Worship This Sunday
May 15 - 10:30 a.m.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
John 13:31-35
Faith and Politics
Sermon by Pastor Dave
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.
|
|
It’s a Mystery!
Theologian and mystery writer, Susan Thistlethwaite, will be our guest preacher Sunday morning, 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.
|
|
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, [email protected], or telephone, 831-426-2010.
|
|
Association of Faith Communities
10 year Gala Celebration
Saturday May 7, 2022 from 6 -8 pm
Holy Cross Catholic Church – Parish Hall
170 High St. Santa Cruz
A gala dinner celebrating 10 years of effort to relieve suffering in Santa Cruz County by operating a Homeless Shelter, Safe Parking Program, and Shower Program for our unhoused neighbors.
$45 per ticket
$1,000 per table of 10
Silent and Live Auction
To purchase tickets or donate please visit our website at
|
|
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!
Contact Jane Heyse, Sunday Kitchen Coordinator with questions: [email protected] or 831-252-9247. |
|
Sunday School and Childcare Is 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.
|
|
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
|
|
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.
|
|
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 June 2nd from 6:45 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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
.
|
|
Poetry at Peace
Thank you to Carol Keeney for sharing this poem from Joy Harjo, 23rd poet laureate of the United States and member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
All are welcome to join Poems at Peace on zoom, 9 am Thursday mornings or 9 am in-person on Sundays in the upper room.
Once the World Was Perfect
– Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings Poems
Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.
Then we took it for granted.
Discontent began a small rumble in the earthly mind.
Then Doubt pushed through with its spiked head.Joy
And once Doubt ruptured the web,
All manner of demon thoughts
Jumped through—
We destroyed the world we had been given
For inspiration, for life—
Each stone of jealousy, each stone
Of fear, greed, envy, and hatred, put out the light.
No one was without a stone in his or her hand.
There we were,
Right back where we had started.
We were bumping into each other
In the dark.
And now we had no place to live, since we didn't know
How to live with each other.
Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another
And shared a blanket.
A spark of kindness made a light.
The light made an opening in the darkness.
Everyone worked together to make a ladder.
A Wind Clan person climbed out first into the next world,
And then the other clans, the children of those clans, their children,
And their children, all the way through time—
To now, into this morning light to you
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
|
|
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.
-
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:
-
By check, with "Jail Ministry Fund" in the memo line
-
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
|
|
Beach Clean Up
Every being's life, health, and safety is as precious to it as mine is to me. Every piece of plastic and every cigarette butt that is kept out of the ocean safeguards one of those precious lives - it makes a difference in the life of a fish, a seabird, a dolphin, a whale. I have gratitude every time a volunteer at a beach cleanup picks up a piece of garbage and puts it in its right place, and there was much cause for gratitude at our Holy Saturday beach cleanup.
Mark your calendar now for July 5th at 10:00 a.m. Together we can keep everyone's ocean natural and abundant!
If you would like to join in the fun and service, please contact Lanakila [email protected] to receive waivers to sign in advance
|
|
Prayers for Peace
Companion of Hurting Hearts,
When my peace of mind and gentleness of heart slip away,
hold my hand.
When I forget to breathe in and listen to my inner being,
hold my hand.
When fear of vulnerability keeps me from reaching out,
hold my hand.
When I stumble and fall on the path of doing too much,
hold my hand.
When most everything I have believed turns to ashes,
hold my hand.
When the distress of others overwhelms my compassion,
hold my hand.
Let us open our hearts this week and pray for:
- Michael, brother in law of Stew Jenkins, Michael's family and loved ones
- Liz and Sebastian de Francesco
- Peggy Kelly and all of us vulnerable to computer scams
- Tony and Leona Philips
- Johnnie, son of Bill and Lynn Walton
- Kiera and her mother, Megan, granddaughter and daughter of Doug and Kristin Owen
- Audrey Stanley and Anna Hackenbracht
- Dale and Linda Bisby
All those suffering from dementia in it’s many forms, as well as their family members and loved ones.
Tenderhearted One, remind me often that you walk with me, that I am never alone when I limp along in the hazy grayness of life. Keep teaching me how necessary it is to care well for myself, to trust that the valley of darkness I walk through is a part of the journey of spiritual transformation. I place my hand in yours once again and move forward with hope in your loving presence. Amen.
Bonnie Lange
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
Small Groups and Ministries of Outreach
Use this link to find information about our various small groups and
ministries here at PUCC.
|
|
Peace UCC Activities Calendar
To find information about what's happening at Peace UCC,
check our events Calendar or view our availability click here!
|
|
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.
|
|
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
|
|
Sign up here to further peace and justice around the world
|
|
|
|
|
Find out more about global ministries here.
|
|
Get a daily devotional here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
