About Us - News

For more UCUC news, please see the current issue of our newsletter, "Church and Home." To be added to the "Church and Home" mailing list, contact the Church at 858-453-3444 or via e-mail.

Reminder: Worship Service Time Change
On Sunday, June 15, we begin our Summer Schedule. The Worship Service and Sunday School will begin at 10 a.m.

Summer Office Hours
During this summer, our Administrative Assistant, Bonnie Slade-Castro, office hours will be: 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday. The church office will be closed on Fridays.

Pennies for Peace
The preschool and Sunday School children have concluded their collection for Pennies for Peace. They will be sending a donation of $500 to this organization that helps build and maintain schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Thanks to all of you who helped with this program.

Defibrillator Available
As you know, we are fortunate to have are own AED - Defibrillator machine. It is located in the back of our church behind the last pew on the right. It is in a white box marked with four red crosses and printed in red "AED".

CCSA Thanks You …
...for your generosity in response to our community needs. CCSA, though your concern, received over $23,000 for the Hunger Walk. This will supply food and services to this fruitful mission outreach throughout the year.

New Web Site
As you may have noticed, the UCUC web site has been redesigned. Please feel free to e-mail any comments, questions, update requests, or suggestions to the UCUC webmaster.

Myanmar Cyclone Disaster Relief
SITUATION: Thousands of people have been killed or are missing in Burma as Tropical Cyclone Nargis pushed ashore over the weekend. BBC News reports three-quarters of structures in the Irrawaddy region were destroyed by fierce winds, rain and storm surge. A United Nations relief worker in Yangon tells the Associated Press villages in the Irrawaddy Delta have been completely flattened. On Haing-gyi Island, along the country's southwest coast, an estimated 20,000 homes have been destroyed, leaving at least 90,000 homeless.
Profiteering is already starting to grip those coping in the storm's aftermath, with prices on food, fuel and building supplies shooting up 300 percent. The General Secretary of the Myanmar Council of Churches reports communication abilities throughout Burma have been compromised.

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE RESPONSE: Immediate relief operations are underway with a comprehensive assessment on-going. The CWS Asia Regional Office is in direct contact with the Myanmar Council of Churches and in coming days this initial appeal will be expanded to reflect needed support for longer-term recovery efforts of the Myanmar Council of Churches and its members.
Contributions to support this emergency appeal may be sent to your denomination or to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN, 46515. Please designate: Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Nargis Response.

New Hymnal Task Force
An ad-hoc group appointed by the church’s Executive Committee is currently brainstorming new ideas for a church hymnal. UCUC members representing a broad spectrum of the congregation have already had several meetings exploring new and innovative approaches to address the issues facing our church in attaining a new song book.

The committee's recommendation will be subject to a congregational vote. Please feel free to pass along any comments or suggestions to this group and be prepared to express your opinion as the situation arises.

Artificial Lawn
Recent news reports have detailed studies showing high lead content in artificial lawns. Several artificial turf fields on the East Coast were tested and found to have 10 times the safe level of lead being transferred to the clothing and skin of children playing on them.

This raised a great deal of concern among Church and Preschool parents given the new turf that was installed in our church play yard two-years ago. Luckily, we have no reason to fear. Our lawn is made of polyethylene fibers which have tested negative for lead over and over again while the lawns testing positive were made from nylon fibers.

For more information, visit Easy Turf’s website. We are proudly listed as one of their customers!

Sacred Conversation on Race
Nearly a hundred people from five San Diego churches gathered together on Sunday, May 18 to begin a new experience: a “Sacred Conversation on Race,” sponsored by the United Church of Christ Partnership Churches of San Diego.

These conversations were inspired by the national offices of the United Church of Christ, the denomination that includes Trinity UCC of Chicago, the church where Senator Barack Obama is a member. President and General Minister Rev. John H. Thomas called for open dialogue where thoughtful and prayerful listening to divergent points of view could offer all involved a deeper means for spiritual growth.
The “sacred conversations” in San Diego met those expectations, and more. “What a great experience to share around scripture and stories from our lives about a topic not very much talked about,” said one participant. Another added, “People everywhere need to do more of this! We all tend to kind of brush race under the rug, or talk about it only with people who are just like us. Tonight, we all experienced something really different, really deep.”

Participating churches included Christian Fellowship Congregational Church, a predominantly African-American church; Kensington Community Church, Mission Hills UCC, and University City UCC, whose congregations are predominantly Caucasian; and Pioneer Ocean View UCC, which has a strong Japanese-American heritage. Mission Hills offered its facilities to host the event.

In his opening remarks, Kensington’s pastor, Rev. Dr. Bruce Larson, said, “We are here to have a healthy conversation about racism. We are here to cross boundaries that might otherwise be used to keep us apart. We are here to say ‘No!’ to a world that increasingly defines itself by stereotypes, and exploits fear to create ‘news.’ We are here to affirm our solidarity with Trinity UCC in Chicago. We are here to experience a sacred time, a time of sharing from scripture and from our lives, hoping to hear God speak to us and among us.”

The evening began with a home-cooked meal, and then the intergenerational, multi-ethnic participants prayed together, engaged together in Bible study led by Christian Fellowship’s Rev. Amelia Walker, and shared together. The Bible verses had been chosen to illuminate and provoke thoughtful discussion, including eliciting deeply divergent points of view.

With such a contentious topic, arguments might have been expected. So Rev. Walker guided the participants with “Be-Attitudes” to help keep the conversation kind and respectful – be courteous, be yourself, be respectful, be honest, and be inspired. Participants were urged to “share the truth as you’ve experienced it,” and to “listen for what God is saying.”

In the packed room, participants were assigned to tables by birth month, ensuring a good mingling of people from different churches and different backgrounds. Each table was also assigned a different scripture passage. These included:

Leviticus 19:13-18
Isaiah 1:10-20
Matthew 15:21-28
Matthew 22:34-40
Mark 7:24-30
Acts 6:1-6
Acts 10:9-16, 23b-29a
I Corinthians 3:16-23
I Corinthians 12:12-26
Galatians 3:26-29
Ephesians 2:11-32
Ephesians 4:1-6, 13-16

Once the table-wide conversations were completed, each table gave a brief report about their issues, discussions, and insight to the whole group.

As table after table reported, laughter and applause filled the room. What had begun as quiet, focused, intense, discussions ended up with smiles and nods and hallelujahs. Finally, the whole roomful of people sang a hymn together, and the evening ended with more prayer.

CCSA Walk Report
The CCSA Walk was again a tremendous success. Twenty UCUC members participated, contributing approximately $2,000. A total of 230 persons from 22 churches walked in this annual ecumenical event, among them, seven pastors. Five churches collected more than $1,000; two donating $2,000 and; one church contributing over $3,000.

2008 Church Directory
The Church Directory for 2008 has been completed. Please pick up one copy per family in the narthex after church. If you are unable to attend services and would like your copy please call either the church office (858) 453-3444 so that we can get it to you by other means. Should you find an error in your family entry call, e-mail or see Tim McConnell so that we can publish corrections in the next issue of the Church and Home.

News from the Bell World
Dena Hause and Ruth Sayre attended a Spring Ring at First Baptist on April 19. Christine Anderson, a well known handbell ringer and director from Texas, was the Clinician. Bell choirs from around the County rang a Mass Concert.

A Summer Offering: Would you like a fun activity for you, your spouse, your in-laws, your friends and your children? There will be a beginning handbell class Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. for an hour starting JUNE 19 for 6 weeks. This will be an intergenerational class. And if you just want to have some fun but are already an accomplished ringer check us out. Talk with Ruth Sayre.

Another summer learning and enjoyment event will be the National Seminar of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers (AGEHR) which is being held in Orlando, Florida August 8 - 12. Feel free to join me in this stimulating and inspiring event.

We Need YOU
We would like volunteers to help prepare and serve coffee and juice after the Sunday worship. Instructions are easy and available.
Please sign the clipboard in narthex.