Community UCC eNews
January 16, 2020
|
Community UCC is an inclusive and progressive Christian Church doing social justice, environmental faithfulness, interfaith collaboration and and spiritual formation to help ourselves and others grow in faith, hope and love.
|
Sunday Sermon
Sunday, Jan. 19, Pastor Ara will deliver a sermon titled "Dr. King as Storyteller-Inspirer," based on
Luke 10:25-37
.
Jesus: Stories and Signs
The sermon texts from Jan. 19 through March 29 will be a parable or a miracle inspiring us to revel in the mystery, open to possibilities previously dismissed or ignored, and emboldened to act with courage, conviction and LOVE.
Worship Service Each Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
|
|
|
NOTE:
We broadcast our Sunday Worship service on
Facebook Live
beginning at 10:30 a.m. We want to make service accessible to members or friends who can't be with us on Sunday mornings. The camera captures the front of the Sanctuary and the first couple of rows of seats.
|
|
Progressive Evangelical group
Vote Common Good
is making another Fresno stop on its nationwide bus tour, at
6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 19
, at Community UCC.
Vote Common Good Rallies are 90-minute large group events designed to inspire voters in practical ways to make the common good their voting criteria by pursuing faith, hope, and love for a change on election day 2020. The merry band of musicians, poets, speakers, activists, candidates, and other common do-gooders invite you to join them.
The tour will hit every state by the end of primary season and then focus on a dozen swing states in the run-up to November, concluding with a rally outside the White House on Nov. 3.
Speakers at the Fresno rally will include:
- Robb Ryerse
- Doug Pagitt
- Christy Berghoef
- Vince Anderson
- Meah Pace
Doug Pagitt, executive director of Vote Common Good, launched the movement in 2018 with a cross-country bus tour in collaboration with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, targeting 31 districts where a Democratic challenger sought to unseat a Republican incumbent. Through the tour, Pagitt and Vote Common Good connected Democratic candidates with voters of faith who had become disillusioned with the GOP, proving that the support of faith voters does not lie solely with Republicans.
|
|
New Year Resolutions Recovery Kit Raffle
Each month, a different church team presents a church fundraiser. For January, the Charitable Gifts & Endowments team, along with the Personnel team, want you to celebrate the achievements and failures you survived in 2019. We also hope to inspire you to continue dreaming big as you work towards your own self-growth.
Too often we are afraid to take risks for the fear of failure. With this basket, we want you to know that it’s okay. It’s okay to dream big. It’s okay to fail. It’s okay to stay the same. It’s okay to be YOU!
Whether you’re a dreamer living life in the fast lane, or enjoy the slower pace of life to truly embrace the beauty it has to offer, this basket has something for you!
Is this a comfort basket to ease the setbacks you encounter? Is it a celebration basket to enjoy your accomplishments as they’re achieved? Or perhaps it’s simply a basket of goodies just to celebrate you? You get to decide!
Tickets will be on sale in the breezeway before and after worship for three Sundays: Jan. 12, 19 and 26, with the
drawing to be held at noon on Jan. 26
. Tickets are $10 each. To learn more about what's in the basket, check out our
Facebook event
.
|
|
We have many ways for you to pray here at Community UCC, and ways in which we can lend our collective strength to your individual prayer requests.
We have a table in the Narthex (the entry area outside of the Sanctuary) where you can light a candle for yourself, someone, or a place that needs prayer. We have paper and pencil where you can write down your prayer and put it in the container and our confidential prayer team will pray for you for thirty days. We also have a prayer book where you can write down your prayer and it will be lifted up during worship.
Our newest way, you can submit a prayer request through our new dedicated prayer requests web page.
Learn more here
.
|
|
Interfaith Scholar Weekend
Feb. 21-23
As part of the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, one of his grandsons, Rajmohan Gandhi, will be the speaker for the 2020 Interfaith Scholar Weekend event
Feb. 21-23
. For more information and to register, see the website
www.interfaithscholar.org
or pick up a brochure in the Narthex.
|
|
Men's Book Study Group
The men's book study group, led by facilitators Rod Zook and Chad Hayden, will continue their study of "Naked Spirituality" by Brian McLaren at 6 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 20
, in Room 3. The group will discuss Chapters 20-21.
|
|
Upcoming reading assignments:
Jan. 21
—
Ch. 2
and
3
Jan. 28
—
Ch. 4
and
5
Feb. 4
—
Ch. 6
and
7
Feb. 11
—
Ch. 8
and
9
Feb. 18
—
Ch. 10
and
11
Feb. 25
—
Ch. 12 and Epilogue
|
|
Living the Questions 2.0
Below are the upcoming topics (subject to change) and theme for January and February.
Theme: RECLAIMING THE WORLD
Jan. 19 — Restoring Relationships
Jan.
26
—
The Prophetic Jesus
Feb. 2
—
Evil, Suffering & A God of Love
Feb.
9
—
The Myth of Redemptive Violence
Feb.
16
—
Practicing Resurrection
Feb.
23
—
Debunking the Rapture
|
|
Saturday Morning Breakfast Group
Saturday, Feb. 1
Conference Room
Breakfast at 8:45 a.m.,
talk begins at 9 a.m.
On Feb. 1,
Phil Fullerton
will discuss "
Eight Years in Provence; a look at French Culture.
"
Gretchen Choate has agreed to provide breakfast.
|
|
In each week's eNews, we include a news article from our larger denomination,
United Church of Christ
,
to show the faithful work being done in other places.
|
|
Small Northwest church stands tall in face of public prejudice
The congregation, numbering about 30 in worship each Sunday, recently drew the ire of the town’s mayor. Bothered by their faith-based social activism, he accused them and a progressive citizens' group that meets at the church of being associated with a violent, leftist conspiracy.
Veradale's pastor, the Rev. Genevieve Heywood, has publicly denied that allegation. What they have been doing, she said, is promoting a view of Christianity that differs from the "dominion" theology and white-supremacist views that have been
documented for decades
in eastern Washington and nearby northern Idaho – and that have taken on an especially public face in recent years.
Continue reading at the UCC.com website
.
|
|
Happy Birthday and Anniversary to all who are celebrating this month!
January Birthdays
2
–
Theodore Dutton
4
–
Lonna Walker
5
–
Stacy Fazio, Paige Newport
6
–
Mike Mighaccio
11
–
Kellin Chaffin, Nancy Parks
15
–
Jeff Jones
16
–
Helen Winkel
17
–
Joseph LeBeau, Patty Parks
19
–
Joel Van Patten
21
–
Betty Lundberg
24
–
Sue Hipp
25
–
Ben Parks
29
–
Carter Reynolds
31
–
Roger Wall
January Anniversaries
No anniversaries in January.
|
|
Upcoming Church Events
- Thursday Evening Worship – weekly at 7 p.m., we hold a weekly contemplative, interactive, spirit-filled worship service in the Sanctuary
- Jan. 19 – Vote Common Good returns to Fresno with a stop at Community UCC, 6 p.m. in the Sanctuary (see article above)
- Sundays at 9 a.m. – Adult Education in the Conference Room
- Jan. 20 – Martin Luther King Day/Office Closed
- Feb. 1 – Saturday Morning Breakfast Group, 8:45 a.m., Conference Room (see article above)
- Feb. 2 – Recycling Sunday, first Sunday of the month
- Feb. 6 – Council meeting, 5:30 p.m. Conference Room
|
|
eNews deadline is 10 a.m. Wednesdays
CUCC eNews is a weekly publication distributed every Thursday.
Deadline for submitting announcements is 10 a.m. Wednesdays
(and earlier is appreciated).
Please send your announcements to Marilyn at
office@communityucc.com
. Lisa Boyles (lisamboyles12@gmail.com, 559.244.9502) is the eNews editor and communications liaison for our church.
|
|
Phone: 559.435.2690
Email: office@communityucc.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
