St. Paul’s UCC has joined an interfaith partnership of congregations on or near Summit Avenue to host the Eco Fair on Summit for another year! With a mission of uniting in our shared responsibility to honor, protect, and heal the Earth, our coalition seeks to inspire and empower community members to take actions that create a more just, resilient, and sustainable world.

Your donation helps with the cost of purchasing flowers. Money raised beyond the cost of flowers will go to the pastor’s discretionary fund. Listing you and your loved one(s) in the bulletin is very important to us. Please fill out the flower form online at https://bit.ly/4b27pse.

St. Paul’s UCC will serve as a CSA (community supported agriculture) drop-site again this year. As with last year, we will be a drop-site for the Hmong American Farm Association (HAFA) CSA. You can learn more about them and sign up at https://www.hmongfarmers.com/csa. Don’t delay: the official deadline for the spring season is May 1, with first pick-up May 13.

About one-third of climate solutions can be implemented at the household level, and a simple, high-impact action is composting food waste. At our church, please use the green compost bins for all food scraps and compostable dishes only—this helps reduce landfill methane, improve soil, and keeps our church in compliance.

The Sanctuary Choir is seeking tenor voices for Holy Week and Easter! We’ve been grateful for growing choir participation this year, but our tenor section is still a bit underrepresented. Adding a few more tenors would help us sing in full, balanced four-part harmony during this meaningful season. If you sing in the tenor range and would enjoy sharing your voice during Lent and Easter, we would love to welcome you!

This March, St. Paul’s UCC and St. Paul’s Childhood Center are once again partnering to collect food and funds for the Department of Indian Work Emergency Food Shelf at Interfaith Action. This food drive is part of the MN FoodShare March Campaign, which brings together organizations, businesses, faith communities, and individuals to help stock and support the capacity of nearly 300 food shelves.

St. Paul’s UCC is alive with meaningful ministry and important stories to tell. As your communications staff, my goal is to keep our congregation informed in a way that’s clear, timely, and not overwhelming - so the right information is at your fingertips.

Let’s be honest, we often take God’s name and life in vain. But in difficult times, we need God and one another to hope.

This Lenten Season we’ll journey with Jesus as he healed, prayed, and hoped, even on the way to the cross. With spiritual fortitude, and mutual forbearance, we too can pray, heal, and hope ourselves toward new life and Easter Resurrection.

February is Black History Month, and SPUCC is proud to honor the many important contributions of African-Americans to our musical tradition.

We want to be part of something larger, a community that defines faith broadly, that welcomes God’s presence in sacred moments and everyday acts of kindness, that cares for one another, and will care for us when we need that most. These are among the many reasons we offer our pledge with glad hearts as part of the Stewardship Campaign.

Thank you for taking time during Friendship Hour this past Sunday to respond to a short survey about your willingness to contribute to make friendship Hour a welcoming time for all. There were 26 responses.

I am excited to share my stewardship story with you. In fact, I am rather overwhelmed at this moment to be asked to do so, for up to a year ago, I had not found a church community where I felt a connection and authentic sense of being welcomed into the community. Last March, when snow was on the ground, I woke up and was craving understanding, peace, and connection in this complicated world, and was seeking a place where I could explore my faith and the questions and certainties that accompanied it.

The Earthwise-Creation Justice team is here to help make your Thanksgiving the best-ever with ideas to pick up a locally raised turkey, and wonderful vegetarian recipes to serve at your gathering.

This Community has been my Christian Home since I was born. I was baptizing and confirmed here at St Pauls UCC. My Grandparents, my parents and my husband Joe and I were married in this church. Raised our four children at St Paul’s UCC. My love for this church community is deep within me.

I greatly appreciate the Stewardship committee’s invitation to share my stewardship story with you. I grew up attending a vibrant UCC church in SE Wisconsin. My father served as the church’s Christian education director, and so from an early age I saw church life and youth ministry “from the inside.” My dad then went on to become a pastor himself and took his first call at a small rural church in central Pennsylvania. One of his go-to stories that he shared at many opportunities was about how he organized a church service in his home when he was 5 or 6 years old. He had typed up a bulletin, he put on a robe of some sort, and he invited neighbors to attend his service. After welcoming his very small congregation, the first order of business in his service—much to his mother’s surprise--was to pass the plate and collect offerings.

I joined the Belonging and Community committee back in 2022. I don’t recall exactly how it came about, but I think Sarah came home one day and said “hey, you’re going to be on the Belonging and Community committee, ok?” [Ben is Rev. Sarah’s husband.] I came to find out later that access to the bouncy house we owned was a major factor. Apparently, this is a highly sought after item in the world of belonging. My kids have since outgrown it, so the church is now the proud owner.

Reflecting on this year's stewardship theme, "Together, Love Overflows; When we pour out what we have, God pours in more than enough", I thought about what that has meant for me over the years I have been a member at St. Paul's UCC. When I joined this church 23 years ago, I was a recent college graduate and new resident of Minnesota. I wasn't sure what the future would hold and where my faith would fit into adulthood….

On September 14 of this year Monica Joy Holley would have celebrated her 16th birthday. Those who knew her, know she would have wanted a BIG celebration