News for Apr 11, 2023

This Sunday, April 16: In-person service

Our guest preacher this Sunday is John Latham. He's like our very own Garrison Keillor, drawing great insights from stories of growing up in Willmar, Minnesota. It's always a treat to hear from John.

Worship & Arts will meet after worship. We'll organize our Earth Day celebration for the following Sunday (April 23), so if you have something to contribute (a poem, a reading, a story, a song) come to the meeting and tell us about it.

The Giving Sunday collection for April is for One Great Hour of Sharing (UCC).

Recent sermons

Check out our YouTube page to see recent sermons. Go to our archive of slides to see bulletins and slides used during recent services.

Cybersecurity training

Sabrina has offered to share her cybersecurity training with all of us: how to recognize cybersecurity threats, common phishing strategies to be alert to, and so forth. Computerese is not the mother tongue of most of us, so this will be very helpful. Feel free to invite friends and family. Thursday, April 13 at 7pm in the usual CHC zoom room. The training will be recorded and available on our website.

Annual Gathering June 15-17

The Annual Gathering of the Northern California Nevada Conference of the UCC will happen close to us this year, at First Congregational Church in Palo Alto, from Thursday, June 15 to Saturday, June 17. This is the meeting that used to be at Asilomar, then moved to the campus of Sonoma State University, and finally landed on the Peninsula. Check out the draft schedule, price list and registration. This is a good opportunity to catch up with friends from other churches and meet the new conference staff.

Church Camp July 14-16

The Belmont UCC is reviving an old tradition of sharing a Family Camp weekend with local UCC churches, and we are invited. It won't be Camp Caz, of course, but they have found the Methodist Monte Toyon camp near Aptos to be a reasonable substitute (looks slightly less rustic than Caz to me!). Information from Belmont is here; if you're interested in going, tell Polly before June 1.

Holy Week thank you's

Many thanks to all who helped make this a memorable Holy Week at College Heights... from the set-up/take-down crew on Maundy Thursday (60 people came to that supper and service!), to the choir and Peter for extra rehearsals and singing for Good Friday and Easter, to the beautiful Easter altar and flower cross (thanks to Janice and Pat), all the way to our newest communion helper on Easter morning. It's lovely to be part of such a hands-on community! Thank you all.

Upcoming services and events

• Weds discussion group: Apr 12 (7 pm), Zoom

We’re continuing with the “writing your spiritual journey” exercise. Ask Polly for more details.

• Cybersecurity training: Thurs Apr 13 (7 pm), Zoom

• Worship & Arts committee: Sun, Apr 16. Join us after worship to plan future services

• Taize Service: Fri, April 21, 7:30 pm.

Note the change in date from the usual "second Friday."

• Book Group: Sun, Apr 23 (7 pm), Zoom. Reading "The Bowl of Light" by Hank Wesselman

• Church Council: Sun, April 30, after worship.

Note the change in date from the usual "third Sunday."

• Enlightenment Intensive: May 4-7 in Pacific Grove

A retreat led by Roy Gesley