Carolyn and Cy King Peace and Justice Award

On July 3, 2012, the Church Council voted to establish the Carolyn and Cy King Peace and Justice Award as a repeating event. Subsequently, the award has been given annually by the Social Justice Ministry.

The text of the resolution passed by Council is given here.

Resolution establishing the Carolyn and Cy King Peace and Justice Award

Honorees

2012:  Carolyn and Cyrus King, inaugural winners and award namesakes

2013:  Sandy and Deane Irving; Marjorie Eckels

2014:   Bill Towe; Slater Newman; Peg and Mac Hulslander

2015:  Judy Occhetti-Klohr and Leo Klohr; Rev. Collins Kilburn

2016:  Patrick O'Neal and Mary Rider; Jane Hunt

2017:  Alan and Ruth Reberg; Joan McAllister

2018:  Lib Hutchby; Adrienne and John Little; John Paar

2019:  Betty Anne Ford and Nancy Newell; Don and Shirley Birt; Sue Woodling

Children's Sunday School Projects

Thanks to the bequest of CUCC member Art Eckels, the children’s program at CUCC has had a consistent component of teaching justice. The Community Outreach Ministry was given the privilege of discerning how to use Art’s gift to further CUCC’s “working for social justice” mission. In the fall of 2002, they decided to split his gift: half for a Habitat for Humanity house and half as seed money for a staff person to “encourage the growth of CUCC’s children and youth as the next generation of justice people.” (Read a story about the seed money and a thunderstorm.) The congregation acknowledged this generous gift in passing the 2003 budget.

Anne Bailey Zschau arrived at CUCC in March 2003 and has been serving as the Children’s Sunday School Coordinator ever since, building into the children’s program experiences working for justice with their talents and their money.* Through the Rotation Church School program, CUCC’s children had been involved in service projects connected thematically to each rotation, but Anne Bailey’s innovation was to invite them to vote from a short list of options to select their service projects. At first the children voted for a new project every few months. Over time, they settled into a spring, summer, and fall project rhythm. Some years the children voted to continue their support of the same service project for another semester. We aren’t sure what year the voting began, but we know it was in place by 2007.

Full document: Children's Sunday School Justice Projects
(compiled by Jane Smith, August 2016, updated October 2017)

A reflection on the history and traditions of our church - Marty Lamb (April 2016)

Marty Lamb wrote a brief reflection and commentary on the historical practices of Community UCC as they relate to the task in spring 2016 of forming a search committee to look for a permanent pastor.

Marty's reflection

CUCC celebrates 100 years

Front lawn of CUCC.  Notice the Vaughan Wing, now three years old

CUCC celebrates 100 years of social involvement  (Raleigh Times, April 25, 1981) was written as CUCC celebrated 100 years of ministry in Raleigh.  Unfortunately, page 1 of the article is missing.

Litany of Thanksgiving for 1978 at Community United Church of Christ

This litany of thanksgiving, used January 7, 1979, provides a snapshot of the life of the congregation in 1978 -  our worship, what and how we are learning, our work for justice, the challenges we face together.

1978 was the second year of ministry with us for Rev. Cally Rogers-Witte, so the litany was written as the congregation celebrated the transition to new pastoral leadership.  1979 was the tenth anniversary of the merger of First Evangelical and Reformed Church and United Church.

Content of King's speech at the Institute of Religion

While we have several documents describing the visit by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to the Institute of Religion sponsored by United Church, this article in The Technician (Feb. 13, 1958 edition) may be the only outline of the content of his speech.

A Narrative of the Church

This is a film narrative about Community UCC and the various ancestral branches that have led to the present day church. It is not a history, in that it doesn't seek to explain or interpret nor is it anywhere close to being the full story of the church. It's a narrative based on church artifacts and recollections that have been collected and preserved over the years. Many of the anecdotes in the film are taken from the Remembrances available elsewhere in this archive.

A brief printed narrative of the history of the physical facilities used by this congregation was prepared by Merrilee Jacobson in October 2019.

Let me emphatically say that this is not an "official" church production. The choice of subject matter is almost entirely mine. Unquestionably, there are folks who would have selected other content. I will avoid the usual disclaimer "all the opinions expressed herein are my own", because in fact none of the opinions expressed in the film are my own. The characters selected are speaking for themselves in their own words. So the personal touch that I have provided is only in the selection of material, not in the interpretation of it.

This is not a promotional video for the church. It shows the bumps in the road along with the things we like to brag about.

You will find the newspaper clippings to be more readable if you watch the video fullscreen and at the highest resolution your Internet connection will support. Presently Vimeo sets the initial resolution automatically based on assessment of your bandwidth. But there is a manual override. And Vimeo supports fullscreen viewing. The picture to the right shows how to access the resolution settings and how to activate fullscreen viewing.

The entire film is 67 minutes long. It's broken up into four parts of varying length. All four parts are available below.

-- Lavon Page

-- January 2016

Part 1 (Length: 12 min.)



Part 2 (Length: 16 min.)



Part 3 (Length: 19 min.)



Part 4 (Length: 20 min.)

A brief history of the merger of United Church and First E and R congregation

On January 19, 1994, CUCC's pastor, Rev. Cally Rogers-Witte, contacted the denomination to correct an error in the UCC yearbook.  For several years, the founding year had been recorded incorrectly in the yearbook.  This one page letter gives a summary of the merger of the United Church and First Evangelical and Reformed Church, henceforward to be located at the new building of the latter congregation.

Letter regarding history of merger of United Church and First Evangelical and Reformed Church

A brief history of the relationship between CUCC and UUFR

On January 3, 1993, CUCC's pastor, Cally Rogers-Witte, spoke at the dedication of the new sanctuary of our Wade Avenue neighbor congregation, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh.  Her address gives a history of the family relationship between our predecessor congregation - United Church - and what are now the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh and the Friends Meeting of Raleigh.  She traces some of our inheritance from the values of those heritages.

Greetings at Unitarian-Universalist Dedication of New Sanctuary

A CUCC vision statement from the 1970s

In 1989 CUCC was engaging in long-range planning.  They uncovered a vision statement which had been written in the 1970s, but had no information about what had led to the statement or if it was adopted.

1970s Vision Statement for CUCC

CUCC Membership Register

This register was made available by Carol Clark in June 2015. It includes active and inactive members. The PDF version is better for online viewing because the pagination is more compact.

Church membership register (June 2015) - PDF version
Church membership register (June 2015) - Excel spreasheet

Geri Bowen extracted from this a list of charter members of CUCC at the time that the United Church of Raleigh merged with the E&R Church at 107 Dixie Trail in 1969.

Charter members of CUCC (1969)

CUCC and OCWM

Edith Sylla, the CUCC Historian, has written the following description of the historical relationship between CUCC and OCWM.

CUCC and OCWM - written by Edith Sylla, May 2015

Rev. Gaylord Noyce reflects on his pastorate 1954 to 1960

The Rev. Gaylord Noyce served United Church from 1954 to 1960.  In a letter written in 1983 to Wilma C. Peebles of Community UCC he describes two primary activities of his ministry:  the Institute of Religion and the integrated vacation church school.  The latter led to the desegregation of North Carolina's state parks.

Brief histories of CUCC

Anne Elleman, CUCC's historian, wrote and collected brief histories for the congregation's work around 1976.  This may have been in preparation for the search for a new pastor.  Anne was also gathering items for the time capsule in cornerstone for the Vaughan Fellowship Hall wing (dedicated December 20, 1977).

Untitled history
Found in records donated by CUCC historian Anne Elleman (circa 1976)
May have been written for the pastoral search?

Notes on our Church's History
Found in records donated by CUCC historian Anne Elleman (circa 1976)

Attached to Notes on our Church's History - 3 published histories focusing on different aspects of United Church and the letterhead for Institute of Religion which lists some past speakers:

Strength Through Union:  The United Church of Raleigh, North Carolina has fused three groups will [sic] conquering a pestiferous debt and expanding its social and religious horizons.
Advance (July 1945)
Author:  unknown, but possibly Peggy Hoffmann

How Big Can a Little Church Be
International Journal of Religious Education (December 1954)
Author:  Mrs. Arnold E. (Peggy) Hoffmann

Our deacons will babysit
Advance  (January 12, 1955)
Author:  Peggy Hoffmann

Institute of Religion letterhead

Origins of the phrase "Nurturing spiritual growth and working for social justice"

edited by Lavon Page using information provided by Edith Sylla, Marty Lamb, and Jane Smith

The phrase “Nurturing spiritual growth and working for social justice” has been widely used on church publications for many years. Some recall this slogan having been added to the church bulletin and website during the tenure of Rev. Carol Ripley-Moffitt as Interim Pastor (2000-2002). But others remember the phrase itself having originated while Rev. Cally Rogers-Witte was pastor, perhaps around 1990. This article provides an overview to the context out of which this phrase may have arisen. Most of this information was researched by Edith Sylla, church historian.

CUCC Stories and Envisioning Our Future (2011-2012)

CUCC took the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Pastor Steve Halsted’s service among us to look back at our past and envision our future.

Looking back:  In the fall of 2011 CUCC held a series of events hearing stories of how we had been “working for social justice.”  In October 2011, Cy King presented a summary of CUCC’s social justice heritage. The CUCC Stories Pilgrimage was a self-guided walking tour of our property with signs and photographs featuring the people, artwork, and events which had embodied our calling to work for social justice. At the Novemberfest dinner, the table decorations included trivia about CUCC’s justice past.

In Lent 2012 we turned toward the other half of our unofficial motto, “nurturing spiritual growth.” Throughout  Lent  we gathered in small groups for Telling and Listening to Stories; using prompting questions about our faith experiences, we learned about each of our faith journeys.  A Lenten Spiritual Practices Calendar was written by members of the congregation for each of us to use at home.  Each day offers a spiritual practice from CUCC’s past and present.  While some the events mentioned in the calendar were specific to 2012, the daily practices are usable any Lenten season.

Looking ahead:  In the fall of 2012 we welcomed some of our former clergy, charging them to preach to us from our past and help us imagine where God might be calling us in the future.  You can hear sermons from John Lackey, Collins Kilburn, Cally Rogers-Witte, Dave Barber, and Carol Ripley-Moffitt.

Resolutions

All actions taken by the membership of Community UCC on behalf of the entire congregation must be approved at a Congregational Meeting. These occur at least twice each year. This page lists significant actions and resolutions to come from Congregational Meetings during the past several decades.

Miscellaneous Items from the period 1950-2000

These include a poster from the Nuclear Freeze campaign, the brochure used for the 1994 Capital Campaign, and a CUCC feature from the 1997 News and Observer.

Miscellaneous Items (PDF)

Church Directory 1997

Church directory created in 1997

Church Directory 1997 (PDF)

Church Directory 1993

Directory created in 1993

Church Directory 1993 (PDF)