Long time Southwest Conference administrative employee Char Lillquist passed away on Dec 5th in Illinois of pulmonary fibrosis. Her daughter Alisa was able to be with her at the end. Char worked for the SW Conference in the 90's, then the Illinois Conference, the national offices of the UCC, and for two local churches during her career. Please contact Holly (hhbillsmom@gmail.com) if you want more information or Alisa's address.
Our sympathies are also extended to Rev Mike Lonergan and his family upon the death of Pastor Mike's mother. Pastor Mike is at Church of the Painted Hills in Tucson.
Rodney Aurich, husband of Susan Aurich, died on Saturday morning. A service to celebrate his life will be held at a later time. Rodney has donated his body to Parkinson’s research, the illness which took him from this life. Susan recently retired as Assistant Pastor at United Church of Sun City.
After testing positive for Covid in January and positive for the antibodies in February, Rev. Brady Abel of United Church of Sun City was able to donate blood in March, hoping to help with Covid plasma treatments. Blood donations are needed. He encourages everyone to consider giving.
First Church Phoenix voted last week to become a WISE congregation, the culmination of work that Rev. Robert Koth and Debe Knaack started.
On Thursday, March 11, the global interfaith environmental organization, GreenFaith, calls people of all faith traditions to show their support for God’s creation and climate change action by joining in a “Sacred Earth Day of Action.” Global TED Talks are offered throughout the day. This is a lead-up to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021, when governments will submit their climate commitments. United Church of Santa Fe has been a GreenFaith congregation since 2009—although they renamed it Desert Faith, given their New Mexico climate.
During the Covid year of being church online, First Congregational UCC in Albuquerque had welcomed 29 new members to their church family! What a testament of how to be the church!
As a gesture of welcome to their new tenant, ICS, Rincon held a food drive last weekend to stock the shelves! With overwhelming generosity, they were able to collect 767 pounds of food. In addition to food, several folks also made a monetary donation. Way to go Rincon!
Mark your calendars for a special livestream concert event at Beatitudes Church on Saturday, March 13 at 2:00 pm (MST) featuring Church of the Beatitudes Music Director, Stephen Schermitzler, and fellow pianist Charles Szczepanek live on stage on 2 grand pianos performing classical, broadway, and pop music! No live audience will attend this performance. It will be a livestream ticketed event with proceeds benefitting the Music Ministry program at Church of the Beatitudes. To purchase a $25 ticket (per device/household) for access link to watch the livestream online, please click here: BUY TICKETS HERE