The flaming chalice is the symbol of Unitarian Universalism. It is an everlasting flame for this community. It offers its warmth to those who are cold. It provides light to those who would see. It purifies and transforms this sanctuary into sacred space, this congregation into sacred community....

All: Wake up O my Soul Leader: It takes energy to stand and defiantly stand against voices that wear me down. All: Wake up O my Soul Leader: It takes the force of my will to take charge of my life and do what I can....

We cast not our eyes below, we say to ourselves we are how we came, wounded from struggles, triumphant in our survival, entitled by birthright to belong to this the only humankind there is, saying I am included, I belong, I am here, and I will be and do....

The human breath rushed through an animal’s horn Once it was common Regularly echoing off sheep strewn hillsides, Ordinary as a bit of sparkle on a rain washed city sidewalk Now it calls from a distant past “Does anybody here know the right way to blow this thing?” The right way to blow a...

Opening Words and Welcome Good afternoon and welcome to our annual animal blessing. We take time once a year with this formal ceremony to give thanks and bless our companions in life—cats and dogs, birds and chickens, turtles and fish and so much more! This ceremony also acknowledges that our...

We light our chalice, symbol of our faith, For truth, sought through a questioning heart and an attentive mind; And for love, pursued through obstacles inside and outside our own human heart; And for forgiveness, and all it entails— The place where truth and love meet and merge.

In English This is a prayer for all the travelers. For the ones who start out in beauty, who fall from grace, who step gingerly, looking for the way back. And for those who are born into the margins, who travel from one liminal space to another, crossing boundaries in search of center. This is a...

Am I a guest here. Here in this House. Are you? Are we guests here. Here in this House. And, whose House do we inhabit? In the small world of our lives the borders between us: easements, fences, gates, hedges—serve to delineate, to separate us. To remind us of where my property begins and ends.

This service was written for a Children’s Chapel of children and youth from preschool to eighth grade. It could be adapted for an all-ages worship service.

Greetings Good morning! My name is Kathy. Let’s greet our friends. Covenant Read together. Introduction Today we’re going to learn a new spiritual practice. Who remembers what a spiritual practice is? It is an activity that cultivates spirituality. What are some examples of spiritual practice?

By Jan Gartner, adapted from the story, A Unitarian King, in A Lamp in Every Corner: A Unitarian Universalist Storybook, by Janeen K Grohsmeyer. Written as a no-rehearsal skit for middle-elementary worship or classroom use. NARRATOR Our story takes place in the mid-1500's, in the country of Hungary.

On April 25, the Supreme Court of the United States began hearing oral arguments about the constitutionality of Arizona’s S.B. 1070 law, a law that broadly targets undocumented immigrants. Many across the country, including Unitarian Universalists and other people of faith, anxiously awaited the...

To rise, to rise each morning with the faint glow of starlight on our backs as we head into the joys, the surprises, the challenges of each day sometimes with awe and wonder, perhaps expectation, perhaps dread… To rise, to rise each day peering over waterlines, sandbags, walls, garbage, bunkers…...

Because there have been times when shame has crushed our ability to be wholehearted We let go of who we ought to be and embrace who we are. Because we have not always had the courage to be imperfect We let go of who we ought to be and embrace who we are....

Spirit of Truth and Justice Hear us as we ask that you hold the collective anxiety that permeates this fear-filled situation. This is a call to arms. Arms that will hold broken hearts, and elated hearts arms that wrap themselves around a body, beaten and disfigured in truth and metaphorically…...

The holiday season is upon us But this year many of us Move toward it with leaden feet. It has been such a year....

I lean against wise woman redwood, press my cheek to her scaly side and cry, whisper how I wish to be a tree, so I would no longer have to see what humans do to one another. Her wooden reedy voice replies, "Yes, but then you'd listen to earth lament what humans do to her."...

Let us make this earth a heaven, right here, right now. Who knows what existences death will bring? Let us create a heaven here on earth where love and truth and justice reign....

Innocence does not die at once, in that first raptured thrust. It dies in each small seduction, in every subsequent acquiescence....

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, "Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. "Our sons shall not be...