A Hymnal Built to Hold That Much Difference

The Unitarian Universalist Association publishes its own hymnal and worship resources, including Singing the Living Tradition, that deliberately gather material from many different religious and secular sources side by side, reflecting the denomination's pluralist approach in publishing practice rather than only in stated principle, and individual congregations and worship leaders draw on these resources, alongside considerable locally composed and adapted material, in ways that vary considerably by congregation, minister and specific service.

Because this genuine institutional commitment to sourcing prayer and worship material from many different traditions, rather than developing one shared Unitarian Universalist liturgy of its own, is itself the denomination's defining theological stance on the matter, this entry treats describing that pluralist structure, rather than selecting any single prayer as representative, as the accurate and appropriate way to represent Unitarian Universalist practice, consistent with the denomination's own explicit refusal to prescribe a single required form of address or belief for its members. Individual Unitarian Universalist ministers and worship leaders often compose their own original prayers and readings tailored to a specific congregation or occasion, a practice of local composition the denomination actively encourages as consistent with its broader emphasis on individual spiritual authority and ongoing communal search for meaning rather than reliance on any single fixed text.