In these challenging times, we need communities like AUUC more than ever!

As expressed in our mission statement, we live our commitment to our values by being a welcoming and inclusive spiritual home, a refuge for the many communities currently under siege. We do this by being a community where we care for each other — where every person knows You Are Not Alone.

AUUC also provides rich opportunities for spiritual practices that help us to keep our spirits up and our hearts open as a way of sustaining hope together. We do this by acting for justice through our advocacy work. We are sustaining hope together by taking action.

Below you will find messages from members of the AUUC community sharing their experiences and why they come to AUUC.

Pam C., March 2025

Many years ago, my husband, Greg, and I joined this Accotink church. We came for the religious education of our children and for the community that we found here in this church. I learned the depth of this community when in 2005, Greg was diagnosed with terminal cancer. You all, the AUUC community, supported us through that long devastating journey.

Fast forward 20 years, and it is I fighting cancer this time who has needed your support. For the last several years, I’ve been too weak or too ill to attend in person, so I’ve watched the services from home.

And then in late January, I became anxious, distraught, fearful, disgusted…you fill it in the rest of the emotions….by what was happening in our country. Zooming into service was NOT enough.

I needed the closeness of all of you …and Brads music vibrating in my soul!

Thankfully, I responded to treatment & I could attend in person recently.

I kept pressing Rev Lev for answers: How are we going to support immigrants and keep them safe?

How are we going to support our neighbors who loose their jobs? Keep feeding kids? On and on.. I’m sorry Rev Lev. How could I have expected you to have all the answers…….as it’s really up to us…We the People!

And because everything is happening so fast now, most of you probably were, unfortunately, unaware of the Witnessing that took place downtown in March. Standing in front of the Supreme Court, Rev Lev, and several of us congregants listened to religious leaders of ALL faiths (Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian & UU) ALL standing up for Decency and Fairness…Justice.

Reverend Barber spoke…ah such a speaker.. saying : it’s not political but Moral. Our country and government are in a MORAL crisis ….one not seen for many, ….many decades in our country!

As the speeches ended and the groups were dispersed to continue protests in the Capital, the wind and rain began. I have never seen so many inverted umbrellas!

It’s going to be a long fight, but I have hope and direction now. And I feel fortunate to be here in community with AUUC! And note, exercising my democratic (little d) muscles definitely helps with my anxiety and fear.

Let’s raise our voices together so we endure.

Thank you,

Pam

Connie D., April 2025

My husband Jim and I have been members of AUUC around thirty years.  We started attending in search of a religious education program for our children and a place where we could worship side by side and maintain our own faiths.  We found just such a place here at AUUC.  Many among the AUUC community are here for similar reasons. 

So, why am I here?  We came because of the religious education program; we stayed so we could be spiritual together; we made life-long friendships; we volunteered when we were needed; we stay because of you. That is my bottom line.  AUUC is about all of us. It is community with both a capital c and small c—our involvement in state and local Fairfax issues and our concern for each other. It is our friendships, and our caring for each other in very meaningful and supportive ways.  It is that phone call out of the blue asking how you are when you are low; it is that card sent to you thanking you for doing something for the church; and it is that call to action for social justice that keeps us bound together in a whole much bigger than the sum of its parts. 

So that is why I am here.  And it is the commitment both Jim and I feel for AUUC that compels us to recommit every year. Keeping this organization healthy is more important now than ever.

Connie