Brecksville UCC

10/04/2026

10/03/2026

On Friday, members of BUCC kicked off October with a Spooky Paint and Sip. They recreated unfinished paintings and added a spooky element. Spending time enjoying good friends, laughs, and conversation is just one of the great things about being part of a church community - especially at BUCC!

09/24/2026

🎉 Happy National Punctuation Day!

At the UCC, we celebrate the comma, and embrace the words of Gracie Allen: “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.”

09/20/2026

Tonight at sundown, our Jewish neighbors begin Yom Kippur.

An ancient Jewish teaching says the day atones for what we've done against God, but for what we've done to each other, we first have to make things right with the person we've hurt.

That's a challenge worth hearing in any tradition. We wish everyone observing a meaningful and easy fast. G'mar chatima tovah.

09/20/2026

Today is Just Peace Sunday in the UCC.

Brecksville United Church of Christ is a Just Peace church, which means we've said out loud in our Peace Covenant that we want peace to be part of who we are as well as something we pray for. That means paying attention to the wars and violence in the world, and also to how we treat each other here at home.

None of us are perfect and we don't always get it right. But if we are truly committed to peace, we must keep showing up and we must keep trying - especially when it's hard.

Today we pray for the courage to work for justice and the patience to keep at it. Help us listen, help us forgive, and help us leave this place a little more ready to make peace. Amen.

09/12/2026

To all our Jewish neighbors, friends, and community members celebrating tonight, our church family sends you our warmest wishes.

May the start of the Jewish New Year bring peace, good health, and joy to your homes. We pray that this season of reflection and renewal fills your coming year with sweetness and hope.

09/11/2026

Twenty-five years ago, September 11th showed us both the depth of human cruelty and the height of human courage. Strangers carried strangers down smoke-filled stairwells, neighbors opened their homes and their hearts to people they'd never met.

We remember those we lost, and we give thanks for every act of love that rose to meet that day's grief — the firefighters who climbed when others fled, the volunteers who showed up for weeks without asking for thanks, the communities who chose to hold each other closer instead of pulling apart.

Today let's remember, not just what was broken, but everything that was rebuilt — in courage, in compassion, and in a renewed commitment to see the humanity in every person we meet, whatever their faith or background.

May we carry that light forward. May we be quick to understand, slow to fear, and always ready to love our neighbor, every neighbor, as ourselves.

09/08/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1RPquf35ow/?mibextid=wwXIfr

09/02/2026

Rest in peace, Pierre Damas Bel.

This week the world lost a bright young man. He was a student, an athlete, and a son who came to this country hoping for a better life. Pierre was only 20. He loved soccer, was proud of his Haitian heritage, and dreamed of becoming a doctor one day.

Scripture doesn't leave room for ambiguity on how we're to treat the stranger among us. Leviticus 19:34 instructs us to love the stranger among us as ourselves, since we too were once strangers in a foreign land. And in Matthew 25:35, Jesus counts welcoming the stranger among the acts of love done for him directly.

Pierre's story is a painful reminder of how heavy the weight of fear and shame can become for someone who feels unwelcome. As a church family, we're called not to political debate but to something simpler and harder: compassion. To see the immigrant, the refugee, the newcomer not as an issue but as a neighbor, made in the image of God, worthy of dignity, welcome, and love.

Please hold Pierre's family in your prayers this week. And let this moment renew our commitment to be a community where every stranger finds welcome.