We come together today to celebrate, honor, hold and support your new life. We recognize the complexity that is gender, while also recognizing the complexity that goes into living a life that openly and honestly challenges the simplicity of our culturally imposed binary gender system. It takes...

Note: This ritual involves writing grievances on a piece of paper and casting them into a flame. All our lives we have been told to seek that which is good, to turn our faces from the dark and toward the light, toward beauty, toward truth. But the truth is that the world is not always good. The...

We, the Members of the [Name] Unitarian Universalist Congregation, dedicate this chalice to Truth, to Community, and to Commitment. Recognizing that each person possesses a portion of the greater Truth, and knowing that no one may comprehend Truth in its entirety, we affirm that this flame shall...

Minister: The life of our religious community is fluid, ever changing with new lives, new visions, new possibilities and new ministries. [Length of time] ago we welcomed our intern minister, [Name]. And we have been changed....

It is said, “The Lord loves a cheerful giver,” yet we’ll accept from a grouch as well. As the ushers prepare to take this morning’s offering, may each of us look into not just our wallets or our checkbooks to see how much we have with us. Let us also look into our hearts and see what is...

Note: Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) 2016 begins in the evening of Wednesday, May 4 and ends in the evening of Thursday, May 5. This week holds the annual observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom Hashoah. Jewish communities prefer not to call the dreadful events of the 1930's and...

ALL: Today we honor the youth among us You who are stepping beyond and away and toward Today we share in your journey And encourage your discovery Young Adults (18-35): Today we welcome your energy And offer you a safe place to grow Today we celebrate your hopes and dreams Come live, breathe, thr...

If you woke this morning with a sorrow so heavy that you need the help of this community to carry it; or if you woke with a joy so great that it simply must be shared, now is the time for you to speak....

Introduction to a New Orleans Jazz Funeral Welcome to a new tradition for our church—a New Orleans-style jazz funeral for the old year. This service offers opportunities for reflection on the past year, a chance to “bury” whatever that was negative or hurtful to us in 20xx, and looks forward...

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a commissioning is "the act of granting certain powers or authority to carry out a particular task or duty." In many churches there is a common misconception that the leaders of the church run things—that the Board or the Council of Chairs has all...

We say in our church that the offering is a sacrament of the free church. What we mean by that is that we believe it is a blessing to be able to govern and support our religious community ourselves—to make possible by our generosity everything we dream of and do to live out our shared values.

The purpose of the church is to encourage all who gather there to grow more generous in spirit and in action. This is the great end of all the world's faith traditions: to bring the human being closer to the divine by acts of creation and compassion. We now take an offering that allows us to...

I hope you all had the opportunity to meet someone new this morning, and I certainly hope to meet all our first-time guests this morning after the service....

Every week in our church we take up an offering. It's good to remind ourselves from time to time that the offering is symbolic as well as practical. We know that it is through pledges that we build our budget and fund our yearly programs and ministries of worship and religious education, pay our...

Today we have the opportunity to contribute to a special offering for the Unitarians in Eastern Europe [whose stories you have just learned]. One Transylvanian Unitarian minister, speaking about his congregation's recently revived connection between eastern Unitarians and western Unitarian...

This congregation is a theologically diverse religious community with membership open to all who are in accordance with our principles, mission and vision. We are a Welcoming Congregation to people of all sexual orientations, and we unconditionally welcome any and all of you to our community of...

[Note: We have a tradition of asking each person to bring to church on Mother’s Day a single flower—colored if she is still living, white if she has died. The flowers are arranged on the spot into a bouquet and brought into the service just before the Call to Worship. With a bow to Max Coots for...

I don't know about you, but I'm a little bit skittish about holidays that seem to have originated with the greeting card people. That's not true, in fact, of Mother's Day....

The Wedding blessing is to be used with a wedding ritual of pouring water from two vessels into a common vessel, as an alternative to a unity candle....

O God, we give thanks this day and every day for all you have made known to us through the life of Jesus. Glory to you throughout the ages. We give thanks for all the knowledge, faith and hope that is implanted in our hearts by the teachings of Jesus, whom you sent to us, and spiritually remains...