Unitarian Universalists use different terms for the words that begin a worship service, including call to worshipinvocation, 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

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  • We seek our place in the world and the answers to our hearts’ deep questions. As we seek, may our hearts be open to unexpected answers. May the light of our chalice remind us that this is a community of warmth, of wisdom, and welcoming of multiple truths.
    Chalice Lighting | By Julianne Lepp | December 8, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Direct Experience, Diversity, Hospitality, Mystery, Searching, Truth, Unitarian Universalism, Wonder
  • We light this chalice today in honor of the Unitarian Universalist First Principle: To affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person....
    Chalice Lighting | By Florence Caplow | December 8, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Anti-Oppression, Commitment, Courage, Integrity, Justice, Living Our Faith, Multiculturalism, Oppression, Unitarian Universalism
  • This is the season of endings and beginnings.
    Opening | By Erika Hewitt | November 26, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Beginnings, Ending, Letting Go, New Year, Patience, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality
  • It is always good to give thanks! All that we have is a gift from life: our food, our relationships, our shelter from the cold. And when we give thanks, it is always good to be mindful of all people, and notice those who are suffering and do what we can to ease suffering and change its causes....
    Opening | By Myke Johnson | November 23, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Anti-Oppression, Gratitude, Healing, Justice, Spiritual Practice, Suffering, Thanksgiving, Vulnerability, Wholeness
  • Fire consumes, and casts a bright light. May our chalice flame consume our regrets for the past, our fears about the future, and our worries about today. May it light for us a path of joy and peace.
    Chalice Lighting | By Debra Burrell | November 21, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Beginnings, Direct Experience, Ending, Fear, Joy, Letting Go, New Year, Peace, Presence, Regret
  • You whose hearts are broken, come in. You whom pain has touched, and sorrow, and shock. You who have cried this week, and read the news with sadness. You whom loss has shadowed. You who grieve. Come in, come in. You with hearts open to joy and hope, come in. You whom love has touched, and...
    Opening | By Sharon Wylie | November 21, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Brokenness, Challenge, Community, Despair, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Hope, Inclusion, Interdependence
  • We were all children once, and we carry fragments of our childhood times with us. Today, let us honor those children who walked before us, who transformed into who we have become, who led us to this place, who have lessons for us still.
    Opening | By Meredith Olson | November 15, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Children, Direct Experience, Generations, Growth, History, Humanism, Personal Stories, Tradition
  • There is nothing you need to bring with you to be welcome here no right beliefs or proof of citizenship no eternal optimism or clarity of conviction no boundless courage or endless expertise You do not need to know what brought you here Or how you will solve that problem you are turning over and...
    Opening | By Gretchen Haley | October 24, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Community, Interdependence, Vulnerability
  • In the presence of this fire We hear the voice of our God, Of our Goddess, of our Holy. “You are on Sacred Ground.” In the presence of the flame In me, in you, in us, Moving, resting, gathering— We are on sacred ground. In the presence of this fire We are compelled To take up a torch, to carry...
    Chalice Lighting | By Chrystal Hogan | October 24, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: God, Goddess, Wonder
  • The chalice is the container— the space where the musicians and the listeners gather. The oil is the fuel— the hours of practice and the life experiences of everyone in the room. The wick is the instruments and vocal cords through which the music will flow. And the flame—the flame!— is the...
    Chalice Lighting | By Marnie Singer | October 24, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Arts & Music, Direct Experience, Playfulness
  • Reader One: You who feel your heart is breaking, come in. Reader Two: You who are confused and wondering. Come in. Reader Three: You who are angry, in pain, or not wanting to be here. Come in. Reader Four: You who are hopeful and energized. Come in. Leader: Come into this community of your heart...
    Chalice Lighting | By Amy Russell | October 24, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Community, Hope, Pain, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability
  • We kindle a flame of power, illuminating the Holy in each of our faces. We recognize in the flame a passionate commitment to our shared faith. We are held and carried from day to day, week to week, in the shining of the light. This flame is mine, as well as yours. We are brought together on this...
    Chalice Lighting | By Adrian L. H. Graham | October 15, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Commitment, Community, Direct Experience, Living Our Faith, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism
  • We light our flaming chalice as a beloved people united in love and thirsting for restorative justice. May it melt away the tethers that uphold whiteness in our midst. May it spark in us a spirit of humility. May it ignite in us radical love that transforms our energy into purposeful action....
    Chalice Lighting | By Rebekah Savage | October 15, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Commitment, Community, Direct Experience, Hope, Integrity, Living Our Faith, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Reconciliation, Unitarian Universalism
  • We are Unitarian Universalists. When we lift up our Seven Principles, some of us think of them as a form of theology—but they are more important to our collective than that: they do not tell us what we should believe; they tell us how we should be. They tell us how we should act in the larger...
    Invocation | By Viola Abbitt | October 15, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Commitment, Community, Direct Experience, Integrity, Listening, Living Our Faith, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Reconciliation, Unitarian Universalism
  • We live inside paradox. Humans generally don’t like to admit it—we much prefer tidy, stable, comprehensible, logical ways of getting through the day—but paradox is woven into the fabric of this particular universe we inhabit. Light is both a particle and a wave Imaginary numbers describe the...
    Opening | By Lindasusan Ulrich | October 2, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Agnosticism, Balance, Brokenness, Christianity, Easter, Faith, Hope, Mystery, Unitarian Universalism
  • It was at a gathering of white women when this gathering of the waters first came to pass. White women in a second wave of gender self-awareness; awakening, connecting, making new meaning, shifting the old ethos. The solidarity of these white women was reflected in the waters each brought, waters...
    Invocation | By Renee Ruchotzke | October 2, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, Earth, Gender, Identity, Multiculturalism, Race/Ethnicity, Reconciliation, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism, Water Communion
  • Open up the doors Push on looming wooden arches embroidered with ironwork Brace shoulders against the weight of history unmoved Slough off the musty smell of unused joy and stored up sorrow Knock rust off the hinges if you have to And let your breath precede you inside Open the doors more Make ro...
    Opening | By Lindasusan Ulrich | September 27, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Change, Connections, Direct Experience, Hospitality, Interdependence, Living Our Faith, Searching
  • May we recognize and abandon the familiar attitudes and practices that do not serve the whole. We are who we are and we have the opportunity to be who we want to be, to create a new inheritance for the future....
    Invocation | By Sweethome Teacup | September 1, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Activism, Animals, Anti-Oppression, Connections, Earth, Earth-Centered, Healing, Interdependence, Nature, Wholeness
  • We light this chalice remembering and honoring our own tradition and celebrating the rich diversity of traditions among us. As we search for justice, meaning, and purpose, may we remember that justice, meaning, and purpose live first in deeply listening to one another. This chalice lighting was...
    Chalice Lighting | By David Breeden | August 21, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Connections, Diversity, Hospitality, International, Living Our Faith, Meaning, Multiculturalism, Purpose, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism
  • At last, we are here. After a long winter, we can say enthusiastically and without second thought, alleluia! Alleluia, spring is here in all her glory. New life begins, the earth and its creatures are resurrected from their dens of hibernation and dark slumber....
    Opening | By Jeanne Lloyd | August 11, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Beauty, Christianity, Earth, Earth-Centered, Easter, Gratitude, Hope, Joy, Reverence, Spring, Transformation