If we lived in another climate Our souls might speak other languages We might speak oasis or permafrost, dry season or monsoon But our souls speak spring Our souls speak green shoots pushing through last year’s leaves Our souls speak flower buds stretching to sun Our souls speak mud puddle and...
We gather together seeking meaning, yearning to understand life in all its dimensions
The travelers had come a long way, and had a long way yet to go. Unable to come off the donkey without her husband’s assistance, and the grace of a large stone, still she came down, one hand to her back, feeling the ache throughout her body....
It's okay to be feel weary of resiliency and wholeness and learning and growth.
It is now, when we are called to act on our values, not to hide, not to fear, but to be bold and loud.
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.
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....
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....
We seekers are on a quest: A quest to discover truth and meaning. Sometimes we think we’ve found it— Wrapped up, glimmering with newness Straight off the intellectual assembly line. All the answers right here for us And others, if they’d only listen. But truth has a way of coming in disguise,...
The diversity of the human species is astounding. The fact that we can gather together for common experience is nothing short of a miracle. Today, let us celebrate some of those differences....
Spirit of life, come to us to break down barriers; to widen horizons; to make us less judgmental. Help us to see the larger picture and the kinder conclusion; to love and let live; to embrace and forgive; to sustain and care....
Welcome to this place of possibility! This is love's hearth, the home of hope, a refuge for minds in search of truth unfolding, ever beautiful, ever strange. Here, compassion is our shelter, freedom our protection from the storms of bigotry and hate. In this abode, may we find comfort and courage.
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.
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child... Here may you find a warm greeting a kind word a gentle touch Sometimes I feel like I have no friend... Here may you find a community of support a pulse of liberation a vision of hope Sometimes I feel I am almost gone......
Come. Let us be joined in seeking the aspirations of the heart. Come. Let us be joined in giving voice to those melodies which can heal the wounded soul. Come. Let us be joined in speaking the words which set us free.
(This was written for the opening worship at a district board retreat....
This opening was written for two voices, as indicated below. 1: Welcome, who come in friendship who long for genuine community... 2: May you be graciously received here as your authentic self. 1: Welcome, who come in curiosity, full of questions or simply open... 2: May you embrace wonder and...
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...
We feel the season turning. The early sunset glancing through the red-tinged leaves. The newspaper arriving in the cool morning air. The flock of migrating swallows. A feeling of being on the edge of something new. These are the Days of Awe. A time to welcome a new year and a time to make the old...
Be it real or metaphor, whatever is in your backpack, or your briefcase, or your purse that you’ve brought into this sanctuary that is weighing you down: leave it behind. Whatever you are carrying that is keeping you distracted, or caught up in shame, or guilt, or hopelessness: leave it behind....
Come, let us enter this space of hope and community. Come, let us enter this space with our sorrows, our joys, our passion and compassion. Come. let us enter this space with the stories of our ancestors, for their strength and wisdom beats in our hearts....
Here we are in our circle again. A circle of vision and reflection, A forum for deciding and empowering. Here we are at the base of another bridge, another space spanning the shores of today and tomorrow. Beckoning us to cross the chasm, one day at a time....
The ritual of welcoming and honoring ancestors is an ancient spiritual practice found in many cultures and traditions. Thus we begin this ceremony with paying tribute and expressing gratitude to our ancestors. From our histories our ancestors call to us, asking “whence we come, and how and...
Let us wake up. Not just from the Sunday morning exhaustion, from the wish for a few more drowsy minutes in bed. Let us wake up to this world we live in: to its beauty and wonder, and also to its tragedy and pain. We must wake up to this reality: that not all in our world have what we do, however...
Why Christmas? Especially to one who doubts? Are you not being hypocritical? Unitarian Universalists, with their penchant for secular humanism are fond of arguing the validity of Christmas: Is it a Christian holiday? A pagan holiday? A secular holiday?...
To “invoke” is to “call forth” and is traditionally associated with calling upon God. You can also think of it as invoking the spirit of your community—its vision of justice, its playful energy, or its familial feeling. Invocations can also serve to introduce the theme that you’ll be...
Come into this house of worship. Come in bringing all of who you are. Rest and quiet your week-worn spirit, for you are here to touch again eternal springs of hope and renewal. Calm your hurried pace. For this hour let the cares, the fretfulness and worry be set aside. Forgive yourself—you are so...
We come together today in praise and thanksgivingfor the gift of life itself.Someone gave birth to us and some of us havegiven birth.All of us have been mothered in our time,All of us have mothered.Let our time today be one of recognition-- That we arrive from so many places,Joy and...
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...
On a holy night In 1969, In an Inn, also known as a bar, Called the Stonewall Inn, A basement— which had no running running water, Nor safe fire exits— Queer people, of many colors and kinds, Danced together, For it was the only place Where they were allowed to dance, At least, permitted to, by...
To love life is to notice the wonders that abound And To notice the wonders that abound Is to be grounded here and now And To be grounded here and now Is the beginning of finding love for this life today. Let us ground ourselves in this instant in the worship of all things good and right.
Let us reach the place of self, the place that is not alien to truth. Let us wash over with peace and serenity, with fierce longing for light and heart; with living strength flowing in our veins, bringing ourselves into fearlessness and into trust.
Leader: Whether you have come here with heart full or heart empty, with spirits high or low, rested or tired, hopeful or despairing, Congregation: Whether we have come here out of habit, conviction, loneliness, or curiosity, Leader: You belong here because you are here, and all that you have and ...
Out of our separate lives we come, to walk this path together for an hour or a day, for a week or a month or a series of months and years. For this space of time we travel together, making much or little or nothing at all of the fact that another walks beside us. We can keep our eyes cast down...
We are here today to recognize the completion of your program of study for this Coming of Age ceremony and to celebrate with you the faith you have come to accept through this year of questioning and investigating. Some of you were brought to a Unitarian Universalist church to be Dedicated and...
Children of the earth and sky, we are nurtured, sustained, given warmth and light from above and below. Supported by earth's strong, firm crust, we build our homes, till the fields, plant our gardens and orchards....
As we enter this sacred, silent space, Let us renew both our commitment and our covenant: There are those among us who have endured a loss in the past week; May their hope be uplifted again in this community of faith. There are those among us who have struggled with hardship in the past week; May...
We gather this day to seek in the midst of our fragmented selves the unity which enfolds us all; to summon in the midst of the everyday that secret taste of danger, that peace which beckons beyond the trifles and deepens the human heart; to open our self-righteous selves to that judgment which we...
Leave aside the little thoughts that distract you from the depths of your soul, For this is a holy place, and now is a holy time. Join with the others in this room, this community of seekers, and together, let us find our Sabbath.
Do not leave your cares at the door. Do not leave there your pain, your sorrow or your joys. Bring them with you into this place of acceptance and forgiveness. Place them on the common altar of life and offer them to the possibility of your worship. Come then, and offer yourself to potential...
In a world ravaged by violence, by hatred, by conflicts that seem eternal and insoluble, sometimes the only thinbg we can do is be still for a moment to remind ourselves what is real: the sun that rose this morning, the dirt under our feet, the air whispering in and out of our lungs....
Listen. Listen to silence. Listen to the wind. Listen to the stars. Hear trees. Dance. Dance to the beat of your neighbor’s heart. Dance to the rhythm of your childhood dreams. Sing. Sing and hum a wordless song to the tune of your rushing blood. And Pray. Pray with a fever that makes you sweat...
We bid you welcome on this first Sunday of the new year. Like Janus we gather with part of us looking backward and part of us looking forward. We gather on the edge of the new year saddened by our losses, cherishing our joys, aware of our failures, mindful of days gone by....
Voice 1: You are beloved and you are welcome here Voice 2: Whether tears have fallen from your eyes this past week or gleeful laughter has spilled out of your smiling mouth Voice 1: You are beloved and you are welcome here Voice 2: Whether you are feeling brave or broken-hearted; defiant or...
Here in this sanctuary of ancient dreams and wisdom and beauty we come to grow, to be healed, to stretch mind and heart, to be challenged, renewed; to be helped in our own continuing struggles for meaning and for love; to help build a world with more justice and mercy in it; to be counted among t...
Thresholds. We cross them every day. From room to room, from outside to inside, and back again, from here to there, from anywhere to everywhere, from age to age. Each threshold offers an opportunity for change, for renewal, for transformation, from what we were and what we are to what we can be....
We summon ourselves from the demands and delights of the daily round: from the dirty dishes and unwaxed floors; from unmowed grass, and untrimmed bushes; from all incompletenesses and not-yet-startednesses; from the unholy and the unresolved....
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...
We come to this hour knowing that it is but an hour. Yet out of all the hours in the week this is one that is set apart: an hour that is saved, an hour that is savored. It is a time for us to recognize what gives life meaning. It is a time to honor what we value. It is a time to celebrate our lives.