Local Church News
Recent events held by Church family and news from members.
Knoxville 60th Anniversary
On Aug. 9, 2025, 65 brethren attended the Knoxville, Tennessee congregation’s 60th anniversary event in the grand ballroom of the Brookside venue in the Old North Knoxville neighborhood—designated a National Historic District.
The event began at 1 p.m. with a meet-and-greet mixer with light snacks, followed by Sabbath services at 3 p.m. The sermon message was given by John LaBissoniere, who served as an elder in the area for many years prior to relocating to Cincinnati.
After services, a delicious catered meal was served while everyone was able to relax, fellowship and reminisce about their memories of the Church in Knoxville. Near the end of dinner, a slideshow with photos and memorabilia from the past was shown and testimonials from current and past members were shared.
A founding member of the congregation, Jim Sullivan, prepared a chronology of the 11 pastors and 10 assistant pastors that served during the past 60 years. The first assistant pastor to the area was Bill Bradford who actually lived in Asheville, North Carolina. Mr. Bradford remarked that since this was prior to the completion of Interstate 40, “it was a three-hour trip over the mountains with 436 curves.” Mr. Bradford and his wife Jenny served there until being transferred to Australia in 1968.
Len Martin, Pastor
Northeast Women’s Luncheon—Inspiring Connections
On Sunday, Aug. 10, the first New England Women’s Inspiring Connections Luncheon was held at the home of a local member in Hudson, Massachusetts. A group of 20 ladies, ages 13 and up, gathered from across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont to fellowship together.
With sunlight streaming through the spacious living room and a cheerful floral theme setting the tone, the afternoon focused on growing in faith and strengthening bonds as sisters in Christ. Attendees enjoyed an engaging discussion on the life of Ruth, interactive games designed to spark deeper spiritual conversations and a special Spanish language lesson led by a mother-
daughter duo.
The luncheon was warmly received, leaving attendees encouraged, inspired and eager for more. Following the fall Holy Days, the group will reunite for the upcoming Friendsgiving Tea on Nov. 23. If you live in the New England area or you’re looking for a reason to visit, come join us. We’d love to have you there.
Sarah Auguste McCaulley
Gear Grinder Bike Ride
The third annual UCG 2025 Gear Grinder bike ride was a fantastic success! We extend a heartfelt thank you to the Twin Cities United Church of God congregation for graciously hosting this year’s ride, to the amazing volunteers who staffed the rest stops and served up a delicious post-ride meal, to everyone who came out to cheer at the finish line, and of course to the 35 dedicated riders who showed up to Grind Gears in the scenic Minnetonka Lakes area in Minnesota!
We’re already looking forward to welcoming even more riders for Gear Grinder 2026—mark your calendars and get ready to ride! Registration opens after the spring Holy Days. Until then . . . pedal on!
Tony Stith
Sydney Women’s Weekend
From Aug. 8-10, 43 ladies from all over Australia gathered in Sydney at the Mt. Carmel Retreat Centre for the annual Women’s Focus Weekend.
This was my first year attending, and what a weekend it was! Ladies in attendance ranged from young adults all the way through retirement age, from all walks of life, everything from farmers to nurses to clerks to homeschooling moms to teachers to businesswomen.
Upon arrival, dinner was served and Leah Sieff gave each of us a welcome gift of a handmade paper origami heart refrigerator magnet, and then Melinda Glombowski kicked the weekend off with a survey to find out our personalities. The options were: a Lion (enjoys leadership, is decisive, loves problem solving, and seeks new adventures and opportunities), an Otter (is excitable, fun-seeking, a cheerleader, and enjoys talking), a Golden Retriever (is loyal to the core, a great listener, empathetic and a warm encourager) or a Beaver (has a strong need to do things by the book, is good at quality control in fields that demand accuracy). Once we each discovered our personality type, we joined other ladies with similar personalities to work together and make a poster of our perfect day out. A representative from each group presented the posters to everyone. This was such an excellent way to start the weekend because it not only allowed us to get to know each person a little bit, but when we needed the support of a particular personality, we knew who to talk with.
Sabbath morning began with Leah Sieff facilitating a panel of ladies from young adult to elderly to talk about women in the Church whom had encouraged them along their individual journeys. At times we may feel that there are limited opportunities for us to serve, but simply showing up, smiling, talking and sharing meals with our brothers and sisters in Christ is one of the best ways we can serve.
Then Jess and Kim Mihalec facilitated an interactive small group discussion on the ways that Paul worked with the Church as outlined in Acts. These methods included praying for and with the Church, encouraging fellowship in meals, resolving conflict with patience, understanding and love, sharing resources and education, encouraging future growth, and modeling faith and courage for the brethren.
Henry Prom and Matt Sieff joined us for Sabbath services. Henry led songs; he commented that it was absolutely phenomenal to hear all the ladies singing and that we drowned out the only two men in the room. Mr. Sieff gave the sermon on God’s focus on building His family and how we, too, must focus on building His family.
After lunch, Leah Sieff gave a presentation on God strengthening the Church, how our attendance is key to this strengthening and that the Church is focused on the whole Body of Christ, not just the individual, as God has called us to be part of something greater than ourselves.
Then Jenean Rivers gave a talk on conversation skills, and how sometimes a person just needs someone to hear them without trying to solve anything. We then broke into small groups to discuss how these skills can improve our conversations.
After dinner the evening ended with Nicole Ryan introducing a craft activity giving us all the opportunity to design our own notebooks for church. There were so many beautiful designs made by beautiful ladies all while talking and sharing stories.
On Sunday morning, Renee Schofield gave us a presentation on AI technology and how it is a tool and not replacement for the human mind. It can be used for good, if used wisely. AI learns from what you post, so stick with truth—garbage in, garbage out.
Then Jenny Kusz gave us a photo and video presentation on our members in Asia. She talked about the council meeting held to come up with strategies to make our literature accessible in their native languages. Translating the booklets is challenging, because many of the Asian languages do not have words for certain English words and vice versa. So, several members of the Church are working on simplifying the individual booklets to a level a child would understand so that they can be translated into a native Asian language without losing their meaning. Jenny also talked about the brethren in Pakistan and how she and her husband Martin met with several of the families there.
And finally, before we all departed Jenean Rivers gave a presentation on the spiritual battles that are being fought even though we can’t see them. When things don’t make sense and our hardships seem too much, we must remember God is always in charge and endure to the end.
Throughout the weekend, there was almost an electric buzz. In every room I could hear ladies talking and laughing, and see tears and hugs shared. To the outside eye it may have looked like we all had known each other for years. For some this was the case, but for others this was our first time meeting, and yet these ladies were my family—my Church!
Thea Firth
