December Theme: Opening to Joy
Sunday, December 5 at 10:00 AM: “Candles Burning Through the Long Dark Night” with Rev. Levwood
Hanukkah is a holiday about surviving and thriving even under oppressive conditions. The new UU holiday of Chalica invites us to focus on our principles. As we approach the last night of Hanukkah and the first day of Chalica, join us for a service that explores what helps us survive and thrive in challenging times. This is a multi-generational service.
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. 
Joys and Sorrows 
Please consider giving generously to the offering at this link before or after worship. We share our offering this month with Just Neighbors, a humanitarian-based nonprofit immigration law firm serving the most vulnerable immigrants in our community. See more about this organization here. 
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!
Reopening Plans
Sunday, Dec. 5
Unfortunately the Covid matrix that we have adopted as our threshold for re-entry has risen to the High Risk or “Orange” category so there will be no in-person, indoor gatherings at AUUC this week. The risk level will be reassessed next Tuesday evening. Service will be online.
December
If all goes well, we plan to have all Sunday services in December offered multi-platform with 60 pre-registered attendees in person. If we find that more than 60 people want to attend in person we will do our best to adjust, possibly by lessening the social distance in the sanctuary if case numbers continue to decline, by alternating who is able to attend in person, or possibly even adding a second service time.
Christmas Eve
A family-friendly Christmas Eve service will be offered online. This will be a joyful service focused on more secular Christmas symbols and Unitarian contributions to making Christmas the holiday we know it as today. The plan is to pre-record this service. If all goes well, it will be available for viewing starting at noon on Christmas Eve. A watch party will also be held in the early evening on Christmas Eve.
If we’re able to have enough volunteer support we may have an in-person Lessons and Carols service featuring the biblical story of Jesus’ birth and concluding with candle lighting and Silent Night.
January
With children having had time to be fully vaccinated, by January we’re hopeful that children’s programming can resume. Knowing that the pandemic continues to place undue strains on parents, we are planning to have children’s religious education classes offered in person twice a month in January. The other two Sundays the service will be multigenerational. We don’t yet know whether this schedule will be in place only for January or if it will continue for the first few months of the new year.
Past Sermons
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. Learn 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]
