Click through for a collection of upcoming news and events at HVUUC. Click the images to be directed to more information.
Kitchen of Hope in Kingsport is this month’s Fifth Sunday offering recipient. The Kitchen of Hope, where teams from various local organizations prepare and serve meals to anyone who needs them, has been operating since 1998. Everyone is welcome. On average, the kitchen serves 153 meals per day.
If you would like to learn more about the Kitchen of Hope, a video is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJMiT_zn8QU
If you would like to contribute, please place your gift in the envelope included in the bulletin on Sunday morning August 30th. If you cannot attend that Sunday but would like to participate, you can give electronically through our website at https://hvuuc.org/donate. Designate in the instructions that your contribution is for the “Fifth Sunday” collection. This option will be available August 23rd through September 6th.
Join us for church on August 16, 2026.
9:30 am Religious Education
11:00am Service
12:00pm Potluck
1:00pm Flamy Grant Concert!
Where do we find the courage to be ourselves? How can we stand unshaken in the midst of circumstances that rattle us? Join us for a service full of art and music that can help us connect to the courageous human spirit that dwells within each of us.
Join us next Saturday, August 22, beginning at 400 to celebrate the end of summer with an afternoon filled with great food, laughter, games, and fellowship!
Hamburgers (beef, vegan, and vegetarian options) & hot dogs
Fruit Dessert Bake-Off Competition
Cornhole
Backgammon/Checkers
Bocce Ball
Jump house and bubble area for the children
Dunk Tank (weather permitting) – Ever wanted to soak your minister or a few brave church volunteers? Here’s your chance!
Door Prize Drawings
Email fellowship@hvuuc.org with any questions.
Headlines .…
• UU History Group
• Chili Cook Off
• Imbolc Ritual
• Women’s Night
• Baked Potato Fundraiser
• SOUUL Summit
Click here to read the entire newsletter.
Click here for past newsletters.
You can also find a few printed copies at our visitors table in the sanctuary.
Up to date church info is always available at www.hvuuc.org
Our Church has a Ministerial Discretionary Fund so that Rev. Tiffany can help people in need connected to our church when a need arises. That fund needs a little extra love this winter, so we are providing the congregation an opportunity to make a special donation to that fund on Sunday February 1st.
We will have white envelopes available for the offering on that day, and anything given in the white envelopes will go directly to the ministerial discretionary fund. Thank you for your generosity!
Email minister@hvuuc.org with any questions.
With a winter storm heading our way, we want to share with you what could change about Sunday mornings, and what has already changed, and where you can expect to get that information.
According to our policy, the decision to close our physical location on Sunday morning due to weather is made by the Minister, President and Facilities Trustee no later than 8am Sunday morning, and notice goes out to the congregation no later than 8:30am Sunday morning. But we can and will make that decision earlier if we have enough reason to cancel earlier (like a huge Saturday blizzard). When we make that decision it will be posted by email and on facebook, and we will notify two key local television stations as well. Keep an eye out on those information sources! But also, whether we have officially cancelled or not, if things look unsafe to you, please stay home and stay safe!
On Sundays when we have closed the building due to weather, there will still be a Sunday service posted to YouTube.
For this Sunday in particular, we have already postponed the baked potato fundraiser and Risk Discernment workshop until February 15th. We have also changed the subject of this Sunday's service to "Stories and Prayers for Social Change," where Rev. Tiffany and Alesha Chaffin will explore our local history of social change as a way of giving us hope for our collective futures! We hope that if you end up snowed in, that you'll hop on YouTube late afternoon/early evening on Sunday and still connect with your community online!
When the Board of Trustee's makes the budget for next year (we are in that process right now), we can only use Pledged Money to build that Budget. Money donated to the plate can only be spent at the end of the fiscal year. We run from June of this year to May of next year.
What if I can't give my whole pledge? We do build into the budget for possible lost pledges. Please Pledge what you can fulfill and add to the plate if you’re feeling generous.
Email stewardship@hvuuc.org with any questions.
Join us for church on January 18, 2026.
9:30am Religious Education
11:00am Service
12:00pm Coffee Hour
4:00pm Youth Group
Queer Communion is a practice of spirituality and ritual that reclaims the center of faith from the margins. As the editor of a collection of storytelling voices around the question of one's queerness and faith in the context of Appalachia, Davis Shoulders seeks to call into question the limiting narratives of what counts as spirituality and who is "worthy enough" to receive the benefit of a spiritual community. Breaking outside traditionalist notions of church and religion, this communion expands into the concept of place, healing, pageantry, reckoning, and hopefulness where radical communities of various faiths are centered on queer expression and acceptance.
Join us for church on January 11, 2026.
9:30am Religious Education
11:00am Service
12:00pm Potluck
Rev. Tiffany explores the human impulse to connect, looking specifically at the different ways humans form attachments and relate to each other. We will look at the Unitarian Univeralist tool of Covenant and how that can inform the ways we connect with each other as a community.
HVUUC is expanding and it is the Board's desire to support individuals interested in taking a more substantial leadership role. To do so, the Board is offering stipends for leadership opportunities.
SOUUL Summit is quickly approaching on March 19-22, 2026 in Atlanta, GA (https://www.uuca.org/souul/). If you want to submit an application for a stipend for this leadership development, the deadline is 2/7/26.
Complete the application here: https://tinyurl.com/HVUUC-Leadership or email questions to vp@hvuuc.org.
We, the Board, are excited to support you stepping into leadership!
Make your wishes known as the congregation discerns which risks we want to take together as a community to transform ourselves, our community and our world!
On Sunday January 25th after church, Rev. Tiffany and team of our church leaders will be facilitating a Risk Discernment workshop sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist's social justice organization Side with Love.
This workshop is designed specifically for us to gauge the risk tolerances of congregation members so that we can make better decisions about what is worth doing and what is too risky for our congregation when it comes to social justice matters. But we can't do that unless you come and let us know where you're at. We hope this workshop will be very well attended to help us get a clear sample of congregational values, hopes, and boundaries.
The youth group will be providing lunch as a fundraiser right after church, and the workshop itself will go from 1-3pm.
Please use the sign up sheet on the back table of the sanctuary, or email risk@hvuuc.org to let us know you're coming (and to help the youth prepare enough food).
Don’t forget to bring small drums or rhythm instruments this Sunday as a part of Fire Communion!
Join us for church on January 4, 2026.
9:30am Religious Education
11:00am Service
12:00pm Coffee Hour
Join us for an interactive multi-generational New Year's service where we burn away what we want to leave in 2025 and imagine a better future for all of us in 2026.
Headlines .…
· Discerning Risk
· Safe Here Task Force Report
· Metaphysics Group
· MACHO Social and Planning
· Women’s Night
· Risk Assessment Workshop
· Path to Membership
Click here to read the entire newsletter.
Click here for past newsletters.
You can also find a few printed copies at our visitors table in the sanctuary.
Up to date church info is always available at www.hvuuc.org
Join us for church on December 28, 2025.
No RE
No Sermon
10:30am Breakfast
11:00am Musical Talent and Jam Session
Our beloved End-of-Year/New-Year tradition returns! A group of our HVUUC men and others volunteer to cook a pancake breakfast with common breakfast sides - 10:30 for food. Alongside the eating is an informal show of talent starting at 11 a.m., and if musicians choose, it wraps up in an on-the-spot jam session. This is not a traditional service: rather, it is a wonderful end-of-year event, an opportunity for fellowship. There will be no sermon or RE.
