We're excited to come together to participate in The 34th Nashville AIDS Walk & 5K Run, a fundraiser supporting Nashville CARES. Our collective passion for this cause drives us, and we need your support to make a difference! Every donation—big or small—helps us reach our fundraising goal and directly impacts this important cause.

Here's how you can help:

Donate: Contribute whatever you can. Every dollar counts!

Spread the Word: Share our Greater Nashville UU fundraising page with your friends, family, and social networks. Let’s spread awareness so we can raise more!

How to Donate

Help Greater Nashville UU raise funds to support the critical mission of Nashville CARES. Our goal this year is to raise over $500! Here are ways to donate:

Most members of the congregation will be giving to Nashville CARES through the regular Share the Plate fundraiser. You can donate via Breeze to “Share the Plate”, or by paper check, made out to “GNUUC”, with “Share the Plate” in the memo. 50% of your donation will go to our Greater Nashville UU fundraising page and 50% of your donation will go to the GNUUC general fund.

On the other hand, if you can contribute $100 or more, your generous donation will go 100% to our Greater Nashville UU fundraising page. If you want your donation to be in memory of someone, please let us know.

Thank you so much for your support! We couldn’t do this without you!

Pre-Release of Bad Faith: 2026 Christian Nationalism in Power

The Reverend Dr. William Barber II, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and other faith leaders warn that the implementation of Project 2025 has accelerated a full-scale assault on government— gutting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, tearing apart public education, social programs and health care.

Darkhorse Theatre
4610 Charlotte Ave
Nashville, TN 37209

An installation is the congregational act of formally entering into shared ministry with their professional minister. Offering and accepting a call to parish ministry is a life-changing event that gives us the opportunity to embody our Unitarian Universalist history and theology in a meaningful way. 

Rev. Denise Gyauch joined Greater Nashville Unitarian Universalist Congregation as a contracted minister in the Fall of 2021 as we started to meet again in person after the pandemic. During these years together, our congregation has grown and become more grounded. Earlier this year, our congregation held a vote to call Rev. Denise as our settled minister.  

We invite everyone to participate in the preparation of the installation service and join us that day as we celebrate this important milestone for GNUUC, our third permanently called minister in our 34 year history.

NOAH’s annual public meeting will be on Sunday, September 27th, at 3 pm at First Baptist Church Capitol Hill.

Make plans to join your fellow GNUUC delegates to attend and to act on our values and fight authoritarianism in our city, state and country! All interested members encouraged to attend.

Register here.

A New Whole Church Curriculum for Greater Nashville UU!

This year, GNUUC is moving from Soul Matters to a new curricular series from the UUA called Woven Faith. We're excited to be part of its inaugural pilot year!

Woven Faith is built on a simple idea: the congregation is the curriculum. Rather than treating faith formation as something that happens only in a classroom, Woven Faith weaves a shared monthly theme through every part of congregational life — worship, religious education, small groups, fellowship, and justice work alike. Wherever you find your place in our community this year, you'll find the same thread running through it.

Each month centers on one of our UU shared values. This year's themes are:

September — Interdependence

October — Living the Questions

November — Covenant

December — Pluralism

January — Courageous Love

February — Equity

March — Transformation

April — Generosity

May — Expressing Our Faith

June — Justice

September’s Theme: Interdependence

We're kicking things off in September with Interdependence — the recognition that our lives, our choices, and our wellbeing are bound up with one another and with the wider world. You'll see this theme show up throughout September: in worship, in our small groups, in the Fellowship Hall, and beyond. We hope you'll find your own thread to add to the weaving.

This month's Share the Plate supports Just Us | Oasis Center, a Nashville program helping LGBTQ+ youth across Middle Tennessee be seen, supported, and celebrated as their authentic selves—a fitting partner for our "Flourishing Together" June. Learn More About Just Us.

It's a fitting partner for our June theme, Flourishing Together, and for our own commitment to being a welcoming congregation—a reminder that when our LGBTQ+ youth thrive, our whole community flourishes.

How to give

Each Share the Plate gift is divided evenly: half supports Just Us, and half supports GNUUC's general fund. To direct your gift to Share the Plate, use the keyword "share":

In the Sanctuary: cash or check in a provided envelope (memo: share)

Online: visit nashvilleuu.org/donate, then click Give to and choose the “Give to Share the Plate” fund.

By text: text 615-246-5553 with "[Amount] share" (example: $50 share)

By mail: GNUUC, 374 Hicks Road, Nashville, TN 37221 (memo: share)

To buy a ticket, purchase an ad, or pay for a sponsorship, click here. Tickets are discounted this year for those under 35!

NOAH is thrilled to announce our keynote speaker for this year’s banquet, Dr. Taure Brown, Director of the James Lawson Institute at Vanderbilt University and a sociologist, educator, and organizer from Kinston, North Carolina. His work sits at the intersection of scholarship and action, equipping communities with the tools to challenge injustice and build collective power.

NOAH in a Nutshell

Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH) is an anti-racist, inter-faith coalition of congregations, community organizations, and labor unions (around 70 member organizations). We aim to amplify the power of ordinary people so that their voices are heard in the public arena. GNUUC is a founding member of NOAH.

NOAH is a member of Gamaliel, a national network of local organizations committed to building political power by uniting people of different races and faiths.

NOAH engages ordinary people in the political and economic decisions affecting their lives, acting as a unified voice for the faith and justice community to act on its values in the public arena. NOAH does not endorse political candidates but gets them to endorse our issues agenda, and pledge to work with NOAH if they are elected.

Currently, NOAH has four task forces, selected at its most recent Issues Convention: Affordable Housing; Education; Economic Equity, Jobs, and Transportation; and Transformational Justice. Additionally, there are three working groups: the Faith Leaders Caucus, made up of clergy members, Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE), which engages with voters about the issues they care about, and, more recently, the Immigrant Rights Campaign, which has partnered with The Remix to provide Know Your Rights trainings, among other things.

The Mental Health Cooperative was founded in 1993 with a bold mission to provide community-based care for adults with serious mental illnesses. We united three essential services — Urban Case Management, Continuous Treatment Team, and the Mobile Crisis Team — into one coordinated model focused on access, dignity, and real outcomes.”

The Kitchen's supply of containers used for take-home leftovers is depleted. Please return containers you have used to take leftover food home, or donate any extras that you don't need. Bring them on Sundays and drop off at the Kitchen.

Our January Share the Plate partner is Side with Love, the organizing strategy team of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Side With Love confronts exclusion, oppression, and violence rooted in identity. With the goal of building Beloved Community, they pursue social change through advocacy, public witness, and solidarity with those whose lives are publicly demeaned.

Through education, organizing, and collective action, Side With Love supports work for democracy, climate justice, racial and immigration justice, and LGBTQIA+ and gender justice—reminding us that these struggles are deeply connected, and that lasting change happens when we act together, grounded in love.

Side With Love has also supported our wider Tennessee UU community, including a recent grant that helped make the TUUCAN Fall Flock in Nashville possible.

We invite you to give generously today as a way of choosing, together, to Side With Love.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee is dedicated to ensuring equitable access to the food and resources people in our community need to thrive. For nearly 50 years, we have welcomed our neighbors with radical hospitality, empowering them to live free from the daily burden of food insecurity. We prioritize innovation and remain committed to sustainability as we strive for a future where everyone is food secure, and no food is wasted.

GNUUC Women’s Group has provided requested toys, games, books, weighted blankets, etc. to the new Children and Youth ER Psychiatric unit at the Mental Health Cooperative in Nashville. 

The need for mental health services for children is urgent and growing.  Left untreated, mental health disorders can cause severe and long-lasting problems

We hope to make this an on-going service project and will inform the congregation of future opportunities. 

This October, GNUUC’s Sharing the Plate partner is Room In The Inn. The program provides safe shelter, warm meals, and fellowship for our neighbors struggling with homelessness during the coldest months of the year.

This year, we will continue to host overnight guests as part of RITI’s Winter Shelter program. Contact Nathaniel B for more information on volunteering.

White Stork is a US-based, veteran-led critical aid and last mile logistics charity that delivers medical supplies and evacuates civilians from the frontlines in Ukraine. Taking their name from the national bird of Ukraine, their mission is to give every Ukrainian the means to survive. They focus only on Ukraine, assembling and delivering high-quality individual first aid kits to soldiers and civilians. They also provide temporary housing and other forms of humanitarian aid. They do not provide any weapons or ammunition. 

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a nonpartisan educational and advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the separation of religion and government as the only way to ensure freedom of religion, including the right to believe or not believe, for all. Please donate to Americans United through Share the Plate in July, defending freedom of religion, and freedom of belief.

Please help us by bringing bottled water to church during July.  We will deliver to the Nashville Rescue Mission.  If you have a large vehicle and can help with delivery, please let us know. Please put the water bottles on the table at the back of the Fellowship hall.

On Sunday, June 15, members from FUUN joined GNUUC for Music Sunday. More than 100 people attended in person, and over 30 attended online! After the service, refreshments were shared in the Fellowship Hall. This event was a great success for both congregations, and we look forward to more co-hosted events in the future.

Click Read More to see pictures of Music Sunday.

The GNUUC Board held its monthly meeting on June 18, with members gathering via Zoom to discuss congregational matters and plan for the future.

Financial Update

Treasurer Jesse Spencer-Smith reported excellent financial news. The congregation exceeded budget projections with pledge income at 110% and plate income at 131% of budgeted amounts. The positive financial position will allow GNUUC to prepay next year's UUA Annual Fund contribution ($6,600) and add $2,000 to the building capital fund for future AC unit replacements.

Annual Meeting Reflection

Board members reflected on the recent annual meeting, acknowledging that some discussions became heated, particularly around budget matters. The board identified key learnings:

-Share the budget with congregants well before the annual meeting to allow time for questions and discussion
-Implement regular "meet your board member" opportunities during Sunday announcements
-Better prepare congregants for productive participation through resources like the "Be Prepared, Be Kind" guide to annual meetings

Contract to Call Update

Claire S. reported on the Contract to Call Task Force progress. The team is working to schedule a meeting with UUA representative Christine Purcell to clarify next steps. 

Looking Ahead

Board Retreat: Scheduled for Saturday, August 30, 9 AM - 2 PM at Jesse S-S's home.

Shared Ministry: Rev. Denise will provide updates during Shared Ministry meetings about her ministerial activities to help congregants better understand the breadth of her work.

Appreciation

The board expressed deep gratitude to outgoing members Tina and Carol for their years of dedicated service and welcomed new members Nathaniel B. and Gabby to their roles. A special congregational meeting to officially elect Gabby to the board was scheduled for August 24, following the Sunday service.

The meeting concluded with members feeling optimistic about GNUUC's financial health and committed to improving communication and processes for the congregation's continued growth.

The Belonging Fund was established by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, Conexión Americas, and Tennessee Justice For Our Neighbors, in conjunction with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, and will be used to support families impacted by civil immigration enforcement operations in Middle Tennessee that began on May 4, 2025, and are ongoing. This fund will be responsive and evolving to the community's needs as determined by the founding organizations and will be flexible to adjust to the shifting policy landscape.