Note: this weekend, we are back to 10am service. We also invite you to bring your pets to this service to participate in the Animal Blessing!

Watch for two links in the Saturday email: a YouTube link for the service and a Zoom link for the virtual Coffee Hour after the service. Recording will be posted on our YouTube channel. You can find our Order of Service online; if you are not watching in real time the Order of Service may not be available.

Join us online or in person for worship at 10am. By attending an in-person service, you are giving RRUUC permission to use your likeness in videos and photographs.

Join us as we explore the shift from dominion to stewardship through the lessons we learn from nature. You are invited to bring your animal companion for the animal blessing during the service or an individual blessing during Coffee Hour! We’ll also have a memorial table to hold mementos from animal companions that have left us. Sunday service is broadcast live, and may include wide shots of the crowd in the sanctuary.

Animal Ministry will have a table outside at Coffee Hour after Sunday's service. They will be collecting pet supplies for donation; please bring anything that you may have.

The draft Minutes for the 2022 Annual Meeting (along with the draft Minutes for the 2021 Annual Meeting) have been posted for review and comment by the congregation on the Board Minutes page (requires login). The comment period closes on Aug. 31, 2022.

We all are! Rev. Nancy's theme for 2022-23 is "Year of Reset," which will kick off at the September 11 Ingathering service. Join the Earth Ministry in planning to support the theme of environmental reset at our online meeting THIS SUNDAY, August 7 at 11:30am. How can we lead the congregation to pause, take stock, repair and recommit to our 7th principle, which calls upon us to address the environmentally and socially destructive practices that are causing climate change? All are welcome! Zoom link will be included in the worship links email on 8/6.

Last week the UUA began laying out plans for what we can do to overcome the loss of Roe v Wade. They’re conducting one more seminar on the subject, a wrap-up TODAY (Thurs., Aug 4), 8-9:30pm. Sign up for the training, using your own contact information, and let Laura Piervincenzi or David Ward know if you’re interested in joining an action group here at River Road.

Our Grounds Committee is taking great care of our pollinator garden. Read all about their efforts - and see some great butterfly pictures - in the latest Grounding blog post.

Spiritual Ancestors and Sacred Arts are for those who've already taken Sources. Questions? Email Beth Irikura.

Do you have big ideas about how we can bring new faces to Sunday worship?

Do you want to make it easier to get involved in our congregation?

Do you love meeting new people?

Join the River Road membership team! We're recruiting volunteers to plan exciting events and make new congregational traditions. Contact Natalie Schall to get on the mailing list for announcements about upcoming meetings and ways you can get involved.

Join us in spreading the joy of being a UU to our youngest generation! Helping children grow in their faith impacts your own faith journey, too. There are many opportunities beginning next fall, with differing levels of commitment and many different ages to inspire. Spending time with kids and youth keeps you young! Contact Beth Irikura or Laura Piervincenzi to talk about options.

Storytelling classes meet monthly Saturday mornings at RRUUC, 9:30am-12:00pm. We will switch to Zoom if the COVID situation worsens. Masks are required at RRUUC but a microphone will be available. Two classes are offered at the same level with all experience levels welcome. Sign up for either Storytelling 1 or Storytelling 2. Limited to 10 per class. The cost for this year-long class is $350.

Storytelling 1 dates: 10/8, 11/5, 12/3, 1/14, 2/11, 3/11, 4/8, 5/20, 6/10 (make-up class if needed)

Storytelling 2 dates: 10/1, 10/29, 11/19, 1/7, 2/4, 3/4, 4/1, 5/13, 6/3 (make-up class if needed)

The book group meets on the third Friday of the month beginning at 10am (via Zoom) to discuss a book selected by the group. Participants are invited to sign in as early as 9:45am to chat and socialize before the discussion begins at 10am. In the coming months we will be discussing the following books:

August 19: Read any book by Louise Erdrich and share your comments about it

September 16: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michele Richardson

October 21: The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

Contact the River Road office to be put on the email list for the Zoom link.

Thrivers On The Move has an immediate opportunity for students, low-income, minorities, immigrants, and refugees to be Certified Nurse Assistants (CNAs) with a scholarship after meeting the criteria. The application can be found on their website; scholarships are limited. For questions, please contact Jack Lee.

There is also an opportunity for individuals or families of low-income backgrounds to receive a free laptop. They can be refugees or immigrants in general and should be Montgomery County residents. To apply, fill out the application form. Sara Abdel can waive the $5 administrative fee for beneficiaries connected with RRUUC. Use promo code "Thrivers."

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) is a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization advancing human rights together with an international community of grassroots partners and advocates.

You can support UUSC throughout the month of August by making online contributions (select "Extend the Offering") or by making check donations to RRUUC (designate UUSC).

As part of our ongoing commitment to the activists who are interrupting gun violence on the streets of our cities, we are saddened yet honored to memorialize the names of those in our area lost to gun violence over the past two weeks. These lives continue to matter:

Baltimore: Kelvin Jackson, Ernest Jackson IV, Jesse Lancaster Jr., Bartimaeus Morris, Evay Henriques, and two victims’ names not released. District of Columbia: Kevin Hartgraves-Shird and Marilyn Payne. Waldorf: Tiesha Janae Johnson. Every life lost to gun violence shatters the world for each of us, and every life saved by those who interrupt the violence helps knit us back together.

Acknowledging and remembering that we are situated on the traditional land of the Nacotchtank and Piscataway people, and on the land on which enslaved African people and their descendants labored and lived, we gather together in worship. May the words of our mouths, the meditations of our hearts and the actions of our hands point the way toward a more just future. May the memory of those whose love and labor went before inspire us to create a path of greater joy and justice for all who will follow.  

If you would like to learn more about our land's history, please watch the service from June 13, 2021.