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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  • Here here is where you can lay it down Lay down all that you have carried the weight of the world that has rounded your back leaving you aching and exhausted Here here is where healing begins where burdens are set down and alongside one another’s their magnitude does not seem as great Here here i...
    Opening | By Joan Javier-Duval | April 13, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Brokenness, Community, Healing, Hospitality, Unitarian Universalism
  • Open your hearts, my friends, And let yourself feel the reality of absence. Open your hearts, and acknowledge That we gather in the presence of death. Open your hearts. Make room For the healing balm of connection, the release of forgiveness. No matter what pain dwells within your spirit, Or how...
    Opening | By Maureen Killoran | April 13, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Forgiveness, Grief, Healing, Love, Memorial Services, Mourning, Relationships, Sorrow, Unitarian Universalism
  • What's going to happen? Will everything be ok? What can I do? In these days we find ourselves, too often, Stuck with these questions on repeat: What's going to happen? / Will everything be ok? /What can I do?...
    Opening | By Gretchen Haley | March 4, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Community, Courage, Fear, Hope, Humanism, Integrity, Living Our Faith, Presence, Purpose, Secular, Unitarian Universalism
  • Here is where we gather in the presence of the Sacred. Here is where we gather to experience the Holy Here is where, together, we face the unanswerable questions and acknowledge that not knowing is as sublime as it is frustrating....
    Opening | By Patricia Shelden | February 27, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Community, Direct Experience, Diversity, Sacred, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
  • Out of the darkness, light. Out of the light, warmth. Out of the warmth, joy. Out of the joy, togetherness. May this flame hold us for the time we are here with one another.
    Chalice Lighting | By Ben Soule | February 7, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Caring, Community, Connections, Joy, Presence, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
  • Now has come hard winter, With whip of wind and slash of snow and the diamond-bright stars in the black ice of the heavens. Just as we resist the season with shovel and scraper, wool and windbreaker, we embrace it with sled and snowboard, cocoa and comforter. Winter is here: let us find warmth in...
    Opening | By Ben Soule | February 7, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Balance, Beauty, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Grace, Nature, Secular, Winter
  • How does it happen? this transformation....
    Opening | By Everett Howe | February 1, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Business Meetings, Community, Direct Experience, Humanism, Inclusion, Interdependence, Sacred, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
  • Welcome to this space, this sanctuary of peace where we come to not only create our best selves, but to also do the work of creating a beloved community....
    Opening | By Jo VonRue, Linette Lowe | January 26, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Acceptance, Brokenness, Community, Direct Experience, Diversity, Hospitality, Humanism, Inclusion, Interdependence, Multiculturalism, Presence, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Wholeness
  • Our light is the light of the sun, keeper of all we love; our light is the light of the earth, provider of sustenance; our light is the light of all living things, life precious like our own....
    Chalice Lighting | By David Breeden | January 25, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Abundance, Awe, Beauty, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Humanism, Imagination, Nature, Science, Secular, Transcendence, Truth, Unitarian Universalism
  • If ever there were a time for a candle in the darkness, this would be it. Using a spark of hope, kindle the flame of love, ignite the light of peace, and feed the flame of justice.
    Chalice Lighting | By Melanie Davis | December 22, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Activism, Calling, Despair, Hope, Justice, Justice Sunday, Peace, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Worry
  • We kindle a flame we trust will lead us forward as we travel in unknown lands, where the question, “Shall I ever get there?” resounds: A clear pure note in every silence. Note: this chalice lighting is based on reading #486 by Dag Hammarskjöld in Singing the Living Tradition.
    Chalice Lighting | By Barnaby Feder | December 6, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Challenge, Community, Direct Experience, Journey, Mystery, Patience, Searching, Transcendence, Unitarianism
  • The wheel of the year has turned again. Once more the Thanksgiving season has arrived. How shall we sing our song of gratitude now? For what shall we give thanks? For this moment; for friends near and far; for our breath; for love; for courage and clarity; for strength; for delight; for laughter;...
    Opening | By Laura Horton-Ludwig | November 30, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Arts & Music, Awe, Direct Experience, Generations, Gratitude, Thanksgiving, Wonder
  • In the houses of the holy, the world pauses. In the hearts of the holy, Love abides. In the havens of the holy, Hope comforts. In the hearths of the holy, Spirit refreshes. Come then, one and all, gather in. Come then, one and all, gather here. Bring here all of your heart, Bring here all of your...
    Opening | By Andrea Hawkins-Kamper | November 28, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Brokenness, Community, Direct Experience, Diversity, Hospitality, Inclusion, Prophetic Words & Deeds
  • We gather here today to share and give thanks, To tell stories and break bread and be together in holy communion. We light our chalice this morning in the spirit of thanksgiving, With love, hope, and generosity of spirit, Grateful for this blessed opportunity to be together.
    Chalice Lighting | By Nick Wilbourn | November 25, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Christianity, Communion (Christian), Gratitude, History, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism
  • Welcome, you who come in need of healing, you who are confused, or have been betrayed. Welcome, with your problems and your pain. Welcome, too, your joys and your wonderings, welcome your need to hope, your longing for assurance. Instead of answers, here may you find safety for your questions.
    Opening | By Maureen Killoran | November 11, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Caring, Courage, Democracy, Despair, Disaster or Crisis, Humanism, Trauma, Unitarian Universalism
  • We light this chalice in honor of Life’s sacred dance of living and dying. May its flame remind us of those who have passed to us fragments of holiness. May it remind us that we too are participants in the dance. inspired by Wendell Berry and Sara Moores Campbell...
    Chalice Lighting | By Joanne Giannino | November 4, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Commitment, Death, Direct Experience, Generations, History, Hope, Humanism
  • The circle of the chalice helps keep the fire small.
    Chalice Lighting | By Elizabeth Harding | October 27, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Generations, Identity, Spiritual Practice, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism, Unity
  • Gather we now into this space, this time when the Wheel turns and the Veil shatters. Gather we now to remember, to grieve, to prophesy, to complete our harvests before the Long Dark comes. Gather we now to tell the Old Stories and sing the Old Songs, to be as we have always been —the Voice of our...
    Invocation | By Andrea Hawkins-Kamper | October 26, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), All Souls Day, Autumnal Equinox, Community, Connections, Día de los Muertos, Earth-Centered, Generations, Halloween, Interdependence, Paganism, Reverence, Sacred, Samhain, Spirituality, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism
  • In times of darkness we stumble towards the tiny flame. In times of cold we seek the warming fire. In times of repression we reach for the lamp of truth. In times of loss we pray for the comforting light. In times of joy we light a candle of celebration....
    Chalice Lighting | By Brian Kiely | October 6, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Challenge, Hope, Purpose, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarianism
  • No matter who—or what—you are, you are welcome here. Let’s be clear: Here, we welcome goblins and ghouls, saints and sinners, angels and devils, zombies and werewolves, vampires and witches. We welcome princesses and princes, paupers and farmhands, aliens and astronauts, robots and cyborgs,...
    Opening | By Christian Schmidt | September 25, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Halloween, Identity, Inclusion, Playfulness, Secular, Unitarian Universalism