Philosophy of UU Worship

Joy and gratitude lie at the heart of our worship services. Indeed, Unitarian Universalists use the phrase "Celebration of Life" as often as "Worship" to refer to our Sunday services.

Our understanding of worship is non-traditional. We take seriously the originally meaning of the word, which literally means "worth-shaping." Thus, for us, Sunday mornings are about "shaping" (celebrating, wrestling with, integrating, arguing with) "things of worth."

Or to put it another way, we join together to "remember" - to remember things of worth, to remember what makes life truly worth living, to remember who we most want to be. This idea of reminding each other what truly matters is especially central to our worship at First Unitarian.

Some newcomers are surprised that the word "God" is so rarely used during our Sunday services. This is because we understand collective worship to be broader than honoring or connecting to a traditional personal deity. Some of our members find such connection important and use our time of prayer and meditation to meet this need. But whether we are a theist, agnostic or non-theist, we all believe that the sacred visits us all as we gather to help each other say thanks for life and remember who we most want to be.

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December 14 2011