human Rights (1)
- Identity (1)
- Immanence (1)
- Immigration (1)
- Inclusion (1)
- Integrity (2)
- Interdependence (2)
- Journey (1)
- Joy (1)
- Justice (4)
- Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer (1)
- Letting Go (2)
- Limitations (1)
- Living Our Faith (1)
- Love (10)
- Marriage (1)
- Mothers (2)
- Mystery (2)
- Nature (1)
- Oppression (1)
- Pain (4)
- Parents (1)
- Peace (3)
- Playfulness (1)
- Power (1)
- Presence (1)
- Purpose (1)
- Race/Ethnicity (2)
- Reconciliation (2)
- Redemption (1)
- Relationships (4)
- Religion (1)
- Responsibility (2)
- Sadness (1)
- Salvation (1)
- Searching (1)
- Self-Care (2)
- Self-Respect (2)
- Shadow (1)
- Solidarity (7)
- Sorrow (1)
- Spiritual Practice (3)
- Strength (1)
- Stress (2)
- Suffering (3)
- Terrorism (2)
- Tradition (4)
- Transcendence (2)
- Transformation (2)
- Trauma (5)
- Truth (2)
- Unity (1)
- Violence (2)
- Vision (1)
- Vulnerability (3)
- War (1)
- Wholeness (9)
- Wonder (1)
- Young Adults (1)
- Youth/Teens (1)
- (-) Brokenness (45)
- Alice Anacheka-Nasemann (1)
- Amanda Udis-Kessler (1)
- Amy Petrie Shaw (1)
- Angela Buchdahl (1)
- Audette Fulbright Fulson (1)
- Becky Brooks (1)
- Beth Merrill Neel (1)
- Caitlin Cotter Coillberg (1)
- Celie Katovitch (1)
- Daniel Chesney Kanter (1)
- Dawn Star Sarahs-Borchelt (1)
- Douglas Taylor (1)
- Elea Kemler (1)
- Elena Westbrook (1)
- Elizabeth Stevens (1)
- Erica Baron (1)
- Erika Hewitt (3)
- Jan Richardson (1)
- Jay E Abernathy, Jr (1)
- Jean M. Olson (1)
- Karen G. Johnston (1)
- Karen Mooney (1)
- Kate Landis (1)
- Katie Sivani Gelfand (1)
- Krista Taves (1)
- Kristin Grassel Schmidt (1)
- Laura Horton-Ludwig (1)
- Laura Solomon (1)
- Lindasusan Ulrich (1)
- Lisa Doege (2)
- Maureen Killoran (1)
- Meg Riley (1)
- Patricia Shelden (1)
- Phillip Lund (1)
- Rebecca Ann Parker (1)
- Rebecca Bryan (1)
- Sharon Wylie (1)
- Sheri Prud’homme (1)
- Susanne Intriligator (1)
- Tess Baumberger (1)
- Thomas Rhodes (1)
- Vanessa Titang (1)
- Victoria Safford (1)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 45
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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 WorshipWebTagged as: Brokenness, Grief, Healing, Judaism, Reconciliation, Rosh Hashanah, WorshipWeb, Worship
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In this heartbreak what we carry forth is our humanity in newly revealed form—our hearts tender and delicate.Prayer | By Vanessa Titang | December 12, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Brokenness, Community, Compassion, Disaster or Crisis, Grief, Healing, Trauma, WorshipWeb, Worship
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Love this world, she whispers.Poetry | By Rebecca Ann Parker | November 30, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Beauty, Brokenness, Earth, Love, Wholeness, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder, WorshipWeb, Worship
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May you be tender and gentle with yourselfPrayer | By Katie Sivani Gelfand | September 13, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Brokenness, Disaster or Crisis, Grief, Love, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Stress, Transformation, WorshipWeb, Worship
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We are an angry and beautiful people.Reflection | By Laura Solomon | June 1, 2022 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Brokenness, Connections, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Fear, Humanism, Love, Suffering, Unitarian Universalism, Worship
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Church is for helping people stay human in the face of inhumane circumstances.Audio Recording | By Erika Hewitt, Elizabeth Stevens | August 2, 2021 | From WorshipLabTagged as: Brokenness, Disaster or Crisis, Presence, Self-Care, Trauma, Worship Tips
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I am afraid and exhausted from the constant fear. I don’t know who to trust for information about the virus.Ritual | By Kate Landis | March 16, 2021 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, Brokenness, Death, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Grief, Healing, Hope, Secular, Solidarity, WorshipWeb, Worship
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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
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Knit six purl six sets of two rows four rows six rows up to twelve, patterns, repeating, steady, soothingly same. This is not what life is like. Life is like picking up a tousled hunk of yarn pulled out of the basket by an impatient child looking for a string too many times. You find an end. You...Poetry | By Dawn Star Sarahs-Borchelt | October 16, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Acceptance, Brokenness, Connections, Direct Experience, Grief, Humanism, Interdependence, Life Transition, Pain, Secular, Stress
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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
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Set up for this ritual: It's especially meaningful to have a congregant bake bread for communion. (If that’s not possible, store bought bread will do.) Cut the bread into cubes and place in baskets lined with napkins. Have a basket of gluten-free crackers available as well. To hold the juice, one...Ritual | By Sheri Prud’homme | October 22, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Body, Brokenness, Christianity, Food, Grief, Healing, Spiritual Practice, Thanksgiving, Transformation, Wholeness
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In the days ahead, many of us will gather with family and friends, people with whom we may have long and complicated relationships. It helps to prepare. Let us enter into the spirit of prayer or meditation. Dear Spirit, Great Mystery that has blessed us with Life, help us to feel grateful....Prayer | By Susanne Intriligator | June 18, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Brokenness, Challenge, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, Family, Father's Day, Forgiveness, Healing, Humanism, Mother's Day, Searching, Secular, Thanksgiving, Tradition
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We all take part in this ancient play. At some time. There is no other way. At some time… Thieves, guilty of poor choices caught red-handed in our human reality. One points at the other and says, “You: save me.” The other bows his head. “I accept responsibility. The mistakes I’ve made are...Meditation | By Rebecca Bryan | June 18, 2018 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Brokenness, Christianity, Death, Good Friday, Grief, Humanism, Responsibility
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As the news cycle brings us images of terror and heartbreak once again, We grieve together As each of us faces into this new level of horror, We grieve together As we remember other moments of pain, fear, and loss, We grieve together Yearning for an end to violence and suffering, We grieve togeth...Litany | By Caitlin Cotter Coillberg | December 8, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Brokenness, Community, Connections, Disaster or Crisis, Grief, Healing, Solidarity, Suffering, Unitarian Universalism
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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
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You whose hearts are broken, come in. You whom pain has touched, and sorrow, and shock. You who have cried this week, and read the news with sadness. You whom loss has shadowed. You who grieve. Come in, come in. You with hearts open to joy and hope, come in. You whom love has touched, and...Opening | By Sharon Wylie | November 21, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Brokenness, Challenge, Community, Despair, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Hope, Inclusion, Interdependence
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We live inside paradox. Humans generally don’t like to admit it—we much prefer tidy, stable, comprehensible, logical ways of getting through the day—but paradox is woven into the fabric of this particular universe we inhabit. Light is both a particle and a wave Imaginary numbers describe the...Opening | By Lindasusan Ulrich | October 2, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Agnosticism, Balance, Brokenness, Christianity, Easter, Faith, Hope, Mystery, Unitarian Universalism
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One: Despair is sapping our spirits, damaging our souls, hurting our hearts. Many: We need to be resurrected into hope, faith, and trust. Today, may we be resurrected. One: Violence is shortening our lives and robbing us of our joy. Many: We need to be resurrected into peace and its many blessings.Responsive Reading | By Amanda Udis-Kessler | September 12, 2017 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Brokenness, Despair, Direct Experience, Failure, Good Friday, Grace, Hope, Redemption, Salvation
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December 7, 2016 “Use loneliness. Its ache creates urgency to reconnect with the world.” — Natalie Goldberg I know a little about "merry" meeting "mess" at the holidays — and by a little I mean How much time have you got? Four Christmases ago, a painful break-up sent me spinning into a long...Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | December 7, 2016 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Commitment, God, Healing, Hope, Pain, Sadness, Spiritual Practice
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God has a fondness for what is fragile. This means us. Advent tells us that God came to us—and comes to us still—with complete vulnerability. Christ is to be found among what is fragile—including us, ourselves, when pain and loss have left us feeling less than whole. In coming to us as a...Reflection | By Jan Richardson | November 28, 2016 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, God, Immanence, Relationships, Vulnerability