Community UCC eNews
June 4, 2020
|
Community UCC is an inclusive and progressive Christian Church doing social justice, environmental faithfulness, interfaith collaboration and spiritual formation to help ourselves and others grow in faith, hope and love.
The Church and Office will remain closed for now.
|
Sunday Sermon — Zoom and Facebook Live (not at church, for now)
On
Sunday, June 7
,
Pastor Julia Penner-Zook
will deliver her sermon titled “
Who's Your Go-To?,
” based on Matthew 28-16-20. The first Sunday of each month is
communion Sunday
,
so please have some bread and small glass of wine or juice prepared, so we may celebrate Holy Communion together virtually.
See below for details of how we will "do church" for now.
|
|
|
Instructions for Zoom worship
For upcoming worship services, we are doing
Zoom
videoconferencing meetings, so we can see each other's faces even as we are apart.
Links to the Zoom worships will go out each Wednesday (it went out late this week, earlier this morning) in a separate email just to church members, to ensure security. Look for "Zoom links" in that email subject line.
Lisa will continue to provide Facebook Live on Sundays at 10:30 a.m., by capturing her computer screen during the Zoom worship.
NEW:
If you are using Zoom for worship, you should have received an email about updating to Zoom 5.0, which has enhanced security features
. After May 30, 2020, all Zoom users on older versions will receive a forced upgrade when trying to join meetings. Check your email for this communication from Zoom.
|
|
Community UCC will NOT reopen church, office for now
The past few months in this pandemic have shown us that the Church is neither a building nor defined by in-person meetings; it is people!
We miss being and worshiping together; we miss welcoming new people into our worship; we miss joining together in fellowship, sharing life’s joys and sorrows.
But despite our sense of loss and longing,
we will keep our church building doors closed at this time
out of an abundance of caution and concern for the health and safety of all members of our congregation and our staff.
Read more about this decision on our website.
|
|
Got Coffee?
By Pastor Julia Penner-Zook
This may sound like an insensitive or even infuriating question when we, as a nation, are tottering on a precarious edge.
Please hear me out!
Our minds, emotions, bodies, and spiritual capacities are at a breaking point from being on high alert for an extended time. For those who are minorities, people of color, or experiencing poverty, this “long time” has been exponentially longer than for me, a white person!
Patience is in short supply.
Sleep is disrupted.
Minds are clouded.
Children are anxious.
We react with emotional eating, binge watching, outbursts on social media.
Just breathe!
Take a break.
Plant your toes in the grass and close your eyes for a minute.
It’s time to reignite your spiritual practices or begin new ones: meditation; prayer; writing
morning pages
, poetry, or music; walking or running; painting; photography; yoga; dancing; singing.
It’s time to reach for those tangible reminders of our journey with God: prayer beads, a prayer shawl, a candle, a treasured reminder of a loved one.
It’s time to dig deeply inside ourselves and face what’s there. Neither for guilt nor pride; not for blame or shame. Just to take an inventory to help us reconnect with what’s there and cultivate what we would like to develop.
It’s time to grab that cup of coffee and call or zoom (as we’re all practiced in this now) or FaceTime a friend to just chat. No agenda beyond humanity and love. E-mail me at
j.penner.zook@gmail.com
if you’d like to grab coffee!
If we can choose ONE thing from these categories. It is enough. These are tools, not assignments.
We are not in a sprint; this is a marathon.
|
|
Pledges are still welcomed!
It's not too late to submit your pledges for this year's Stewardship Campaign
– Four Great Loves. In our
annual stewardship drive each spring, we ask church members and supporters what they will bring to the mission of the church for the following fiscal year, from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. Pledges received from our members helps our Finance Team develop a realistic budget for the coming year.
You can submit your answers online via these links to Google Forms:
|
|
Congregational Meeting is June 14
Our annual congregational meeting will take place virtually right
after worship on Sunday, June 14
. Either stay on the Zoom worship meeting after church ends, or join the Facebook Live broadcast
within the private group
for church members. (After worship the Facebook Live on our public Facebook page will end, then Lisa will restart it within the private Facebook group for those who can't participate via Zoom.)
In addition to discussion of the annual reports, the congregational meeting is where we will take action on the proposed budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year.
|
|
Going, going
–
wait
–
you still have a chance to win some cool items
There’s still time to buy tickets for The Gifting Tree drawing, now scheduled during the Congregational Meeting on June 14. The tree is filled with various gift cards valued at more than $400.
Tickets are $10 each, six for $50 or 13 for $100.
All ticket money needs to be at the church by 2 p.m. on
Saturday, June 13
. Checks should include the notation: Gifting Tree Raffle. Cash should include the same note plus the name of the purchaser. You can use the mail slot in the door of the church office or the U.S. mail. Tickets also can be purchased through Givelify, with a notation it’s for The Gifting Tree.
This is a fundraiser brought to you by the Missions and Social Justice Team. Tickets were sold in February and March, and the drawing was originally scheduled for March 15. The pandemic led to a postponement of the drawing.
Cards on the tree include:
- $80 – Curves: Women’s Health & Fitness Club, two-month membership
- $60 – Perfect Balance Yoga
- $50 – Southwest Airlines
- $50 – Olive Garden
- $25/$25 – two gift cards for Alla’s Mediterranean Armenian Restaurant
- $25 – Amazon
- $25 – Regal Cinemas
- $10/$10 – two Starbucks gift cards
- $20 – Target
- $20 – Panera
- $20 – R&G Threading Bar
|
|
Pitman and Tidyman scholarships available
CUCC annually offers two scholarships: the Martha and Paul Pitman Scholarship and the Phyllis A. Tidyman Scholarship.
The Pitman Scholarship Fund – established in 1998 – supports the theological education of students preparing for ordained ministry and “in care” of the church.
Graduate students or re-entry students returning to school after a two-year absence are eligible if a seminary student doesn’t apply.
The Tidyman Scholarship Fund – established in 1999 by the Tidyman family –provides scholarships for church members.
The Pitmans and Mrs. Tidyman were longtime church members.
Completed applications are due in the church office by July 31.
|
|
Living the Questions
We are doing Living the Questions study at
10 a.m. Mondays
via Zoom.
- June 8: A video from Pete Enns, host of "The Bible for Normal People" podcast
- June 15: Begin Richard Rohr's "The Wisdom Pattern."
Contact Robin if you need a link to the Zoom meeting (or check the email to church members that went out on Wednesday with Zoom links for this week).
|
|
Office hours for Pastor Julia
Office hours for our Pastor, Julia Penner-Zook, are
Tuesday afternoons
. If you’d like to chat with Julia by phone, please email or call Marilyn to have her set up a time for a call. Marilyn will organize this flow. If you have any questions, please contact Marilyn.
|
|
Women's Book Discussion Group starts new book
Women's Book Group started their next book
–
"The Time Is Now"
by Joan Chittister
– on
June 2,
with Zoom. The group gathers at
6 p.m. on Tuesdays
. For the meeting, please read Chapters 4-8.
|
|
If you have a prayer (of joy, for healing, gratitude, love) for someone or someplace that you would like lifted up during worship on Sunday mornings please send them to
faithgrowth@communityucc.com
|
|
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.
|
|
UCC panel: Whites must help eradicate racism
The virus infecting the killers of
Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd
and other Black people in America is much older than
COVID-19
. It will stop killing people only if society, the church and especially white people focus relentlessly on a cure, over the long haul, using resources that are already available.
|
|
Happy Birthday to all who are celebrating this month!
June Birthdays
3
–
Penny Carroll
8
–
Clay Pressley
9
–
Virginia Virag
12
–
Sam Mahtab
13
–
Laurie Tidyman-Jones
16
–
Jacque Garcia
17
–
Sean Carlson
18
–
Annie Van Patten
22
–
Steve Reynolds, Ron Vivian
24
–
Jazmyn Wall
June Anniversaries
13
–
Helmut and Diana Kloos
18
–
Sharon Powers and Mike Smith
|
|
Upcoming Church Events
- We will resume listing in-person events after things get back to normal. For now, events have either been cancelled, will be rescheduled or will be held remotely.
|
|
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.
|
|
To help keep us all connected over the summer, since we still won't be seeing each other in person for now, we have decided NOT to go to our usual every-other-week summer eNews schedule.
Instead, Doug and Lisa will alternate the eNews production. So just send your announcements to both of them for newsletters from June to August.
|
|
We've updated our Joyful Giving page to reflect the many ways members can help support our Church's missions and operations, especially needed in these critical and uncertain times.
|
|
The Church and Office will remain closed for the time being, due to COVID-19.
Phone: 559.435.2690
Email: office@communityucc.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
