As a religion that draws wisdom from multiple sources, certain holidays outside of our Protestant roots have come to hold a special place in our Unitarian Universalist tradition. Here are three examples of worships outside of our regular Sunday morning service that are coming up:
- the High Holidays from Judaism (we’re holding a Yom Kippur evening service this coming Wed. Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.),
- the Animal Blessing from Catholicism (Oct. 19 at 4 p.m.),
- and the Winter Solstice from Pagan traditions (Dec. 19 at 7 p.m.).
The meaning and rituals of these times of year have contributed to shaping who we are as a religious community.
Right now, we are in the middle of what are known as the Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim) in the Jewish liturgical year. These are the days that fall between the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). In many of our Unitarian Universalist congregations across the country, the themes of this season of turning will appear in Sunday Services and/or in additional evening services held in our sanctuaries and online. While I have Jewish heritage through my mother’s family and was used to observing the holiday with Jews and UUs, by the time I arrived, you already had a tradition of a service on Yom Kippur started during Rev. Bill Sinkford’s tenure.
As Unitarian Universalists, one of our faithful practices is making covenants together – promises about how we aspire to interrelate with one another in our community, with all of humanity, and with our earth home. The High Holidays provide us with an annual practice and a framework to reflect on how we are doing at fulfilling our ethical promises and where and when we have fallen short. They land at a very natural time of the year for us to review and reflect and renew our commitments – near the kick-off of our new program year together.
In the recent UUA Common Read, “On Repentance and Repair,” Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg teaches that in Judaism we are all viewed as capable of doing harm and being harmed. We can also follow steps to take responsibility for what we have done and engage in the work of repairing what is broken. In addition to that, by engaging in this work we can grow into the kind of person who won’t repeat the same mistakes or missteps in the future. That is the ultimate hope.
In my first year here, I was invited by the UUA to co-author a discussion guide for this Common Read along with Susan Dana Lawrence at our headquarters’ Lifespan Faith Engagement Office. Then, the two of us led the pilot discussion for the national UUs for Jewish Awareness group online in the fall of 2023. It has been deeply meaningful to hear from UUs across the country over these last two years about the difference these practices, this book, and discussions in congregations have made to individuals and congregations – who do seem to pick up the book either in the fall near the High Holidays or in January as a New Year’s project.
Just last week, I heard from a colleague who shared that the book and discussions helped members of that congregation identify that they had been accumulating harms with no way to address them. The discussions led them to acknowledge they needed to rewrite their covenant together and to practice checking in with one another periodically around how they are doing at fulfilling their promises. Now, they feel the pathway of repentance and repair offered in the book has allowed them to create a way forward when they break their named covenants.
As we work to expand our Adult Programs offerings, I will make sure we get this on our own schedule, but for now let me share the five steps of repentance and repair offered in the book by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg. Some of you have heard me share these before in High Holidays services here, and a few may even recognize them as grounded in the writings of the 12th-century Jewish sage Maimonides. The five steps consist of:
- Naming and owning fully the harm
- Starting the process of inner change
- Accepting consequences, making amends, and restitution
- The apology only comes at this stage when real effort has been undertaken
- Making different choices
May all of us recognize that part of being human is to be able to both be guided by our values and aspirations and to miss the mark of our values and aspirations. Inevitably, in any given year each of us will fall short in ways that do harm to our relations in small and/or big ways.
So, it is good to have the practice of an annual spiritual check-up just as we might have an annual physical checkup. While we might not gain six inches in height at this check-up like my child did this year when he visited the pediatrician, we may find that we have gained some spiritual height since last year. And, if we find we haven’t, let us remember that every year is a chance to review, reflect, and renew our commitments to spiritual and moral growth. Each year is a chance to begin again in love.
May it be so. Blessed Be. Amen.
In faith,
Rev. Alison
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Free Faith Yom Kippur Evening Service
7:00 PM Wednesday, October 1 2025 in Eliot Chapel
and online: LINK
Join us in this season of the Jewish High Holidays in annual practice of reflection and renewal. May we turn towards the work of repair and learning how to choose life.