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
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May today bring forth transformation in ourselves—from grief, healing; from memory, wholeness; and from celebration, love.Chalice Lighting | By Mira Mickiewicz | November 10, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Memorial Services, Remembrance Day, Worship
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To be a Unitarian Universalist means we’ll never be done with the work.Chalice Lighting | By Erika Hewitt | November 9, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Anti-Oppression, Community, Covenant, Identity, Living Our Faith, Purpose, Seven Principles, Transformation, Unitarian Universalism, Universalism
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It is now, when we are called to act on our values, not to hide, not to fear, but to be bold and loud.Opening | By Tania Y Márquez | October 19, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), Activism, Character, Courage, Direct Experience, Humanism, Justice, Living Our Faith, Responsibility, Secular, Worship
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We light this chalice to kindle a flame of warmth as a reminder of the connection that draws us in to a community that opens us up.Chalice Lighting | By Amy G. S. A. Brooks | October 14, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, Autumnal Equinox, Winter Solstice / Yule, Worship
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May this chalice light guide us toward the courageous and openhearted apology, toward repair of relationships in our lives.Chalice Lighting | By Joanna Lubkin | October 1, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Forgiveness, Judaism, Relationships, Sacred, Worship, Yom Kippur
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We are held by the great Book of Life, in which it is written that we will inevitably face deprivation and discomfort. Each among us must contemplate our own place in it all.Opening | By Leah Ongiri | September 15, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Judaism, Rosh Hashanah, Worship, Yom Kippur
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We light this flame To ignite the sacred power of justice. We light this flame So that it may be a beacon of hope In moments of uncertainty, fear, anxiety, and the unknown....Chalice Lighting | By Jami Yandle | August 13, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Justice, Love, Power
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Come. Gather. Not into a common space— sharing a physical closeness we long for, precluded by wise choice. But come, gather into this common time and a common space. We need to be together. We yearn for connection....Opening | By Jeff May | August 11, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, Community, Relationships
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The chalice, as a symbol of Unitarian Universalism, arose as a beacon of hope in an atmosphere of tyranny. The chalice arose as a sign of promise that the marginalized would neither be forgotten nor ignored, because they are beloved and precious from the perspective of the Holy. This morning, we...Chalice Lighting | By Erika Hewitt | August 5, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), Anti-Oppression, Freedom, Generations, History, Hope, Oppression, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarianism, Wholeness
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We light this chalice, symbol of our purpose to bring more love and justice into the world. We light this chalice, knowing our congregation as a church dispersed across communities, not bound by walls but connected through the web of life.Chalice Lighting | By Jennifer Gracen | June 21, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, Connections, Unitarian Universalism
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This solstice night [or day] In honor of ancient traditions that celebrate this time of longest night, we observe that the flaming chalice holds the elements of the four directions: Earth, air, fire, water....Chalice Lighting | By Sharon Wylie | May 5, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Earth, Earth-Centered, Nature, Winter Solstice / Yule
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music arises from depths unknown often without words but never without meaning and spirit rises from deep within me seducing my body to join the song first a tremor in the soul, then tapping of toes breath aligns with breath, heart beats in syncopation and a stuttering buzz in my throat becomes a...Opening | By Arlen Goff | May 4, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Arts & Music, Body, Community, Direct Experience, Joy, Music Sunday, Secular, Wonder
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We kindle this flame, Honoring the doorways in our souls: The windows through which we gaze at one another The balconies where we catch glimpses of sky The thresholds we stand on this morning Wondering, hoping, fearing, dreaming.Chalice Lighting | By Florence Caplow | May 1, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Connections, Fear, Hope
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Give up the fight For some other moment Some other life Than here, and now Give up the longing for some other world The wishing for other choices to make other songs to sing other bodies, other ages, other countries, other stakes Purge the past; forgive the future— for each come too soon.Opening | By Gretchen Haley | April 8, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Acceptance, Body, Choice, Direct Experience, Forgiveness, Mindfulness, Peace, Presence
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Across the distance, the light from within me shines, sending love to all Across the distance, your light is fuel that warms me and helps to keep my own light burning Together, we keep the flame of community burning bright...Chalice Lighting | By Laura Thompson | April 7, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, Building Community, Community, Love
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Spirit of life and love, We gather together in different ways this morning, From computer screens, from telephones, from car radios, We gather, reaching out across the wires, waving from a safe distance, To come together in religious community....Opening | By Cynthia Landrum | April 7, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, Beginnings, Community, Hope, Love, Nourishing the Spirit, Personal Inspiration
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In ancient times, they said Dayenu It would have been enough to have been spared after the plagues. It would have been enough to have been freed of slavery, It would have been enough to have had food in the desert, Now we question, when will it be enough again? Dayenu Will it be enough to stay home?Opening | By Elizabeth Barish Browne | April 6, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, Generations, History, Judaism, Passover (Pesach), Tradition
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We light this flame For the art of sacred unknowing. Humbled by all that we cannot fathom in this time, We come into the presence of what we do know, Perhaps the only thing we can ever know: That Love is now and forever The only answer to everything And everyone In every moment.Chalice Lighting | By Amy Carol Webb | March 30, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Hope, Humility, Love, Presence, Unitarian Universalism
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In a time of uncertainty, when everything around us is changing constantly— each day new developments, rising numbers, changing guidelines; when the world we live in suddenly seems upside-down and topsy-turvy: We light our chalice to remind ourselves of our grounding in our faith....Chalice Lighting | By Alice Anacheka-Nasemann | March 27, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, Courage, History, Hope, Tradition, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarianism
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We who gather here In this tender and anxious and confusing time We have been awash in a sea of information And misinformation and disinformation and this information that we seek is simply so that we May make wise decisions about how we respond And learn how we hold one another when we can’t hol...Opening | By Rod Richards | March 19, 2020 | From WorshipWebTagged as: #COVID19, Community, Interdependence, Seven Principles