CUCC Weekly eNews

Love Your Heart, Love Your Food Wednesday, Feb. 6, 6:30pm Vaughan Fellowship Hall It is almost Valentine's day, so bring a heart-healthy dish to share and a list of ingredients to help others with allergies. Friends are welcome. All ages are welcome. No program - just time to get to know one another and share a good meal. - submitted for Welcoming, Fellowship & Growth A Gathering of Friends event

You requested easier parking, so we're moving our 2nd Tuesdays Life and Faith in Downtown Raleigh.  Meet me at  Tyler's Tap Room   18 Seaboard Avenue, Suite 150 7-8:30pm, February 12 I plan to request the round booth in the far right corner.  Grab a beverage of your choice and let’s talk.  Career, relationships, money.  Changing the world and changing ourselves.  Living with faithful integrity, one life at a time.  Look for me and my red Life and Faith comma.  Friends are welcome. Because of your parking comments, I've drawn a map of where I spied the most well-lit parking.  The lots fill up, but Gary and I didn't have any trouble finding a place to park where I'd feel comfortable walking alone at night. Kathy W. suggested a carpool from CUCC, so those of you who would like to carpool should meet in the Dixie Trail lot at 6:45pm. I plan to arrive Tyler's at 6:30 to eat my dinner; anyone who'd like to come early is welcome to join me.  Here's the menu .

Plan to stay after church on Sunday, February 10, for a "Mardi Gras" Cajun lunch of red beans & rice prepared by our youth group. We'll have both veggie and meat options available. The lunch will accompany a presentation from our own Sam Woodrum about a recent surfing trip he took to South America, including his visit to the amazing and historic sanctuary of Machu Picchu. What a fantastic lunch combo! Be sure not to miss it! No reservations needed, just stay and enjoy! - posted for the Youth Group A Gathering of Friends event

From the 10:30 worship service on January 20, the following items have been added to the CUCC media archive. All are also available on YouTube ... Honoring Santi Matthews on the occasion of her 50th birthday  Geri Bowen's children's message on the significance of the MLK holiday with special emphasis on the role of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the history of CUCC  Rev. Curtis Gatewood's sermon on economic justice in the context of the MLK Holiday

1st Tuesdays, 7-7:30PM, Vaughan Fellowship Hall As your week kicks into high gear, still your mind and wait in the presence of God. The silence is punctuated by reading of scripture and chanting meditative songs. No sermon, no offering, no announcements. Friends are welcome. Read Steve's description of Taize' worship  (page one of our January newsletter). For more on Taize' worship or the Taize' community in France - submitted for Welcoming, Fellowship & Growth and Deacons

What is HKonJ ?   At a Congregational Meeting in 2012, CUCC voted to become a partner of HKonJ, which stands for Historic Thousands (K=thousand) on Jones Street (the address of the NC General Assembly).  HKonJ is a coalition of groups devoted to a 14 Point Agenda for change in North Carolina.  This year's theme is  “Mobilizing for Economic Justice and an End to Poverty.”  The coalition, under the coordination of Rev. Curtis Gatewood of the NAACP (who spoke to us on Sunday), works together to choose specific upcoming legislative issues for each year’s focus.  The HKonJ march and rally is an opportunity for the members of that coalition to show up in support of those issues.  HKonJ is unabashedly political, but not partisan. What to expect?  This is a family-friendly, positive event.  The crowd (certainly more than 1000 people) begins to gather at Shaw University on South Street beginning at 9:30am.  (This is the corner with the McDonalds diagonally across from Memorial Hall.)  Peop

My cold is over and I'm ready to welcome you for a second try at our Rituals and Resources for Teaching Faith at Home family potluck. Sunday, February 10, 5-7pm Jane and Gary's home, 2712 Lochmore Drive in Raleigh Bring a dish to share that your children enjoy AND a few toys that each of them would like to share with the other children. February topic: Table prayers/grace/blessing the meal Please RSVP to Jane so she knows how many plates to have on hand. What is Rituals and Resources? As your children play, swap ideas with other CUCC parents for sharing what you believe with your children. Each month we’ll feature a resource or ritual, but equally important will be the connections you and your children build with other families who take living their faith seriously. Bring a potluck dish your family enjoys and a few toys or games for the children to share while the adults talk. We meet 2nd Sundays. - submitted by Jane Smith for Welcoming, Fellowship & Growth A Gathering

Join women of CUCC at a SIS potluck, Thursday, January 31, 7:00pm in the Hoffmann Room.  We'll start with a healthy potluck dinner, then talk about the best things that happened to us in 2012 and our hopes for 2013.  If time allows, we will play Grubs and/or Fitz It.   All women of the church are invited and encouraged to attend. - submitted by Marty Lamb A Gathering of Friends event

Reverend Curtis Gatewood will be our guest speaker for worship January 20 at 10:30am.  Reverend Gatewood works for the North Carolina NAACP as a community organizer, and is one of the coordinators of HKonJ.  He believes "God has called upon him to see 'the world' as his 'church' and his 'flock' consists of all of the world's poor and oppressed people."  Please plan to join us and welcome Reverend Gatewood to CUCC.

For February in MONDAY LUNCH GROUP we will be using the following book.  A Celestial Omnibus  : Short Fiction On Faith, edited by J.P. Maney and  Tom Hazuka. In A Celestial Omnibus , twenty-five stories by internationally celebrated writers address life’s most important questions, inviting us to hope, to questions, to face confusion and crisis, and to explore the meaning of our lives with new eyes. The stories in A Celestial Omnibus approach questions of faith from a rich variety of spiritual perspectives, including Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Native American. We will also be using this book during the summer.  If you remember, we used a different short story book the past 2 summers and each person led the group on the story(s) of their choice. It worked out really great with everyone leading at one time or another. - from Betsy Towler for Monday Lunch Group  Monday Lunch Group meets in the Hoffmann Room beginning at 12:15pm with a brown bag lunch, fo

On Sunday, February 10, youth will prepare a "Mardi Gras" Cajun lunch of red beans & rice and cornbread to accompany a presentation from Sam Woodrum about a recent surfing trip he took to South America, including his visit to the amazing and historic sanctuary of Machu Pichu.  Friends are welcome. A Gathering of Friends event

Reverend Steve Halsted will lead discussions based upon the book: Who is My God? An Innovative Guide to Finding your Spiritual Identity , by Skylight Paths Publishing. We will begin on Tuesday, January 15, at 7:00pm , in the Vaughan Fellowship Hall at CUCC. Subsequent meetings may be scheduled in participants’ homes, if so desired by group attendees. Friends are welcome.