Friday, August 28, 2026

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Worship at RUCC

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 30 “A Generous Assumption” 

It’s a challenge to give somebody the benefit of a doubt. But what if doing so expands our lives and makes the world a better place? In my reflection, I will explore the “hermeneutic of generosity” proposed by Dr. Paul Farmer. It’s a practical way “to let love be genuine,” as Sunday’s scripture passage exhorts us. A way that begins by giving even the most difficult people the benefit of a doubt.

-Pastor Michael Schiefelbein

Scripture: Romans 12:9-17

Last week's sermon: redlandsucc.org

Caring for Each Other

Bring Your Prayers

For the time being, we are keeping the prayer requests sheet at the entrance of the Sanctuary before worship each Sunday. Please write down any prayers that you would like to have included in our worship - the prayers we have received in the office will be on the sheet already.

Prayer Requests:

• Prayers for Cynthia McGuigan to find relief from pain after a difficult surgery.
• Prayers for strength and patience for those serving as caregivers for their loved ones.
• Prayers of reassurance for Steve and Lee Schuh, as they await the scheduling of Steve’s cancer treatment.
• Prayers of hope for families separated because of immigration status.
• Prayers of comfort and strength for people suffering because of US sanctions and the end to US aid, especially the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Prayers of endurance and hope for people suffering in the devastation of war, especially the people of Gaza and Ukraine.

Ongoing concerns:

• Tom Miller
• Bill Buchanan
• Ruth Jordan
• Jon Herbert
• Carol Buchanan
• Mary Lou Haney
• Craig Wesson
• Susan Matthews

Please send prayer requests to the office at office@redlandsucc.org

Transitions

RUCC Parking Lot will be Closed September 14 through September 19

The RUCC parking lot will be closed September 14 through September 19 to allow for scheduled parking lot work.

During this time, the building will not be accessible from either the lower or upper parking lots. If you need to access the building during this period, you will need to enter through the lower garden. Please use extreme caution when walking through the grass and garden area.

To ensure the project can be completed safely, efficiently, and without unnecessary delays, all regularly scheduled meeting groups will be asked to postpone their meetings during this week.



We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to complete this important project. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Church Office.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Open Position, Weeknight Child Care Worker

Redlands United Church of Christ is seeking a Child Care Worker to provide care for children ages 3 to 10 during church choir and handbell rehearsals. At this time, the rehearsals are held on Wednesday evenings and child care is needed typically from 5:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. A candidate for the position must be 18 years or older, have current CPR and first aid certification, and must pass a Live Scan background check. The candidate must have the ability to work with a wide age range of children, maintain a clean, pleasant environment, recognize common illnesses and plan activities suitable to the children in attendance.

This position starts at $20 per hour and runs from September to June, with occasional weeks off, if the choir is not rehearsing.

Interested parties should forward a resume to Carole Beswick at Cbeswick@redlandsucc.org. The job description can be found at this link.

Child Care Worker

Groups & Gatherings

Caring for Our Church Home: Building Use & Clean-Up

Our church building is a shared space, and we are grateful for the many groups, ministries, and activities that take place throughout the week. With so many people using our facilities, it is important that each group does its part to leave the space ready for the next person.

Please remember to clean up after your group meets. Before leaving, take a few minutes to:

• Return tables, chairs, and other furniture to their original arrangement.
• Dispose of all trash and recycling in the appropriate containers.
• Clean up any food or beverages, including spills and crumbs.
• Return kitchen items and supplies to their proper places.
• Remove any decorations, signs, or materials your group brought into the building.
• Check the room and surrounding areas to make sure nothing has been left behind.
• Leave the space in the same condition—or better—than you found it.

Our staff works hard to prepare the building for worship services, meetings, rentals, and other scheduled activities. When groups do not clean up after themselves, additional staff time is required to reset and clean the space, taking time away from other important responsibilities.

Please help us care for RUCC by taking responsibility for the space your group uses. A few extra minutes at the end of each meeting makes a big difference and helps ensure that our building remains welcoming, clean, and ready for everyone.

Thank you for helping us be good stewards of our shared church home!

Bible Study, Monday, August 31

Please join us in the Youth Room on Monday, 8/31, from 7:00 p.m.- 8:30 p.m. We will be discussing the story of Herodias/Salome, found in:

Matthew 14

Mark 6

Luke 3

Newcomers and first-timers are especially encouraged to join us for this invigorating discussion!

Next Chair Yoga, Monday, August 31

Chair Yoga may sound like it is easy-peasy, but it is quite a wonderful yet gentle workout. For the last eight months, 15 to 20 friends and neighbors of RUCC have gathered on Mondays at 10:00 a.m. in Covenant Hall to stretch, strengthen, and breathe. Our fearless leader, Jeanne Andrews, a gifted certified yoga instructor, challenges us to work a little harder in modified yoga poses. Afterwards, you feel the best kind of tired. It is for people of all abilities. We would love to have you give it a try. Donations appreciated.

Book Group meeting September 6

The RUCC Book Group will be reading The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, and discussing it at the next meeting on Sept. 6 after church, at noon, in Founders Room.  The presenter will be Charletta Campfield.

“PULITZER PRIZE WINNER NATIONAL BESTSELLER This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.”

—Amazon review

 "One of the most gifted novelists in America today." —NPR

AA meeting location for September 4 & 11

The Friday night women's AA will be meeting at an alternative location due to the parking lot closure. Contact Judith Turian for the address.

Baby Shower, Sunday, September 13, for Zoe and Sophia

Please join us for a baby shower for Zoe and Sophia during fellowship time after church on September 13. We are excited to celebrate with them! For those who want to give a gift, here is a link to their registry:

https://my.babylist.com/zoe-petersen?session_synced=true

Note: There are also options for the baby's college fund and for gift cards.

Mark Your Calendars! Art, For Heaven's Sake! 47th Annual Show October 16, 17, and 18, 2026

“The Art Show” – You hear this quite often in conversation around our church. In case you were wondering what it is all about, here you go.

Art, for Heaven’s Sake! Fine Arts Festival is a three-day annual art festival on the grounds and gardens of the Redlands United Church of Christ. The Redlands United Church of Christ holds this event to support the arts and the community.

This premiere art festival of the Inland Empire features 72 artists and crafters representing a wide variety of media, including acrylics, photography, watercolor, oils, stained glass, jewelry, pottery, and metal sculpture.

In addition to original art, the festival offers a craft boutique, a fabulous food truck experience, incredible music, and artist demonstrations. A gala “Meet the Artists” reception open to everyone is held on Friday evening to open the show.

This is one of the biggest fundraisers for our church, but it doesn’t magically happen. The members and friends of our church make it happen, so mark your calendars and watch for upcoming information on how YOU can be a part of making this premier event a huge success.

Children and Youth

Save the Date for Children and Youth activities

QUESTIONS? Contact Kara Tolan or Kathy McCool in Education.

Helping Hands

Caring for Kin, August 2026

This Sunday is our last day to collect toiletries for Angel's Closet. Items they specially requested include the following:

Toothbrushes and toothpaste 

Soap and body wash 

Shampoo

Deodorant 

Lotion

Sanitary pads and tampons 

Underwear - all sizes, youth through adult

Socks - all sizes, youth through adult

In the month of September, we'll be collecting shelf-stable food and snacks for Youth Hope. Look for a list of the most-needed items in next week's The View!

Thank you,

Diana Steele-Jones

Lost & Found Reminder

Have you misplaced a jacket, water bottle, dish, umbrella, or another personal item? Our Lost & Found box, located in Covenant Hall, may have what you're missing!

We invite everyone to take a few moments to look through the Lost & Found and claim any belongings, to help keep the area organized.

If you have any questions, please contact the Church Office. Thank you for helping us keep our shared spaces tidy!

Social Justice Team Meeting, Tuesday, September 1

Social justice team meeting, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 3:00 p.m. in Founders Room. We will be discussing what kind of efforts we can take to help ensure free and fair elections and also to plan a banned book library. Please join us.

Environmental justice message

How Piles of Mushrooms Help Fight Wildfires -

Across the West, thousands of towns face the threat of hotter, more destructive wildfires. One of them is Estes Park, Colorado. This affluent neighborhood has several piles of rotting, fungi-infested mulch. Its purpose? Researchers and supporters hope it will serve as a layer of ecological defense that helps mitigate the risk of wildfire.

These scattered mounds of decaying biomass are managed by the Estes Valley Watershed Coalition. In August 2025, the group worked with the Colorado State Forest Service and other agencies to identify at-risk neighborhoods and select trees to be cut and chipped into windrows, linear heaps of decaying organic material. Then they planted oyster mushrooms that a local group sourced from the wild, which are meant to keep the debris moist and turn the wood into nutrient-rich compost. Without chipping the wood, those combustible logs could litter the ground for decades. With it, the process takes two or three years.

Jeff Ravage is the one who developed the mushrooms, called spawn, in a Denver lab by regrowing their thread-like mycelia, which are usually too deep and fragile to harvest. He came up with the idea of using fungi to fight fire after 2002’s Hayman Fire, the largest in Colorado history at the time. As a forester, he knew enough about mushrooms to know that they retain moisture. With this foundational knowledge, he launched a five-year experiment where he inserted native mushrooms directly into woody biomass to find out how quickly the material would decay, reducing the amount of fire fuel. He called it the Coldfire Project. More than a decade later, the experiment showed that a fungal element could speed up decomposition threefold, which could have a measurable impact.

The Coldfire process is a viable alternative to traditional methods, suche as pile burning. It’s safer and has the ecological advantage of returning carbon to the soil instead of sending it into the atmosphere. Another benefit is that composting the biomass is a more affordable option. Additionally, this approach to fire mitigation could be used even in drier climates, including areas with as little annual precipitation as nine inches. The key is to plant the mushrooms before a wet period, like early spring or before winter. After the mushrooms get thoroughly soaked, they’ll hold moisture – the typical oyster mushroom is about 85- 88 percent water.

For full article see: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/piles-mushrooms-are-rotting-colorado-town-help-curb-forest-fires

Submitted by the environmental justice team

Community Creation Service, Sunday, September 13

All are invited to attend the Community Creation Service, Sunday, Sept. 13, at 4:00 p.m. at Vine Street Community Park at First Presbyterian Church.

The Wider Church

Third Quarter Donations for Wider Ministries

In the third quarter of 2026, RUCC Wider Ministries sent a donation to Southpaw Rescue. Southpaw Rescue is a nonprofit based in Southern California dedicated to recover abandoned dogs (and other pets) along Highway 38, in mountain campgrounds, and near homes in the San Bernardino Mountain Communities. They partner with other like-minded organizations and individuals to rescue animals in need. They provide foster homes and medical care before ultimately finding these distraught and abused pets the right forever home. With the hope of one day seeing a world where animal cruelty no longer exists and all animals have a safe home, Southpaw Rescue seeks to work with shelters, individual rescuers and law enforcement to magnify our impact on rescuing animals from abusive and neglectful circumstances.

https:www.southpawrescue.com/

Bless & Be Blessed is a space for our church family to share new or gently-used items they no longer need. Whether you’re looking to pass something along or find something useful, this is a simple way to care for one another and practice good stewardship within our community. Contact the office or send the information to the View when you have an item to offer or an item you need.

Free Items

2 rollators (1 used twice, 1 new)

Aluminum walker (brand new)

Trapeze for hospital bed (brand new)

Bedside Commode (brand new)

Contact Sue Kirkhart 

Around Town

• Redlands Events for August 2026

Calendar

This week at RUCC

Saturday, August 29

• 9:00a.m.- AFHS meeting
• 2:00 p.m. - Private Funeral

Sunday, August 30

• 9:15 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - Kids' Zone
• 10:30 a.m.- Sunday School (kids start in Sanctuary, then to Mosaic)
• 10:30 a.m. - Worship in the Sanctuary
• 12:00 p.m. - Wider Ministries meeting

Monday, August 31

• 10:00 a.m. - Chair Yoga

Tuesday, September 1

• 11:00 a.m.- Munch and Muse lunch group
• 11:30 a.m. - Artistic Journey group

Wednesday, September 2

• 1:00 p.m. - Mah Jongg

Thursday, September 3

Friday, September 4

Saturday, September 5

• 9:00 a.m. - Sacred Saturday

Sunday, September 6

• 9:15 a.m. - Kids' Zone
• 10:30 a.m. - Sunday School (kids start in Sanctuary)
• 10:30 a.m. - Worship in the Sanctuary
• 12:00 p.m. - Book Group

Useful Information

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