Have no fear, your Settled Minister Search Committee is here, dear, and clear. Its 14 members were introduced in the December newsletter, and they have chosen three co-chairs (from left to right in photo above): Lindsey Telg, Jim Harper, and Meaghan Bonnaghan. Ministers Talia Raymond and Donna Schaper are non-voting advisors. After only…
DetailsMost Gainesville folks could probably direct you to a number of Baptist, Methodist, Catholic or Episcopal churches. But a United Church of Christ (UCC) church? Gainesville people do not refer to UCG as the UCC church in town. Indeed, probably many are unaware of the denominational connection. Maybe some of you were, too? In…
Detailsby Alan Hill (Chair, Board of Business) On Sunday, January 11, we will have a congregational meeting where our primary task will be to adopt a final 2026 operating budget for UCG. Back in October the congregation approved a “challenge” budget which set our pledge goal for 2026 at an ambitious $870,787. In my…
DetailsGreetings from the Board of Human Resources. Last month you heard from the Congregation Ministry Review Board (CMRB) about their current role and the ongoing discussions about creating a Pastoral Relations Committee (PRC). This month I’d like to share with you a little about the Board of Human Resources (BHR) and the way in which…
DetailsThe Sunday Seminar Committee is pleased to announce the line-up of seminars for January. Seminars are in person and on Zoom on Sundays at 11:30 a.m. Meeting ID: 829 6457 0385 Passcode: 1624 January 4: “One U.S. Historian’s Take on the Current Political Moment” – Warren Goldstein As we close the book on a dreadful…
DetailsAre you wondering what to purchase for those folks on your holiday shopping list? Consider gifting banned books! The number of books banned since 2021 has increased dramatically. Pen America noted 6,870 bans within the 2024-2025 school year alone. This means that unless students frequent public libraries and/or bookstores, they not only lack access to…
DetailsLast month I wrote about “Congregationalism – What?” This month I’ll answer a question about the search process and why the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ has to be involved. Can’t we just pick our own minister? . . . The short answer is yes. As part of a congregational organization, we…
DetailsGreetings from the Congregational Ministry Review Board (aka CMRB). I am really excited to share with you a strategic change CMRB and I have been studying and discussing this year. It’s a different model of what CMRB does called a Pastoral Relations Committee. Before we dig in, though, you might be wondering what CMRB does.…
Detailsby Alan Hill This is the third of a three-part series on advanced ways to financially support your United Church of Gainesville. In part one we learned about qualified charitable distributions (QCD’s) from a traditional individual retirement account (IRA) for persons at least 70 ½ years. In part two we described the use of…
DetailsHappy Holidays by Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper May you wind down if your clock is racing. May you wind up if your clock is dragging. May you wind down enough to wind up again if you are a little of both. Let these holidays incarnate you. Let them inoculate you with joy. Let any…
Detailsby Alan Hill, Chair, UCG Board of Business This is the second of a three-part series on advanced ways to financially support your United Church of Gainesville. In part one we learned about qualified charitable distributions (QCD’s) from a traditional individual retirement account (IRA) for persons at least 70½ years old. In this part we…
Detailsby Suzanne Huggard, Council Member-at-Large There are Interim Ministers, and the Florida Conference, and the United Church of Christ, and Congregationalism. Oh My! What?! Are we the United Church of Gainesville Congregationalists? What does that mean? If you read the back of the Sunday bulletin, you may have noticed the sentence that says, “This church…
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