Quoting from the preface of this work: "Fully a third of the book is the work of Canadian and American Unitarian Universalists, present and past. But in this age of global awareness, we felt it imperative to reach out to other Unitarian Universalist traditions worldwide, and have included works from Nigeria, the Philippines, India, England, Transylvania, and Czechoslovakia. Music and texts from six continents are here, and words from the world's sacred writings. In selecting passages from the Bible we elected to use several versions to better engage the diversity of modern minds and hearts."

Indexes include: Index of First Lines and Titles of Readings, Topical Index of Readings, Index of Composers, Arrangers, Authors, Translators, and Sources, Alphabetical Index of Tunes, Metrical Index of Tunes, Topical Index of Hymns, Index of First Lines and Titles of Hymns.