Update and Resources

January 16, 2026

"And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One."

~ John 1:34

Sunday Worship at 10:00 AM

Join us for worship this Sunday. You can always worship online via our live stream or anytime on our Kent UCC Video page. Click here to print the bulletin for an order of worship for those worshiping online.

Annual Meeting, Next Sunday,

January 25, 2026

A big part of our Annual Meeting will be the election of leaders for our new governance model. Your participation in this vote is very important, so we hope you can attend. Annual Impact Reports are available in the church office and the narthex.

There may be questions on your mind, and I’d like to help answer them.

1. When will the new model begin? After the Annual Meeting at the end of January. It will begin in earnest in February.
2. How do I know if I am, in fact, on a ministry or committee? If you signed up on a large post-it on Dedication Sunday or after, and nothing has changed for you since then, you may consider yourself ‘in’. I will have a hard copy of all of the rosters with me between now and then and definitely there that day. After the vote, those who will be leading these groups (stewards/conveners/coordinators) will reach out to you (some may have already started doing that, but not all will have done so yet). 
3. I did not get a chance to volunteer for a ministry or committee; how can I do that? You can let any of the Nominating Team know of your interest or speak directly to the leader of a group. With the new model, there is flexibility in how much or how long you participate in one of the ministries or committees, but leaders will surely want to be able to check back with you in the future.

Feel free to ask any further questions of the Nominating Team. The members are: Barb Hanniford, Becky Moyseenko, Jill Khol, Laurie Riddle, and me, Megan Snyder. 

Roundabout Information

Please click here for a current update on the roundabout being built near our church.

January Community Meal

This Sunday

The Community Meal is THIS Sunday January 18th at 5:00 PM. We appreciate volunteers signing up for the following jobs: Dessert baking, cooking Sunday before church at 8:30 AM, Set Up 4:00 PM, dishes at 5:00. Click HERE if you are willing to help in any way! If you have any questions about the community meal please email or call Gayle Wall. Our guests attending the meal truly appreciate our food, our time, and your donations. Come and help in 2026 and see what this hands on church mission is all about.  

Social Justice Update

Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, Tomorrow

Kent UCC will again host the annual MLK Jr. Breakfast. Tomorrow, Saturday, January 17 from 10 am to noon, with registration starting at 9:30. Tickets are $20 and available online or by leaving a check payable to Portage County NAACP in the NAACP mailbox at church. Frank Hairston has more information. This breakfast is always an inspiring time!

Urge Congress to say No to War in Venezuela!

In a joint statement with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Global Ministries, the United Church of Christ condemned this illegal military operation in Venezuela and affirmed “the right of countries and communities to shape their own futures without coercion or military intervention.” As a Just Peace denomination, we stand for “diplomacy over domination, cooperation over coercion, and peace over war.”  

We urge Congress to take a stand against this dangerous executive overreach. Reports indicate that Congress will soon vote on a War Powers resolution directing the administration to remove U.S. forces from hostilities against Venezuela without a declaration of war or authorization of use of military force by Congress. 

Tell your members of Congress to uphold our checks and balances and block unauthorized military activity in Venezuela. Take action here.

 From your Creation Justice Ministry

Microplastics are everywhere.

You can do one simple thing to avoid them.

Microplastics are released from exposure to heat. Pour coffee into a plastic cup, and pieces of the cup will leach out into the coffee itself.  Brew tea, and millions of microplastics and even tinier nanoplastics will spill from the tea bag into your cup.* Wash your polyester clothing on high heat, and the textiles can start to break apart, sending microplastics spinning through the water supply. Leave a plastic water bottle in your car in the summer heat and you are drinking plastic particles

Heat makes it easier for microplastics to leach out from packaging materials. The effect was even stronger in plastics that are older and degraded. Hot coffee prepared in an eight-year-old home coffee machine with plastic components had twice as many microplastics as coffee prepared in a machine that was only six months old.

Heat is simply bad for plastic, especially plastic used to store food and drinks. Not all plastics have perfectly formed polymer chains — in any plastic cup or jar, there may be defects, lumps and bumps that, when blasted by heat, result in the polymer breaking into smaller pieces. Stop putting anything plastic in the microwave or dishwasher and avoid pouring hot water or hot tea into plastic containers.

*How to avoid microplastics in tea:

·      Use loose leaf tea in metal infuser or ceramic/glass pot or cloth bag

·      If using bagged tea, cut it open, discard the bag (if plastic), and put the leaves in a metal/glass steeper. 

·      Look for brands using unbleached paper, stitched, not heat-sealed, and free from plastic

*Why this works:

• Heat releases plastic:  Many bags, especially those heat-sealed with plastic, shed billions of micro/nanoplastics when steeped in hot water. 
• Cutting helps: Opening the bag removes the plastic container from the hot water steeping process, but the real win is using a non-plastic brewing vessel for the leaves.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/10/13/microplastics-microwave-heat-food-drinks/?utm_campaign=wp_evening_edition&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F4552f93%2F68ed6856fc6ee61e4aac3501%2F5fe2251cade4e2167058a486%2F24%2F47%2F68ed6856fc6ee61e4aac3501

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10389239/ 

Host Coffee Hour

in the New Year

It's time to think about your New Year's Resolutions and Fellowship and Fun has the perfect idea: sign-up to host coffee hour! We need one or two volunteers each week to simply brew a pot of coffee or two, prepare some pitchers of cold water and perhaps bring a few snacks. Members of Fellowship are happy to coach you through it. The 2026 sign-up sheet is now posted on the bulletin board in VanMeter Hall.  

Kent Social Services

Volunteers Needed!

Over the summer, members of our congregation volunteered to help Kent Social Services. And the need for our help was quite obvious! During the summer, they lost their cook, and they have not yet replaced her. Marquice has been doing much of the work herself, counting on volunteers to fill in the gaps. So your Outreach ministry is hoping to extend our volunteering for the next several months. There is always something we can do there to help. We will continue with the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month working from 10-1 so that we can help to serve lunch. Sign up here to indicate when you can help. Thank you so much for your willingness to work in our community, share God’s love, and help those in need. Kent UCC shares its abundance. Please note the current needs for the food pantry below.

ACME Cash Back Program

It's that time of year again to submit your receipts for the ACME Community Cash Back program. Every year, participate in this special program that gives money to local non-profits. At the end of the program, we tally up the receipts we have collected, and we receive a portion of it back. Please submit your ACME receipts from August 1, 2025 through February 15, 2026. You can drop them in the baskets that are labeled around the church and in the church office. Thank you for participating!

Sign Up to Greet

Please sign up to be a Kent UCC Greeter. This is an easy but IMPORTANT job! Just come to church before the service at 9:35am, stand by the lower doors and welcome and greet people as they come in! It is so imperative to have a friendly face to welcome everyone as they come in to church. You are coming to church anyway so just come a little early and spread our Kent UCC extravagant hospitality to all who enter our doors. Click HERE to access the greeter sign up sheet! If you have any questions please contact Gayle Wall. 

Looking Ahead

• TOMORROW, Saturday, January 17 - MLK Breakfast with the NAACP, VanMeter Hall

• Wednesday, January 21 – Evening Prayer Service, 7pm in the Chapel

• Saturday, January 24 – Carol Horner Memorial Service, 11am in the Sanctuary

• Sunday, January 25 – Annual Congregational Meeting after worship

• Tuesday, January 27 – New Administrative Board Meeting, 7pm

• Friday, February 6 – Cleveland Chamber Choir Concert, 7pm in the Sanctuary

• Sunday, February 8 – Scout Sunday

• Wednesday, February 11 – “The Law and Our Neighbor: Community Action Council” Social Justice lecture series with John Kennedy, 7pm in the Chapel

• Thursday, February 12 – Dwelling in the Word Bible Study, 2pm in the Chapel

• Sunday, February 15 – Transfiguration and Have a Heart Sunday

• Wednesday, February 18 – Ash Wednesday service, 7pm in the Sanctuary 

This Week’s Sacred Text

John 1:29-42

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One.”

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).