Worship

During this period of physical distancing, worship services will be offered live online.

Sunday services will be on a group meeting software called Zoom. We hope many of you will go to their website and familiarize yourselves with the program. Zoom is easy and intuitive. You do not have to download the program unless you wish to, and there is no need to upgrade and pay a subscription. You can also watch this handy how-to video from the UUA.

We have coffee hour on Zoom after the service, so keep tuned in and you can talk to your friends in fellowship!

Sunday, September 26 at 10:00 AM: “A One Story House is Not a Home” with Rev. William Levwood

In her popular 2009 TED Talk, author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie demonstrated the danger of having a single story, of only having access to one perspective. In this service we’ll explore welcoming multiple stories into our spiritual home beyond belief.

Join us on Sunday at 10 AM!

The entire worship service will air once, so don’t miss it! The homily will be available for later viewing.

View / Download the September 12 Order of Service

To join worship Sunday:

Click here to join Sunday’s worship service LIVE at 10 AM on Zoom.

Dial-in option: 1-929-205-6099 Meeting ID: 944 2972 8392 Password: 024341

You can also click here to add this event to your calendar so it will be easy to find when you need it.

Coffee Hour and Greetings: All members, friends, and visitors are welcome to stay after service (link above) for coffee hour. No need to click a different link! Simply join worship, see others gathered, and stay afterward as you desire for coffee hour breakout conversations.

A Note about Zoom Worship. Many of you have noticed that Zoom started issuing a more obvious notification when a meeting is being recorded. We regularly record our Worship Services for the purpose of putting the sermons online. In order not to interrupt the flow of the Service with the notification, we begin recording just before the Service starts. You may be wondering about the privacy of sharing Joys and Sorrows. Although this section is recorded, it is our practice not to keep these recordings any longer than necessary. Once the Sermon is clipped and posted online, we delete the original recording files. Your Joys and Sorrows are only shared within the congregation at the time you share them on Sunday morning.

Joys and Sorrows

All are invited to type your sorrows or joys into the chat box on Zoom during worship. We will pause to allow folks to type in sorrows and joys, and the worship leader will read them aloud during service.

Please consider giving generously to the offering at this link before or after worship. We share our offering this month with VOICE, a non-partisan coalition of almost 50 faith communities and civic organizations in Northern Virginia working together to build power in middle and low-income communities. See more about this organization here.

Nursing mothers welcome We welcome everyone – members, friends, and visitors – to our Sunday services. Normally, students in preschool through 12th grade meet on Sunday mornings during the worship service. When the church is open, a nursery is provided for infants. See the Education page for more information.

Guests and visitors are always welcome!

Multi-generational worship services for all Sundays in September
with craft packs available for pickup

All Sunday services in September are designed as multigenerational services, with interactive elements, crafts, engaging stories, and shorter reflections from our minister designed to keep the attention of all ages. (Yes, you read that right, every single Sunday service in September will be multigenerational!) Let us remember that religious education takes places everywhere, not just inside our religious education classrooms.

One of the wonderful new ways we will be supporting families during this time and moving forward is by offering more engaging and interactive multi-gen services online as well as in person with take home activity packs for times when we are not in person. Your first take home pack will be available for pickup starting Friday, Sept 10th at noon in the labeled bin outside the front of church. Please take 1 pack for each child who will be participating (or for each adult. Adults can do these crafts, too!)

We want families involved in these multigenerational services! Contact Ali at [email protected] if your family is interested in leading September’s NEW Chalice Lighting words (with motions!) on a Sunday in September. (You can do it live or pre-record it. Up to you!)

Past Sermons

We chose to practice virtual worship during the COVID-19 pandemic. All of our live services will be recorded and uploaded to the AUUC YouTube channel for later viewing. tinyurl.com/auucvideos.

Special Worship Services

Throughout the year we offer some special opportunities for worship. At the beginning of each church year, and periodically throughout the year, we have special Multigenerational Worship Services. These services are a time for members and friends of our community to gather together to celebrate times of particular importance in our community. On these Sundays, the Nursery is available.

Sacred Wheel Ceremonies

Some of us at Accotink find a strong spiritual source in nature and express our “respect for the interdependent web of all existence” through ceremonies based on traditions that acknowledge and celebrate the eternal cycle of the seasons. Borrowing the pattern from other traditions, we too celebrate the sacred wheel of seasons at eight points of the earth’s trip around the sun. We incorporate symbols and rituals from a variety of traditions into the design of our own ceremonies. Examples of Sacred Wheel Ceremonies celebrated at Accotink include: Fall Equinox, Samhain, Winter Solstice, Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, and Lughnasadh. L earn more.

Contribute Chancel Flowers

We love to have something beautiful on the chancel shelf during worship services! We hope you will mark a special occasion in your life or memorialize someone who has been important to you by donating a bouquet to decorate our chancel shelf during a Sunday service. Congregants can volunteer to bring cut flowers, potted plants, a cornucopia, or another beautiful object that fits with the spirit and values of our worship. We encourage use of local garden plant materials.
See the sign-up in the church foyer or contact [email protected]