🌉 The Bridge Weekly
Religious Exploration at HVUUC | August 23, 2026
💜 A Note from the DRE
Hello, you gorgeous souls!
Here we are in the heart of summer, with the sun shining down on us—and perhaps inviting us to notice our own shine, too. ✨
What lights you up? What are you doing to feed that flame?
And just as importantly: What has been draining your light? What might you be ready to release so your flame has the air it needs to grow?
May we each make a little more room this week for the people, places, practices, and possibilities that make us glow!
Love & Light,
Jess Ox
💧 This Sunday: Water Communion
This weekend is our annual interactive and intergenerational Water Communion service, where we celebrate our interconnectivity and the many streams that flow together to create our community!
I'll be bringing moon water from last year's eclipse seasons—what a beautiful way to bring it full circle! 🌙💧
I look forward to hearing the stories behind the water you bring: water from your travels, your homes, meaningful places, or other sources that hold significance for you.
Bring your water. Bring your story. We'll bring it all together. 💜
✨ Wonder Worship: Celebrating Our SHINE!
This past weekend, we switched up our Wonder Worship rooms—and discovered that our transition to and from the sanctuary was wonderfully smooth and quick!
Together, we explored our unique SHINE, imagined our inner flames growing ever brighter, and danced in the joy of letting them glow. 🔥✨
A huge thank-you to Beth Calvert for volunteering her time and energy to help make the experience possible!
There will be no Wonder Worship for the final two Sundays of August. Wonder Worship will return Labor Day weekend, Sunday, September 6, for all children in Kindergarten through 6th grade.
🌻 August 30: RE Kickoff on the Deck!
Let's have breakfast and kick off our new Religious Exploration season in community!
Join us during our regular RE time, 9:30–10:45 AM, for breakfast, connection, and intergenerational fun on the deck.
Feel free to bring a breakfast item to share—we'll also have some delicious delights available for everyone to enjoy! Then we'll play together with intergenerational games and activities from the UUA's new Deeper Joy activity deck.
Come hungry for breakfast, play, and community! 🥞☀️
🎶 August 30: The Journey Home
Later that morning, Jess will deliver the sermon The Journey Home, as we joyfully explore the wholeness that has been within us all along.
This will be a very musical, highly intergenerational service, with multiple opportunities to participate—and some of our older youth will be stepping into leadership roles throughout the service!
🎤 Children & Families: Come Sing With Us!
During the Time for All Ages, we'd love to invite your child—and you, too, if you'd like!—to join us as we sing along with "This Joy" by Resistance Revival Chorus.
Listen together here: https://youtu.be/3aKE9sRbFrY?si=2mHF2OPy5zl4pjCR
Please let Jess know if you and/or your child would like to be up on stage so we can get an idea of how many joyful voices to plan for! 🎶💜
🚌 Youth Group Trip: Wilderness at the Smokies
Saturday, August 29
Parents and guardians, please keep an eye on your email! Trip information, registration details, and permission materials will be arriving shortly.
🚌 Meet at church: 10:00 AM
🚐 Depart: 10:30 AM
🌙 Anticipated return: Around 10:00 PM
Lunch will be provided. Youth should bring money for dinner.
We'll contact families approximately one hour before arriving back at the church.
Get ready for an adventure! 🌊
🎙️ September 13: Youth-Led Service!
Our youth class and Youth Group have been working with Rev. Tiffany to create a completely youth-led worship service—and what an experience it is becoming!
It has been incredible watching our youth brainstorm every aspect of the service with such meaning and intentionality as they decide what they want to say, create, and share with our congregation.
We are so grateful to Rev. Tiffany for sharing her time, energy, and wisdom with them and helping them build a service that truly centers their voices.
We can't wait for you to experience what they're creating! 💜
🗺️ Curious Conversations: Exploratorium!
This upcoming week, Adult 1: Curious Conversations is heading into the Exploratorium!
The group will view and discuss the history, geology, and more of Burke's Garden, Virginia—a beautiful mountain cove tucked into the countryside about two and a half hours from Gray.
And the conversation may just turn into an adventure: they'll be exploring the possibility of a fall-colors visit together! 🍂🚗
📚 Regular RE Begins September 13 — Please Register!
If you haven't yet registered for our upcoming Religious Exploration sessions beginning September 13, now is the time!
Registration helps us make sure we're creating enough folders, gathering enough materials, and preparing spaces for everyone who plans to participate—including adults!
And yes, adults, that means you. 😉 The Journey Home to YoUU will have its own accompanying folder, and I'd love to make sure everyone has one waiting for them when we begin!
Nursery–12th Grade RE Registration:
https://form.jotform.com/262060977369064
Adult Discussion Groups Registration:
https://form.jotform.com/262061181173146
🙌 Your Gifts Belong Here: Volunteer With RE!
There isn't just one way to volunteer in Religious Exploration.
You might enjoy facilitating or assisting a class, preparing materials, organizing classrooms, replenishing snacks, making a pot of coffee, tending the garden beds, sharing a hobby or skill, supporting Wonder Worship, connecting with youth—or simply being an extra set of hands when needed.
Your unique gifts have a place here. 💜
Volunteer Orientation will be offered via Zoom:
Wednesday, August 26 at 6:00 PM
Friday, August 28 at 1:00 PM
Those who have already completed the Volunteer Interest Form will receive the Zoom links.
If you haven't filled yours out yet, please do so here:
Volunteer Interest Form:
https://form.jotform.com/262058660418055
Let's explore together where your shine might meet a community need. ✨
🎵 Heartstrings & Harmonies: What's on Your Soundtrack?
Help us create a community playlist!
Share the songs that best represent different emotions in your life, then join us in exploring how music uniquely connects us through our shared human experiences.
Once responses are collected, we'll create a community playlist celebrating the many ways music connects us, inspires us, comforts us, and reminds us that we're not alone.
We can't wait to discover the soundtrack of our congregation together! 🎧💜
Take the Heartstrings & Harmonies survey:
https://form.jotform.com/262095102298053
💜 Gratitude from the Bridge
So many hands, hearts, and minds continue to make our Religious Exploration community possible.
This week, enormous gratitude goes to:
Emi for copiloting our Youth Group gathering;
Beth for stepping into Wonder Worship;
Tazley and Katie for helping create the Wonder Worship experience from behind the scenes;
Byron for leading Adult 2 in an exploration of their own unique shines; and
Michael Jones for his continued communication and collaboration around Adult 1: Curious Conversations. Tish for copiloting the Al-Ages class and sharing her healing wisdom with the group.
Every conversation, idea, helping hand, moment of leadership, and quiet bit of behind-the-scenes support adds something to this community.
Thank you for bringing your shine. ✨