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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Palm Sunday is found: whenever we are serving a noble and unpopular cause with selfless devotion, holding to the ideals of truth and justice; whenever we are seeking to uplift the fallen, to comfort the brokenhearted, to strengthen and encourage the weak and hopeless; whenever we are working brav...Meditation | By David O. Rankin | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Palm Sunday -
Once upon a time there was an old man who lived alone with his grandson in a dirty hovel. Everything around them was filthy (you can imagine!) One day a stranger appeared and gave the young child a beautiful lily. The boy took it home and placed it on a windowsill in his house....Story | By Thomas Rhodes | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Easter, Service, Transformation -
On Mother's Day, one expects to read about the wonder and glory of motherhood....Reading | By Jane Rzepka | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Children, Direct Experience, Generations, Mother's Day, Mothers, Parents, Relationships
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Quiet yourself and listen to the rhythm of your breath, your heart . . .Listen to the silence . . .Meditation | By Stephen W Dick | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Contemplation, Direct Experience, Meditation Practices, Self-Care, Silence, Spiritual Practice -
Let us be together in silence. Let our hearts listen. Let this house be quiet. For a moment, stretch back in memory to the first time you joined a meeting of this church. It may have been in this building or in a rented space or a home. What was happening then? Were you comfortable, anxious,...Meditation | By Jacqueline A Collins | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Building/Space Dedication, Connections, Friendship, History, Purpose, Strength, Unitarian Universalism
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We listen to the wisdom of our inner hearts and minds as we join in meditation.Meditation | By Anne E Treadwell | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Christianity, Easter, Judaism, Passover (Pesach)
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Like pendulums we swing from hunger to hunger -- from hunger for the one great Truth (absolute, eternal, mystical) to hunger for simple, near-in, familiar truths that change as we change, grow as we grow....Meditation | By Don W Vaughn-Foerster | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Searching
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Let us take a moment to settle into the silence. Hear and feel your quiet breathing. Hear and feel the quiet of this room and this community of quiet people. As we sit in the quiet, feel the life that stretches between us, that fills this room....Meditation | By Emmy Lou Belcher | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Connections, Freedom, Presence, Silence, Unitarian Universalism
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As today we have received these children into the congregation and committed ourselves to their nurture, let us now receive into our hearts all children. Let us remember the children we once were and who still live within us. Let us love them now, in this quiet moment....Meditation | By Connie P Sternberg | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 6th Principle (World Community), Child Dedication, Conscience, Justice
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Let us rejoice for the families who have gathered this Thanksgiving to express their thanks and to celebrate the bounty of their lives. Let us join together in support of those whose families are far away, with distances in many forms. Let us hold one another in gentle reverence this holiday of...Meditation | By Elizabeth M Strong | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Community, Death, Family, Gratitude, Illness, Thanksgiving, Unitarian Universalism
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Let us praise those fathers who have striven to balance the demands of work, marriage, and children with an honest awareness of both joy and sacrifice. Let us praise those fathers who, lacking a good model for a father, have worked to become a good father. Let us praise those fathers who by their...Meditation | By Kirk D Loadman-Copeland | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Children, Family, Father's Day, Fathers, Gratitude, Healing, Love, Parents, Relationships, Sacrifice -
Let there always be in the seasons of our lives a time for forgiveness -- for such is being human that we do unto others, as they do unto us, that which needs to be forgiven. There is a saying that "It's easier to forgive our enemies after we've gotten even with them." But is that in truth...Meditation | By Rolfe Gerhardt | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Forgiveness
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The journeys of our lives are never fully charted. There come to each of us deserts to cross—barren stretches—where the green edge on the horizon may be our destination, or an oasis on our way, or a mirage that beckons only to leave us lost. When fear grips the heart, or despair bows the head,...Prayer | By Margaret A Keip | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Challenge, Earth, Earth-Centered, Fear, Hope, Nature, Transformation -
Let us enter into a spirit of meditation. Much of our human struggle is with what we do not know or understand. It is often difficult not to want answers—or even more difficult, not to think we have them already. May we experience what we do not know not as an individual failure but as an...Meditation | By Linda M Hansen | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Challenge, Community, Direct Experience, Letting Go, Searching, Unitarian Universalism, Wonder
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The moment of prayer is an invitation to be calm in the midst of the tumult of the world and our over-busy lives, to bring together thought and feeling, mind and spirit, and to find some center -- some still point -- of perspective and peace. Here in this sanctuary which has been the home for so...Meditation | By Earl K Holt III | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Generosity
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May we look with gratitude upon this day, for the beauty of the world, for the first radiance of dawn and the last smoldering glow of sunset....Meditation | By Michael R Leduc | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Gratitude
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Let us join in the exercise of silence for reflection, repose, meditation, or prayer. (Silence) In reflecting upon the dispiriting time in which we live, I have come to believe that the basic religious response is to refuse to be dispirited for long....Meditation | By Greta W Crosby | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Abundance, Hope, Pain, Patience, Trust, Unitarian Universalism
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If there is a heaven, it is right here, right now, in this particular arrangement of nature, this happening of earth, moon, and star, this constellation of instants, this laden moment, this flash of recognition, this particle of time. If there is a god, it is all around us, everywhere, in every...Meditation | By Tess Baumberger | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Direct Experience, God, Mindfulness, Presence, Wholeness
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I invite you now into a time of gratitude, reflection, renewal and hope. What an unearned blessing to delight in the calming peace of this space; to hear the robin's song again at daybreak; to feel the warmth in this room, and to enjoy the promise of summer almost upon us....Meditation | By Sam Trumbore | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Choice, Conflict, Contemplation, Direct Experience, Discernment, Hope, Strength, Vision -
I invite you into a space of quiet and peace, to ground yourself by noticing your contact with chair and floor, by sitting straight, by becoming aware of your breathing. Look at your hands....Meditation | By Christine Robinson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Body, Connections, Direct Experience, Healing, Health, Unitarian Universalism