Worship Service, July 19, 10:00am In person and online Monthly Theme for July:   Resilience      The Nursery will be available during service for infants to preschool-aged children. View / download the Order of Service here soon. Join us for service on Sunday at 10:00 am in person, 10125 Lakehaven Ct., Burke, or online via Zoom. … Continue reading Worship Service July 19

We began this church year in September exploring Building Belonging. Belonging is foundational for this month’s Soul Matters theme of Flourishing Together. Belonging begins with witnessing, with beholding one another. This beholding needs to be a way of creating a loving space for each other, a way of holding each other in love. Join us … Continue reading We Be Holding Each Other

A Multigenerational Berry Communion In celebration of summer we’re having a Berry Communion! Here in Virginia, beginning in May, strawberries are the first fruits of the berry season, followed by cherries (ok, ok, I know cherries aren’t actually berries, but …) in June, then raspberries in July, and finally blackberries in July and August. Join … Continue reading Berries in a Bucket for the Winter

These days, for different reasons, it feels like every American feels like a stranger in our own nation. How did we get here? And what does Dolly Parton have to teach us about how we got here and what we do to bridge the divide? Join us this Sunday for an exploration of how to … Continue reading Strangers In Our Own Land

What if the hero’s journey is a false narrative? What if the true story is one of communal wisdom passed down from generation to generation? Join us as we explore an alternative perspective for how to create a more livable future … together. For Reflection: “What do you always keep in your pockets, purse, or … Continue reading “A Carrier Bag Theory of Unitarian Universalism”

Music Sunday This Sunday, we’ll look at what the movie Princess Mononoke has to teach us about balancing the needs of humans and the needs of nature. We’ll explore the ways that the Earth and human beings practice resilience and endure through conflict and hardship. Featuring special music from AUUC members, including AUUC’s choir. For … Continue reading “The Enduring Spirit of the Forest”

In this service we’ll explore how the spread of Christianity through violent conquest and forced conversion changed the very nature of the faith. We’ll also explore how Christianity’s colonialist expansion within Europe set the stage for European colonial domination through the continuation of violent conquest and forced conversion. Finally, we’ll explore how to resist this … Continue reading  “So We All Dressed Up as Wolves and We Looked Fire”

Multigenerational Worship Service In Person and Online Early Christians centered their faith in the resurrection of Jesus. The eucharist became a celebration of how life triumphed over death, a celebration of communal abundance and care. In keeping with the Passover meal it also celebrated liberation from the oppression of empire. This collective liberation, communal care … Continue reading  “Paradise Is a Potluck, Y’all!”

This title is a quote from RuPaul that expresses a deep spiritual truth about human identity. Both parts of the statement are important. It matters who we are in our unadorned essence. It matters just as much what drag is placed upon that unadorned essence. Join us as we explore these two spiritual truths together. … Continue reading  “We’re All Born Naked, and the Rest Is Drag” 

What would it look like to have a better way of promoting Unitarian Universalism? What might a UU Bumper Sticker say that would capture the essence, the Spirit of who we are? This is the question Scott Larson asked me to answer when he purchased this year’s Auction Sermon. (And Dean Wanderer purchased the complementary … Continue reading “Unitarian Universalism in the Key of Life” 

This church year, we’ve been exploring the foundations of our theological heritage, so that this foundation can root us deeply into our Shared UU Values as a bulwark against the destruction of our constitutional order in favor of cruelty and greed. This Sunday we will continue this exploration of foundations—the foundations of inequality, injustice, and … Continue reading the underbelly of Omelas (or Surprise! We’re Still Cannibals)