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This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war & hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late.

This liturgy invites participants into a time of rest and reflection that counters the frenetic pace of the secular Christmas season.

There is also a legend that Mary was not the first young woman to whom the angel came. But she was the first one to say yes.
And how unsurprising it would be for a fourteen-year-old girl to refuse the angel. To be disbelieving. Or to say:

I could feel the warm afternoon wind blowing a few moments before; right through the window where I was standing, stacking some bowls.

A little black thing among the snow,
Crying ” ‘weep! ‘weep!” in notes of woe!
“Where are thy father and mother? say?”—
“They are both gone up to the church to pray.

I recently conducted the funeral for my father, who died after a long episode of declining health. It was a joy and a privilege to work with my family in preparing this service. But many of our family are not avowedly Christian so I wanted to respect their spiritual traditions as well as be faithful to my own. I also wanted the theology to reflect my own liberal/progressive Christian understanding.

A “meditation card” by artist Jim Garrison

All night I lay on my bed
I sought him whom my soul loves.
I sought him but did not find him.

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening
That is translated through you into action,
And because there is only one of you in all time,
This expression is unique.

This being human is a guest house

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.


“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The quintessential cry of despair, when all hope is lost.

“Weep not for Me, Mother, 

in the grave I have life.”

A recent memorial service for a much-loved artist in our church ended with a poem and a prayer. The poem was “When Death Comes” by Mary Oliver,

Presider: It was a dull, tasteless thing;
People: This life, before salt.

Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:

Light one candle for the Maccabee children
With thanks that their light didn’t die
Light one candle for the pain they endured
When their right to exist was denied

I will light candles this Christmas.
Candles of joy, despite all sadness.
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.

The seed of God is in us.
If you are an intelligent and hard-working farmer,
it will thrive and grow up into God,

Show me the suffering of the most miserable;
So I will know my people’s plight.
Free me to pray for others;
For you are present in every person.

Go into the seething cauldron of the world.
Listen for the questions and voices
that you would rather not hear.

The Christianity we have inherited in the 21st century is like an onion, with Jesus’ wisdom at the core and layers and layers of church doctrine added over the centuries. Each of those layers was a solution to a problem in its own time. Progressive Christianity has let go of virtually all of those layers, recognizing that the core teaching – the Jesus experience, if you will – is what transcends time and is worth preserving. The result is that most progressive Christian churches no longer use the old creeds. We are not willing to recite what we cannot believe.

The Liturgy Project has been in the works for several years, and now that our new website has launched, the liturgy contributions have too. The idea behind the project is straightforward: all over the world, progressive clergy …

May Love Divine fill all our hearts, our bodies, minds and souls.

Let’s love our neighbours as ourselves as Spirit makes us whole.


In the rising of the sun and in its going down,
We remember them.


John Becker has written a simple chant called “Litany of the Saints,” which in its original form is literally a list of saints of the Catholic Church. But it is easy to write your own lyrics!

God bless this food we are about to receive. Give bread to those who hunger; and hunger for justice to us who have bread.  Amen

Do you know how to catch a raccoon? I mean good old backwoods ingenuity, no guns, no weapons of mass destruction. Well, I didn’t know either, until some years ago…

A non-canonical liturgy from the first century.

“The Golden Rule” from many different religious traditions

Dr. Polly Moore of College Heights UCC, San Mateo, CA, offers a list of the biblical references in "A NEW EARTH" by Eckhart Tolle, used by the church for its study group focusing on the book.