The following were taken from the web sites of The Sufi Movement, The Church of All, the Sufi Order International, The Cherag Library, and the Sufi Ruhaniat International. We thank them and hope they do not mind. Links to these sites can be found on the reference page.
Please note that at the end of this page are links to a general example and actual services, and 4 audios which for more into the background, extending it now, the framework, and the first steps to take in learning how to conduct this service.
The Universal Worship is the religious service of the Church of All and of all churches. It is so named because it aims to promote the unity of religious ideals, to give an opportunity to those belonging to different religions to worship together, and to discover that there is one source from which all scriptures have come.
The Universal Worship is not another Church to be included among the variety of existing Churches. It is a Church which gives an opportunity to those belonging to different religions to worship together to pay respect to the great ones who have come from time to time to help humanity. The different scriptures of those who have taught wisdom are read at the altar of the Church of All. Nevertheless, no Sufi is compelled even to attend this Church of All; a Sufi, to whatever church he goes, is a Sufi. Being a Sufi is a point of view; it means having a certain outlook on life, but not necessarily going to a particular church. Religion is something which touches the depths of the heart, and everyone has his own conceptions of religion which he holds as sacred.
...On the altar are placed the scriptures of the religions mentioned above, and there are also candles representing all these religions. The different candles which are lighted mean our adherence and respect to all the different teachers, religions, and scriptures. They teach us that there is one light and many lamps. It is not the lamps which should first be taken to the mind;it is the light which should first be taken to heart.
It is this religion of unification which Jesus Christ came to teach; the teachings of Moses and the efforts of Mohammed were all towards this one object. All that Buddha has taught, all that Krishna has said, is summed up in one thing: that it is one light that is the divine light, and it is the guidance coming from that light which becomes the path for humanity to tread.
But although the Sufi ideal is expressed through so many forms, the Sufis also have the formless ideal of worship. The form is to help those who need to see the form, for all education is really an education of names and forms.
If there were no names and no forms we would not have learned them. But the form is only suggestive of what is behind it, of one and the same truth which is behind all religions. Therefore the Sufi service is also a teaching, yet every Sufi is free either to take up a form or not to take up a form. A Sufi is not bound by any form. Forms are for his use, not to make him a captive.
In the Sufi Movement there is no priesthood in the ordinary sense, the priesthood is only to conduct the service and to answer the need of a priest which always exists in our everyday life. Those ordained in the Sufi Movement are called Sirajs and Cherags. There is no distinction between women and men. The worthy soul is ordained; this gives an example to the world that in all places - in the church, in the school, in parliament, in court - it is woman and man together who make evolution complete. But at the same time every Sufi is a priest, a preacher, a teacher, and a pupil of every soul that he meets in the world.
The Sufi prayers such as Saum and Salat are not man-made prayers. They have descended from above, just as in every period of spiritual reconstruction prayers were given. And there is every power and blessing in them, especially for those who believe." (HIK)
Conducted by ministers called Cherags (Lamps of the Message), the Service honors nine of world's major religious tradtions - the Goddess Tradition, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, the Native Traditions of the world, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
For each tradition, a candle is lit, a selection from the sacred scriptures is read, and a spiritual practice or Dance of Universal Peace is led, engaging the hearts, minds, and bodies of the participants with the Living Transmission of the particular Divine Quality or Aspect manifesting through that religion, such as Wisdom, Self-Sacrifice, Purity, etc.
In addition to the nine traditions represented on the altar, a tenth candle is lit for the Way of Illumination, the Spiritual Path, honoring all those, known and unknown, who have held aloft the Light of Truth throughout the darkness of human ignorance.
UNITY AND UNIFORMITY
Hazrat Inayat Khan
We often confuse unity with uniformity. In reality it is the spirit of unity which creates uniformity for the sake of its beauty and the protection it gives. Throughout all ages both have existed: unity as the inner nature of every soul and the only purpose of life, and uniformity to help to fulfil that purpose. Unity is the goal and uniformity the means to reach that goal, but often the means has obscured the purpose. All through the ages the different religions which have been given to man for his spiritual development with the sole idea of unity, have gradually become a kind of community or nationality. Many people who belong to a Church accept its dogmas, claim a certain name for their religion, and consider all other children of God as separate; by doing so they lose the very seed of wisdom for whose development that religion was given. This error has existed from the beginning, so that instead of touching the true spirit, people have lost reality by seeking a false objective.
Religious
differences have caused endless wars and disasters for the human race.
The reason of this is that the spirit of unity has not been recognized,
while undue regard has been paid to uniformity. In the present age, when
the spirit of religion is at its lowest ebb and only the uniformity remains,
divisions of classes and discords of all kinds spring up; one party, one
class against another, the spirit of rivalry, jealousy, and destruction
everywhere. The effect of this has been to keep man away from the consciousness
of God. Very few indeed recognize Him; all humanity is labouring under
a great unrest; and yet man thinks he is progressing while all the time
he only progresses towards still greater unrest.
There can never be true progress when nations and kingdoms and
peoples are divided; for when the races are divided then subdivisions
come, and classes and parties also become divided. The same spirit of
destruction is at work all the time, and even families become separated.
Unity seems to be rooted out from the hearts of men. Examples are not
necessary; those who will notice it can see this state of humanity, this
condition of life, all over the world.
When we seek a reason for this we find a right principle wrongly worked out. Uniformity is not a fault, indeed it is a great virtue; there is nothing wrong, for instance, in a uniform desire to help, to give service in time of need; but when the God-ideal is removed then it remains as a body without a soul, a corpse, and in the end it decays and causes foulness. However alive and prosperous the world may seem, life belongs only to the living, and when the living being is forgotten it is like a light under a bushel. Man becomes so absorbed in the pursuit of money that he becomes intoxicated and regardless of the harmony and happiness of others, and even of the harmony of his own being; and then he causes destruction. We have only to think of the wars humanity has gone through, and of this latest horror, to see the truth. It all proves that progress is in the wrong direction, and that everywhere unity is lacking. The scriptures given to the Jews, the Muslims, Parsis, Hindus, Buddhists, all have as their central truth the message of unity, but man has been so interested and absorbed in the poetry of these scriptures that he has forgotten their inner voice.
If only
we would recognize the inner voice, we would see that the different
scriptures all contain words spoken by one and the same voice. Some hear
the voice, others only hear the words, just as in nature some see only
the branches and others the roots of the tree; but all these different
scriptures and ways of worship and of contemplating God are given for
one purpose: the realization of unity. In unity reside the happiness and
illumination of man, and his guidance in life. We all know unity by name,
but most of us think of it as uniformity. The Vedanta for thousands of
years in all its prayers and mantrams voiced this central theme: unity,
the oneness of all. The Qur'an with all its warnings expresses in one
essential sura the Being of God: that not only in the unseen, but in all
that is seen there is one underlying current; and the Bible says that
we live and move and have our being in God.
Of all the millions of believers in God perhaps only one makes God
a reality, and that is because the picture man makes of God is as limited
as himself. The knowledge of God is beyond man's reason. Man only perceives
things he is capable of perceiving. He cannot raise his imagination above
what he is used to, and he cannot reach beyond his imagination to where
the being of God is. The secret of God is hidden in the knowledge of unity.
Man thinks, 'what can unity give me? Can it bring me happiness? What is
there in it?' He can get the answer by observing and studying life more
closely. See what an atmosphere the harmony of ten people can create;
the power of love and the influence created by ten people is much greater
than that created by one. Think then what would be the blessing for humanity
if nations, races and communities were united!
No doubt uniformity can teach the lesson of unity, but its purpose must not be for worldly gain; then it is destructive. The wise in all ages have dived deep into life in order to attain unity in themselves, and in order to spread unity. In the life of the world every man has some complaint to make, he lacks something, he is troubled by something; but this is only the external reason, the real truth is that he is not in unity with his own soul, for when there is disharmony in ourselves how can we spread harmony? When mind and body are at war the soul wants something else, and soul and mind are pulled by the body, or the body and mind by the soul; and so there is disharmony. When a man is in harmony with himself, he is in harmony with all; he produces harmony and gives harmony to all, he gives it out all the time.
This is a question that can be answered by understanding our relationship with God. The innermost being of man is the real being of God; man is always linked with God. If he could only realize it, it is by finding harmony in his own soul that he finds communion with God. All meditation and contemplation are taught with this purpose: to harmonize one's innermost being with God, so that He is seeing, hearing, thinking through us, and our being is a ray of His light; in that way we are even closer to God than the fishes are to the ocean in which they have their being. It is mostly interest in worldly things that unites one man with another in order that they can make more profit. How great would be this power if man would unite in true brotherhood! As long as this teaching is hidden under a bushel the methods of uniformity cannot be beneficial; they have no life. The world, in spite of any success it may seem to have today, is suffering from the wrong application of a right principle.
True life cannot be ours until unity is achieved. It is the work of religion to promote the spirit of unity, in the knowledge and love of God to whom all devotion belongs. Man often seeks for psychic, occult, and magnetic powers. This is not the purpose of religion; these developments come of themselves. Where there is life and love, there is magnetism; love itself is the healing power and the remedy for all pain. All occult powers belong to the divine life, but man should live a natural life and realize the nature of God. The only studies which are worth accomplishing are those which lead to the realization of God, and of unity first with God and then with the self, and so with all. It is not necessary for us to be told that we have progressed; we ourselves will know when our heart goes forward; and by loving, forgiving, and serving, our whole life becomes one single vision of the sublime beauty of God.