Book Shelf

Resources for Universal Brotherhood Ministers

This page features a selection of the books that are valued by much of our membership and are recommended by the Board of Directors. Many of us have found these books helpful in our ministries.

To purchase a book, just click on the image and you will be taken to amazon.com to complete the purchase.

Please know that for each book you purchase this way, we receive a small referral fee from Amazon, so you also help to support Universal Brotherhood Movement with your purchases.

BookDescription

The Ministers Handbook
Christian based it provides samples of ceremonies and protocol for a minister. This small book is always getting lost, and yet every time I find it there are new treasures in it for me.

An Interfaith Ministers Manual
This is by far my favorite resource for the conduct of nondenominational and inter-denominational wedding and funeral services. Some of the material presented is truly inspiring.

Alternative Weddings offers information on how to infuse a ceremony with personal significance or simply spice up a conventional ceremony by incorporating elements from various religious and non-religious traditions. Featuring sample services and real-life examples, spouses-to-be learn how to develop a custom wedding unique to their particular beliefs and interests, while maintaining a sense of solemnity, ritual, and spirituality.

Sacred Ceremony: How to Create Ceremonies for Healing, Transitions, and Celebrations
This book offers ideas on how to create your own ceremonies to consecrate the critical events and passages that you experience on your life's journey. Rather than complex rituals or exacting formulas, this comprehensive book offers clear guidelines and suggestions for honoring the spiritual nature of these important milestones.

Weddings from the Heart: Contemporary and Traditional Ceremonies for an Unforgettable Wedding
Weddings from the Heart offers five complete new ceremonies, the texts of traditional Christian and civil ceremonies, and hundreds of vows, consecrations, and blessings. Includes more than fifty heartwarming, philosophical, and poetic readings on love from a wide range of writers and poets such as Pablo Neruda, Rainer Maria Rilke, Shakespeare, and Elizabeth Barret Browning.

Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying
In this moving and compassionate classic—now updated with new material from the authors—hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years’ experience tending the terminally ill. Through their stories we come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; we also discover the gifts—of wisdom, faith, and love—that the dying leave for the living to share.

Weddings, Funerals and Rites of Passage: Sample Ceremonies For Celebrants, Officiants and Ministers
The must have book for any celebrant, officiant or minister!

Over 270 pages of new wedding ceremonies, funerals, baby naming ceremonies, baptisms, house blessings and much more!

Using this book, you can easily customize any ceremony in minutes! The ceremonies are based on love with fairly neutral wording and are easily adapted to fit almost any religious (or secular) denomination. It’s an excellent teaching tool and is perfect for any minister or celebrant who wants to conduct ceremonies.

It’s a veritable recipe book of ceremonies

The Military Wedding
Written by wedding consultant, who specializes in military weddings.This book is mainly written for the civilian bride marrying a military groom, but does not to overlook the civilian groom marrying a military woman and the military bride and groom.

There are several aspects to a military wedding that an unaware minister may fumble over the first time they officiate. This book helps to smooth out the process. It will help you to understand how a military wedding can be different from a civilian wedding.

The Pagan Book of Living and Dying: Practical Rituals, Prayers, Blessings, and Meditations on Crossing Over

This is the core of Pagan belief and the heart of this unique resource guide

A Book of Pagan Prayer

It is you who will be talking to the gods. Be clear. Be careful in how you pray. Take care how you come before the gods. Give them your best. There are many reference books on elaborate pagan rituals but never - until now - a guide to the most basic of practices: prayers and offerings. A Book of Pagan Prayer provides the pagan community a comprehensive and thoughtful selection of prayers - and shows readers how they too can create their own. After an introduction on why to pray, author Ceisiwr Serith explores how to pray through words, posture, dance, and music. He explains how to prepare for and compose prayers, how to address and honor the deities, and how to conclude a prayer. Serith also answers important questions, such as: Why should pagans pray? Should prayers be spontaneous? What are offerings about? Is all this just trying to buy the gods off? Gathered from many traditions - including Celtic, Germanic, Egyptian, Greek, and Zoroastrian - this guide includes nearly 500 sample prayers organized by purpose: for the family and household; times of the day, month, and year; life passages; thanksgiving, grace, and petition; as well as litanies and mantras. Whether offering a blessing, celebrating new life, safeguarding travel, or honoring the seasons, readers will discover timeless pagan prayers for worship, spiritual connection, and personal relationship with the gods.

Creating Circles & Ceremonies: Rituals for All Seasons and Reasons
Creating Circles and Ceremonies is the accumulation of decades of circles, ceremonies, rituals, Mystery plays, initiations, rites of passage, and other magickal workings co-created by the Zell-Ravenhearts, today’s foremost Wizard/Witch couple.

The Pastor's Manual
Suggestions for performing the various tasks of the pastor. Includes vital information and examples for all types of services and ceremonies.

Rituals for Life: Create Your Own Sacred Ceremonies
Rituals for Life fully explores the hows and whys behind ritual - allowing readers to truly master the art of creating personalized rituals. The author provides readers with a clear understanding of what makes up a ritual as well as detailed instruction on how to actually create rituals for personal growth. This book also gives readers a deeper awareness of the uses and applications of the art of rituals. Rituals for Life includes detailed information on:- Specific holiday rituals; Seasonal rituals; Designing original rituals; Rites of passage; Rituals for Life is an empowering and thought-provoking book that guides readers to the next level of their journey towards personal and spiritual growth.
The Book of Ceremonies: A Native Way of Honoring and Living the Sacred
In The Book of Ceremonies, Gabriel Horn presents a tapestry of stories, poems, prayers, and love songs describing sacred Native American ways of life and what the varied Native traditions and practices can offer all spiritual seekers. Filled with striking original art, the book conveys through its narrative and through instruction how to prepare for and conduct a variety of ceremonies and practices, including greeting the day, marriage, birth, death, season changes, dreams, vision quests, healing, and many others. In the book, Horn covers an array of indigenous traditions rather than just one. Highlights include a Zuni creation account, an Aztec love song, and an Omaha prayer presenting a new infant. Reflecting the voice of someone who has walked the Native path for years, the book offers insight into the ways that Native American reverence and ritual can enrich all aspects of life.

Best Ceremony Ever: How to Make the Serious Wedding Stuff Unique (Best Ever) 1st Edition
Certified lifecycle celebrant Christopher Shelley is on a mission to revolutionize the wedding ceremony―or at least to make it as enjoyable as the reception. In Best. Ceremony. Ever., he will forever alter the way couples and wedding pros think about tying the knot. Shelley, who has officiated hundreds of weddings, walks couples and officiants through working together, from setting the atmosphere to telling an unforgettable love story. He shares questions for the couple to ask themselves before meeting with their officiant, and offers a wedding vow workshop and complete sample ceremonies.

Handfasted and Heartjoined: Rituals for uniting a Couple's hearts and lives

The jury is out on this one. Many people do not like it because the author has very strong opinions about wicca, and solitary practitioners. That being said the information on how to conduct a handfasting and the samples are very helpful.