Climate Action Commissioning Service
2026-01-14 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom
As we enter a year of critical importance in the struggle for climate justice, the UCC is holding a Climate Action Commissioning Service. Gather with us as we faithfully prepare ourselves to take action in the coming year. The theme for this service and for the 2026 Climate Hope Art Contest is “a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). Our preacher will be the Rev. Jim Antal, author of “Climate Church, Climate World” and Special Advisor on Climate Justice to the UCC General Minister and President. Even if you cannot make the live event, still register, and we will send you a recording.

Reading Into the New Year: Not Just for Kids Children's Book Edition
2026-01-22 15:30 - 16:30
Join author Becky Manfredini and illustrator-writer, Meredith Gould, as they discuss their decades-long friendship that culminated in developing a children’s book series published by The Pilgrim Press: Slug and Snail Search for Home, Slug and Snail Search for Love, and Slug and Snail Search for Peace. They’ll share the inspiration for creating the main characters, Slug and Snail, two BFFs who search for the meaning of home, love, and peace.
The series focuses on these basic concepts for building a child’s social, emotional, and cognitive development, and will be explored during the webinar. Becky and Meredith will share how their lifelong love of books is one element at the core of their collaboration. They’ll also focus on finding inspiration, creative processes, and how they worked individually and as a team to create a compelling storyline, through showing and telling.
Reading Into the New Year webinar series is a longer series where at the start of every year, Nurture the Soul partners with Pilgrim Press to invite you to lead a book discussion in your own congregational or community settings in 2026.

Reading Into the New Year: Drag Queen Preacher, The Power of Identity
2026-01-29 15:30 - 16:30
Join us for a webinar with Rev. R.R. Tavárez, the author of Drag Queen Preacher! Including themes of his Afro-Latino culture, queerness, faith, doubt, and a radical emergence as a drag performer, this minister takes us on a journey. Through the elegance of poetry and prose we are invited into a beautiful reckoning where we find our story, refuse to be invisible, and dare to become more human.
Our 2026 Reading Into the New Year series will highlight books that were released by Pilgrim Press in the 4th Quarter of 2026 and the 1st Quarter of 2026. We hope that each episode invites you to lead a book discussion in your own congregational or community settings in 2026!

This Month at the UN
2026-02-03 14:00 - 15:00, 2026-03-03 14:00 - 15:00, 2026-04-07 14:00 - 15:00, 2026-05-05 14:00 - 15:00
Join us the first Tuesday of each month at 2pm to learn more about what the UCC does at the United Nations! Hear updates from the UCC Main Representative to the UN, Donna Bollinger, on program updates, our interfaith and ecumenical partners, and upcoming events. There will be time set aside during the meeting so that we can hear from YOU on these topics and how we can help to amplify the work our local congregations and partners are doing in the community.
All are invited to join us in conversation! You only need to register once and then will be able to join us for any of our monthly meetings through the next year. Register here!

OWL Taking Flight: Sex Ed Week of Action
2026-02-04 12:00 - 13:00
Join us as we welcome Miranda Estes, State Policy and Action Manager for SIECUS for information and advocacy around Sex Ed Week of Action!

Reading Into the New Year: Dismantling White Christian Supremacy
2026-02-05 15:30 - 16:30
In this next installment of Reading Into the New Year, we’ll be in conversation that confronts traditional theology which serves to justify white Christian supremacy. We’ll explore how we go about reconstructing a theology more aligned with the teaching of Jesus and what is the role of the church has in making this transition.

Learning from the MARCH: Sharing Session with Minnesota Clergy Organizers
2026-02-06 20:00 - 21:30
Nationwide, we have all been witnesses to the remarkable organizing and action Minnesotans have been engaged in for over 8 weeks as ICE and CBP have infiltrated their neighborhoods and their lives, resulting in the deaths of two allies, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were trying to protect their neighbors. As thousands of families are separated from the surge in ICE/CBP operations there are reports of increased ICE/CBP shootings across the country while 32 people died in ICE Custody in 2025.
Over 600 interfaith clergy attended a call from organizations in Minneapolis last week to come share in education, trainings, and on the ground solidarity. And the sharing continues. Join us to hear from UCC clergy from the epicenter of the organizing and beyond, as they share their experiences and offer ideas for community and church preparedness across the country.

Venezuela, Oil & U.S. Imperialism
2026-02-11 13:00 - 14:00
Faith communities are actively addressing the U.S. invasion of Venezuela in seeking to control the country’s oil. As we work to expand and strengthen these efforts, what do faith communities need to know about the situation faced? How can they act to prevent U.S. imperialism in Venezuela and other other countries? In this webinar, we will hear from the following panelists:
-Phyllis Bennis, Program Director, Institute for Policy Studies
-Lisa Sullivan, Integral Ecology Senior Program Officer, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
-Tim Heishman, Senior Advocacy Teams Manager, Friends Committee on National Legislation
Even if you cannot make the live event, still register, and we will send you a recording.
This monthly installment of Creation Justice Webinars is co-hosted by the Rev. Dr. Brooks Berndt, who serves as the Minister of Environmental Justice for the United Church of Christ, and the Rev. Michael Malcom, who serves as the Executive Director for Alabama Interfaith Power & Light and the People’s Justice Council.

Racializing Black Women: Equity, Exceptionalism, and Sustaining Resistance
2026-02-18 15:30 - 17:00
Black women are often praised for strength, resilience, and endurance, but rarely given space to name the cost. This workshop examines how racism functions as a system of power rather than individual bias, and how Black women, including Black trans and queer women, experience its impacts in work, leadership, relationships, and movement.
Together, we will explore how the demand for exceptionalism emerges as a survival strategy within racialized systems, and how it leads to burnout, disconnection from the body, and conditional belonging. Participants will be invited to reflect on the ways faith communities may unintentionally reinforce these expectations through theology, leadership culture, and justice work.
Grounded in spiritual practice and collective care, the workshop closes by reclaiming rest as resistance understood as small, intentional acts of pause and presence that refuse disposability, restore agency, and re-center sacred worth, even as violence, occupation, and struggle persist.

Reading Into the New Year: The Story of Bob - a Trailblazer in Faith and LGBTQ+ Advocacy
2026-02-19 15:30 - 16:30
Today, the pursuit of living “more fully and authentically” is a quest that crosses terrains of social influences and self-image, intersecting with political strains for liberation and well-being. As authoritarianism swells its censorship of LGBTQ stories, “The Story of Bob” remembers the work of resistance against similar terrains strewn with legal landmines that restricted who could be fully themselves, and how, and where. During our webinar, we’ll learn more about the limits of faith in helping Bob cope with personal loneliness, desire and the impact of fear on his capacity to love and explore/wonder why the Christian landscape is as unpredictable as any other social construct of life, including family.

OWL Taking Flight: AI Impacts on Youth
2026-03-04 12:00 - 13:00
Join us to hear from health educator Brett Niessen, about the impacts of AI on youth.

Future of Faith: Movement on the Margins
2026-03-16 15:30 - 16:30
We are living in the most divided times we’ve known collectively. Between fascism, genocide, war, famine, environmental collapse, and uncertainty about our relationships and what we are called to be in such a time – we find ourselves deepening or returning to our faith. Join the Heartland Conference Minister Rev. David Long-Higgins for an engaging conversation around the future of faith in their local and regional contexts and discover how we are called to be generous, gracious, loving, and courageous during these times.

Leaves of Healing (Only for Some)
2026-03-18 13:00 - 14:00
Creation Justice Ministries has released a new downloadable resource for churches just in time for Earth Month. The new resource is entitled, “The Canopy of Creation: Trees, Faith, and the Work of Justice.” The resource invites to consider the following truth: in many cities, tree canopy follows the same fault lines as historic redlining. Neighborhoods that were denied investment generations ago are often the same neighborhoods with fewer trees today; neighborhoods experiencing higher temperatures, poorer air quality, and greater vulnerability to flooding. This is a creation justice issue because access to the life-giving benefits of trees, including shade, clean air, and cooling, has been shaped not by chance, but by systemic inequity. Learn more about this issue and the new resource available to churches in this webinar.
Even if you cannot make the live event, still register, and we will send you a recording.
This monthly installment of Creation Justice Webinars is co-hosted by the Rev. Dr. Brooks Berndt, who serves as the Minister of Environmental Justice for the United Church of Christ, and the Rev. Michael Malcom, who serves as the Executive Director for Alabama Interfaith Power & Light and the People’s Justice Council.

Flickering Encounters of Life with Life: Re-Earthing Spiritual Practice
2026-03-26 15:30 - 16:45
Whether we participate in organized religion or not, we often feel closest to God or the sacred when we’re outside and in rapport with the natural world. This is not surprising, as when we trace our lineages back, we find ancestors who practiced earth-based spiritualities. In this conversation on “re-earthing spiritual practice,” we will draw from Daniel’s two books—”Speak with the Earth and It Will Teach You: A Field Guide to the Bible” and “Live Each Season as It Passes”—as well as Daniel’s experience co-founding an outdoor “wild church” community, to trace an evolution in theology of nature beyond the dominion and stewardship paradigms, and towards relationship and reciprocity with the more-than-human world.

Our Whole Lives Taking Flight: Augmenting Your OWL Program--No Fooling!
2026-04-01 12:00 - 13:00
Join Amy Johnson and Melanie Davis for a lively discussion about ways to augment your Our Whole Lives program and support sexuality education in your faith community. Get ideas for Sex Ed for All Month in May!

The Global Rise of Religious Nationalism: Implications & the Church’s Response
2026-04-12 10:00 - 13:00
Religious Nationalism occurs when a religious tradition, political agenda, and national loyalty combine to harm those of different faiths. By privileging one community and discriminating against others, it can lead to oppression, violence, and social exclusion, especially targeting people of other religions or ethnicities. This misuse of religion undermines society and obscures its positive contributions.
Join us for this important dialogue as we seek to better understand the global realities of Religious Nationalism and discern how the church called to respond.
Religious Nationalism is not only shaping political and religious landscapes in the United States—it is emerging as a powerful force in countries around the world. How is this movement spreading globally? What theological, political, and social dynamics are fueling it? And how are churches called to respond?
The United Church of Christ welcomes Rev. Phillip Peacock, General Secretary of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, a leader in global ecumenism, justice advocacy, and Reformed theology. Drawing on his international experience, Rev. Peacock will examine how Religious Nationalism appears in different cultural contexts around the globe, while Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson will provide perspective on its impact in the United States.

Steadfastness and Empowerment: Palestinian Women and the YWCA of Palestine
2026-04-15 11:00 - 12:00
As the world has watched a US- and Israeli-led war against Iran over the past several weeks, the impact has been felt directly in other parts of the Middle East as well, and has overshadowed Israel’s war against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem.  The impact of the last two and a half years of war, and over 58 years of occupation, and almost eight decades of displacement have been felt deeply by Palestinian families, including and especially by Palestinian women.  But women have also been at the forefront of resistance to the challenges Palestinians have faced.  For over 130 years, the YWCA of Palestine has offered a witness of hope and empowerment – for women and for Palestinian society more broadly. What have those impacts been and how have Palestinian women been affected?  What roles have Palestinian women claimed in the midst of these challenges? And in what ways has the YWCA of Palestine continued to enable women and youth to demand, exercise and protect their economic, social and political rights? In this webinar, join us as we welcome Ms. Mayadah Tarazi, the YWCA of Palestine’s Operations, Human Resources and International Relations Manager, and Ms. Selina Abdullah, the YWCA of Palestine’s Grants, Reporting and Compliance Manager, two young women who exemplify the Palestinian characteristic of Sumud, or steadfastness.  They will discuss the current lived reality, how Palestinians have faced that reality, and the ways that the YWCA of Palestine has responded.

Meet the Nominee
2026-04-16 17:45 - 19:00
Ahead of the special meeting of General Synod Thirty-five which will take place on May 9, this is an opportunity to meet the nominee for the position Associate General Minister, Love of Church. General Synod Assistant Moderator Susan Cartmell and Search Committee Chair Rev. Cean James will introduce the nominee, Rev. Jennifer Sowell, who will then offer some remarks. The majority of the time is dedicated for Q&A with the nominee.

Future of Faith: Faith in Chaotic Times
2026-04-20 15:30 - 16:30
Faith practices, even leadership during “normal” times can be difficult but in times of chaos, we might find ourselves asking different questions. In this webinar, we’ll explore how being faithful is an embodied practice that prepares us to not respond with fear or “old ways of being”, but to anchor ourselves to communities that commit to cultivating trusting and compassionate practices to meet our spiritual and practical needs. By modeling faith over fear, we can transform crises into opportunities for resilience and abundance.

Economic Justice and the Special Mission Offerings
2026-04-21 15:00 - 16:00
Join Seth Wispelwey and Rachel McDonald to talk about the intersection of our giving and economic justice. Explore how the Special Mission Offerings, an all-church commitment of the UCC to designated gifts throughout the year, highlight concepts like mutual aid and responsibility for our neighbor. Participants will deepen their understand of money beyond occasional moments of generosity into a lifelong practice of justice.

Let’s Talk About It | Mental Health Sunday
2026-04-23 15:30 - 16:45
Reports from SAMHSA and CAHMI in recent years have shown that approximately 1 in 4 Americans have had a diagnosable mental health condition. With this prevalence in mind, discussing mental health experiences in a way that normalizes conversation and care—particularly from the pulpit—is vital to healthy and holistic spiritual care. The UCC annually recognizes the third Sunday in May as Mental Health Sunday, and this year it lands on May 17, 2026. But what even is Mental Health Sunday, why should you host one, and how do you go about planning a worship service dedicated to mental health? You are invited to join Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund (UCC National Staff) and members of the UCC Mental Health Network’s Board of Directors as they discuss implementing Mental Health Sunday in your own ministry context.

2026 Earth Summit
2026-04-25 13:00 - 15:30
The theme for the fourth annual Earth Summit is “A Future with Hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). To ground and inspire us as people of faith in difficult times, the Jim Antal Keynote Lecture will be delivered by the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Samuel, a renowned advocate and organizer for justice who serves as the pastor of Victory for the World Church in Decatur, Georgia.
This two-and half-hour summit will additionally feature a panel discussion entitled “Power to the People: Energy Justice for an Equitable Future.” Celebrations at the summit will include the announcement of the winners for both the Dollie Burwell Prophetic Action Award and the Climate Hope Art Contest for children and youth. Moreover, we will recognize our newest Creation Justice Churches and our first Climate Hope Affiliates.
Cohosts for the summit include the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and First Congregational Church of Atlanta.
The summit is jointly sponsored by the five financial ministries of the United Church of Christ: Cornerstone Fund, Church Building and Loan Fund, Insurance Board, Pension Board UCC, and United Church Funds.

A Conversation with Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson and Rev. Jennifer Sowell
2026-04-29 18:00 - 19:00, 2026-04-30 13:00 - 14:00
Leaders who come together to nurture community often discover a shared vision rooted in how they live the values and mission they serve. This April, Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, warmly welcomes Rev. Jennifer Sowell, nominee for Associate General Minister for the Love of Church to have a conversation and lean into the Programmatic Priorities of the NMUCC in a two-part series.
During the April 29, 2026 dialogue at 6:00 PM EST, they will explore key programmatic priorities shaping the work of the NMUCC, including the cooperative work of Strengthening the Church across the UCC; Leadership Development, with a focus on cultivating faithful, skilled leaders to serv in a variety of contexts; and Climate Action, highlighting the church’s commitment to faith-based environmental justice, sustainability, and a just transition for all creation.
Then, the second conversation on April 30, 2026, at 1:00 PM EST, they will continue to discuss the programmatic priorities, including Spiritual Formation and ongoing learning rooted in faith, inclusivity, and theology; Reshaping the Narrative, exploring the narratives and stories of the UCC’s nearly seventy-year history; and Decolonization, focusing on the initiatives and efforts towards social change.
Register today to listen in and learn more about how these leaders love the church, lead with purpose, and grow into God’s unfolding vision.

Kairos Palestine: “Faith in a Time of Genocide”
2026-05-04 11:00 - 12:00
In the midst of Israel’s ongoing 2½ years of genocide in Gaza and intensified military and settler violence in the West Bank, part of a decades-long occupation, Kairos Palestine, a Palestinian Christian ecumenical movement of creative resistance, issued its second seminal document, “A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide,” in November 2025.  The document follows Kairos Palestine’s initial document, “A Moment of Truth – A Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering,” from Dec. 2009.  What does the second document say about the current reality?  What does it call on us as US Christians and churches to do to offer a positive witness of solidarity for Palestinians in the struggle for justice?
Join us for a webinar featuring Rifat Kassis, the General Coordinator of Kairos Palestine, and Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hope in Ramallah, Palestine, and Founding Director of the Bethlehem Institute of Peace and Justice, a center affiliated with the Bethlehem Bible College.  Mr. Kassis and Rev. Isaac are co-authors of the Kairos Palestine II document, and both are contributing authors to Rooted in Faith and Justice: Christian Calls to Conscience & Cries for Peace in Palestine.  Together, they will help us to dive deeper into the reality of Palestinian Christians today, their witness and context, and what is required of the global Christian community to accompany them.

Our Whole Lives Taking Flight: Sex Ed For All Month with the UMC!
2026-05-06 12:00 - 13:00
Join us as we welcome Rev. Heather Gottas Moore with the United Methodist Church to talk about how Our Whole Lives in the UMC is one way we are all celebrating Sex Ed for All Month this year. Hear the grass roots story about how the UMC is embracing Our Whole Lives and be inspired to spread the word!

Proclaiming “Love Knows No Borders”: Moving from Desolation to Action
2026-05-07 15:30 - 16:45
Join the United Church of Christ National Setting for an engaging and timely webinar exploring our “Love Knows No Borders” resource, a powerful witness and resource offered to equip congregations to respond to the continued attacks on immigrants, refugees, and LGBTQIA siblings. Grounded in the Gospel call to welcome the stranger, Love Knows No Borders (LKNB) resources offer theological reflection, policy analysis, and practical strategies for advocating for our migrant siblings.
This webinar will highlight voices from UCC national staff and leaders from UCC COREM ministries to share stories of how communities are being impacted and growing points of collaboration on immigrant justice, humane border policies, and the role of faith communities in confronting systems of exclusion and harm.
Together, we will:
• Explore the biblical and theological foundations for immigrant justice
• Examine current U.S. immigration policies and their human impact
• Highlight opportunities for advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels
• Share tools for congregational engagement, storytelling, and public witness
Whether you are new to advocacy or looking to deepen your congregation’s commitment to welcome, this webinar will provide actionable insights and inspiration to live out a love that truly knows no borders.
