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 (4)
- Autumnal Equinox (1)
- Backpack Blessing (2)
- Bridging Ceremony (1)
- Building/Space Dedication (1)
- Child Dedication (1)
- Chinese New Year (1)
- Christmas Eve / Christmas (4)
- Coming of Age (1)
- Communion (Christian) (1)
- Divorce / Separation (1)
- Earth Day (3)
- Easter (3)
- Father's Day (1)
- Fire Communion (2)
- Flower Communion (2)
- Homecoming / Ingathering (6)
- Imbolc / Brighid's Day / Candlemas (1)
- Indigenous Peoples Day (1)
- Installations (1)
- Job Loss (1)
- Leaving Home (1)
- Life Transition (3)
- Ministerial Transition (1)
- Mother's Day (1)
- New Child (1)
- New Year (17)
- Ordinations (1)
- Palm Sunday (1)
- Passover (Pesach) (1)
- Rosh Hashanah (5)
- Summer Solstice (1)
- Teacher Recognition (1)
- Valentine's Day (1)
- Vernal Equinox (3)
- Water Communion (4)
- Winter Solstice / Yule (2)
- Yom Kippur (2)
- Youth Sunday (1)
- Abundance (3)
- Acceptance (3)
- Awe (4)
- Balance (1)
- Beauty (2)
- Birth (2)
- Body (3)
- Bridging (1)
- Calling (2)
- Caring (2)
- Challenge (3)
- Change (2)
- Children (3)
- Choice (3)
- Commitment (3)
- Community (10)
- Compassion (1)
- Connections (3)
- Contemplation (4)
- Courage (10)
- Creativity (2)
- Death (1)
- Discernment (3)
- Doubt (2)
- Earth (5)
- Education (1)
- Empathy (2)
- Ending (12)
- Environment (2)
- Faith (5)
- Family (1)
- Fathers (1)
- Fear (4)
- Forgiveness (3)
- Freedom (1)
- Friendship (1)
- Generations (3)
- God (1)
- Grace (1)
- Gratitude (3)
- Grief (1)
- Growth (6)
- Happiness (1)
- Healing (5)
- Health (3)
- History (1)
- Home (2)
- Hope (13)
- Humility (1)
- Imagination (1)
- Inclusion (1)
- Integrity (4)
- Interdependence (4)
- Journey (10)
- Joy (4)
- Justice (1)
- Leadership (1)
- Letting Go (12)
- Limitations (1)
- Listening (1)
- Love (9)
- Meaning (2)
- Mothers (1)
- Mystery (3)
- Nature (6)
- Pain (1)
- Parents (1)
- Patience (3)
- Peace (4)
- Playfulness (1)
- Power (3)
- Presence (1)
- Purpose (5)
- Regret (1)
- Relationships (5)
- Respect (2)
- Responsibility (1)
- Sacred (1)
- Searching (3)
- Self-Care (2)
- Self-Respect (3)
- Service (1)
- Sorrow (2)
- Spirituality (1)
- Spiritual Practice (8)
- Spring (3)
- Strength (2)
- Tradition (2)
- Transcendence (1)
- Transformation (7)
- Trust (1)
- Unity (1)
- Vision (5)
- Wholeness (1)
- Wisdom (1)
- Wonder (2)
- Work (1)
- Young Adults (1)
- Youth/Teens (1)
- (-) Beginnings (48)
- Addae Ama Kraba (1)
- Alex Holt (1)
- AmyBeth Gibbs (1)
- Anne Barker (1)
- Beth Monhollen (1)
- Charles F Flagg (1)
- Charlie Dieterich (1)
- David O. Rankin (1)
- David Richo (1)
- David Snedden (1)
- Dayna Edwards (1)
- Debra Burrell (1)
- Debra Haffner (3)
- Erika Hewitt (3)
- Gary Kowalski (1)
- Israel Buffardi (1)
- Jennifer McGlothin (1)
- Jennifer Pratt-Walter (1)
- Karen G. Johnston (1)
- Katie Sivani Gelfand (1)
- Kristin Grassel Schmidt (1)
- Leslie Ahuvah Fails (1)
- Lisa Doege (1)
- Lois Van Leer (3)
- Lynn Ungar (1)
- Mandie McGlynn (2)
- Mary Wellemeyer (1)
- Maureen Killoran (3)
- Michelle Buhite (1)
- Michelle Collins (1)
- Molly Housh Gordon (1)
- Paul Vachon (1)
- Robert Walsh (1)
- Sarah Klinger Osborne (1)
- Shari Woodbury (1)
- Stephen M. Shick (1)
- Tim Atkins (3)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 48
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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