The Practice of Imagination

May 11 is the last day of Youth Faith Formation for this school year! Children and Youth will begin 2nd Hour with their groups and will join their families for Ice Cream around 12PM following a Closing Ritual.

This Sunday, help us spread beauty and show appreciation by making tissue paper flowers! All ages are welcome to try their hand at crafting in the Social Hall during Faith Formation hour. The flowers will decorate the Sanctuary for the month of May and remain up through Flower Communion Sunday, June 1.

RUMMAGE THANK YOU FROM AMANDA FISHEL

Hi everyone! I am happy to report that ORUUC has finished up another successful rummage sale! Thank you to everyone who donated, loaned tables & clothing racks, volunteered their time, and kept our volunteers fed with scrumptious meals throughout the week. I am particularly grateful for the other members of the Rummage Leaders Team: Christina Elliott, Jen Stark, Charles Davis, and Jim Nutaro. Charlie and Jim stepped up to join the leadership team for this sale, and their contributions allow us to share this ministry more sustainably and effectively. Thank you!

With the generosity of our community, ORUUC raised about $15,000! These funds will help our congregation to continue showing up, siding with love, and cultivating justice and joy both within ORUUC and in our wider community.



After last sale, I mentioned that we had about 97 volunteers, and I asked whether you all could get us over the 100 mark. I’ve gotta say, I am blown away by the response. This sale, I counted 115 volunteers. That’s awesome! I’m grateful to each of you who make this ministry possible.

A small group of volunteers who are near and dear to me are our youth, who stepped up in a big way and earned an $800 donation from rummage to their trip fund. They will be connecting with the wider community of Unitarian Universalists at this year’s General Assembly in Baltimore.

You may be curious what we did with all the leftovers. This sale, we shared our abundance with Ecumenical Storehouse, Holiday Bureau, the YWCA, Blossom Center, KARM, area clothing closets, the Oak Ridge Animal Shelter, the Sunset Gap community, and Bob Grimac’s ministry in Haiti. Also, I forgot to mention during yesterday’s announcement that the leadership team opted to donate all of the coins less than a quarter to next week’s Easter Egg Hunt. Those dimes and nickels you forgot in the bottom of a purse will be going to one of our Split the Plate recipients!



Please remember to pick up your folding tables as soon as possible. Also, if you have not yet paid your IOU, please get in touch with me at amsfishel@gmail.com.

We’ll be back for our Fall sale, September 12 & 13, with Big Rummage pickups on September 6. I look forward to seeing you then!

Pledge packets were mailed March 31. Please take a few minutes to read the included materials and make your pledge to help fund the 2025-26 church year. Mail your completed card, drop it off in the box in the church office, or follow the included instructions to make your pledge online via Realm.

Our stewardship campaign reminds us that It Takes Everybody to create this community, which is a refuge to those who need it, now more than ever.

• We ask you to pledge because it helps us plan our budget and fulfill our mission. 
• Our goal for the total number of pledges this year is 150. We have received 75 so far, so we're halfway there!
• All who pledge will receive this BE LOVE yard sign to spread our values throughout the community. Thanks to Mare Martell for designing it!
• Signs will be handed out at the Stewardship campaign wrap-up Ice Cream Social on 5/11.
• Remember to renew your automatic payment settings in Realm--they don’t renew annually.

Youth Faith Formation Dates to Remember in 2024-25

Looking for an interactive program designed to stimulate learning, introduce group activities, and encourage play? Mother Goose is the answer! Led by ORUUC's own Michael Raymond, the Mother Goose Program is a group experience for parents and their babies and young children. The program introduces adults and children to the pleasure and power of using rhymes, songs, and stories together.

Mother Goose meets the first and third Thursdays each month at 10:30 a.m. in the Oak Ridge Public Library Auditorium. The next gathering is May 15. It's free and open to the community!

For more information on the Oak Ridge Public Library’s programs, visit https://orpl.oakridgetn.gov/.

A message from Lóre printed in the April 25-May 2 Exponent

I attended the annual UUA General Assembly (GA) conference for the first time as a voting delegate when I was a very new UU. It blew my mind! It was like a temporary city, bustling with rainbow clad UUs of all ages, races, and abilities. I found even the “business sessions,” where the voting is done, to be fascinating and delightful. A highlight of that first GA for me was when I wandered into a workshop session that was honing one of the “Actions of Immediate Witness,” or statements on social issues that UUs vote to declare. That one was about the housing crisis. I had worked with folks experiencing homelessness, so I offered a minor edit to the language of the resolution, which became part of the final document!

ORUUC exists in an ecosystem of other UU congregations and organizations. We play an important role in Oak Ridge and Anderson County. Just so, UUism plays a big role in state and national politics. For example, our faith is very vocally supportive of trans people. Our leaders are able to do that because we passed a resolution at last year’s GA!

At ORUUC, we vote to make decisions like elected leaders, stances on social issues, or Share the Plate organizations. Similarly, UUs from across the globe come together to vote at our annual General Assembly (GA) conference. GA alternates whether it is in-person or fully virtual every other year; this year is in person in Baltimore! UU congregations, depending on size, send a certain number of voting “delegates” to GA.. ORUUC gets 6. Delegates can attend in-person or from home with GA’s increasingly robust hybrid platform. In addition to voting, those who attend GA (whether delegates or not) can enjoy (and participate in!) some of the best worship services UUism has to offer, workshops galore, unique shopping opportunities for amazing UU merch, and more! It’s an incredible adventure.

So, here’s the ask: become a GA delegate! The congregation will give you guidance on which way to vote on various issues. You’ll be on a team with five other folks. And there are pre-GA orientation meetings. Please talk to me or Nathaniel Bass if you have any questions about what being a GA delegate entails.

There are registration and travel scholarships available through the UUA for people under 35 or those with marginalized identities. The cost for those who only want to attend the business sessions from home is $0 with the code OPTOUT2025! ORUUC can also pitch in a little to help subsidize the cost of travel, prioritizing those who have never been to GA before.

Become a GA delegate. Help guide our faith into the future!

For more information, visit https://www.uua.org/ga/congregations/delegates/faq.

Connecting in Spirit: Youth Faith Formation Monthly News is a digital publication designed to serve ORUUC families with children from birth through high school. If you have ideas or suggestions for content, or would like to add someone to the mailing list, please email Rachel at communications@oruuc.org or Christine at faithformation@oruuc.org. To take a look at past issues of Connecting in Spirit, visit http://www.oruuc.org/connectinginspirit.

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