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.)
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 506
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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 WorshipWebTagged as: Calling, Community, Purpose, Searching, WorshipWeb, Worship
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We light this chalice for the Earth, of which we all are part; we pledge to care for what it needs and hold it in our heart.Chalice Lighting | By Adena Dannouf | January 31, 2025 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Children's / Religious Education Sunday, Earth, Earth Day, Interdependence, Nature, WorshipWeb, Worship
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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 WorshipWebTagged as: Business Meetings, Community, Courage, Despair, Fear, Healing, Love, Spiritual Practice, Strength, Transformation, Truth, WorshipWeb, Worship
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Love begets love, and it is love that lights our chalice.Chalice Lighting | By anastasia birosh | January 27, 2025 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Community, Freedom, Love, WorshipWeb, Worship
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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 WorshipWebTagged as: Community, Covenant, Love, Mystery, Solidarity, Wonder, WorshipWeb, Worship
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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 WorshipWebTagged as: Caring, Equity, Generations, Justice, Love, New Year, WorshipWeb, Worship
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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 WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Happiness, Joy, Sacred, WorshipWeb, Worship
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Rejoice! May this time of worship celebrate what we know at our core.Opening | By Rebekah Savage | October 30, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Faith, Gratitude, Joy, Transformation, WorshipWeb, Worship
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Justice is our prayer. We affirm in covenant with the Beloved Community that is possible.Opening | By Rebekah Savage | October 30, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Community, Equity, Growth, Interdependence, Justice, Patience, WorshipWeb, Worship
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May our time together honor all the hopes we hold within; may our time together bless us with the gifts of inspiration, comfort and renewal.Opening | By Rebekah Savage | October 29, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Community, Creativity, Growth, Home, Hope, Peace, Purpose, Strength, Wholeness, WorshipWeb, Worship
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There is no separation, here, of the sacred from the profane. No setting apart from the natural world.Opening | By Shari Woodbury | October 4, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Body, Connections, Interdependence, Nature, Sacred, Spirituality, Spring, WorshipWeb, Worship
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As we light this chalice, we kindle the spirit of the great turning: the movement for justice alive in this nation today. May we feel it in our bones, and in the stillness of this hour, may we sense it calling our name.Chalice Lighting | By Lisa Garcia-Sampson | September 13, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: America, Community, Democracy, Generations, Hope, Justice, Love, Politics, WorshipWeb, Worship
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We are whole and holy; we are loved beyond all measure. And in our refusal to accept anything less, may we know we are rooted in the infinite divinity.Chalice Lighting | By Jami Yandle | August 1, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Body, Freedom, Gender, God, Imagination, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Pride Sunday, Transgender Day of Remembrance, Wholeness, Wonder, WorshipWeb, Worship
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We light this chalice to ignite the divine spark of the universe, whose pronouns have always been plural…Chalice Lighting | By Jami Yandle | August 1, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Awe, Gender, Imagination, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer, Wonder, WorshipWeb, Worship
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We light this flame to remind us: love is the center. As we grow and connect, mature and deepen: love remains the center. When the light of truth burns all else away: love remains.Chalice Lighting | By Eric Hepburn | July 17, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Growth, Love, Sacred, Truth, WorshipWeb, Worship
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We light this chalice with all our soul’s longing, to be who we are, to be who will we will become, to be ourselves.Chalice Lighting | By SarahRuth Wekoye Davis | July 8, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Hope, Identity, Love, Reverence, Sadness, WorshipWeb, Worship
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On this Sunday before Labor Day, we light this flame to honor all work. Not only the work we do for pay with our hands, our backs, and our minds, that is important, yes. But also the work we do for love!Chalice Lighting | By Paul Dalzell | June 28, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Body, Caring, Community, Connections, Labor Day, Love, Work, WorshipWeb, Worship
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We light our chalice as a symbol of the Light within us and the life that flows through the world around us.Chalice Lighting | By Brian C. Lee | June 28, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Commitment, Community, Love, Truth, WorshipWeb, Worship
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We gather in covenant to celebrate the reality that love is at the core of our beings and that love will guide us if we open ourselves to the challenges which love requires of us.Affirmation, Opening, Poetry | By Esther Hurlburt | June 26, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Covenant, Living Our Faith, Love, WorshipWeb, Worship
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May we be kind in our speaking, thoughtful in our deliberating, and never stray from the love that binds us together.Opening | By Linda Hart | June 6, 2024 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Business Meetings, Community, Covenant, Democracy, Governance, Interdependence, Leadership, Service, Teamwork, Work, WorshipWeb, Worship