✨ Religious Education Updates ✨

There is so much beautiful energy flowing through our RE spaces right now — thank you for being part of it all! Here are a few updates, opportunities, and upcoming events to stay connected:

✨ Journey Chats with Jess — Now Open!

I’m offering 1:1 “Journey Chats” as a space to connect and learn more about you — what’s bringing you joy, what you’re exploring, and how I can support you through RE offerings like classes, workshops, discussions, and events 💜

Current openings are Thursdays from 12–1pm. We can meet in person (tea, coffee, or even a little lunch downstairs in the Fellowship Hall ☕🥪), or connect via Zoom or phone — whatever feels aligned for you!

I’d love to sit with you and hear your story! 🤗

🥚 Annual Egg Hunt — April 5th

Join us for our Annual Egg Hunt immediately following service on April 5th!

✨ Please note: There will be no RE classes that morning as we come together for this all-ages celebration.

🏘️ REZ Building Updates

●     A Giveaway Box is now located in the REZ lobby. Feel free to take what interests you and/or leave something that may be meaningful to someone else.

●     The game bookcase in the REZ is designated for family game nights. Please leave those games available for shared use. If you have a game you’d like to contribute, you’re welcome to add it! (Games will be relocated soon, but for now this is their home.)

🎭 Community Event: Phoenix Homeschool Dance

Phoenix Homeschool is hosting a dance:
 Through the Looking Glass
 🗓️ May 2, 2026 | ⏰ 6–9pm
 📍 YWCA of Bristol, TN
 💲 $15/ticket | Open to homeschoolers ages 11+

Please contact Phoenix Homeschool directly to RSVP and purchase tickets.

🌱 Facilitators Needed — April

If you feel called to support our RE program by facilitating, we would love to have you!

Please reach out with your availability and preferred age group. If you don’t yet have a background check on file, we can get that completed easily.

✨ Our children don’t just learn from curriculum — they learn from who shows up.

🌈 Coming Soon: Wonder Worship!

We are excited to introduce Wonder Worship — a children’s church experience!

✨ Pilot Date: May 24th
 After Community Candles, youth K–12 who would like to participate will be led out of the sanctuary for their own meaningful and engaging worship experience.

☀️ Expressions Summer Day Camp — July 20–25

Our Expressions Summer Day Camp is in the works!

If you’d like to be involved in planning, preparation, or facilitating creative activities, we would love your support.

📧 Reach out: dre@hvuuc.org or hvuucdre@gmail.com
 We’ll be gathering as a team in April and organizing volunteers for this exciting week of creativity and connection!

🌿 Class Updates

🌼 K–5

Last week, our younger group explored our UU principle of interdependence, even getting their hands in the pollinator garden!

This week, they’ll be diving into neurodiversity through hands-on, engaging activities — including filling eggs together with Brooklyn and Kita while exploring how beautifully different all of our brains can be.

🌟 6–12

Last week, our youth explored Ostara and reflected on how themes of rebirth and renewal are showing up in their own lives. They also began filling eggs — a perfect symbol of that energy — in preparation for the upcoming egg hunt!

This week, they’ll continue that creative work while diving into the lesson:
 ✨ “Beautiful Brains, Beautiful Chaos” ✨
 exploring neurodiversity through movement, reflection, and shared experience.

🌿 Adult RE 2

Last week, Heather led a thoughtful discussion on self-empowered ways of contributing to our community and world.

This week, Byron will guide the group in a conversation around neurodiversity, helping to open hearts and minds ahead of the service to follow.

✨ There is so much growth, creativity, and connection unfolding — thank you for being part of this shared journey 💜

Have you ever enjoyed a game of bocce ball?  If not, you have missed out on a lot of fun but you may have an opportunity to experience that excitement in the near future. 

In 2014, HVUUC Reverend Luck  “blessed” the new bocce ball court adjacent to the children’s playground and the fun began!  It was built by a group of dedicated volunteers led by Charlie Mattioli.  For many years it was enjoyed after Sunday service or before Wednesday night dinners by all ages and all physical abilities of HVUUC members and friends. 

Bocce ball is an easy to learn game that can be played outside in the sunshine (no screens!) by all ages and requiring little physical talents.  Bocce ball has been enjoyed for hundreds of year as a very social game, enjoyed by spectators as well as those throwing the ball. 

If the HVUUC courts were to be refurbished, would you or your family members participate in games before/after other church events or possibly on a schedule bocce ball league? 

Let the planning task force know if this is something you would support by emailing garden@hvuuc.org

Do you make contributions to our local public radio station WETS or are you interested in beginning this year? WETS has a deal for us!

Members and friends can make individual monetary donations to HVUUC specifically designated for WETS. We will bundle these donations and give as one amount. In response, as an acknowledgement of our support, we will be allotted brief educational announcements on the air throughout the year. We can alert listeners to
special events or share general information about HVUUC.

To participate, send your donation to the HVUUC office or place it in the collection bowl or donation box.  Clearly mark your donation “for WETS.” Please submit your donations from now through the month of April.

Then listen out for our “spots” when you are tuned in to 89.5. For questions, contact Membership@hvuuc.org

Upcoming News and Events

Click through for a collection of upcoming news and events at HVUUC. Click the images to be directed to more information.

Join us for church on March 22, 2026.

• 9:30am Religious Education

• 11:00am Service

• 12:00pm Coffee Hour

“We Are The Builders”

We all want to make a difference in this world, but sometimes our narrow vision of what "counts" as activism or social change can limit and paralyze us. This Sunday Rev. Tiffany explores the many ways we can make a difference, with the help of a book that all the Unitarian Universalists are reading this year: Social Change Now by Deepa Ayer.

The Memorial Reception Committee is in need of food donations for the reception for Ray Hatch on Sunday March 29.

Finger foods and sandwiches are ideal! If you need something warmed in the oven we can do that as well. All donations can be dropped off in the church kitchen on March 29th.

Email memorialreception@hvuuc.org with any questions.

🌿 Religious Education Update 🌿

So much gratitude for Shylah, Justin, and Heather who all stepped in to lead classes this week — such a beautiful reflection of our ever-growing shared ministry in action! 💜

✨ Community Share
 Phoenix Homeschool is hosting a dance: Through the Looking Glass
 🗓 May 2, 2026 | ⏰ 6–9pm
 📍 YWCA of Bristol, TN
 🎟 $15/ticket | Open to homeschoolers ages 11+
 If interested, please reach out directly to the Phoenix Homeschool group for more information.

🌱 K–5

This past week, we brought the K–5 and 6–12 groups together for a shared exploration of innate worthiness and labels — the ones we’re given, the ones we take on, and the ones we can choose to release.

While the older group dove into an iceberg activity, our younger friends created beautiful self-love artwork and absolutely beamed as they shared their creations. We explored what it means to decide who we are, to love ourselves, and to remember that we are worthy simply because we exist. ✨

This week, Sue and Greg will be facilitating a lesson on Interdependence – The Missing Shrimp. Through wonder questions and a hands-on activity, children will explore how different parts of a system work together. They’ll even become “miners,” extracting chocolate chips (resources) from cookies (the Earth), and noticing how our actions impact the whole. 🍪🌎

🌟 6–12

Last weekend, the youth began their first lesson in the self-designed curriculum: The Self — and wow, what a powerful start.

Together, we explored innate worthiness, the “iceberg” of personality, and releasing labels placed on us by others. The group showed incredible honesty and insight, sharing both what they’ve witnessed and what they’ve personally carried.

One especially powerful moment was hearing students express what they want others to truly see and understand about them now. It was a beautiful reminder that what is often labeled as “teen rebellion” can actually be an authentic expression of self — one that can be rooted in kindness, compassion, and self-awareness.

The youth also offered thoughtful feedback and are excited to expand future sessions with more interactive elements — including games and even karaoke! 🎤✨ I continue to feel so much joy witnessing this co-creation unfold.

🌿 Adult RE 2

Last week, the Adult RE 2 group explored inner tranquility as a form of strength and power, reflecting on how our internal state can influence the world around us.

This week, Heather will be guiding a discussion around personal definitions of activism and social change — exploring the many ways we show up in the world, just as we are, and how that can be enough.

Love & Light, Jess Ox

Say hello to the renamed HVUUC Men’s Group, say goodbye to MACHO (Men Achieving Community Helping Others).

In order to be more inclusive and focus on the social aspects of the group we are dropping the clever-but-confusing-not-to-mention-possibly-misleading moniker “MACHO” in favor of the more apt and gender-symmetrical “Men’s Group". It’s a Group. Of Men. You can tell because it’s right there in the title!

We will hold regular social gatherings on the third Wednesday of each month at 6:00PM and welcome all who identify as men to join us in fellowship.

You can email mensgroup@hvuuc.org with any questions.

Upcoming News and Events

Click through for a collection of upcoming news and events at HVUUC. Click the images to be directed to more information.

This quarter's recipient of the 5th Sunday Offering is Family Promise of Greater Kingsport. 

Family Promise’s mission is to help low-income and unhoused families achieve sustainable independence. They provide a network of faith congregations and community agencies to promote a collaborative response for unhoused families with children. In particular, this response allows these families to remain together while addressing the challenges confronting them in obtaining housing. These families receive case management specific to their needs and in-depth support as they progress.

If you want to watch a short promotional video about Family Promise's work, please go to the following link https://youtu.be/ODaGwpqhgiU

If you wish to support Family Promise's work, please make your donation in the white envelope that will be included in the Sunday's bulletin on March 29th.

If you cannot attend on Sunday, March 29th and still want to support Family Promise’s work, you can follow this link to donate electronically through HVUUC’s website at https://hvuuc.org/donate. Designate special instructions that it’s for 5th Sunday. This will be available one week prior and one week after the date of 5th Sunday.

Join us for church on March 15, 2026.

• 9:30am Religious Education

• 11:00am Service

• 12:00pm Coffee Hour

• 4:00pm Youth Group

“Peace and Power”

The Buddhist tradition has a lot to say about the connections between Peace and Power, and the connections between our inner state of being and how we impact the world. This Sunday Rev. Tiffany gets a little help from bestselling author and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh to explore these big questions.

Safety and Security has emerged as a big topic that our congregation has a lot of interest in at the moment. To best understand where the congregation is at with these matters, a team of board members, facilities volunteers and your minister are hosting Listening Circles to gather everyone's thoughts as we discern a way to move forward for our congregation's safety and security.

All security listening circles will contain the same content, just on different days and different formats.

They are:
In Person: Sunday April 5th from 1:00pm to 3:00pm

Zoom: Tuesday March 24th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm

zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/99010898582?pwd=hwS9ZTXDtnHb6YuUaUyZSCgmNxpkKC.1

Our Annual Pledge Drive Ends Sunday March 22nd. It is important that Friends and especially Members pledge. These times are unsure, but please be sure that this church can stay open this next year! more than half of the congregation has pledged so far. It's important that you pledge not the amount!

Email pledge@hvuuc.org with any questions.

I’m refreshing the RE snack cabinet and fridge, and I’d love your input! We want to make sure the snacks and drinks we keep on hand are things our community actually enjoys — everything from healthy bites to fun treats is welcome here (no snack judgment in this space ).

If you have a moment, please share your favorites in this quick survey:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLRC_tGwqus-WQlhrNsc0uINae5Ctparjlo2if_1eCWZQc8Q/viewform?usp=header

Thank you for helping keep our snack game strong!


K–5 RE
Brooklyn and Kita will be leading the class in the lesson “Why Do People Disagree?” The group will explore perspective, how listening to someone else’s viewpoint can help us understand more deeply, and how even when we disagree, we can still practice kindness and respect.

6–12 RE
This week the youth begin a new adventure they designed themselves! The curriculum they chose for the remainder of the season is centered around them — focusing on emotional regulation, acceptance, resilience, and practical topics they feel will help them step confidently into young adulthood, such as budgeting and taxes. It’s a beautifully aligned program the youth created together, with true UU spirit guiding the process.

Last weekend was also an exciting one for them. The youth distributed the food bags they created at The Melting Pot in Johnson City, and even had the opportunity to connect with the director there about future community service collaborations. They felt proud of their work — and they absolutely should!

Adult RE 2
This week Heather will be facilitating a conversation that connects with Sunday’s service theme around peace, power, and the ways we shape the world around us. The discussion will invite participants to reflect on how our values guide our actions, how power can be expressed through compassion and courage, and how each of us contributes to building a more peaceful and just world.

Help us restock the RE kitchen with snacks and drinks that spark joy! Share your favorites (healthy, sweet, salty, fizzy — no judgment here!) and help us create a welcoming, delicious space for all ages.

We’re refreshing our RE snack cabinets and fridge — and we’d love your input!

Around here, we believe in joyful experiences, self-love, and snack discernment. That means we honor the kale chips and the cookies. The sparkling water and the soda. The wholesome and the mischievous.

Tell us:

* What snacks make you happiest
* What drinks you actually reach for
* Whether brand names matter to you

Your input helps us balance stewardship and celebration — creating a space that feels welcoming, thoughtful, and well-stocked for everyone.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLRC_tGwqus-WQlhrNsc0uINae5Ctparjlo2if_1eCWZQc8Q/viewform?usp=header

Thank you for helping us nourish both body and community