Worship This Sunday
May 22 - 10:30 a.m.
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Ruth 2:1-16
Ruth: A Model Short Story
for Our Times
Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Susan Thistlethwaite
For those unable to join us in person, there will be a live videocast
of the worship service at 10:30 a.m. on Sundays.
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It’s a Mystery!
Theologian and mystery writer, Susan Thistlethwaite, will be our guest preacher this Sunday, May 22nd. After worship she’ll present from her latest novel, Walls of Fear, in the Fellowship Hall, starting about Noon. The book’s protagonist, Kristin Ginelli, is a former Chicago cop pulled into volunteer teaching at a women’s prison where she encounters suspicious conditions that terrify the inmates and even some of the guards. Walls of Fear, invites the reader to join Ginelli in a kind of “performative theology,” discerning what is right and the faith in which is it grounded, fighting the forces of evil.
Author or editor of 13 academic books, including two different translations of the Bible, Thistlethwaite is an emeritus professor of Theology and President Emerita of the Chicago Theological Seminary. In retirement from her academic career, she has become a fiction writer. Walls of Fear is her fifth published work of fiction.
Thistlethwaite is also a well-known media commentator and has written numerous columns for the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Religion News Service.
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HIP COMMITTEE UPDATE - PEACE VILLAGE PROJECT
Good News!
The soils and geology assessment and report are final concerning feasibility of the architect’s concept for building foundations on the slope up to the upper terrace. It’s a best-case scenario. The slope is stable and appropriate foundations can be built there within city development standards. This means we can make best use of our vacant land while keeping the upper terrace mostly open space.
We will soon have new construction cost estimates for the design features involved in the most recent architectural concept (i.e., a parking level at grade under four residential floors, and two apartment buildings with two elevators). Further architectural work and designs for utilities are proceeding. Our updated cost estimates will be factored into the financial model to make sure it still works.
We met recently with our architect and our city fire department officials to review our plans for fire hydrants and emergency vehicle access through our church campus to the Peace Village buildings. The Fire Department finds the design workable and will approve.
In March we formally extended our former deadline for submission of our project application to the City of Santa Cruz for approval. This added at least 90 days to the project timeline, which is allowed for in our Amended & Restated Pre-Development Services Agreement. Our target date for submission of project plans to the city planning department is now August 15, 2022.
We will soon begin planning for a project review conference this summer with our neighbors living in the UCSC Hagar Court townhouses to our north. They are the most important neighborhood constituency for us. We hope to have new and exciting conceptual images to show at our June Annual Meeting.
For now, this is all we have to report.
We’re still making progress!
Blessings,
Jim Weller
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Mark The Date and Get
Your T-Shirt!
On Sunday, June 5, Peace United Church will be out for PRIDE! At 9:30am we will join with several local congregations for an interfaith PRIDE worship service in Plaza Lane (across from the Hidden Peak Teahouse downtown.)
Afterward, you are invited to join the PUCC delegation marching in the PRIDE parade which gets underway at 11am. Also that morning, the Rev. Matt Broadbent will lead a service of Holy Communion in our sanctuary, at 900 High Street, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Matt’s sermon will address our church’s Open and Affirming commitment and the process leading into it.
Whichever service you decide to attend, wear your Peace United t-shirt with our rainbow-dove logo! If you don’t have one already, they will be available for purchase, in all sizes ($20 each) beginning next week. Contact Devon by e-mail, Office@PeaceUnited.org, or telephone, 831-426-2010.
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Homekey Award Celebration
Memorial Day, May 30, 2022 from 11am - 2 pm
Ceremony at noon, followed by
Speakers & Presentations
Snacks and Drinks Provided
Veterans Village
8705 HWY 9, Ben Lomond, CA 95005
Attendees must RSVP as we will have limited on-site parking and space.
Please email info@vetsvillage.com
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Snacks for Sunday Socials
Sundays Peace Church offers Beverages and Snacks before and after our 10:30-11:30am worship. Friendly socializing builds community!
Use THIS LINK to sign up to bring a tasty and healthy snack item to one of our Sunday Socials. Each week we like to share baked goods, fresh fruit, and always something for those on low sugar and gluten free diets.
Second Sundays are special Birthday Month Celebrations, so bring special Birthday Treats!
Drop off in the kitchen anytime between 9:30 and 10:30am. THANK YOU!
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Sunday School and Childcare
On Break For The Summer!
Please join us for a Children's Program planning session for next year. We will meet on August 21st at 12pm in the playground! Lunch will be provided. Details to follow.
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Peace Camp
August 1st-5th, 9am-4pm
At the Holy Eucharist Catholic Church
527 Corralitos Rd. in Watsonville
Peace Camp’s mission is to provide an alternative day camp experience that fosters age-appropriate understandings of peace, justice and environmental awareness for children in grades 1-8.
Kids will enjoy this interfaith day camp through music, crafts, cooperative games, and peace and justice skill building activities.
- Registration Fee: $200 (includes lunch & two snacks) sliding scale, limited scholarships available
- Registration Due by June 30, 2022
- Proof of vaccination required
- Family Day: Sunday, July 31st @ 2 to 4 pm
For more info, contact Wilma Gold,
Sponsored by Tent of Abraham of Santa Cruz & Holy Eucharist Catholic Church
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Benefit Concert for Ukraine
Sunday, June 26, 2022 at 4pm
Peace United Church of Christ
Mr. Khristenko has been praised for his emotional intensity, charismatic expression, “pallette of touches”, “solid” and “precise” technique by The New York Times
Program - Frederic Chopin: Four Ballades
Works by Ukrainian composers Boris Lyatoshinsky and Valentin Silverstrov
With your help, we can sell out this concert and donate over $45,000 to help Ukraine. Please consider purchasing a ticket or making a donation to this very worth cause.
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COPA Candidate Assembly,
Thursday, June 2nd
As a COPA (Communities Organized For Relational Power in Action) founding organization PUCC is hosting an accountability session for supervisor candidates for the 3rd District (City of Santa Cruz and the north coast) . It will be held in our sanctuary on Thursday, June 2nd from 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.
All Peace folks are invited to attend. The candidates include: Justin Cummings, Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson and Amy Chen Mills. COPA will not endorse a candidate since we are a non-partisan and not profit organization. Election Day is June 7th. There are 9 other faith communities in the area that will join us.
A candidate accountability assembly is different from a typical candidate forum. COPA leaders will present our agenda for affordable housing, heath care and mental health care to candidates and then ask each candidate if elected if they support and will work with COPA for solutions to these issues.
Please contact Ken Thomas at 420-7422 if you will attend or need further information.
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We Want to Hear Your Voice
Sign Up to Be A Liturgist!
We would love to have you as a liturgist (reader) in one of our Sunday morning worship services. It's a wonderful way of serving!
Sign up for a Sunday to read live and in-the-flesh and we'll connect with you by e-mail on the Tuesday prior, sending all the information you'll need for getting ready.
If you'd like to give it a try, click on this link to choose a date.
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Busy Hands Weekly Get Together
Earlier this week I was in the store when I realized that I was deeply anxious about something. I didn’t know what. Luckily, I had a retreat up at church to attend. I took my crochet. After a couple of hours, my anxiety had lifted!
This is why we get together every Wednesday afternoon from 3 to 5 PM in the Fireside Lounge at the church.
Bring your knitting or your sewing or whatever project you want to work on. Relax, and get a chance to relieve any stress you may be having.
I hope to see you Wednesday.
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Faith Community Shelter
The Faith Community Shelter has returned to Peace United Church on Sunday nights. St. Phillips will be hosting for the entire month of July!
You can sign up using this link, to provide some or all of the following:
- Salad: one medium depth, 9x13 foil tray
- Vegetable: one medium depth, 9x13 foil tray
- Entrée: two medium depth, 9x13 foil trays
- Whole Milk: one half gallon
- Dessert: Only about 6 people take dessert unless it’s pie or ice cream, then we need 2 pies or ONLY 1 quart of ice cream.
- The shelter is pretty much full again, so please plan on cooking for 15 plus any volunteers.
Good news! Six of our Faith Community Shelter guests now have steady rent support with Housing Authority vouchers. They haven't found places yet but we are actively looking. If you know someone who can help liberate these folks into their own place, do let us know! In the last three months, six former AFC guests have been able to move into their own place.
Here are the current Covid protocols we follow:
- Please wear a mask at all times when you’re in the church building. If you’re in the kitchen or serving food, please wear gloves, which we’ll provide.
- Depending on your comfort level, your group can:
- Drop off the meal for us to serve;
- Come inside and serve the meal;
- Sit down with shelter members during dinner while remaining masked unless eating.
- All of our staff and shelter members are vaccinated. Volunteers are also required to be vaccinated.
- If you’re sick (fever, cough, runny nose, etc.) or have been exposed to COVID, please stay home and if exposed we quarantine for 5 days.
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Poetry at Peace
Deep appreciation to Chrissy Brewer for sharing Billy Collins’ poem. When have we ‘gotten it all wrong’ with our observations?
Old Man Eating Alone in a Chinese Restaurant
--Billy Collins
I am glad I resisted the temptation,
if it was a temptation when I was young,
to write a poem about an old man
eating alone at a corner table in a Chinese restaurant.
I would have gotten it all wrong
thinking: the poor bastard, not a friend in the world
and with only a book for a companion.
He'll probably pay the bill out of a change purse.
So glad I waited all these decades
to record how hot and sour the hot and sour
soup is here at Chang's this afternoon
and how cold the Chinese beer in a frosted glass.
And my book –– José Saramago's Blindness
as it turns out –– is so absorbing that I look up
from its escalating horrors only
when I am stunned by one of his gleaming sentences.
And I should mention the light
that falls through the big windows this time of the day
italicizing everything it touches ––
the plates and teapots, the immaculate tablecloths,
as well as the soft brown hair of the waitress
in the white blouse and short black skirt,
the one who is smiling now as she bears a cup of rice
and shredded beef with garlic to my favorite table in the corner.
Many Blessings,
Bonnie Lange
"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day,
if you listen carefully, you can hear her breathing."
~ Arundhati Roy
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10 Year AFC Program Summary
Safe Parking Program
Since 2019, Safe Parking has been
provided for 352 people, with
an average length of stay of 12 months,
in 11 Faith parking lots and 1 City parking lot.
Total of safe nights provided: 128,480
Program Manager, Joseph Jacobs
Safe Showering Program
Since 2018, AFC has provided free
hot showers, soap & shampoo
to our unhoused neighbors
at up to 4 locations:
Estimated number of showers provided: 17,600
Program Manager, Steve Bare
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Gathering for Women in Transition
Over the past year, 100 women were released from Santa Cruz County Jail. Many of the women had been incarcerated for several months, others were detained and then released hours later. Upon release many of the women have only the clothing they were wearing when arrested. The jail does not have clothing available to offer the women and provides only footwear.
Rev. Beverly Brook has invited a coalition of interfaith communities to provide clothing for this vulnerable population of our community. The plan is to initially prepare 25 sets of clothing and toiletry kits which will be provided to the jail and be offered to the women upon their release.
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Items needed (new): Hand towels, hotel bottles of shampoo, soap, conditioner, lotion, chapstick, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant
Our hope is that providing new clothing will be a sustaining witness for our incarcerated sisters. Meeting this most basic need of new clothing and a toiletry kit will go a long way to say, ‘you are a valued member of our community.’
Other ways to participate/donate:
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By check, with "Jail Ministry Fund" in the memo line
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Online at www.peaceunited.org - using the "Donate" button, and select "Jail Ministry Fund" from the dropdown menu
*Please bring or send all donations to Peace UCC, 900 High St. Santa Cruz CA 95066
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Prayers for Peace
Dear friends,
God invites us to bring our doubts and fears,
our joys and concerns, our petitions and praise,
and offer them for the earth and all its creatures.
This week, we open our hearts and ask for prayers for:
- Celebrating the life and mourning the death of Audrey Stanley
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Ease for Kiera, her mother, Megan in receiving treatment. (Granddaughter and daughter of Doug and Kristin Owen).
- celebrating milestone for Sebastian’s eligibility for necessary health treatment
- Cathy Sarto and her children serving the children's father through his end of life journey
- Richard, his family, including Stew Jenkins and Stew’s wife Sofia, their children, in supporting one anther during Richard's life threatening illness.
- Johnnie, son of Lynn and Bill Walton
- Dale and Linda Bisby
- Those seeking peace amidst the fear created from the grocery store shooting in Buffalo.
Receive these prayers, O God,
and transform us through them,
that we may have eyes to see and hearts to understand
not only what you do on our behalf,
but what you call us to do
so that your kin-dom will flourish on earth. Amen.
Bonnie Lange
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What About Masks?
Committed to caring for our neighbor and offering hospitality, we require that you wear a mask while indoors on the church campus. If you forget to bring your own, we have masks available in the sanctuary and in our meeting rooms and classrooms. Please remember that most children haven't yet had a chance to be vaccinated and that vaccines are not perfect protection against Covid. Until the health department tells us that it's safe to go without, wear a mask. Thank you for your kind consideration of the health and safety of our entire community at PUCC.
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We Want Your Face!
Most of us cringe when we see ourselves in photos, but you probably have one photo that shows your face the way you would like other people to see it. We want that photo for our records! Pastor Dave especially is interested in having a pictorial record because there are so many of you he hasn't yet been able to meet in person.
Here's how you do it...please email Devon a digital photo of yourself and she will take care of the rest! Thank you. We look forward to "seeing" you soon.
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Office Hours!
Some days we're on campus, some days we're remote, but 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, staff are attending to the business of our church office: monitoring e-mail, answering telephones and/or responding to messages, working on the dozens of different projects and connections that keep our ministry moving forward. As on-campus activities increase in the months ahead, so will our in-person presence in the church office, Monday through Thursday.
If you plan to come into the office, please call ahead to schedule a time when we know someone will be in to assist you. You can reach us by e-mail using the list below or by phone, 831-426-2010.
Pastor Dave works from the church office, Monday through Thursday, and most weeks will have office hours on Saturday too, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Friday is his day off. In case of emergency, the pastor is available by cell phone, 773-255-8095. If you would like to schedule a meeting or would like to "drop by", please contact us via email using this link to make an arrangement.
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Small Groups and Ministries of Outreach
Use this link to find information about our various small groups and
ministries here at PUCC.
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Peace UCC Activities Calendar
To find information about what's happening at Peace UCC,
check our events Calendar or view our availability click here!
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We're registered on Amazon Smile! Learn more and designate Peace UCC as your chosen charity to receive 0.5% of your Amazon Smile purchases, at no cost to you, here.
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Our conference staff and the offices have
moved to a new address. The new address is
1320 Willow Pass Rd., Suite 600, Concord, CA 94520
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Sign up here to further peace and justice around the world
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Find out more about global ministries here.
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Get a daily devotional here.
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