Guest Musician Jeannie Rak in Worship May 15
As part of celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, UCUCC is inviting local artist Jeannie Rak (she/her) to share her musical gifts with our congregation on Sunday, May 15th. Here is Jeannie's story from her website, jeannierak.com. "Eighteen...
The Tapestry of Racial Justice
A recent conversation got me thinking about UCUCC as a weaving – a tapestry even. The more I have followed that line of thought the deeper it has taken me. Herewith an attempt to share it. For a start, if each of us is a length of yarn somewhere in the weave, what a...
Volunteer with Crisis Hotline
Calling All Empathetic Souls! An organization I volunteer with, King County Crisis Connections, is actively recruiting volunteers, due to the alarming recent rise in suicide/crisis calls. The 24/7 Crisis Line provides immediate help to individuals, families, and...
Spring Worship Series: The Book of Delights
May 1 Named and Known Preacher: Rev. Amy Roon Scripture: John 21: 1-7 “Nicknames” May 8 A New View: Beyonce Mass Preacher: Rev. Yolanda Norton Scripture: Numbers 11:24-30 “To Spread the Sweetness of Love” May 15 Caretaking Preacher: Rev. Loren McGrail Scripture:...
UCUCC Awarded Vital Worship Grant by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Starting this summer, UCUCC will spend a year focusing on the spirit of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the African concept of humanity—often defined as I am because we are. Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist. She defines ubuntu as “I am what I am because of who we all...
Organizing for Mission Network Seattle Cohort Event May 14
Join Sister Kelly Marciales of OFMN and other faith leaders in Seattle for a one day gathering on Saturday, May 14, from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm A Gathering to Meet Come together for 1-1 connections with other faith leaders and organizers in the Seattle area. A Gathering...
Afghan Refugee Initiative Update
When we committed to a partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia Refugee Resettlement Office, our commitment was formalized through a Commitment Form both parties signed. This form includes a list of activities our team wants to assist with. Among these is a...
Bystander Intervention Workshop, May 21
Bystander Intervention Workshop May 24, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm In collaboration with Admiral Community United Church of Christ, we welcome Anti-Hate Alaska Junction for a Bystander Intervention Workshop. The workshop will give tools to de-escalate a situation and support...
Racial Justice Book Club Meeting 5/17/22: The Way to Rainy Mountain
The Way to Rainy Mountain by N Scott Momaday (1969, 1973 and 2019) is our next book. It comes highly recommended by Nina Redman. Three stories within a story about how the Kiowas emerged from Montana to the Great Plains, adapted to the horse and Great Plains Culture,...
Book Review: Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells
Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells By Michelle Duster Ida B. Wells, born into slavery in Mississippi, orphaned at 16 by the yellow fever, kept her family together. When railroad conductors enforcing Jim Crow laws threw her off a train...
Chapter Three: Grief and the Birthday Party
One of Pami's biggest hopes was that Dave would remarry after she died. "Dave knows what it is like not to have a mother," Pami said. "His died when he was four years old. He was raised by his grandmother. So we must find a mother for Paul.” It wasn’t just...
Join us for Holy Week services and activities
There's something for everyone in the leadup to Easter at University UCC! Beginning with Palm Sunday, we will celebrate with native Northwest greens (trim your Cedars and other evergreens and bring extra to share) and then have pony rides for children after...
Caught between a rock and a hard place
We absolutely must reduce greenhouse gas emissions or the world, as we know it, will cease to exist. But the Russian onslaught in Ukraine is untenable and the US and European Union must stop buying Russia’s oil and natural gas. Our fossil fuel industry can make up the...
Celebrate Mwanzo’s Tenth Anniverary
Contributed by Loyce Ong’udi, founder Celebrate the many Mwanzos (new beginnings) over the past ten years In 2012 as I worked to register Mwanzo as a nonprofit organization to address the ravages of HIV/AIDS on my family and childhood village of Rabuor, a friend asked...
Land Acknowledgement action step for April
Together with another UCUCC member imagine what life might look like now for the Sauk-Suiattle Indian tribe if the 1855 Point Elliott treaty had been honored. Consider especially the Tribe’s current legal suit against Seattle City Light’s hydroelectric dams on the...
April news for youth and families
Register for our All-Church Summer Camp at Seabeck Children, youth and their families are invited to join us for our All-Church Summer Camp at Seabeck! July 10 – 15, 2022. This is also a great event to invite friends to! At long last, we are planning on our camp being...
Looking forward to Easter traditions
As we look ahead to the end of Lent and the celebration of Palm Sunday and Easter, there are a couple of traditions that many in our congregation enjoy honoring. Greens for Palm Sunday For Palm Sunday, we have a long-standing practice of bringing our own local greens...
Save the Date – Benefit performance of “The Alaska Suite”
Don’t miss the Nelda Swiggett Quintet's May 15 performance of the powerful "Alaska Suite" co-sponsored by Sacred Earth Matters and benefiting Green Buildings Now. Tickets are on sale at https://bit.ly/aksuite to experience Nelda Swiggett's touching and powerful...
April 2022 Special Offering for Mwanzo, celebrating ten years
We celebrate the tenth year of our partnership with Mwanzo in Rabuor, Kenya! by designating this organization to receive the special offerings during the month of April Under the guidance of Loyce Ong’udi, several major projects have been completed through the work of...
Summary of Church Council actions in February
The Council of the University Congregational United Church of Christ met on Feb 16, 2022 via Zoom. The Leadership team is very glad to have Pastor Loren and Wendy Blight on board. The settled pastor Search committee has been meeting at least weekly, gathering input...
Book Review: The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
Their homes are made of birch bark, they hunt and gather for food. Some of the men trade in furs. The story begins with a smallpox epidemic in 1847 near Lake Superior where only one crawling baby survives on an island. The baby is adopted by a family and knows nothing...
For inspiration: “The Book of Delights”
The writings of Ross Gay have been a personal joy for Pastors Steve and Amy. This book has provided inspiration for our Eastertide theme of Delight in Life. We will include excerpts from Gay’s The Book of Delights; however, the book isn’t essential to the worship...
Ways to get involved now in Racial Justice activities
We resolved on August 4, 2019 to be a Racial Justice Church. In doing so we undertook to figure out what it means to be a Racial Justice Church and to live into that meaning. Two current and on-going events illustrate the possibilities and challenges. The first is the...
Our support of an Afghan refugee family has begun
Much has happened and there is much to celebrate in the short time since we began our partnership with Refugee Resettlement Office (RRO) affiliated with the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia Through RRO, we have been assigned an Afghan family with eight members: mother,...
UCC receives recognition as a Creation Justice Church
On March 4, 2022 UCUCC received a letter from the national UCC that our church has been officially designated a Creation Justice Church of the UCC. What does that really mean to us as a congregation? A little history can answer that question. In 2001, a group of...
Easter Season—Delight in Life
The Kin-dom of God In God, we find a new kind of family - a kinship with church, community, and the world. These kinship connections include not only humans in their similarity and diversity, but the plants and creatures of the earth. In Epiphany, Lent, and...
How our worship services come together
Have you ever wondered how our worship services are created? In the model of team ministry, this is a very collaborative process. It begins with brainstorming around themes that could develop into sermon series. The worship team—Pastors Amy, Loren, and Steve, music...
A new approach to visual communication
When all our services were digital, announcements were a wash of text at the beginning of the service. It was a consistent place to put information out to the congregation, but it wasn’t an effective use of the medium. Around late spring of 2021 Pastor Steve and Kyna...
Lent and Ash Wednesday
March 2 is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of Lent. Lent is an ancient church practice of preparation for the passion and resurrection of Jesus celebrated in Holy Week and Easter. Throughout Lent we will be focusing on Interconnectedness as Hope in a Changing...
Afghan Refugee Initiative: Sponsoring an Afghan Family
We experienced a disappointing initial connection with one of the federally funded resettlement agencies, which despite having many fine qualities, missed the mark on an important value from which our church will not budge. After terminating that relationship, we...
With the Bodies We Have
With the Bodies We Have Rev. Loren McGrail, Bridge Pastor “I have come to see Zoom church as its own sacrament, the heartache of separation present with us as we work to find good news with the bodies we have.” Melissa Flore-Bixer I have had Covid 19, the first...
A Note from Catherine
Dear University Congregational friends and family, Thank you so much for all of the ways you celebrated my birthday and my ministry in November. Thank you for the food and the music and the gifts. Thank you for a great trip to Yosemite and beyond. Thank you for all...
Deaths in our community
Steve Adam Died: January 12, 2022 Steve died peacefully surrounded in love by his family. He was a kind and thoughtful person. Steve and his wife, Diane, joined UCUCC in 1983 and 1980 respectively. They raised their children here as well. Many may remember that Steve...
Deepening Our Spirituality For Everyone
Every major religious tradition in the world invites us to love and to be centered in love and compassion as we relate to ourselves and others. We been told that God is love and that we embody that love and need to let our light shine. But often we forget that light...
February Special Offering: Mt. Selinda Hospital
Right now, Mt. Selinda Hospital needs all the help we can give! Currently functioning with only two doctors, the hospital is admitting 30 patients a day and treating an additional 40 in its clinic. Several doctors have quit recently because they can make more...
Welcome back, Wendy Blight
By now most of you have heard that Kyna Shilling, our Director of Operations and Finance, has welcomed a new baby into her home! She is now on family leave and plans to be out for about five months. Stepping into Kyna’s shoes will be Wendy Blight, a person familiar to...
Visual Storytelling – New icons for the values and ministries of the church
When all our services were digital, announcements were a wash of text at the beginning of the service. It was a consistent place to put information out to the congregation but it wasn’t an effective use of the medium. Around late spring of 2021 Pastor Steve and Kyna...
Mwanzo – A Gracious Message from Our Country Manager in Rabuor Jonathan Aluoka
Monthly Report - December 29, 2021 Our continued best wishes are for you, the Mwanzo Board in the USA and the friends of Mwanzo, that you enjoyed your Christmas and are having a happy new year 2022, despite the snowy weather. On behalf of the staff, the...
Worship Series: The Kin-dom of God
The Kin-dom of God imagines a Christian community of real, messy people in connection to one another and the larger world. As we celebrate the ways God is revealed to us, we are reminded that it happens in both miraculous and ordinary ways. This Epiphany, we encounter...
Livestream worship from our Seattle campus
Here is the link to the livestream. Livestream the Seattle Campus Services - While the installation of our sanctuary cameras came back in the fall, there has been an ongoing series of upgrades to support digital ministry with a few more to come. We now have the...