Welcome to Community UCC!

We gather for Worship at 10:30 a.m. each Sunday in our beautiful Sanctuary, located at 5550 N. Fresno St., Fresno CA, in northeast Fresno. Our congregation was established in 1956 and merged with Zion Congregational Church in 2006.

Our Mission Statement:

“Community UCC is an inclusive and progressive Christian church doing social justice, environmental faithfulness, interfaith collaboration and spiritual formation to help ourselves and others grow in faith, hope and love.”

COVID-19 updates:

Sunday school, nursery will resume on Oct. 31, youth group in November!

Timestamp: Oct. 14 edition of eNews
 
Great news: Sunday school and nursery care will resume on Sunday, Oct. 31, as we celebrate our Fall Sunday School Kickoff on Halloween.
 
The Youth Group for middle and high schoolers is coming back, too. It will start again in November, according to Felicia Rocha, one of our youth group leaders.
 
On Oct. 31, Sunday school children will start out in church to meet their teachers. We’ll have trick-or-treat goody bags for children to take home.
 
We will continue to take safety precautions:
  • Social distancing.
  • Hand washing/sanitizing.
  • Masks for everyone age 2 and older.
  • All teachers vaccinated and remaining home to isolate if symptoms appear. 
These protocols are part of our commitment to continue caring for one other.
 
The church Council and the Faith Education Team made the decision to re-start nursery care, Sunday school and the Youth Group last week. Those activities
were temporarily suspended when cases of the Delta variant surged in recent months.
 
Need more information?
 
Contact Robin Carlson, our commissioned minister of religious education, or Eileen White of the Faith Education Team about the nursery and Sunday school. Robin is at faithgrowth@communityucc.com. Eileen is at 559.251.3357 or eileenelsie7@gmail.com.
 
Felicia Rocha can answer questions about the Youth Group. She’s at 559.284.9921 or flearocha82@gmail.com.
 

Sunday school and nursery on hold

Timestamp: Aug. 19, 2021:
 
The Faith Education Team has made the difficult decision to suspend Sunday school until we determine – in light of the Delta variant – that it’s safe to resume classes. Our nursery already made this move some weeks ago.
 
We appreciate the vigilance of the team and Robin to prioritize safety for children and teachers during the increased risk of the Delta variant. 
 

For everyone’s safety and health

Time stamp: Aug. 5, 2021, with more recent updates:
 
CUCC member Helmut Kloos – who has a Ph.D. in medical geography and many years of research experience in social epidemiology – has helped church leaders develop these responses to Covid-19:
  • Masks are required in the breezeway as well the sanctuary.
  • Social distancing should be observed inside and outside. 
  • Hand sanitizer is available.
  • Do not shake hands or hug. 
In addition, we ask anyone to self-quarantine (not attend church) if they experience symptoms associated with Covid-19:
  • Running nose
  • Sneezing
  • Sore throat
  • Headache
  • Loss of taste or smell
The Delta variant now represents 94% of all Covid-19 infections in the United States. Infected people report about 90 less common symptoms affecting the gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, nervous and hormonal systems as well as skin, ears, eyes, and other organs.

 

 
These symptoms include fever, coughing, and shortness of breath, which were the most prevalent symptoms during the early stage of the pandemic. 
 
If you experience any of these symptoms, please inform Marilyn in the church office. 
 
“We urge you to be vigilant because recent studies show that many vaccinated people experiencing the milder symptoms caused by the Delta variant erroneously associate them with allergy or the common cold or flu and thus fail to get tested for Covid-19,” Helmut says.
 
As we head into the cooler months, it will become important to differentiate between Covid-19 and the seasonal common cold/flu. Doing so will ensure that people potentially infected with the Covid virus obtain tests and, if necessary, treatment, Helmut says.
 

A gift we cannot yet measure

Timestamp: July 1, 2021:

In-person worship coming soon:

Timestamp: May 21, 2021:

We have a date!
 
July 4th. Outdoors. At CUCC. An in-person Sunday service for the first time in almost 16 months! Because the July 4th service will be outdoors, we will not be able to livestream to YouTube nor be live on Zoom. An outdoor service presents technological challenges beyond the capabilities of our equipment.
 
At the July 4th service, we will celebrate greeting old and new friends. It will be a joyous time in the life of this congregation. Be prepared for a worship service that has the feel of a family reunion with festive touches. Masks will be optional at the July 4 service.
 
The following Sunday – July 11 – services will resume in the Sanctuary. Your Church Council made this decision at a special meeting on Thursday, May 20. Beginning with the July 11 service, worship will ONLY be on YouTube,  NOT on Zoom, using our new camera system.
 

Your health and safety have guided the Council in its decision-making throughout the pandemic. And that’s not changing as we move back into the sanctuary.

 
So, the Council has decided on these protocols for indoors services:
  • Masks will be required.
  • Hand sanitizer will be available.
  • Social distancing will be maintained. (Families, of course, can sit together.)
  • Fellowship after church will take place in the breezeway. We expect to serve coffee and water in paper cups.
Selecting July 4th as our reopening date gives us time to make sure we do this right. We can fine-tune our safety protocols. We can buy the things we need for those protocols. We can coordinate our new camera system with existing technology.
 
In the coming weeks, eNews will carry reports on the steps we’re taking – and the progress we’re making – toward in-person services. 
 
As we take these steps, please know this: you are so valued! Thank you for your commitment to CUCC.
 
Can’t wait to see you all! Additional details will be available in the coming weeks. 
 

Survey on returning in-person

Timestamp: May 9, 2021

Leadership is working hard to find the best way to safely resume some in-person gatherings. In the coming days you will receive an invitation to complete a survey assessing what you need to have in place for this to become a live option for YOU. You can access the survey here to provide your input. 

Update on returning to in-person worship

Timestamp: March 14, 2021

Pastor Julia urges members to be patient just a little longer before we resume in-person worship, to allow as many people as possible to be vaccinated. We are so close.

Pastor Julia’s op-ed about our church’s stance on COVID-19:

God’s work must continue through people of faith, but we offer an entirely different approach to how that faithfulness is demonstrated during this pandemic. Click here to read this timely Valley Voice in The Fresno Bee.

Limited office hours have resumed

Timestamp: 6:10 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020

Marilyn is now in the office part of each work for limited office hours. Generally she will be there from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Thursday, though it is best to call before stopping by, both to ensure that she is there and to limit people in the office at one time for social distancing. If you plan to stop by, please wear a mask or facial covering. Also, the office will be closed on Monday, Sept. 7, for the Labor Day holiday.

Switching our worship live stream to YouTube beginning Aug. 30

Timestamp: 3:12 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020

To reach more people, we are switching our Sunday worship live stream to YouTube beginning Aug. 30. If you have been tuning in on Facebook Live, we will no longer be broadcasting there. Go to our YouTube channel — bit.ly/cuccyoutube — and bookmark that page. You have an option to subscribe so you receive notifications when we post new content.

Community UCC will not reopen church/office for now

Timestamp: 7 p.m. Saturday, May 23, 2020

Every day seems to bring new desires, requests, demands, and near orders to reopen essential services in our communities. The most recent calls, locally and nationally, have been for the reopening of businesses, restaurants, and places of worship. As details of how a return to some semblance of “business-as-usual” are debated at various levels, we see a strong push to reopen our public life quickly. 

Our wider United Church of Christ gave pastoral guidance in a May 19th statement. Along with the decisive words, “We urge you to wait until ALL safety concerns have been addressed,” they offer detailed and practical information regarding risks and considerations. CUCC leadership is actively reviewing all of these angles regularly. 

We miss being and worshiping together; we miss welcoming new people into our worship; we miss joining together over a cup of coffee or a delectable soup. 

But despite our sense of loss and longing, we will keep our church building doors closed at this time out of an abundance of caution and concern for the health and safety of all members of our congregation and our staff. We will continue to monitor this evolving situation and will decide when we can reopen our church campus in a safe way and according to guidance from local and state public-health experts, not politicians.

The past few months have shown us that the Church is neither a building nor defined by in-person meetings; it is people! People reaching out to each other; people coming together in various groupings for fellowship and worship; people finding ways to meet needs of those particularly vulnerable at this time. And we remain committed to doing just that. 

The Church has a history of considering the big picture of what serves our community and our world, not primarily ourselves. This time of pandemic is no different. We will continue to look for ways to heal the sick, feed the hungry, free the oppressed, provide physical necessities both practically and spiritually. 

This time of virtual gatherings is an invitation to lift our vision to bigger horizons and pose the question: What opportunity can we expand to serve our congregation and community with the tools we now have? The leadership of CUCC welcomes your thoughts and participation. 

As followers of Christ, we echo the words found in 1 Corinthians 10:23: “Everything is permitted, but everything isn’t beneficial. Everything is permitted, but everything doesn’t build others up.” 

Blessings and grace to each of you. 

From Pastor Julia and Church leadership

The Church and Office will be closed until the Shelter in Place advisory is lifted

Timestamp: posted at 4:53 p.m. Thursday, March 19, 2020

To share prayer concerns and joys, please text Robin Carlson at 559.960.2452.
If you need anything, call or text Robin.

We also created a private Facebook group where church members can share prayers, hopes, fears and concerns and share news and announcements. Let Lisa Boyles (Lisa Dorman Boyles on Facebook) know if you would like to be invited to that.

These are unprecedented times of uncertainty and rapid change, not just in our community but globally. But we are still a community of faith, even if we are separated temporarily by these protective measures. Stay connected with each other and we will make our way through this together.

Thank you and Peace be with you.

Instructions for Zoom worship, beginning March 26

Timestamp: posted at 9:09 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, 2020

For upcoming worship services, we are doing Zoom meetings. Zoom is a videoconferencing interface available for video and audio conferencing, chat, webinars and more.

This allows more interaction in our service than Facebook Live, which is a one-way broadcast.

Lisa will continue to provide Facebook Live on Sundays at 10:30 a.m., by capturing her computer screen during the Zoom worship.

Zoom can be used on a computer, via a website, or on smart mobile devices via an app. You can sign up for a free account. Go to Zoom.us from a computer or laptop or get the app in your phone’s app store and create a free account.

We will post the link to join worship through various communication channels. Each “meeting” will have its own link to join.