Magnolia UCC

Learning Forum: Beyond the Binary: Gender, God and a Theology of Inclusion with Rev. Amy Johnson
2025-05-19 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Vancouver)
Our May Learning Forum will cover the topic of ‘Beyond the Binary: Gender, God and a Theology of Inclusion’. Our Speaker will be Rev. Amy Johnson.
Rev. Amy serves as the Minister for Sexuality Education and Justice in the national setting of the United Church of Christ, where she oversees the Our Whole Lives and Sexuality and Our Faith programs, both nationally and internationally. She is also a trainer for all levels of Our Whole Lives/Sexuality and Our Faith nationwide and internationally, training people from more than 10 countries in Africa. Amy is passionate about helping faith communities provide high quality, comprehensive and inclusive sexuality education as a part of being and becoming healthier places to belong. She says, “My call is about dismantling shame and stigma about bodies and relationships. That work belongs in the church. It is life-changing, life-saving, and transformational.”
Plan to join us via Zoom for this informational session as we learn more about all of God’s beloveds!
Meeting ID: 862 9174 5387
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Unpacking the Day’s Sermon - How are We Called to End Poverty?
2025-05-18 11:20 - 12:00 (America/Vancouver)
Join us as we gather after worship to unpack that day’s message! Plan to join Pastor Marci after worship on Sunday, May 18th in the Bell Tower Room (after getting some Fellowship goodies) to unpack that day’s meditation around the call to end Poverty. What are we called to do as individuals and as a church? Join the conversation!

Sacred Silence
2025-05-14 11:00 - 23:30, 2025-05-07 11:00 - 23:30, 2025-04-30 11:00 - 23:30, 2025-04-23 11:00 - 23:30, 2025-04-16 11:00 - 23:30 (America/Vancouver)
Each week we gather in the Parlor at 11:00am on Wednesday for a time of sacred silence, time to still our minds and join together in creating sacred space in silence. Join us for this powerful time of community and prayerful being.

Chair Yoga
2025-05-14 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-05-07 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-04-30 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-04-23 10:00 - 11:00, 2025-04-16 10:00 - 11:00 UTC
Interested in maintaining or even regaining strength, flexibility, balance, good posture, inner awareness, and a relaxed body & mind? PHEW…! That’s sure a lot! Well, you can! Just join us each Wednesday a.m. in Pilgrim Hall at 10:00 am for chair yoga. No experience is necessary. Just wear loose clothing and your first lesson is Free. Then a one-time $15 fee is requested to help pay for the great videos on the big screen. Hope to see ya soon!

Bible Study: Living the Christian Life
2025-05-13 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-05-06 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Vancouver)
Plan to join us for this special Bible Study as we dive into the New Testament books of James and 1 John. Over the course of three weeks, we’ll study these books and map their insights to strategies to live the Christian life. Join the Zoom!
Meeting ID: 860 2861 1772
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Book Group
2025-05-12 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
The book group will be meeting in the MUCC Parlor at 6:30pm. The book discussion this month will be on The Pueblo Revolt, by David Roberts. Contact Marilee Gibbs at marileegibbs@comcast.net with any questions.

Community Movie Night - Mufasa
2025-05-09 19:00 (America/Vancouver)
Community Movie Nights are coming to MUCC! We kick off our season with the showing of the new Disney film Mufasa on Friday, May 9th at 7:00 pm. Suggested donation will be $5 per person and all proceeds go to the Ballard Food Bank! Folks are encouraged to bring blankets and pillows and there will be snacks provided!
Invite your friends and neighbors to these special community events that will benefit one of our amazing partner organizations doing great work in our community!

Knights of the Square Table (MUCC Men’s Group)
2025-05-07 12:30 - 13:30 (America/Vancouver)
The men of MUCC (known as the Knights of the Square Table) meet monthly on the first Wednesday of every month at 12:30 with a rotating location at various local restaurants. Tom Ranken sends out email notices. The location switches regularly. It’s a purely social gathering! Tom Ranken sends out the email notification with the location and if you are not on that email distribution and would like to be, let Tom know! Contact him at tom@jthomasranken.com

Michael McKenzie’s Final Graduate Conducting Recital - Night Sky with Exit Wounds: Gratitude in All Seasons of Life
2025-05-02 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Vancouver)
On Friday, May 2nd, at 7:30 pm at the University Congregational United Church of Christ, I’ll be presenting my final graduate conducting recital entitled: “Night Sky with Exit Wounds: Gratitude in All Seasons of Life.”
I have been developing this concert idea for almost two years now. It sets and explores stanzas of Ocean Vuong’s poem “Notebook Fragments” from his collection of poetry titled Night Sky with Exit Wounds through choral music. The concert will feature three choirs totaling roughly 150 singers from the University of Washington campus and percussion, string quartet, organ, and piano. The program features some of classical music’s most beloved composers as well as premieres of some original arrangements by yours truly.
While this concert is my final demonstration of artistic practice for my doctoral degree, it also serves as a space to look back on the seasons of life I have moved through to get to the place I am now. This poetry and music encapsulate my gratitude for all the love I have been shown throughout my journey as an artist and how this care has given me the strength to pursue my dreams. This program will celebrate and honor those who have grounded, cared for, and championed me all along the way.
Ocean Vuong’s “Notebook Fragments” (excerpt)
I dreamed I walked barefoot all the way to your house in the snow.
Everything was the blue of smudged ink…
There was even a light the shade of sunrise inside your window.
“God must be a season,” [you] said, looking out at the blizzard drowning the garden.
My footsteps on the sidewalk were the smallest flight.
Dear god, if you are a season, let it be the ones I passed through to get here.
Here. That’s all I wanted to be. I promise.
Michael McKenzie

Congregational Info Session - Changing National Trends and How They May Impact MUCC
2025-04-29 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Vancouver)
As a part of the recent strategic planning retreat that the MUCC Coordinating Council attended (along with the MUCC Finance Team), Pastor Marci presented an overview of critical economic and demographic trends that may impact MUCC in the coming years. She has been asked by Council and the ByLaws Team to offer this information to the whole congregation. Join the Zoom!
Meeting ID: 841 4355 6656
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Congregational Info Session - Changing National Trends and How They May Impact MUCC
2025-04-27 11:15 - 12:00 (America/Vancouver)
As a part of the recent strategic planning retreat that the MUCC Coordinating Council attended (along with the MUCC Finance Team), Pastor Marci presented an overview of critical economic and demographic trends that may impact MUCC in the coming years. She has been asked by Council and the ByLaws Team to offer this information to the whole congregation. You can either attend the in-person session after Worship at 11:15 am on Sunday, April 27th in the Bell Tower Room or the Zoom Session at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, April 29th. Plan to come and learn more about the strategic challenges facing MUCC in the future and how we may adapt and meet those challenges!

Zoom Pub Theology
2025-04-23 19:00 - 20:00 UTC
This month’s question is ‘What does a ‘religion-less Christianity’ look like?’ So, grab a drink and join in the conversation! Join on Zoom. (Meeting ID: 886 8245 6539, Passcode: [REDACTED]

Learning Forum: Homelessness and the Meaning of Home
2025-04-21 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Vancouver)
For our April Learning forum, we are honored to welcome Dr. Josephine Ensign from the University of Washington who will speak on Homelessness and the Meaning of Home’. Loss of a home, whether through financial difficulties, divorce, illness, or natural disasters like wildfires, is a widespread and growing problem affecting all of us. Often thought of as only an urban problem, homelessness also occurs in suburban and rural areas throughout Washington State. What are the historical roots of homelessness, and what lessons can we learn from them? What are the common meanings of home to us, and how can we apply those meanings to our responses to homelessness in our communities? In this talk, author and professor Josephine Ensign leads audiences through a values clarification exercise that includes individual writing time. Professor Ensign will share her research on the history of homelessness in her hometown of Seattle, along with discussion of what these stories can teach us about the contemporary crisis of homelessness throughout our state and country.
Dr. Ensign (she/her), is a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her scholarship and practice as a nurse practitioner focus on trauma-informed care and health inequities for people marginalized by poverty and homelessness. She experienced homelessness herself as a young adult. Ensign is the author of several books including Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City, a 2022 finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her latest book, Way Home: Ways Out of Homelessness, is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins University Press.
This session has been underwritten by a grant from Humanities of Washington. Advanced registration is required! You can register for this special learning forum here.

Easter Service
2025-04-20 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Vancouver)
Easter Sunday! Christ is Risen Indeed! Please plan to join us Sunday, April 20th as we celebrate Easter both online and in-person at MUCC! Our Scripture for the day will be John 20:1-18, John’s story of Sunday morning and Pastor Marci will be preaching and presiding. This will be a joyous celebration with plenty of sacred prayer, words of hope, amazing music (ending with a rousing rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus) and gift bags for the kids!
After Worship, all the young and young at heart are invited to the Easter Egg hunt outside on the front lawn and up to Pilgrim Hall for Fellowship with Mimosas and Hot Cross buns. Invite your family, friends, and neighbors to this joyous celebration of hope!

Good Friday Tenebrae Service
2025-04-18 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Vancouver)
Available all day via Facebook Live and via YouTube
Plan to join us via Facebook Live for this special online service as we meditate on an ancient Holy Week tradition that acknowledges the somber events that occurred in Jesus’ life from Palm Sunday to the night of Jesus’ burial.

Agape Dinner Celebration
2025-04-17 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Vancouver)
An agape feast or love feast is a communal meal shared among Christians. The name comes from agape, a Greek term for ‘love’ in its broadest sense. Plan to join us on Thursday of Holy Week at 6:00 pm, for a simple meal of soup, salad, bread, and dessert as we remember this special and holy meal that Jesus instituted on one of his last nights.
The mood will be celebratory as we bless and share our food and drink, hear the Choir sing, and enjoy community, blessed community! RSVP here to reserve your space.

Lent Bible Study - Walking the Passion
2025-04-17 13:00 - 2025-04-19 13:00, 2025-04-16 13:00 - 2025-04-18 13:00, 2025-04-15 13:00 - 2025-04-17 13:00 (America/Vancouver)
Monday through Thursday, April 14th through April 17th, 1 pm via Zoom. Over four days, we will walk with Jesus through those final days using the Gospel of Mark as our guide.
Meeting ID: 865 6709 1590
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Lent Healing Service
2025-04-16 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Vancouver)
There is a great deal of chaos and upheaval happening in our world, our nation, our communities, our families, and in our personal lives. This environment is leading us to be fearful, heavy hearted, and overwhelmed. We are all holding so much grief, pain, guilt, shame, and trauma which leads us to feel depressed, disconnected, isolated, and even hopeless.
We hold all of this pain and heaviness in our minds, bodies, and spirits which can often prevent us from feeling joy, peace, hope, and love. For many of us, the season of Lent and more specifically, Holy Week, can be fraught with a variety of difficult feelings and emotions as well.
We all need a place where we can lament and let go of these difficult feelings and emotions so that we can be held in and receive abundant love which makes space for and ushers in healing, restoration, and renewal. If you need such space, and even if you don’t, join us for the Healing Service on Wednesday, April 16th at 7:00 pm PT via Zoom.
Meeting ID: 832 2950 9967
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Book Group
2025-04-14 18:30 - 20:30 UTC
The book group will be meeting in the MUCC Parlor at 6:30pm. The book discussion this month will be on House Made of Dawn, by N. Scott Momaday. Contact Marilee Gibbs at marileegibbs@comcast.net with any questions.
