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Unitarian Universalists use different terms for the words that begin a worship service, including call to worship, invocation, and opening words. These words invite the congregation from their separate lives and to the common place and time of the worship hour.

(In Unitarian Universalist worship if there are Opening Words there is generally not an Invocation, and vice versa.)

Search Words for Worship Services

Displaying 1 – 20 of 514

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  • Against a dark blue sky, a sheet of strung lights is blurred, creating a golden, net-like appearance.
    Hope seeks out the forgotten places...
    Invocation | By Hannah Roberts Villnave | November 26, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Hope, Worship
  • A white woman with long reddish-brown hair holds an iPhone up to her face with two hands, perhaps taking a photo. The phone blocks most of her face from view, except for the corners of her sunglasses. Behind her, blurry, we see a mostly empty street or plaza.
    A call to worship is secretly a call to focus our attention. Choosing to focus our attention is countercultural.
    Opening | By Samantha Lynne Wilson | November 20, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Calling, Commitment, Community, Connections, Mindfulness, Presence, Sacred, Spiritual Practice, Worship
  • A low-angle shot of a wet gutter and curb in a city at nighttime. We see the colorful, out-of-focus lights of cars, traffic light, and building windows, as well as their reflections on the damp ground.
    Not every sanctuary has walls—some are stitched together from longing, kindness, and sheer survival.
    Chalice Lighting | By Craig Rowland | November 19, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Interdependence, Reverence, Sacred, Worship
  • A heart, carved into the light grey wood of a tree trunk, with its interior dyed pale red.
    You deserve a place that welcomes your becoming, that knows your fire is not too much, your silence not too little.
    Chalice Lighting | By Craig Rowland | November 19, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Community, Empathy, Grief, Growth, Healing, Hope, Interdependence, Vulnerability, Worship
  • Against a deep black background, swirls of smoke are illuminated by red and purple lighting, creating an abstract pattern.
    This ritual of our faith reminds our subtle-and-crashing-about beings that we are part of a collective— a community of care and connection, courage and questions, scared and sacred together.
    Chalice Lighting | By Deanna Vandiver | August 29, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Community, Connections, Courage, Creativity, Sacred, Worship
  • A group of thirty or so yellow tulips in bloom, seen from ground level, reaching up into a blue sky with some white clouds.
    Alleluia to love that is stronger than death—to love that is stronger than empire. Alleluia to love that will never end.
    Opening | By Rachael Hayes | August 13, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Community, Easter, Fear, Generosity, Grief, Joy, Love, Mystery, Resilience, Worship
  • A low-angle view of the gray paving stones on a street. The stones are foreshortened vertically, so we see two dozen or so rows of them, each row containing three or four stones. The stones are rough-hewn and of varying shades of gray.
    ...we don’t know, can’t anticipate...the paths, unexpected, that open before us.
    Opening | By Linda Hart | July 23, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Conscience, Discernment, Humility, Letting Go, Limitations, Listening, Mindfulness
  • Swirls of red, orange, and yellow light against a black background, giving an impression of fire.
    Guide us all to a Wild and Holy vision of our shared humanity.
    Chalice Lighting | By Shawn Gibson | May 19, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Change, Growth, Sacred, Transformation, Worship
  • A black-and-white photo of an older person carrying a heavy bucket uphill on a dark-colored road next to a whitewashed stucco wall. The person is wearing sandals and a calf-length sleeveless dress made of a diamond-patterned fabric. They are stooped over and walking away from the camera, so all that can be seen of their head is some curly grey hair. They are carrying the bucket with their left arm, and their right arm is bent with the hand at their right hip.
    We don’t have to impress or convince or win over. We don’t have to know the words. It’s okay we didn’t read the book, or pass that class, or carry that title, or meet that mark. We don’t have to be anything but who we are.
    Opening | By Kate Steinberg | April 24, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Community, Compassion, Connections, Interdependence, Justice, Letting Go, Self-Care, Worship
  • A chalice with the word Love over the flame, with six outstretched swirls that create a circular space within them. Together, they form a six-petal flower shape and alternate in color between goldenrod and dark pink. Each contains one of the six UU shared values, printed in a modern font. Clockwise: Transformation (aqua), Equity (bright green), Pluralism (red), Interdependence (dark blue), Justice (goldenrod), and Generosity (dark pink).
    … Love is not only at the center but also the opening that invites us to lament, celebrate, and care.
    Opening | By anastasia birosh | April 24, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Caring, Equity, Generosity, Interdependence, Justice, Love, Pluralism, Transformation, Worship
  • A close up of a green palm plant front, with the stalk symmetrically dividing its many green leaves.
    Thousands of years ago people in an ancient city sang the songs of their hearts.
    Opening | By Emily R. Mace | April 16, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christianity, Love, Meaning, Palm Sunday, Redemption, Sacred, Salvation, Tradition, Worship
  • An overhead view of a person holding a small globe in their cupped hands. We see the brim of their blue-and-white hat and a foreshortened view of their jeans-clad lower legs and their black shoes; their hands, with the small colorful globe, are visible from our point of view because they stick out far enough to be seen below the hat’s brim. We also see several squares of the sidewalk beneath their feet, decorated with children’s chalk art.
    Agape love—radical, quiet, boundless, unconditional—is the love we have for God, the Universe, the Interconnected Web, for whatever words for Spirit make your soul sing.
    Opening | By Monica Clark-Robinson | February 26, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Community, Connections, God, Interdependence, Love, Sacrifice, Self-Respect, Service, Worship
  • Several stalks of tall meadow grass, silhouetted against an orange sky with the sun low on the horizon.
    If you have come here seeking comfort, may your pain be soothed. If you have come here looking for answers, may you find new questions.…
    Opening | By Michelle LaGrave | February 5, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Calling, Community, Purpose, Searching, Worship
  • The famous “blue marble” photo of the Earth from space taken by the crew of Apollo 17. Africa, the Arabian peninsula, Madagascar, and Antarctica are visible behind some cloud cover, as well as the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic.
    We light this chalice for the Earth, of which we all are part / Encendemos este cáliz por la tierra
    Spanish | Chalice Lighting | By Adena Dannouf, Tania Y Márquez | January 31, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Children's / Religious Education Sunday, Earth, Earth Day, Interdependence, Nature, Worship
  • A black-and-white photo of a large adult hand, open and facing upward, with a lit tea light in its palm.
    As we light this chalice, may each breath remind us of the sacred rhythm of life, the pulse of creation, and the power we hold to shape the world around us.
    Chalice Lighting | By Craig Rowland | January 30, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Business Meetings, Community, Courage, Despair, Fear, Healing, Love, Spiritual Practice, Strength, Transformation, Truth, Worship
  • A long-exposure photograph showing a trail of sparks in the shape of a heart, against a background that is mostly darkness. The person holding the sparkler is just barely visible as a reddish blur behind the sparkler’s trail, which repeats the heart shape four or five times in roughly the same location.
    Love begets love, and it is love that lights our chalice.
    Chalice Lighting | By anastasia birosh | January 27, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Community, Freedom, Love, Worship
  • An aerial view of a public park in autumn. The main feature is a large circular area, perhaps hundreds of yards across, whose perimeter is marked by large trees. The circle is divided by walking paths into eight equal sections, meeting at a very large tree in the center of the circle.
    We join together in solidarity as a covenanted people, who are drawn together by the promise of connection and the mysterious pull of the unanswerable.
    Opening | By Bran Lennox | January 6, 2025 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Community, Covenant, Love, Mystery, Solidarity, Wonder, Worship
  • At night, from the vantage point of a dark stretch of beach, there are three light sources visible: On the left there is a lighthouse, shining bright streams of light in several directions; on the right, the moon glows behind a light cloud cover; and in the middle, we see fainter light from several houses farther down the coast. The foam from the sea is also visible, and shows the shoreline stretching in a straight line from the lower right of the photo to the houses in the middle of the photo.
    We cannot know what all the year may bring, and would we heed the prophecy if we could?
    Chalice Lighting | By Mary Shelden | December 10, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Caring, Equity, Generations, Justice, Love, New Year, Worship
  • Rays of sunlight stream down through a break in the cloudy sky, showing green plants and trees on mountains that otherwise look dark.
    Let beauty in. Let beauty in like waves lapping on the shore, covering the beach and soaking the sand like an embrace.
    Opening | By Rebekah Savage | November 18, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Beauty, Happiness, Joy, Sacred, Worship
  • Two fireworks exploding in a deep black sky. The two explosions each take the shape of a dandelion, with streaks of white light coming out of a colorful center. The firework on the left is pale green, with red at the center; the one on the right ranges from yellow in the center to red and purple at the edges.
    Rejoice! May this time of worship celebrate what we know at our core.
    Opening | By Rebekah Savage | October 30, 2024 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Faith, Gratitude, Joy, Transformation, Worship