Unitarian Universalist Congregation (Blacksburg) External UU Links

UU Association of Congregations

The UUC is a member of the UUA.

UU Service Committee

One of the UUSC projects in which the UUC participates every year is Guest at Your Table

Thomas Jefferson District homepage

Our congregation belongs to the Thomas Jefferson District, which includes Unitarian Universalist Fellowships and Churches from Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina. The Mountain, located in a scenic setting close to Highland, NC, is a year-long UU conference and retreat center. In July of every year, nearby Radford University hosts a week-long Southeast Unitarian Universalist Summer Institute, SUUSI, the second largest yearly gathering of Unitarian Universalists. The largest is the UUA’s General Assembly.

Welcoming Congregations: a primer

Since 2004, the UUC has been officially recognized as a Welcoming Congregation.

UU Primers

Welcome to Unitarian Universalism! (published by the UUA).
Are you a Unitarian Universalist? Follow this link to a short quiz that will help you decide.
Yes, I finally found a religion. One person's journey to Unitarian Universalism and to our Congregation.
“In Voices of a Liberal Faith, members and ministers share their thoughts on worship and fellowship, explain the goals of religious education, explore the historic roots of our religion, and celebrate the spirit of social justice that inspires our faith.” This quote is from a UUA Web site talking about a new (2008) video.
A sermon by one of our guest ministers provide useful background reading on what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist: An Elevator Speech, presented on July 16, 2006, by The Rev. Bill Gupton, Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The UUC Membership Committee has put together a UUC version of an elevator speech: small cards on which the front side has contact information for the UUC, and the back side has the following five statements:

We are a religion free of dogma and guided by shared values rather than a creed;
We support conscientious personal beliefs based on reason and experience;
We emphasize the value of every person and the interdependent web of all existence;
We give life to our values, demonstrating compassion, respect, and justice;
We work together to make the world a better place to pass along to our children.

These cards are available at the UUC Meeting House.

A UU Community Deals with a Tragedy

On July 27, 2008, a man walked into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville with a sawed-off, 12-gauge shotgun stashed in a guitar case and started shooting. Why he did this, and how the Congregation responded immediately and over time were discussed in a Bill Moyers Journal “Rage on the Radio” (PBS, September 12, 2008) and a Newsweek My Turn column “‘Everyone Welcome’ — Even Now” by the minister, Rev. Chris Buice (January 19, 2009). In addition, our minister had an op ed article on the tragedy published in The Roanoke Times (Aug. 1, 2008). On the one-year anniversary of the event, Bill Moyers revisited the tragedy: “Rage on the Airwaves” (Bill Moyers Journal, July 24, 2009).