www.henriettaucc.org

Knitting4Peace meets Friday at 10 am via ZOOM

Sunday Worship is at the SUMMER schedule 10:00 am, streaming live on HUCC’s YouTube Channel HERE

Sunday Fellowship Time is at 11:00 am after worship via ZOOM

Christian Education meets Monday at 7 pm via ZOOM

Stewardship/Investment meets Monday at 7 via ZOOM

Trustees meet next Thursday, July 9, at 7 pm via ZOOM

Bulletins for all services can be found by clicking HERE

Office is CLOSED until further notice. Email and phone ARE being monitored.

Follow us on both at @HenriettaUCC

This Week... Special Points of Interest This Sunday in Worship...

This Sunday, July 5, is the 5th Sunday af-

ter Pentecost. Our text will be Matthew 11: 16-

19 and 25-30, which will be read by Judy

Hawk. Worship will begin at 10:00am; you

can find us at: https://www.youtube.com/

TheHenriettaUCC

We are continuing with our new element,

placing videos of people doing parts of the

service, which will be happening with the

aforementioned scripture reading. We will continue with musical

offerings on video this week as Brady Griffin will be “joining” us

again to sing the anthem.

Don’t forget to have your communion ready! We will again

celebrate the Lord’s Supper together on Sunday, so be sure and

gather your elements, be they grape juice and bread, coffee and

doughnut, or whatever you have in your home. The table Jesus set

is so broad and vast that it extends from the Sanctuary to your

home and beyond.

We want to again thank all of you for faithfully participating in the

offering. We are so grateful for folks sending their pledges and Dol-

lar A Day gifts in, as well as to those submitting them online. To

make your gift online, just go to henriettaucc.org and click on the

“Online Donation” button on the right-hand side. Dollar A Day has

“sold” roughly 81 of the 100 “shares” ($366) needed to reach the

goal. If you have yet to “purchase a share” and are able to, please

consider this gift in supporting God’s work from this congregation.

If you have prayer requests or announcements that need to be

made, please email them to the church by 6pm Saturday, 7/4/2020.

Zoom Fellowship Hour will happen right after worship – please

note that you may need to “update” your Zoom software. We know

Click HERE for the most recent Council Meeting Minutes (May 2020)

May 7 , 2020

HUCC Happenings

Continued on next page

This Sunday in Worship. . . This Week...

July 2 , 2020

HUCC Happenings

www.henriettaucc.org

Continued from the previous page

that there have been some issues. Andrea has put the information to get to Fellowship Hour else-

where in this issue of Happenings, and an email with a link will come to you on Sunday morning as

well. Note that we are using the new Zoom room we created 2 weeks ago for this, so if you have an

old Zoom link, please disregard it.

Lastly, if you have not read the July newsletter which Andrea Folan emailed out, please take a

look – there is much information waiting for you!

Thanks and blessings,

Pastor Jason

Sunday Fellowship Time—NEW LINK

After worship Sunday, be sure to join in on the ZOOM Fellowship time immediately following.

This is the “new” link we started using 2 weeks ago. Be sure to update…

HUCC Happenings

Weekly Pledges—Mail or On-Line

We’d like to remind you that, if you are planning to mail your pledge

checks, we prefer you send them to the church address – 1400 Lehigh Sta-

tion Rd., P.O Box 430, Henrietta, NY 14467. This assures their safety and

lowers Mike Gass’ stress and responsibility for them. If you DO send them

directly to Mike, please be sure to use the correct address: 63 Kings Lane,

Rochester 14617.

You can also submit your weekly/monthly donation via a direct link on

the church web site —https://henriettaucc.org/. Click the “online donation” button on the home

page and follow the directions to submit your donation and indicate earmarks using your credit

card. It is really easy.

Summer Music Volunteers STILL Needed If anyone is interested in helping add music to our Live-streamed

services this summer during the months of July and August, please

contact Joe Green (334-0212) to schedule a Sunday. He’ll be glad to

answer any questions or help anyone pick out a song if they would like

from his extensive music library. There are both live (with safely

protocols observed) and recorded options available now, so you could

submit a video of a performance you record at home. PLEASE consider

helping out in this way.

www.henriettaucc.org

HUCC Happenings

“White Fragility” Book and Discussion Group

What is it that keeps we who are white from being able to discuss racism seriously? Perhaps it

is ourselves. Robin DiAngelo's book "White Fragility" dives into this question, exploring

why white people have such difficulty when it comes to facing questions of race and racism. We

hope you will join us for a book group in July where will we explore these and other questions using

Professor DiAngelo’s work.

If you are able to read on Kindle, the book is available now. Amazon was

previously listing physical copies as out of stock, but is now indicating they will

be available beginning June 29 for July 1 delivery. Pastor Martha has reported

that https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ has copies available.

We will gather on Zoom at 7pm on 3 Tuesday evenings in July (14. 21, 28),

leaving open the possibility of more gatherings depending on how quickly we

move through the book.

Discussions on In–Person Worship on Hold Until Fall

With businesses reopening in New York State, Church Council and Trustees had been

discussing steps to possibly hold in-person worship at church. Bob Day undertook the large task of

studying the recommendations and procedures from the CDC, our UCC New York State

Conference, New York State, plus other area churches and presented his report to Trustees and

Council. After discussing the ramifications of Bob’s findings, Council unanimously concluded that

meeting in person at this time would not be in the best interest of our worship experience, values,

and finances.

There were many reasons that bore weight to this decision, but the highlights are the following:

(1) With the virus still in circulation, we could put at risk members of our congregation, especially

those over 65, who make up 50 percent of our congregation. (2) With person per square footage,

distance and masking requirements, the whole of our congregation would not be able worship in the

sanctuary, presenting us with inclusivity issues. (3) The worship experience would be diminished

without any singing, group prayer, communion, collection of offerings or passing the peace. This

means the live-streamed service would no longer contain those components either. (4) Holding

worship will increase the necessary disinfection costs.

Council will reassess holding in-person worship in the Fall, when there is a clearer picture of the

presence of the virus in the community. We will hold an informational congregational Zoom meeting

on July 19 at noon to discuss the decision and answer any questions.

This was a difficult and disappointing decision, but there is some good news on the horizon.

Small group in-person outdoor fellowship opportunities over the summer are in the planning stages

now.

Joan Barnes, Moderator

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Continued on next page

HUCC Happenings

From Trustees regarding 2020 Budget and Annual Meeting Follow-up What a difference a few months make! As you may have noticed in the Happenings and other

Newsletter Articles, the financial deficit projected for 2020 has been eliminated! This is Good News

indeed, and a cause for celebration in these COVID, socially distanced times. The reason for this is

fourfold:

1. God’s grace and answered prayers

2. Everyone has been good at keeping your pledges and financial gifts current or paid slightly

ahead.

3. The Dollar a Day campaign has been widely supported and successful in raising additional

stewardship gifts. As of Sunday, 6/21, we have collected $29,408.76!

4. In April, we applied for and were successful in obtaining a SBA Payroll Protection Program Loan

through the 2020 CARES Act for COVID-19 response. Our loan is $28,500 and we anticipate

being able to qualify for 100% loan forgiveness in August, once our 8-week payroll retention

period is completed. So, in effect we will have secured a $28,500 grant.

In the interest of better communication and financial transparency, beginning in July, the Trustees

and Treasurer will publish a short and simple monthly HUCC Financial report in the Happenings and

Newsletter. This will keep us all informed regarding how we’re doing each month compared to our

monthly goal and cashflow needs. This is the same, but shortened version of the Treasurer’s month-

ly report to Trustees and Church Council.

Following up on the annual meeting and the positive discussion we had regarding the 2020

vvBudget and now looking forward to future budgets, the Trustees would like to share this update

about our progress and actions.

We continue to proceed with a four-pronged approach. This is in the spirit of what was discussed

in more general terms at the annual meeting:

Stewardship: To streamline operations, we have merged the Stewardship and Investment

committees and expanded its timeframe to annual / continuous.

Fund Raising: This has been shelved for 2020 due to COVID and the elimination of the 2020

deficit. However, the Church Council is considering a list of future fund -raising ideas. Some

of these are “passive” are in place now and will remain an ongoing fund-raising stream.

a. Passive fund raising:

i. Upstate Bottle Return Center (next to Beers of the World) will donate our bottle

vvdeposit money to HUCC if members designate HUCC as the recipient.

ii. Amazon donates a percentage of your purchases to HUCC if you enroll in Amazon

Smile and designate HUCC as the recipient.

iii. The UCC Cornerstone Fund Church Cash Back Program. Church members who

invest in Cornerstone Fund CDs (at 2% interest on 60-month CD) can designate

HUCC as recipient of their interest cash back program. If HUCC has enough

www.henriettaucc.org

HUCC Happenings

members invest to collectively match the remaining balance of our mortgage, we

can receive $3,600 / year.

iv. Online HUCC Go Fund Me page. We have several appeals, one in support of our

youth ministry and one in support of our environmental mission.

b. Future active fund raising: We acknowledge that some of us love doing these. But, we’re

sensitive about our limited energy and ability to fund raise without adversely affecting our

mission. If fund raising is your gift and interest, please let Joan Barnes or Pastor Jason

know. These will be coordinated by Church Council and a motivated ad hoc committee.

Increasing the HUCC Endowment: The Investment / Stewardship committee will be sharing more

information about “planned giving”. This is about increasing our HUCC Endowment and replen-

ishing the Van Wagenen Fund. This is also about estate planning and “living will” gifts to help in-

sure the long-term financial strength of our church.

Selling the Parsonage: Shelved for 2020. The Trustees have completed their investigation and

have shelved this initiative. Please see Cheryl Peacock’s newsletter article for details.

Thank you for your ideas, your work in support of our church, your additional monetary gifts and

your prayers. As you can see from the above, extraordinary progress has been made. Through our

working together with God’s help, we have found solutions for 2020 and we look forward to the fu-

ture.

Dave Meyer / Trustees

Continued from the previous page

Changes to ZOOM

One of the tools for which we've been very grateful

during this time of pandemic is Zoom. It has enabled us to

connect with each other and "see" each other even when

we're not able to be in the same place as one another.

The Zoom folks have announced some changes of

which we want to make you aware. Beginning in mid-July,

Zoom will *require* all meetings to have either a waiting

room (and then the "host" lets people in) or a password for

entry. So, in the weeks to come, you will be hearing from

us or others who host Zoom meetings if your meeting will

have a password, and of course, the password will be

included so you can enter the Zoom room. When that

information comes, please save it in your email so you

don't lose access. Thanks

www.henriettaucc.org

HUCC Happenings

Warm Thanks from Cheryl and Bruce

Cheryl Peacock and Bruce Pollack very much appreciate the cards and prayers they’ve received.

Bruce is back to work with no evidence of any more cancer and Cheryl is awaiting surgery for her

new knee.

New Red Wagon Offering

Starting this Sunday, our Red Wagon collection will go

toward school supplies for kids in our local schools.

Kids, we can’t collect real pencils & paper this year, but

if you gather your spare change at home, your folks can

help you send it to the church. This offering will continue

through the end of August.

www.henriettaucc.org

Did You Know . . . .

. . . that our national setting of the United Church of Christ is busy helping our nation

be educated and informed as we move toward our elections in November . Check

out the article below and the full article at : www.ucc.org And see how our faith and

our vote are so very important to our democracy!

As COVID cuts in-person voter activism, UCC ‘Our Faith, Our Vote’ goes digital

The COVID-19 pandemic is preventing the

usual in-person voter registration, mobilization

and education work that many churches do in a

general election year. So the United Church of

Christ’s Our Faith, Our Vote program is offering

new ways to help people do that work online.

Among them:

Summer webinars featuring prominent voting advocates, including Stacey

Abrams and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

A Civic Action Center, where people can click to check their registration status,

get registered to vote, find their polling place or get help with early voting.

A 2020 issue-education pagewith videos and written “one pagers” on 10 key

issues.

“Although we often quote the First Amendment to caution against government impos-

ing any undue influence over individual freedom of religion, personal politics are one

way we live out or faith in the world,” said the Rev. Traci Blackmon, UCC associate

general minister for Justice and Local Church Ministries. “Politics, derived from the

Greek word politiká, is a multi-faceted word that encompasses how we will interact

with one another in the world. Our actions are informed by our faith.

“In our voter education webinar series we seek to make this connection. Whether in

the pulpit, in the public square, or in the polling booth, we are accountable to our faith

through our actions regarding the public welfare.”

HUCC Happenings

www.henriettaucc.org

Fundraising News!!! Bottle and Can Returns

We have established fundraising accounts at two bottle redemption centers. These will be long term accounts, so keep collecting and returning those bottles and cans!

Collect returnable bottles/cans

Return to either of the centers listed below. Inform them that these are for the account of:

Henrietta United Church of Christ Instead of giving you cash, they’ll record the amount on our account

and send us a check when we wish.

Upstate Bottle Return Center (6 cents per bottle/can for fundraisers) Corner of E. Henrietta/Calkins Rd. Next to Beers of the World

Spread the word to family and friends as well!

An Easy HUCC Fundraising Option Please be sure to share this opportunity with family and friends and on your social media. We are

hoping to solicit funds from outside the church

We have an AmazonSmile account, so go to smile.amazon.com to make your purchase, select Henrietta United Church of Christ, Henrietta NY (there is one in Ohio, too!) and a portion of your purchase will be given to HUCC. When making your purchase, go directly to HUCC’s unique charity link...https://smile.amazon.com/ch/22-2507455

HUCC Happenings