Readings & Prayers from our services

Rabindranath Tagore was a global phenomenon, so why is he neglected?
For Western readers, Tagore's most well-known work was Gitanjali - about divine and human love. These poems he translated into English himself. His work was admired by many Western writers and poets, including W. B. Yeats and Ezra Pound. In 1913 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

For Unitarians he will be remembered for his liberal and inclusive religious ideas. He was a member of the Brahmo Samaj, a liberal Hindu movement with some Western ideas, and he had knowledge of Western religious liberalism as suggested by his visit to Manchester College, Oxford during his visit to England. It is certainly now the time to reconsider his contribution and to find a way of integrating Tagore's insights into a modern Unitarian spirituality.

Go to Ian Jack's excellent Guardian piece about Tagore and also to read the varied responses the article provoked.Click Here

For more information about Tagore from a Unitarian perspective, you might find the Tagore Worship Pack on the Unitarians' national website of interest:Click Here

Albert Schweitzer says: At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to thank, with deep gratitude, those who have lit the flame within us.
From a January 2011 service.

Gentleness in Living
Life is too transient to be cruel to one another.
It is too short for thoughtlessness,
Too brief for hurting.
Life is long enough for caring,
It is lasting long enough for sharing,
Precious enough for love...
...Be gentle with one another.
Richard S Gilbert

We do not even know how we ought to pray, but through our inarticulate groans the Spirit himself is pleading for us.
Romans 6:26

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Reinhold Niebuhr

O God, we pray
for bread for the hungry
homes for the homeless
peace for the fearful
healing for the sick
love for the hard of heart
life for the departed
and Christ for all.
George Appleton

Pray for forgiveness
Pray for others
Pray for those you love, those who love you, and those who find it hard to love.
Pray for those whom you have loved but see no longer.
Give thanks for all God's mercy and loving kindness to us.
Pray for yourself.

Letting Go
By letting go of all we believe we are, by letting go of thinking we're the body or the mind, that we're brilliant or stupid, a saint or a fool, we at last become whole again and awaken to the universe within us.
If we let go everything, we can have anything.
But if we hold onto anything at all, we lose everything else and that thing we cling to eventually must change and become a cause of pain.

To develop a mind that clings to nothing is the path to wisdom.
Thoughts arise, sensations are felt, the senses are open and received, there are preferences and opinions arising in the spaciousness of the mind; but seen clearly there is no identification or interference.

So we see that in the spaciousness of letting go there arises a natural balance. By letting go of confusion, knowing arises.
By letting go of anger, love arises.
We don't have to import love, we need only let go of that which blocks it.
By letting go of fear, calm arises.

Love and peacefulness, care and generosity are all natural qualities of being that are evident when not blocked by mental traits acquired to preserve and express the imagined self.
Steven Levine (from a November 2010 service)


Spirit of time  everlasting, yet beyond the bounds of time,
Draw our hearts and minds towards things eternal.
May we see the spiritual beyond the temporal.
The divine within the human,
And may we yearn union for you  source of all there is.
(from an August 2010 service)

Benediction from In Praise of the Mystic Dancer
Let all we do be done in joy; may we ever seek ann abundant living.
Let all we do be done in truth; may we ever listen to the voice within.
Let all we do be done in love; may affection for all that lives be the rule of our hearts.
(from an August 2010 service)

Celebrate the Gift of Laughter
Celebrate the gift of laughter, celebrate the gift of fun.
Celebrate till every rafter echoes with songs bravely sung!
Put away all gloom and sadness, let there be no ling'ring trace.
Celebrate life's joy and gladness with a smile on every face!

Celebrate the art of clowning, seek the joy in midst of pain.
Smiling's easier than frowning, seek the rainbow in the rain!
Life will have its dark and tough times, sunshine must be mixed with rain. Yet a cheerful disposition helps us to accept the pain.
From Hymn 18 in Sing Your Faith ( from a November 2010 service)