Community UCC eNews
Sept. 17, 2020
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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.
Virtual worship for now. Limited office hours. See below.
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Sunday Worship — Zoom and YouTube .
On Sunday, Sept. 20, Pastor Julia will deliver a sermon titled "Places We Inhabit" based on Exodus 16:2-15. See below for details of how we "do church" for now.
NEW: Worship on YouTube will begin at 10:30 a.m.
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Instructions for Zoom worship
For upcoming worship services, we are doing Zoom meetings, so we can see each other's faces even as we are apart because of COVID-19.
Links to the Zoom worships go out each Wednesday in a separate email just to church members. Look for "Zoom links" in that email subject line.
We will continue to provide worship live on our YouTube channel (bit.ly/cuccyoutube) on Sundays at 10:35 a.m. Doors "open" around 10:15-10:20 for a few minutes of fellowship before worship begins. (We are switching from Facebook Live to YouTube to be accessible to more people.)
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Limited office hours have resumed
Marilyn is now in the office part of each week for limited office hours. Generally she will be there from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, but please call before stopping by (559.435.2690), both to ensure that she is there (her hours may be a little flexible) and to limit the number of people in the office at one time for social distancing. If you plan to stop by, please wear a mask or facial covering.
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Masks still on sale; delivery in late September
Want a creative way to stay safe and help advertise our church? Get your eye-catching CUCC face masks here! Each mask is $10, with three options from which to choose...or get one of each. We will continue selling the masks until we sell all that we ordered (and prepaid for). There are 20 remaining.
The masks will arrive in Fresno at the end of September. Weather issues in Florida – where the masks are made – forced a delay from the original ETA of mid-September. The church will mail out the masks once they arrive.
Masks are lightweight, double-lined, and have adjustable, elastic bands that fit comfortably over the ears. Order forms were recently mailed to church families, but you also can order our masks by going to: https://tinyurl.com/cuccfacemaskorderform
If you'd like to sponsor a face mask for someone else, please indicate the name of the person on your order form and include the price in your payment. You also can donate masks to Poverello House as part of the Missions and Social Justice Team's outreach to underserved folks. Indicate Poverello House on your order form.
Since we must wear masks, let's make a positive statement for our church at the same time!
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Remembering those we miss on All Saints' Day
We will honor All Saints' Day together during our worship on Sunday, Nov. 1.
The Christian celebration of All Saints' Day stems from a belief that there is a powerful spiritual bond between those in heaven and the living.
During that service we will remember those in our lives who have passed. To help us prepare for this special remembrance, you can participate in the following ways:
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Send a horizontal photo — either a memory with you and your loved one or a picture you take of a special shrine (like the photo above, remembering Lisa's brother) — and the name of your loved one to Lisa Bell, at lisamboyles12@gmail.com. Lisa will combine these photos and names into a slideshow that we will play during our worship on Nov. 1. Deadline for submissions is Monday, Oct. 26.
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If you need special assistance with this, feel free to reach out to Lisa before Friday, Oct. 16 — 559.244.9502.
We hope you will join us for this meaningful worship experience.
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Who We Are
by Pastor Julia Penner-Zook
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Who would we be if
...we weren’t bogged down with agendas, statistics,
meetings, budgets, lesson plans, data, grocery lists,
problems to solve, disputes to adjudicate,
fallout to manage, needing to comply
adjust, regroup...?
What could we accomplish, were it not for
...circumstances, clashes of character,
economic fluctuation, deadlines, demands,
shortages, failing systems,
manipulated results, inadequate materials,
outdated equipment, unending Zoom meetings, growing anxiety...?
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What does it mean to be alive in 2020
...with a pandemic inhibiting every
fiber of who we are,
acrid smoke obscuring our sun,
fires consuming forests, structures,
blackening thousands of acres of
rolling countryside, wildlife fleeing —
without hope of escape,
and all of our hopes for calm dashed,
patience wearing and tempers flaring,
angry voices and violent rage escalating,
hunger for power mirroring
flames leaping from tree to tree...?
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To be sure, this is our experience; this does not define who we are. We are human, we are connected with the Divine, and we are strong! We choose relationship and embrace, rejecting malice, cynicism, dehumanization. We allow pain to touch our souls, yet not to take up residence. We invite joy, intentionally practice patient and persistent hope, declare that our very breath connects us with God and with each other. Our words and thoughts reflect a higher purpose—one of restoration, reconnection, redemption.
With voices raised, eyes clear, hearts open, fists clenched—not in hatred but in resistance to the forces that battle for twisted allegiance—we join the ranks of those who throughout history have stood strong. We are those who continue to sing, to dance, to pray, to eat, laugh, and create because we, too, shall overcome. We shall overcome again and again and again. We, too, belong to this abundant, beleaguered yet resilient planet, and we will fight for our human siblings, sojourning creatures in nature, and our Earth.
This is who we are.
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Adult Education
Adult Education via Zoom is at 9 a.m. Sundays. Robin will send Zoom links. Here is the new schedule:
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Women's Book Discussion Group
Upcoming Reading Assignments:
- Sept 22: Grounding – They Symbol Functions
- Sept 29: The Dawn of Feminine Spiritual Consciousness – The Dance of Dissidence
- Oct 6: Empowerment – The Story
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Guest sermon by the Rev. Dr. Norman Broadbent
Last week during our Homecoming Sunday worship service, the Rev. Dr. Norman Broadbent delivered a guest sermon titled “And . . . " inspired by Romans 14:1-13. Click here to watch his sermon.
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Special guests welcome us at Homecoming Sunday
If you missed the welcome from our special guests during last Sunday's Homecoming, you can watch it here. It was so great to see Megan Marie Owens, Susan Chavez, Shelia and Arville Earl, Phil and Maggie Dutton, Charlene Toews and Sierra LeBeau, and to hear how they all found Community with our congregation.
No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are always welcome here at Community UCC Fresno! (The full worship service can be found here.)
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"A Space for Reflection" will contain quotes and poetry to contemplate and reflect upon as you move through your week. Take a moment to read the quote or poem, allow the words to wash over you. Then, see what word(s) spoke to you, what thought(s) came up for you and then you might journal those thoughts or just sit with them for a while.
"Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness."
~ Fred Rogers
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Office hours for Pastor Julia
Julia wants to connect with folks even though she's not in the church office regularly. If you'd like to chat, please text or email her at j.penner.zook@gmail.com to set up a time. She is available Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday for appointments. She can talk by phone or Zoom, whatever works best for you.
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New information on helping feed Fresno children
We have new details on how folks can help with food distribution this fall at Fresno elementary and middle schools. This is a change from what appeared last week in eNews.
Here's what to do:
- Go to servefresno.org
- Click on Food Distributions
- Under “Description” you will see different schools listed with dates and times. There are dates in September, October and November.
- Click on a school and date, and a sign-up form will appear.
People must sign up individually. We cannot sign up as a church.
Every Neighborhood Partnership, a faith-based nonprofit in Fresno, has appealed to churches and organizations to help with this project. Distributions are drive-by so there is limited contact, organizers say.
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Gary Walker will lecture at Fresno State
CUCC member Gary Walker will present four lectures in October through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Fresno State, which offers short-term classes for people 50 and older.
Gary’s series – entitled “Adventures in Genius” – will be held on Zoom from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on four Thursdays: Oct. 8, 15, 22 and 29.
His first lecture will focus on Leonardo da Vinci and Voltaire, followed in successive weeks with presentations on Napoleon and Charles Dickens; Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain; and Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
You can register at www.fresnostate.edu/olli
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In each week's eNews, we include a news article from our larger denomination, the United Church of Christ, to show the faithful work being done in other places.
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Holy curiosity’ fuels justice work, ‘Nuns on the Bus’ leader tells UCC audience
A leader of the "Nuns on the Bus" movement told an online United Church of Christ audience Sept. 3 that having her “heart broken open” by hearing people’s stories “across geographies” is what fuels her outspokenness for social justice.
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Happy Birthday to all who are celebrating this month!
September Birthdays
7 – Gretchen Choate
10 –Jaidyn Ramirez and Serenity Shea
11 – Mike R. Smith
12 – Ann Scott
14 – Elizabeth Davis-Russell, Keithie Earl, and Gary Walker
16 – Rachel Van Patten
17 – Sommer Earl
21 – Janet Capella
25 – Philip Dutton
26 – Phil Fullerton
27 – Spencer Parks and Selena Wall
September Anniversaries
1 – Jacque and Bob Garcia
3 – Sally and Doug Hoagland
4 – Laurie and Tim Tidyman-Jones, and Michelle and Seth Tilley
9 – Bryan Clark and Brian Isbell
Special anniversary: Marilyn Wall, our administrative assistant, celebrated 27 years with the church on Sept. 7. Congratulations, Marilyn!
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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 virtually.
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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 Bell (lisamboyles12@gmail.com, 559.244.9502) is the volunteer communications liaison for our church. Lisa and Doug Hoagland (doughoagland@att.net) alternate working on eNews. Send your announcements to both of them.
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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.
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Due to COVID-19, worship will remain virtual for now. Limited office hours have resumed.
Phone: 559.435.2690
Email: office@communityucc.com
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