Blessing of the Animals
Sunday, October 8, 2023 at 10:30 a.m. Members of the community are invited to join us for a special worship service followed by a Blessing of the Animals at Hillcrest Congregational Church, UCC. Your four-legged friends, fish, turtles, birds–even your favorite stuffed animal–are welcome to receive a Blessing performed by Pastor Kim Kendrick. You and…
Sunday September 17th will be an outdoor service.
The service will not be live streamed on 9/17 and there will not be a recording uploaded. If you are willing and able, Come join us on the patio on September 17th. The worship theme will be: “Come to the Table…of Love.”
Back to Church Sunday Outdoor Worship and Potluck
The kids are back at school and most have returned from summer vacations. At Hillcrest, we’d like to pause a moment to invite and welcome people back to church for a new church year. We’ll start with our 10:30 worship service outside on the patio, followed by a potluck lunch in Fellowship Hall. All are…
Ice Cream Mondays with Pastor Kim
Exhale. How are things with your soul today? I’m always in the mood for a little ice cream or coffee if you’d like to join me Mondays in September 1:00pm at Cold Stone Creamery 60 Crescent Dr, Pleasant Hill, CA ~ Pastor Kim”
Livestreaming Worship Sundays 10:30 am
HCC End of Worship “Sending” Click here for Info on Images Release during Attendance
Back to Church Sunday and Potluck Lunch
Sunday, September 17, 2023 Join us on Back to Church Sunday as we invite and welcome people back to church for a new church year. Whether it’s your first visit, or your 1000th, we look forward to seeing you at Hillcrest Congregational Church, United Church of Christ where, “Whoever you are and wherever you are…
Help Our Kids Have a Blessed School Year
Help our Hillcrest youth begin their new school year with supplies and blessings from the Hillcrest congregation. We want to let each of them know how much they are loved and supported as they return to the classroom. Your donation to our “Hillcrest Backpack Fund” will be used to purchase gift cards for each of…
Hillcrest Book Group
The novel for July’s Book Group is, “Lighting Strike” by William Kent Krueger. The story is set in 1963, in a small community near an ancient forest alongside the shores of Iron Lake in Minnesota. We learn about the tender relationship between father and son, small town conflicts, and events that shape our lives. Members/friends…
Hillcrest Church Celebrates July 4th by walking in Pleasant Hill Parade
Hillcrest Church members participated in Pleasant Hill’s July 4th parade. 1000 bags were passed out to parade goers to help support the Hillcrest Food Room.
Hillcrest Church Supports Pride Month
Hillcrest Church is proud to be hosting a booth at the Rainbow Community Center’s “Pride in the Plaza,” Saturday, June 17th from 12:00 – 6:00 p.m. at Todos Santos Plaza, Concord, CA. Stop by and say, “hello”. For more information about events and activities being held at “Pride in the Plaza” please visit their website…
Adult Ed
Please Join us at 9:30 am for lesson and discussion. Our theme is “Meet the Heretics.” What does it mean to be a heretic? Who were some of the people who the early church decided were heretics? How did we get to the church we have today, and do some of these so-called “heretical” beliefs…
Hillcrest Volunteers Participate in Interfaith Mother’s Day Project
On Sunday, May 7th, several Hillcrest youth and adults joined with volunteers from Beth Chaim Congregation in Danville, the Pleasanton Islamic Center, and First Christian Church of Concord to fill hygiene bags for women and their families who are struggling during this difficult time. The hygiene bags will be distributed at the Monument Crisis Center…
Hillcrest Book Group
This month we are reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Elizabeth Zott is a gifted research chemist, self assured and immune to social convention set in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a popular cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook,…
Earth Day Sunday – April 23rd
The ever-generous mother earth has been providing us with everything we need from the beginning of time. It is our duty to return kindness in every way possible to her. An annual celebration like Earth Day gives us a chance to express our gratitude to mother nature through our actions and words. Join us Sunday,…
Pre-Post Racial America: Spiritual Stories from the Front Lines
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Pre-Post Racial America
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Message from Rev. Fred
Senior Minister
Stones in the Temple of God
As I write, MLK Day has just passed and it is the afternoon of Inauguration Day. Many things are in my heart and mind. I want to share one image, or set of images, having to do with building.
Just a little over 1,900 centuries before Martin Luther King, Jr., a preacher named Ignatius wrote a letter from jail. He was the bishop of Syria within the still-new Christian church and had been imprisoned by the empire for his faith. In his letter, Ignatius pictured the people of God as ones defined and “kindled” by “love.” And he continues, “You are as stones of the temple of [God].” What’s more, “You are then all fellow travelers, and carry with you God, and the temple.”
Along with the love that is so core to our Christian faith and that Ignatius knew so well, the imagery of building and buildings was clearly important and dear to him. He had been arrested, taken away from his people and ministry, and carted off to the imperial city for trial. He was concerned for the future of his church and for all churches. And yet he knew and felt and prayed that the love and caring to which he had been called would not stop. And not only that it would not stop, but that it would continue to build. And it would…through people. People are the stones that build God’s temple, house God’s presence, and share God’s love in the world!
Just about 160 years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood in front of the not-yet-completed capitol dome in our nation’s capitol building and used similar language to that of Ignatius. The building must continue and it must ever go on. When we stop building with and for love and peace, then who and what are we?
Sisters and brothers of Hillcrest—here’s to the Spirit of love alive among us and alive among anyone and everyone of any faith and no faith. Let us at Hillcrest ever be about leading the way in showing people what love alive in the world looks like. Like Ignatius says, we are living stones in the temple of God.
Let it be so, O God, let it be so.
Blessings,
Rev. Fred