One Great Hour of Sharing this Sunday

This Sunday we take up our One Great Hour of Sharing offering, an ecumenical effort across many denominations to raise funds for the poorest and most desperate people in the world. Funds support the food insecure, victims of violence and natural disasters, and women's empowerment. The funds collected by RUCC will be stewarded by the UCC's Global Ministries.

2025 RUCC Lenten Series: Dialogues on the Refugee Crisis-Wednesday, April 2

2025 RUCC Lenten Series: Dialogues on the Refugee Crisis. April 2: “Facing Our History”

Dates: Wednesday nights through April 9

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

As Christians, how do we respond to the Worldwide Refugee Crisis?

This week we explore the deeper issues of race and bias that sit beneath the American relationship to immigrants and refugees.

Use the following link to sign up to bring soup to share for Week Four:

Lenten Series Week 4

perfectpotluck.com

➡️ Also: each week we will be serving delicious bread from Dan’s Doughs!

Childcare is available upon request. Send an email to al_education@redlandsucc.org  if you plan to bring a child to the event, or if you have any questions.

Game night - March 29

Game and Conversation night will be on Saturday, March 29, at 5:30 p.m., in Covenant Hall. Friday night was not convenient for everyone so we will try this one on Saturday night. Bring your favorite game. An art table will be available. We will introduce BUNCO, an easy and social game. Come, relax, see old friends and make new ones. All ages invited. And we will be serving our famous root beer floats. 

We will be joining Caring for Kin and collecting sports drinks for the teens at Youth Hope.

Young and Middle Adult Social Group Relaunch - April 4 at 7 p.m.

Friday, April 4 at 7 p.m. at Redlands Public Market, a group of “young and middle adults” will be gathering for fellowship and social connection. We will have an icebreaker (this time will be “what’s your biggest Easter memory?”), and an opportunity for discussion. There will also be an “Ask Me Anything” theology time with the pastor, Rev. Joe, who will discuss whatever topic is on your mind, especially if you buy him a drink.

RUCC is an intergenerational and covenantal community that brings people of all ages and backgrounds together. Whoever you are, wherever you are on your journey, you are welcome here. And we mean that! Not only is worship and church leadership intergenerational, but we also have a lot of programming open to all ages. But sometimes it makes sense to have ministries geared toward particular demographics – whether it’s youth group, LGBTQ Christians, women’s group, or seniors – to serve our community. For this group we are gearing things toward people ages 21 (young adults) to 50ish (middle adults), but we aren’t strict about it – if you really want to come, then come!

We are looking at doing this monthly on the first Friday at 7 p.m., but we will be trying different locations until we find a good one! April 4 is at Redlands Public Market, but the May 2 location is still to be determined.

Next Book Group meeting will be April 6

The RUCC Book Group is reading James by Percival Everett for the month of March, and will discuss the novel at its next meeting on Sunday, April 6, at noon in the Founders Room. The presenter will be Judith Ashton. Please join us.

Guest speaker April 13

Please join us for this informative and heartfelt presentation. Prof. Ellen Gruenbaum lived, worked and conducted research in Sudan in the 1970s. Ellen’s talk will focus on the past and present struggles of Sudanese women, describe her own experiences working with Sudanese students and educators, and share the current efforts of the Ahfad University for Women.

This talk will take place in the Founders Room on Sunday April 13 from noon to 1:00 p.m. All are invited—we look forward to seeing you there!

Follow this link to learn more. Prof. Gruenbaum’s talk is presented in tandem with this year’s Wednesday evening Lenten Series “Dialogues on the Refugee Crisis”.

Environmental justice message

Tree planting programs across the U.S. are on the chopping block as a result of federal funding cuts under the billionaire Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. “We’re taking a hit somewhere to close to $2.5 million, which for a small nonprofit is a big deal,” says Aaron Thomas, director of urban forestry for North East Trees. North East Trees is a tree-planting nonprofit that primarily operates in low-income communities in Los Angeles like Watts, Boyle Heights and Northeast and South L.A. They build parks, run cleanup events in the L.A. River and plant thousands of shade trees.

[W]ith federal dollars gone, Thomas and his team will run out of funding by the end of this year. That will mean abandoning projects to plant 1,000 trees in Watts and another 1,000 trees in eastern unincorporated L.A. County, Thomas said.

Source: “Thousands of trees will go unplanted in Los Angeles after Musk pulls funding,” Evan Jacoby, LAist, 3/8/25: https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/tree-planting-budget-cuts-doge-elon-musk

Racial Justice reflection of the week

About 350 million Ida B. Wells quarters are expected to go into circulation. As an investigative journalist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Wells raised awareness of the vicious violence against blacks in the era of lynching.

In 2020, she was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for that work. As an activist, she pressed for a federal anti-lynching law, something that didn't become a reality until 2022, 91 years after her death. Wells was also at the forefront of efforts against segregated schools and for the vote for women.

Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-inside-the-u-s-mints-creation-of-a-quarter-celebrating-ida-b-wells

Rev. Joe's installation, May 4 at 4 p.m.

In our denomination, an “installation” is a special service that acknowledges the calling of a minister to a local church. Rev. Joe may have been the pastor since July, but these installations often happen 3 months to a year after the official start date. It’s not just a celebration of the church and the new pastor – it’s about the work of the wider church in the area and the ties that bind us together. This is an opportunity for us to invite other churches and ministers and build relationships outside the “local church” context. The service will have the Conference Minister Rev. Rachael Pryor preaching, and Rev. Joe will preside over communion. We plan on some special music and a reception afterwards in Covenant Hall. Save the date!

Celebrate RUCC's 50th Anniversary

June 21 and 22, 2025

Upcoming Dates to Remember

• March 30 - The UCC's Special Offering "One Great Hour of Sharing" will be received
• April 8 - 7 p.m. - Stewards meeting
• April 15 - Board meeting
• April 19 - RUCC's "Eggstravaganza"
• April 20 - Easter Sunday - Egg hunt for children following the service
• May 4 - 4 p.m. Rev. Joe's installation as RUCC's Senior Pastor
• June 21-22 - RUCC's 50th Anniversary Celebration

The complete church calendar is online at http://www.redlandsucc.org/calendar