News

Sunday, May 4, @ 12 pm, The Commons

Featured ONE-WOMAN EXHIBIT artist this spring and summer 2025 is Elizabeth Samoluk. Her artworks include oil, acrylic, watercolor, and drawing, with most works created “En Plein Air” throughout Atlanta, from the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Sandy Springs, Roswell, and Savannah, Georgia. Elizabeth also included some pieces from her western journeys to capture the beauty of our U.S. National Parks and UNESCO World Heritage Sites! Elizabeth is happy to donate a portion of her sales to the church.

You can find out more about her and her story this Sunday, after worship. Steve Siminski, Central’s art exhibit coordinator, is organizing a Welcome reception for Elizabeth in the Commons, during the Coffee Hour.

Dear Siblings,

Alleluia! What a wonderful Holy Week and Easter we shared together. Of course, none of this happened on its own.

A little more than two dozen folks joined us on Maundy Thursday, and shared the story of the Last Supper before serving communion to one another. The same number joined us for a dramatic recounting of the story of Good Friday. In those spaces, we sang old and familiar hymns, while introducing a few new ones too.

On Easter Sunday, almost 20 kids hunted for eggs on the playground and in the memorial garden, 80 people were in the Fellowship Hall for the Easter Breakfast, and 180 people joined us for Easter worship.

Again, none of this happened on its own. It took people baking and bringing food for breakfast, folks who stepped out of breakfast to help the Easter Bunny hide eggs, people to buy and cut the bread for communion, an AV tech, singers, banner hangers, greeters, Zoom worship hosts, someone who smiled and said “peace” to a new face in the room, dedicated folks to hang back in Kids Space, an invitation to combine the Story for All Ages and the sermon, a stirring in the heart and mind to simply show up, and whole lot more!

My heart is glad that we are a church of a whole lot more.

Someone with us on Sunday didn’t believe that a church like ours could exist… and now they do. Thanks be to God!

Historically, folks take a short break from church on the Sunday after Easter, but I hope you’ll join us. We’ll talk about the first supper after the Resurrection.

Be well,

Rev. Thomas

It will be such a joy on Sunday to see our Sanctuary overflow with the lilies you offered in honor of, or in memory of someone. Here is this year’s Lilies and Easter Mission Project Donor List .

And remember you have a few more days to offer a gift to our Easter Mission Project, which benefits El Refugio. El Refugio envisions a world without immigration detention. To maximize our support, we will accept donations to this fund by the end of April. You can use the online form or the printed form that you can find at the entrance to the Sanctuary.

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

“We welcome glad Easter when Jesus arose!” And we look forward to welcoming you for worship on Resurrection Sunday in the sanctuary or online. It’s always like a family reunion in the best possible way.

This Holy Week has been wonderful at Central, beginning on Palm Sunday. We know these stories, of course, but they reveal newness each time we hear and tell them. You’d think by now there is no more to say. Somehow, there is. The mystery of this season–everything I cannot explain or understand fully–is what I like best about the space between Ash Wednesday and the Season of Easter.

The Maundy Thursday service inspired us to look deeper within. Our Good Friday service should make the journey to the Cross come alive, and we will take time to honor the grief that surrounds us. For Holy Saturday, you may find the two poems here to be helpful in your devotions between today and Sunday. I have.

Easter Sunday will be a day of rejoicing as we greet the resurrected Christ and each other. We’ll look for you in worship online or somewhere around this place. Until then, grace to you and peace. Also, love and hugs.

Rev. Liz

Thursday, April 10, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm, Room 102

An educator from the Dekalb County Fire Department will provide in-person CPR/AED training (without cost) for our church community at Central. All are welcome. Please note, this training will not lead to formal CPR certification.

To sign up for this training, or to obtain additional information, please contact Mary White at [email protected].

On April 12, Lena’s Place will host “Bob & The Beatles!“–a beloved tradition at the Coffeehouse. Come, bring your friends to listen to your Dylan and Beatles favorites–we all know the words!

Proceeds for this concert have traditionally gone to The Lena Werking Fund, which provides grants to area nonprofits, helping to fulfill the dream of its initial benefactor and Coffeehouse namesake, Lena Werking.

You won’t want to miss this show! Doors open at 6:30 pm. The concert starts at 7:00 pm.

Contact Evelyn Brewer for more information: [email protected] .

Founded in 1984,  Lena’s Place Coffeehouse, is Atlanta’s longest running month music coffeehouse and showcase. Lena’s Place is a monthly opportunity to experience an eclectic mix of acoustic artists in a coffeehouse atmosphere. Lena’s is staffed by volunteers who love (and often play) music and who take pride in a professional presentation. Join us every Second Saturday at Central, in the Sanctuary. Doors open at 7pm! A suggested donation to support our rotating nonprofit gift designees is $10 at the door. For more information, you can check our calendar or visit Lena’s Place on Facebook.

At the end of 2024, the National Ministries of the United Church of Christ awarded a Neighbors-in-Need grant of $2500 to Central UCC to support the bagged lunch project for the Central Outreach & Advocacy Center (OAC). The award recognizes the embodiment of faith in the service of community. Once a month, Maureen O’Brien and her team provide bagged lunches for Central OAC clients experiencing homelessness. Congratulations to Maureen and all who have contributed to this justice-building project!

Steve Siminski, Central’s art exhibit coordinator, is presenting his own paintings in the Commons from Jan 5th through March 31st, 2025.

During his early childhood, Steve was inspired by his grandmother as she periodically mailed him painting and art supplies while he attended North Carolina School for the Deaf and Fort Lauderdale Oral School. “As a manufacturer and designer of young girl dresses, she endlessly did sketches and drawings of dresses for her business. I was so fascinated by her proficient drawings and strong fashion knowledge. She was a genius in designing dresses“, Steve said.

Steve took up the Art Exhibit coordinator role at Central after Elsie Dresch, the former coordinator. Steve and Elsie met weekly for 4 years as she taught Steve how to improve his painting. “I learned so much from Elsie, and my painting skills improved tremendously. I am so grateful that I had her as my art teacher. She was an inspiration to me”.

The central theme of Steve’s paintings is landscape, flowers, bees and nature.

Steve will donate 20% of the proceeds from the sales of his paintings to the church. There will be a Coffee, Tea, and Conversation reception after the 11 am service on January 5th.

Rev. Thomas has been selected as one of 14 UCC ministers to participate in the Next Generation Leadership Initiative (NGLI). Founded in 2008 by the United Church Board of Ministerial Assistance, NGLI supports young clergy in build[ing] “vibrant congregations.”

Rev. Thomas spent a week in Memphis, TN, meeting the rest of his cohort. Here’s what Rev. Thomas said after returning from the orientation week:

It was wonderful to be back in Memphis, and even more wonderful meeting the rest of my NGLI cohort. I’m so excited for this opportunity to connect with other younger clergy who have felt and are living out a call to serve in local churches, with an eye towards the new work that God and Christ may be calling us all towards. I look forward to reconnecting my and other NGLI cohorts in Kansas City this summer during General Synod.

Learn more about NGLI.

We’re so excited to introduce the all-new central-ucc.org! Our new site is easier to navigate, faster to load, and regularly updated with news, events, and more.

This is a major change from our past website. You’ll note that this site has far fewer pages than the old one! That’s a good thing. Going forward, you should notice that the pages that change most frequently are the home page, news, and events.

Looking for news? Check here: Central News

Events and Calendar? Find that info here: Central Calendar