On this sacred day of choosing—with gratitude to those who entrusted us with this honored task, who struggled and suffered that we might have the power to choose—may we choose well. May we choose love over fear, wisdom over cleverness, courage over cowardice, life over death, kindness over...

“Any religion that puts hate speech in the mouth of God is no religion at all.”...

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...

Love is patient Love is kind It does not envy It is not proud Love bears all things We know these words, use these words when we refer to one person loving another. Love looks different when we relate to systems. Love looks different in the face of injustice....

Help us to live in peace together and serve one another and to see the holy light in everyone, even when those holy lights are especially hard to see.

People have always known that fire was special. Long, long ago, before people made matches or candles or even made houses, people knew that fire was special. There was the great fire in the sky, the sun, which made the earth warm and made night into day....

The circle of the chalice helps keep the fire small.

Spirit of Life, your very presence among us is what gives us connection. Help us to sense that beneath our feet is the strength we need to keep us grounded. Help us to feel that behind our back is the protection we need to feel safe facing our fears. Help us to know that before our eyes lies the...

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...

October 26, 2016 "God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars." —attributed to Martin Luther I have begun to pray recently. This may sound odd coming from a minister, but as much as I adore leading prayer in front of a congregation, on...

They once dwelled among us, the people of memory.

Go slow if you can. Slower. More slowly still. Friendly dark or fearsome, this is no place to break your neck by rushing, by running, by crashing into what you cannot see....

This reading is an excerpt of the sermon delivered by Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd on Sunday morning at General Assembly 2016. For as long as two or more have gathered in the name of the spirit, those two or more have fought some fake fights. You remember, perhaps, the classic wedding reading from...

Let’s start with the people we love and those who love us, thankful they are in our lives obliging us to open our hearts. Let open hearts embrace the Earth, the sea and soil and stars, blessed by bold beauty, the bounty of being. Then with hearts open to beauty let us embrace the arts and the...

Leader: [if applicable: In addition to our own beloved dead], we take the time to acknowledge all those already lost as the world feels the effects of global warming and climate change. Thousands of people, as well as animals and plants, die every year from the effects of global climate change....

We extinguish this chalice flame, daring to carry forward the vision of this free faith, that freedom, reason and justice will one day prevail in this nation and across the earth.

October 19, 2016 “White people have the luxury of not having to think about race. That is a benefit of being white, of being part of the dominant group…The system works for you, and you don't have to think about it.” —john a. powell Last Saturday, I strolled past a yard sale. Browsing a...

May you never thirst. May your body and your spirit always have what they need. When you are in need of refreshment, or new life, may the waters be available to you. May you never know thirst unto death, in your body or in your soul. May you never thirst. And may your body and your spirit always...

This has been published with "they" pronouns; please use the most fitting pronoun in your own setting. Minister: I call (intern name) to the pulpit. Congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Church of (name), we have begun a new thing by bringing (intern) into our midst, to learn the practice of...

October 12, 2016 "Blessed are the faithful, for they shall be called dogs." —Rev. Gary Kowalski He was, I am told, just a dog. But who was it that, fresh from the litter, climbed onto my chest, licked my face, and rubbed his pink baby nose against my cheek? Who chewed the edges of my only antique...