Church News & Events
Share your news!
Pending review, we’ll publish it on the website and our weekly newsletter, In the Loop.
What’s happening at YOUR church? Tell us about it! Just write up an article and submit it to Wende by Thursday at noon to have it included in the following Monday’s Loop.
Holly Herman reads your church newsletters and other materials and compiles the highlights to keep us up-to-date on the amazing work happening at the Southwest Conference churches and beyond. (Thanks, Holly!)
Tag SWC and Wende on Facebook and Instagram to get our attention so we can share your posts! We’re @swcucc and Wende is @yeswende.
What’s happening at YOUR church? Tell us about it! Just write up an article and submit it to Wende by Thursday at noon to have it included in the following Monday’s Loop.
Holly Herman reads your church newsletters and other materials and compiles the highlights to keep us up-to-date on the amazing work happening at the Southwest Conference churches and beyond. (Thanks, Holly!)
Tag SWC and Wende on Facebook and Instagram to get our attention so we can share your posts! We’re @swcucc and Wende is @yeswende.
Now that Desert Palm United Church of Christ, Tempe, AZ is nearly done reading Bishop Mariann Budde's Learning to Be Brave, they're inviting the Southwest Conference to jump with them into their next book: Blessed Minds: Breaking The Silence About Neurodiversity by Sarah Griffith Lund.
Rev. Lund is one of the national leaders of the WISE movement, which seeks to broaden the UCC's welcome by reducing the stigma around mental illness, brain disorders and those experience neurodiversity. Rev. Lund has agreed to Zoom with us for a Q&A after we've read and discussed the book among ourselves, so watch for an announcement this summer about that!
Click through for details and the Zoom link.
As a young child, Rindra sometimes faced challenges. “I think I was mostly misunderstood,” he shared. As a middle child, he laughingly attributes some of those struggles to what he calls "middle child syndrome." “It was more than that, though,” Rindra explained, “It's hard when you don’t understand people. There was a language barrier for me as a child.”
Originally from Madagascar, Rindra grew up near Luther House in Albuquerque. His mother and siblings attended the University of New Mexico (UNM) and were active members of the Luther House community. Some of Rindra’s earliest memories, around the age of seven, involve large dinners in the chapel at Luther House. “It was a great place to sit down and have a meal together,” he recalls. As he got older, Rindra would visit his sister Ranja and brother Rado while they were living at Luther House. “I thought Luther House was a place for International Students, and in a way, it was. I didn’t know it went beyond housing and food for International Students."
Click through to read more about Rindra.
What’s happening at YOUR church? Tell us about it! Just write up an article and submit it to Wende by Thursday at noon to have it included in the following Monday’s Loop.
Holly Herman reads your church newsletters and other materials and compiles the highlights to keep us up-to-date on the amazing work happening at the Southwest Conference churches and beyond. (Thanks, Holly!)
Tag SWC and Wende on Facebook and Instagram to get our attention so we can share your posts! We’re @swcucc and Wende is @yeswende.
What’s happening at YOUR church? Tell us about it! Just write up an article and submit it to Wende by Thursday at noon to have it included in the following Monday’s Loop.
Holly Herman reads your church newsletters and other materials and compiles the highlights to keep us up-to-date on the amazing work happening at the Southwest Conference churches and beyond. (Thanks, Holly!)
Tag SWC and Wende on Facebook and Instagram to get our attention so we can share your posts! We’re @swcucc and Wende is @yeswende.
What’s happening at YOUR church? Tell us about it! Just write up an article and submit it to Wende by Thursday at noon to have it included in the following Monday’s Loop.
Holly Herman reads your church newsletters and other materials and compiles the highlights to keep us up-to-date on the amazing work happening at the Southwest Conference churches and beyond. (Thanks, Holly!)
Tag SWC and Wende on Facebook and Instagram to get our attention so we can share your posts! We’re @swcucc and Wende is @yeswende.
In April 2024, Jaye walked into Congregational Church of the Valley with her mother. Jaye is a nurse at Mayo Clinic and grew up in Kenya, Africa where her mother still lives.
At the coffee hour, we learned that the village of Ilbisil in Kenya (100 miles south of Nairobi) is in need of a well. People spend half a day going long distances to fetch water to drink and cook. Our people with “world mission” antennas out, said, “Let’s find a way to get a well dug in the village.”
We contacted Wells for the World in Michigan. A wonderful Hydro Geologist has been arranging for wells to be dug in Kenya for years. He makes his living in serving corporations here. He exercises his faith by serving the non-profit he began.
An estimate for digging and getting an electric motor established is about $16,000. Our Hydro Geologist said he has the crew in Kenya and the equipment and will get it done.
We decided to have two fundraisers under the title TURNING WINE INTO WATER.
Click through to read more!
After three years of war, there is an ongoing need for humanitarian aid in Ukraine. "Compassion on the Border” ministry at Casas Adobes UCC is once again fundraising on behalf of the people of Ukraine through the sale of note cards. The cards, from an original watercolor painted by Marjorie Miller, are available for purchase. All proceeds from the sale of these notecards will be donated to the UCC Ukraine relief fund.
We are very grateful for your continuing support. Contact Michelle Perrin for more information at mmperrin53@gmail.com.
Michelle says, "Marjorie Miller, the artist, is my amazing 102 year-old mother. She was a long-time member of Church of the Beatitudes before moving to Tucson. It brings joy to my mom, knowing that her art can be used for good!"