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From all of us at the Living Water Association, we wish you a Merry Christmas full of peace, hope, joy and love!

Update: The Association Office will be closed and staff will be off beginning today, Thursday, December 23 through Monday, December 27 in observance of Christmas. The office will remain closed Tuesday, December 28 through Friday, December 31, but staff will be working from home. Feel free to contact us via e-mail during that time! We will return to the office on Monday, January 3, 2022.

The UCC Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data will begin collecting data for the annual yearbook on Wednesday, January 5, 2022 at 12pm through Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Your church can download instructions here. Keep an eye out for additional emails with further information! If you have any questions, need a hard copy of instructions or data forms mailed to your church, or would like a pdf version of the data forms to complete on your computer and return to our office, please contact Kellie Ramirez, Association Information Management and Media personnel, at registrar@livingwaterone.org.

The deadline for 2021 OCWM and 5 for 5 giving is December 31, 2021. Please be aware that for these donations to be counted for the 2021 year it must be postmarked by Dec. 31, 2021. You can also make your donations online through our website giving link to meet that deadline.

5 for 5 Giving is credited to the year in which it is received regardless of when it was collected in your church. If you are normally a 5 for 5 church and want to be sure that you have given to all 5 during 2021, please send an email to financialadmin@livingwaterone.org, and our Association Bookkeeper, Machelle Miller, will be glad to verify that for you.

Dear Friends,

Christmas is upon us. The Christ Child is very close to Bethlehem, soon to find shelter in a stable. As the narrative tells us, the innkeeper opened his doors and his heart. The generosity of a human heart, and likely more than one, helped to change the world.

I write today to thank you for your generous hearts and for the work you, and/ or your churches, have done to help Afghan families find homes and a loving welcome among us in these past weeks and months. 

I am grateful for each one of you, and would love to hear how things are going with your deliberations in this effort. I want to hear new questions that you may have as we move into 2022. 

Be on the lookout in the new year for updates from about our partnership with US TOGETHER and the unmet needs of families as the new year begins. Refugee resettlement needs can change by the week, and even by the day. We want you to have the latest information as we learn it. If you would like to donate new or gently used household items, or new personal items, please download this form with hours and information for January drop-offs at the Community Life Collaborative's Family Life Center in Bainbridge.

In the meantime, be well, and God keep you,

Betsy Wooster

Registration is now open! These are the last certification courses that will be available before the school's transformation into the SPIRE Center.

Authorized Ministers are invited to take the time to get away and find rest. Be restored with spiritual disciplines such as contemplative prayer, meditation, lectio divina and more. Rekindle a sense of call through rest, conversation, and really good farm-to-table food. Cost: $150 - Scholarships available upon request; contact General Minister, Nayiri Karjian, to inquire.

Update! Total Cost has lowered as of December 1, 2021: $775 (includes lodging, daily breakfast and dinner, entry tickets, and round-trip airfare)

There will be a pause in the online check-in from Tuesday, December 7 through Tuesday, January 4. When we gather again on January 11, 2022, we will begin discussing the book In Search of the Church by Keith A. Russell. Russell addresses the struggles our churches are facing today and compares the church today to the early church during the New testament Times, finding many similarities. You are welcome to read the book and drop in to discuss it - please do join us even if you have not read the book.

Full description available here. Please send resume or any questions to ydsearch@hudsonucc.org

Basic skills in: 

Helpful: Familiarity with Pro Presenter

Hours: approx 10 hrs per week hybrid.

Choir Director, St. John UCC, Strasburg

UCC Webinar—Getting Congress to Act: Strategies, Tactics, and Vision for 2022

Frederick Douglass once said, "Power concedes nothing without a demand." The next Creation Justice Webinar will focus on the art and craft of making a demand. Specifically, we will focus on how people of faith can best organize themselves to place pressure on Congress to act in 2022. For insight and guidance, we will turn to three panelists with local and national experience as organizers: the Rev. A. Kazimir Brown from the Poor People's Campaign, the Rev. Chibuzo Nimmo Petty from For Our Future, and Kim McMurray from Indivisible. Even if you can’t make the scheduled time of 1 pm ET on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 still sign-up, and you will receive a recording. Register now!

UCC Disaster Ministries / Global H.O.P.E. has added the December tornadoes to the 2021 Severe Storm Appeal and is responding with support for spiritual care teams and long-term recovery group startup, and recruiting volunteers for Crisis Cleanup call centers (write disasters@ucc.org). It is in contact with churches that might provide volunteer housing. The UCC’s Illinois Conference and UCC Disaster Ministries are sending CWS Emergency Cleanup Buckets: https://cwskits.org.

Click here to read more and give to the UCC Disaster Ministries.

Preachers and Worship Planners: On January 13, 2022, you are invited to this Lenten planning retreat, "Mender of Broken Walls," led by Rev. Cheryl Lindsay, who is an editor and writer for the UCC's Sermon Seeds.

Questions? Contact Rev. Dr. Cheryl Lindsay by email at lindsayc@ucc.org.