Category: Glimpses of Faith (Page 18 of 34)

Heart of Texas Association News

September 5, 2021 /

    You are invited to come to the Heart of Texas Association Fall Meeting on Saturday, October 23rd, hosted by the Austin cluster of churches. Because of the evolving COVID situation in Austin, we do not know yet whether we will be meeting online only or at one of our churches in a hybrid format.  The time we start will depend on whether we are meeting in person.  We will let all of our churches know the plans as soon as a decision is made.  Bear with us in this unusual time!  We would love to be together in person but we need to make a determination about whether it will be safe for those who come into the Austin area.

    Our sister in Christ, Billie Watts, co-pastor of Touchstone Community Church, is retiring from active ministry.  Her last Sunday at Touchstone, with a farewell liturgy and with Billie’s vibrant preaching, is on August 28th.  Billie committed to the intensive ministry work of starting Touchstone with Kerry Kirtley before retiring, and Billie is now stepping back to well deserved time with her family.  Our heartfelt blessings go with her as she transitions into this new phase of life, along with our gratitude for the work she has done.  Kerry will continue as the pastor of Touchstone, and we continue to offer prayers of support for the community and ministry there.

    Amy Grogan, an ordained minister with the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ, is completing the process of gaining standing in the United Church of Christ as an Ordained Ministerial Partner to share her ministry gifts with Touchstone.  Amy moved to the Boerne area with her husband for family reasons after living for several years in Belgium.  She completed her Master of Divinity at Phillips Theological Seminary in a hybrid program, and has served in online ministry with the Disciples.  Like Amy, people living abroad often are in areas where there is little Protestant presence and where few people are part of a church, so her work online has been part of the outreach to others like her and to people who live in places where they would have to travel far to find a church where they feel at home.  She has been very active in the Touchstone Community, and will be helping as a volunteer in several ministry areas.  Our relatively simple process for welcoming ministers from the Disciples reflects the close relationship between the UCC and the Disciples. We welcome Amy to the Heart of Texas Association. 

    Our Committee on Ministry also has accepted Brittany Hicks as Member in Discernment. Brittany is a member of Open Cathedral in Leander and a student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.  She served our country in the US Navy for a number of years.  We welcome Brittany to our discernment process and look forward to walking with her on her ministry journey.

    For those who wish to spend a week of service in the marvelous, lifegiving work of Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, MS, I invite you to a work camp there with others from the South Central Conference (if the COVID situation is safe enough for work camps to happen), November 7th to 13th.   Our group will need to conform to the COVID safety measures there.  Please be in touch with me if you are interested: [email protected].  Back Bay Mission is our treasured UCC related outreach to the poorest in Biloxi, with a work camp program of repairing homes, building, and work at Back Bay Mission itself that brings groups in from many places across the country. People of all skill levels are welcome. Come see why we go!

Blessings in Christ,
Liz Nash, Association Minister

HOT Association Minister Search and Call

September 5, 2021 /

Greetings friends in faith,

The Heart of Texas Association of The United Church of Christ formally announces its Search and Call for a new Association Minister. The position is an average of 15 hours per week. Each prospective candidate should ensure their United Church of Christ online profile has been updated. Candidates may access the profile section of the UCC.org website here: Create an account and log in here.

Once your online profile has been completed on the United Church of Christ website, you may forward a copy of your profile to me at [email protected], and I will distribute it to the Search and Call Committee. If you are outside the United Church of Christ, you may submit your information directly to Conference Minister, Rev. Phil Hodson at [email protected].

The application deadline for this position will be Thursday, September 16, 2021. The job description and other pertinent information will be posted to the Heart of Texas Association website at: http://hotaucc.org.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . . (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Peace and Blessings,
Pastor Carl

Carl Schwartz-King
Moderator, Heart of Texas Association
The United Church of Christ
[email protected]

2021 Southern Regional Women’s Retreat

September 5, 2021 /

The Planning Committee for the 2021 UCC Southern Regional Women’s Retreat has been hard at work. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Committee postponed the in-person retreat originally planned for October 2021 to October 2022. A virtual afternoon retreat was added to the schedule for this October. The Committee would like to invite you to participate in a 

Virtual Retreat on ZOOM
October 2, 2021 – 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

We will have a chance to fellowship and worship with old and new friends from all parts of the Southern Region (area from Texas to Virginia). Our guest speaker/presenter for both retreats will be Rev. Dr. Georgia A. Thompson, UCC Associate General Minister of Wider Church Ministries and Co-Executive for Global Ministries.You are encouraged to watch at home or any location you select, by yourself or with a group of fellow UCC Women. The cost is $15.00 for mailed registration or $16.00 online registration. For a flyer, mail-in registration form or to register online, click here.

The Space Between

September 5, 2021 /

Submitted by Rev. Phil Hodson, Conference Minister

Your anchor passage at annual meeting 2021 came from Mark’s gospel. It referenced the storm over the lake and Jesus’ rebuke of the storm. At annual meeting reflections were offered on how God is with us in the midst of the storm and the power of faith in uncertain circumstances.

But there’s something else here, buried in the text. After Jesus rebukes the storm, all becomes quiet and still. In the stillness, in the quiet, the disciples reflect on who Jesus is and his significance in their lives. Today I write you in that strange quiet, almost surreal in-between space. A space where we are just beginning to understand the damage caused by Hurricane Ida in New Orleans. A space that has yet to be found for many as rain continues to shower across Louisiana, Mississippi, and makes its way north and east. A space where we can take stock of the reality of climate change in our world. A space where we can give thanks for lives spared. A space where we are going to remain, prayerfully together, for a little bit. I’ve heard from many already who want to spring into action, but we’re in a place where we don’t have enough information yet. We know there has been damage to several of our churches, and so we pray for them, knowing that we will respond with our bodies in working prayer to help rebuild and repair when the time comes. As we sit together in this space for a little while there is one other thing we can do: get ready. Pray up and ask God if we have the capacity to step in and help with rebuilding physically when the time comes. Pray up and then share our gifts so that the resources will be available to our churches and the wider communities when the time comes. 

We are a denomination built on being in covenant with one another. Being there for one another. And we, in the South Central Conference, will be. For today, we pray. And we prepare for the next faithful steps when the time is right. Each of us can give, as we are able, to lay the groundwork for recovery by responding to the Special Appeal issued this week by the national setting. I encourage us to do so. Let’s get ready, the action will spring forth in God’s good time.

Blessings,

Rev. Phil Hodson
Conference Minister
South Central Conference, 
United Church of Christ
3610 River Road
New Braunfels, TX 78132
T: (830) 625-2212 x 4 C: (765) 532-3429

UCC H.O.P.E. Newsletter

September 5, 2021 /

Submitted by Carol Fouke-Mpoyo, Editor

The United Church of Christ Global H.O.P.E. team invites you to read the September 2021 E-News.

Here are a few highlights from this issue:

  • Welcome message
  • Global H.O.P.E. staff
  • Hurricane Ida
  • Global H.O.P.E. funds appeals
  • Grants from H.O.P.E.

Click here to view the entire e-news.

UCC Webinar – They Knew: 50 Years of the US Government Causing the Climate Crisis

September 5, 2021 /

Submitted by Rev. Brooks Berndt, Minister for Environmental Justice, Justice and Local Church Ministries

UCC Webinar— They Knew: 50 Years of the US Government Causing the Climate Crisis 

The UCC’s next Creation Justice Webinar will feature one of the leading voices in environmentalism over recent decades: James Gustave Speth. Among his many accomplishments, Speth served the Carter administration, founded the Natural Resources Defense Council, and spent ten years as Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. In August, he is releasing a new book entitled, They Knew—The US Federal Government’s Fifty-Year Role in Causing the Climate Crisis. Naomi Klein has described it as “a damning record that will become a potent tool for justice.”

Even if you can’t make the scheduled time of 1 pm ET on Wednesday, September 8th, still sign-up, and we will send you a recording.

Register now!

From the Pastor,

August 1, 2021 /

Faithful Friends,

We have so much for which to be grateful! 

Our congregation is growing with 4 new amazing members committed to joining us August 8th and others in discussion with me about doing so in the near future.

We’ve added to our tech team, thanks to Philip Graves, and Joe, Mikki, and Sam Ward have worked hard to set us up so well for hybrid (in-person and Zoom-casted) services, with written instructions for each part of that process, that others will be apprenticed to also join that team in the weeks to come (we could use a few more volunteers!).

Our Pastoral Care Team continues to reach out beautifully with cards, notes, and calls to our faith family, as do many of you, so that I regularly hear what incredible warmth, welcome, and hospitality our congregation provides.

We have scheduled another Outdoor Hymn Sing August 8th to sing to our hearts’ content (with a bit more distance provided between us due to the Delta variant crowding our local hospitals) as Slim Bawb and Jordon once again lead us in some good old fashioned music (11:15am-12:00pm after an abbreviated service).

We had a great response to our request for nominations to our Pastoral Search Committee and will be announcing those names, soon.  They will be meeting with the help of our new Conference Minister, Rev. Phil Hodson.

And…the world continues to struggle in ways too numerous to mention.  As of this writing, over 4.2 million people have died of COVID, with a new surge in cases and deaths as our country and community grapples with coming to agreement about how to protect ourselves and each other.   

More than 2,100 children separated from their family at the border still have not been reunited with their families, voter rights remain under attack, and the bodies and lives and rights of many of us and our siblings are, as well.

We may find ourselves lamenting along with the psalmist, “How long, oh, Lord?  How long?” as we face these struggles, along with others that hit much closer to home. 

We wonder what we can do.  And I still believe the most powerful and radical thing we can do is to pray, to so build our connection with and trust in and security with God that we can hear clearly what God would call each of us and our church to do and be in response. 

As we bring our best selves to each and every interaction, conversation, decision, and Facebook or Instagram post, we can put greater health and justice and peace into our midst.  We can invite God into the circumstances of our world and lives and seek God’s face, where God is moving in the midst of the seemingly worst and most hopeless of circumstances, asking God to empower us to be God’s hands and feet and voice in all we do. 

So, I invite you to join me as we lift up our hearts to God, and sing along with me this month the prayer of the Psalmist from Psalm 130, captured so beautifully by Ruth Duck and Robert J. Batastini in the following hymn (NCH 554). 

  1. Out of the depths, O God, we call to you.
    Wounds of the past remain, affecting all we do.
    Facing our lives, we need your love so much.
    Here in this community, heal us by your touch.

  2. Out of the depths of fear, O God, we speak.
    Breaking the silences, the searing truth we seek.
    Safe among friends, our grief and rage we share.
    Here in this community, hold us in your care.

  3. God of the loving heart, we praise your name.
    Dance through our lives and loves; anoint with Spirit flame.
    Your light illumines each familiar face.
    Here in this community, meet us with your grace.

    The tune can be found here https://youtu.be/EJ8Yexp0Iz8

As we sing this Psalm, let us do so as a prayer, asking God to fill our hearts and lead us and others to solutions while comforting us all every step of the journey.

Peace to us all,
Pastor Carla

An Invitation to the Women of Faith UCC (from Friedens UCC)

August 1, 2021 /
2555 Friedens Church Road

Friedens UCC in Geronimo will again host the September salad luncheon on September 9th.  The women of Faith Church have been invited to attend this gathering at our neighboring sister church. 

We are asked to arrive at the church at ll:00 a.m. for a time of fellowship and  a delicious salad feast.  We are their guests and have been advised that we do not need to bring a salad this time.

Please RSVP to Karen Dietz (830 626  6833) or at ([email protected]) if you plan to attend.  Karen will then be able to contact you if there is a change of plans due to Center for Disease Control cautions about indoor gatherings. 

Friedens Church is located at 2555 Friedens Church Road. 

We are grateful for this kind invitation and opportunity to break bread together .  Karen looks forward to hearing from you.  

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