WorshipWeb Submissions

WorshipWeb's editorial review process meets quarterly to review submissions. We ask contributors to limit your submissions to two per quarter, and that you read all of our requests and requirements (below) before submitting your material.

The review team is comprised of five UUA staff members:

All communication about submissions go through Rev. Erika Hewitt, who convenes the review team. All submissions received after February 23, 2024 will be reviewed at our team's review meeting in June 2024. However, Erika occasionally fast-tracks a submission for publication without requiring a full review.

  1. WorshipWeb seeks to center the voices of people who belong to historically marginalized identities. Please name your social identities in your email. (Examples: "I am a white, queer cis man." "My identities include Black and queer." "I'm a straight, able-bodied Latinx woman.")
  2. The work of diversity, inclusion, and equity begins with our staff's attention to each submission. Often, the time and energy of our review team is pulled from authors with historically marginalized identities due to the many submissions we receive from others. We kindly ask that you limit your submissions to two per quarter so that our review team can regard everyone's work fairly.
  3. Submissions need to reflect the anti-racism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism commitments of Unitarian Universalism. Specifically, the language and metaphors in your submission should reflect those commitments and values. (For example, we won't publish work that employs ableist metaphors, or uses "darkness" as shorthand for "scary and threatening.") We can't edit your word choices for you, in part because we ask those who submit to WorshipWeb to demonstrate an understanding of, and fluency in, those values.
  4. If you're submitting material that draws from a historically marginalized tradition, religion, culture, etc., please use your submission email to describe your relationship to that tradition. Additionally, please ask yourself: Would a white-dominant congregation be able to responsibly use this in worship? Does this piece invite or commit appropriation? Do I need to provide more contextualization as part of this submission?
  5. When we review submissions, your editorial team also asks the following questions: Is this voice already in our collection, or does it enhance the diversity of our collection? Does this piece work for the ear, and for listeners in worship? Do the metaphors &/or theology of this piece make sense? Does this submission represent the best of Unitarian Universalism? How does this piece reach seekers?
  6. Out of consideration for our staff’s time, we ask you to send your polished gems—not raw material that will need to be edited, shaped, or revised. Likewise, please do not send material that's specific to a single setting or congregation; edit your submission so that it could be used by many users in many settings.
  7. Submissions communicate your consent with our author/contribution agreement:
  • I am the author/contributor of the attached worship resource. I give permission for it to be published electronically by the Unitarian Universalist Association on the WorshipWeb with proper credit given to authors/contributors and, if applicable, publishers. Further, I give the Unitarian Universalist Association member congregations permission to reprint this piece for use in its public worship. This may involve, but is not limited to, its inclusion in podcasts and/or videos of the services, written transcripts, projection onto a screen(s), and pre-printed materials. Any reprints of this piece must acknowledge the name of the author.

I hereby acknowledge and agree that:

  • My work may be edited for length or content;
  • I will receive no royalties or other payment for this work;
  • Publication of my work is not guaranteed;
  • The work is original.
  • If part of this work was written by an author other than myself—whether published or not published—I have obtained and included permission to publish it on the WorshipWeb as described above.

You may submit material by emailing contact address on this page and including your submission in the body of an email.

Thank you for your patience, and for being part of WorshipWeb.

—Rev. Erika Hewitt, Minister of Worship Arts, Unitarian Universalist Association

The purple WorshipWeb logo
a stylized "doodle" with fan-shaped designs, two "U"s, and the numbers 1 through 7 in a circle
"When we hear our voices in each other's words then our heart is in a holy place." Joyce Poley