UU Prayer Traditions (ritual, churches, theist, spiritual, worship)

[spiritually inclined]

Are there any UU prayer traditions or ways of praying that many UU's practice? I'm interested in hearing them.

James

[Ciscokid]

I know we have a "moment of silence" that is followed by a very generic prayer by the congregation. I think they refer to "God" as the Spirit of Life so that it pretty much encompasses most faiths and even those who are not Theistic.

[applewuud]

There aren't really any prayer traditions that "many" UUs practice, although many UUs pray in their own way, especially if they're following a Christian path. In fact, most of the UU churches I've belonged to prefer to have a "meditation" or moment of silence, as many members are turned off by the word "prayer". So, there's nothing like the Book of Common Prayer in the Episcopal Church that are shared among different UU congregations. Each church and each individual sets their own spiritual practice, it is not dictated or even suggested from above.

Having said that, there are a wide variety of prayers, sayings, and psalms in the back of the UU hymnal "Singing the Living Tradition" which are used as readings in UU services. STLT has become an informal prayerbook for many UUs I know.

A common ritual in many small congregations is the sharing of joys and concerns by lighting a candle. The individual members have an opportunity to say "we just had a baby girl" or "Uncle John passed away this week" in front of the congregation. This roughly corresponds to the prayers of intercession in more orthodox churches.

[Runt]

To be honest, it depends on the service. In my congregation, we always have a "moment of silence", which is preceded by a pastoral meditation or pastoral prayer. The meditation/prayer is usually delivered by the minister, but during lay-led services it will be delivered by a Worship Associate or other community member. Often "Source of Love", "Spirit of Life" or other, more inclusive terms are used to refer to the divine, rather than the trigger-word "God" which so many of us are uncomfortable with. The pastoral prayer may at times lean toward the Protestant side of things, in which we are clearly directing our attention beyond ourselves and our community to a greater divine reality. At other times the pastoral meditation will focus upon humanity, the "web of life", or other communities rather than upon something supernatural. It really just depends on the theme of the service and the needs of the congregation.

I should add that this part of the service also usually includes "joy and concern" cards in my congregation and quite possibly in others as well. The minister or service leader will briefly mention the joys and concerns (births, graduations, deaths, illnesses, etc) that members of the congregation want to share with the community, and then entreat us (or the divine, depending on the service) to pray for them, keep them in their thoughts, wish them strength, share in their joy, etc.

[jamaesi]

Hm. It's really up to the individual, yanno?

I pray the Islamic way, myself. I also do a lot of mediation.