📝 From the Pastor’s Desk

Stitched in Love

Holy Covenant,

Earlier this week, First Congregational United Church of Christ in Madison, Wisconsin, shared a story on their Facebook page that captured something powerful: healing love in the face of hate.

I’m not sure of all the details, but someone had vandalized their Pride flag. It was torn and left for them to find as a symbol of hate and rejection. But instead of simply replacing it with a new one, the congregation chose a different path. They did something that felt a lot like what Jesus would ask us to do.

They stitched the flag back together…

Rev. Christopher Czarnecki

Senior Pastor, Holy Covenant UCC

Let’s lift up Pastor Chris’s voice — and continue living our bold faith, everywhere. Subscribe to his Substack blog.🕊️

A Bold Call – General Synod 35 Wrap-Up

Holy Covenant joins with the wider United Church of Christ to speak justice, love fiercely, and resist the powers of empire

From July 11–15, General Synod 35 gathered in Kansas City, MO—a national convocation of sacred imagination, prophetic truth-telling, and bold discipleship.
Delegates, pastors, youth, and advocates—including our own Pastor Chris—answered the call to listen deeply, act courageously, and proclaim this year’s theme:

“Love Is Greater Than Fear.”

In a world shadowed by fear and domination, this theme rang out like a beacon—reminding us, as both prophets and Jedi declare, that the light is always stronger than the darkness.

🌟 Synod Highlights

• ✔️ Declared Christian Nationalism a threat to democracy and the Gospel
• ✔️ Affirmed and defended the rights of transgender youth and their families
• ✔️ Re-committed the UCC to Palestinian solidarity and economic justice
• ✔️ Called for reparations work grounded in climate and racial justice
• ✔️ Honored the leadership of Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson and welcomed new denominational leaders

🕊 Why It Matters

At Holy Covenant, our witness is not passive—it is active, embodied, and bold.
General Synod reminds us that we are part of a larger movement—one that resists the pull of empire and fear, and dares instead to walk the path of justice, mercy, and collective liberation.

Like a faithful remnant in a galaxy longing for peace, the United Church of Christ continues to rise—saying “yes” to the light, and “no” to every system that dehumanizes.

May the Spirit be with you. And also… the courage to resist, the wisdom to discern, and the hope that outlasts every empire.

📝 From the Pastor’s Desk

Welcome Rev. Glencie Rhedrick!

Holy Covenant,

This Sunday, we welcome Rev. Glencie Rhedrick to the pulpit.

Glencie is an ordained Baptist minister, Womanist theoactivist, and prophetic voice for justice, centering the lived experiences of Black women and African Ascending peoples. Her ministry challenges systems of injustice and affirms the sacred worth and dignity of all individuals in the community, both local and global.

She holds a Master of Science in Human Resources Management and Development from National Louis University and a Master of Divinity with a focus in Pastoral Care from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Women’s Spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Rev. Rhedrick serves as an HIV/AIDS Faith Ambassador and Consultant with UBTheCure. She chairs multiple justice-centered organizations, including the Charlotte Clergy Coalition for Justice, the Mayfield Memorial Community Development Corporation, and UMBA Bright Stars, as well as programs for the Charlotte Ministry Conference.

She is the founder and visionary of SpeakingintheKeyofWE, a Womanist platform rooted in the theme “No Longer Silenced: No Longer Invisible.” What began as a challenge to Black male privilege and patriarchy in the Church has grown into a liberative space for confronting social, gender, and racial injustice. Her message boldly affirms the power, brilliance, and historical contributions of Black and Brown communities, past and present.

A former President of Mecklenburg Ministries and proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Rev. Rhedrick is most proud to be the mother of Justin and grandmother of Marleigh and Nasir.

Rev. Christopher Czarnecki

Senior Pastor, Holy Covenant UCC

Let’s lift up Pastor Chris’s voice — and continue living our bold faith, everywhere. Subscribe to his Substack blog.🕊️

✝️ Pastor Chris Attends General Synod 35

This week, Pastor Chris is representing Holy Covenant UCC at General Synod 35, the national gathering of the United Church of Christ taking place in Kansas City, Missouri. We are posting daily updates to this news story so check back daily.

For many in our congregation, the phrase “General Synod” may be unfamiliar. Simply put, General Synod is where the wider UCC gathers every two years to worship, learn, organize, and discern—together. Delegates from UCC churches across the country come to pray, reflect, and vote on resolutions that speak to the moral and spiritual convictions of our denomination. While these resolutions are not binding on local churches (reflecting the autonomy and covenantal polity of the UCC), they serve as important declarations of our shared values and collective witness in the world.

Pastor Chris has shared that one of his hopes in attending Synod is to help Holy Covenant better understand how our local ministry is connected to the wider movement of God’s justice and love in the UCC. Throughout the week, he will be posting daily reflections and photos on his Substack blog that offer a window into Synod life—what he’s seeing, hearing, and experiencing—and how it might shape our life together as a congregation.

We will update this post with his reflections as they arrive. In the meantime, you are invited to follow along through the UCC’s official Facebook page or via the hashtags #GeneralSynod35 and #UCCJustice on social media.

📅 Day One

The General Synod is the national decision-making body of the UCC, meeting every three years to provide direction on the denomination’s mission, evangelism, and justice initiatives. While decisions made at Synod are not binding on individual congregations, each UCC church remains autonomous, they carry significant moral and spiritual weight across the wider church…

📝 Continue Reading

📅 Day Two

My day began with the third plenary session, which featured a State of the Church address from our General Minister and President, Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson. In her message, she spoke about the current realities of the United Church of Christ, lifting up both the challenges we face as an denomination and the places where God’s Spirit is still moving powerfully among us…

📝 Continue Reading

📅 Day Three

Today there were dozens of workshops offered to those at General Synod, making it difficult to choose which ones to attend. These workshops covered everything from worship practices to global justice issues, including climate change, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and the intersections of faith and politics…

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📅 Day Four

It had been 11 years since I last set foot on the grounds of Unity Village. The last time I was there, I was a seminary student working for Silent Unity’s telephone prayer ministry. When I left, I walked away not only from the seminary but from the denomination itself. A departure that was shaped by a myriad of reasons, some of them deeply painful. The wounds of which took time to heal…

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📝 From the Pastor’s Desk

Welcome Barbara Thomas!

Holy Covenant,

This Sunday, we welcome Barbara Thomas to the pulpit.

Barbara Thomas, is the Director of The Forum at Hope Haven, a new training center whose mission is to equip, train and support the staff who are working with the most vulnerable populations in our community.  She creates the curriculum, engages with community partners and is one of the primary trainers at The Forum. Barbara comes to this position with years of experience in non-profits as Director of Dove’s Nest, at Charlotte Rescue Mission, Director of Services at Urban Ministry Center (now Roof Above) and in private practice at the Counseling Center at Charlotte. She is an ordained UCC pastor ( former Associate at HCUCC) and welcomes the opportunity to preach and lead worship at various faith communities in Charlotte. Barbara Lives in Charlotte with her mom who is 95 years old.

Rev. Christopher Czarnecki

Senior Pastor, Holy Covenant UCC

Let’s lift up Pastor Chris’s voice — and continue living our bold faith, everywhere. Subscribe to his Substack blog.🕊️

📝 From the Pastor’s Desk

What Our New Church Logo and Slogan Mean to Me

Holy Covenant,

Last Sunday during our worship service, we revealed our new church logo and slogan. Since then, some of you may have found yourselves wondering: What do our new logo and slogan stand for? I’d like to share with you how I see it, both the meaning and significance that I believe this design holds for our faith community.

At first glance, it’s immediately noticeable that our new logo has a more attractive and modern design. It’s a location pin drop, open at the top in three places, encircling an interwoven multicolored cross. Beside it is our church’s name, Holy Covenant United Church of Christ, with the words Be the Church, everywhere beneath it. Yet behind this design, I believe there is a rich theological symbolism that reflects who we are and what we are called to be as a community that seeks to follow Christ…

Rev. Christopher Czarnecki

Senior Pastor, Holy Covenant UCC

Let’s lift up Pastor Chris’s voice — and continue living our bold faith, everywhere. Subscribe to his Substack blog.🕊️

📝 From the Pastor’s Desk

Why We Must Keep Telling the Truth

Holy Covenant,

I started drafting my newsletter article for this week on Juneteenth, a day when we remember the delayed freedom of enslaved people in Texas, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth reminds us that justice is rarely handed down freely; but more often it must be fought for and demanded, especially when systems of power resist giving it. It’s a holiday that calls us to celebrate freedom while also reckoning with the painful truths of our country’s history, truths that have often been censored or silenced.

This Sunday, June 22, Holy Covenant UCC will be hosting a screening of the PBS documentary American Coup: Wilmington 1898. If you haven’t heard of the Wilmington massacre, you’re not alone. It’s the only successful coup in U.S. history, where a violent overthrow of a democratically elected, multiracial government by white supremacists in North Carolina occurred. It’s a story of American history that’s been buried and rarely discussed for over a century. And it is a story that feels especially urgent today.

“We are living in a time when we’re seeing democracy undermined. Not by secret plots, but often in plain sight.”

Just last week…

Peace and Blessings,

Rev. Christopher Czarnecki

Senior Pastor, Holy Covenant UCC

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Let’s lift up Pastor Chris’s voice — and continue living our bold faith, everywhere. Subscribe to his Substack blog.🕊️

📝 From the Pastor’s Desk

Resisting Hate

Holy Covenant,

Late last week, Walter Brueggemann passed away. He was a towering figure in the Protestant Church and a prophetic voice in biblical interpretation, influencing generations of ministers across denominations and traditions. His book The Prophetic Imagination was assigned to me in seminary and remains one of the most formative texts shaping my theology. Brueggemann’s approach to naming structures of power (kingdoms), honoring the grief of those crying out for justice (the oppressed), and highlighting the prophet’s role in reimagining the world (prophetic imagination), continues to shape how I read scripture and preach each Sunday.

As one of our own retired pastors and in-house authors, Jon Heaslet, said to me last week,

“He was a voice in the wilderness who called Americans to an accounting of their bowing before the gods of consumerism, militarism, racism, and homophobia.”

Over the past week…

Peace and Blessings,

Rev. Christopher Czarnecki

Senior Pastor, Holy Covenant UCC

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Let’s lift up Pastor Chris’s voice — and continue living our bold faith, everywhere. Subscribe to his Substack blog.🕊️

📝 From the Pastor’s Desk

Resisting Hate

Holy Covenant,

Earlier this week, a violent and antisemitic attack took place in Boulder, Colorado. A man entered a peaceful event organized by members of a local Jewish community in support of hostages still being held in Gaza. And in the aftermath six people were injured, including a Holocaust survivor. This attack is the third in a recent string of violent acts against Jewish people in just the past two months.

Christianity has a long and painful history of antisemitism. From theological teachings that have wrongly blamed Jewish people for the death of Jesus, to attacks on Jewish communities during the Crusades, several historical persecutions and massacres, and ultimately the Holocaust, Christians have too often been complicit in, or silent about, the persecution of our Jewish siblings.

Yet ironically…

Peace and Blessings,

Rev. Christopher Czarnecki

Senior Pastor, Holy Covenant UCC

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Let’s lift up Pastor Chris’s voice — and continue living our bold faith, everywhere. 🕊️

A peaceful demonstration calls for justice and liberation for the people of Palestine.

📝 From the Pastor’s Desk

When the Walls Shake: Finding Faithful Resistance in a Time of Crisis

Dear Holy Covenant family,

When the world trembles — from political upheaval to personal grief — how do we hold fast to hope? How do we remain rooted in compassion when everything feels like it’s shifting beneath our feet?

In my latest blog post, When the Walls Shake: Faithful Resistance, I reflect on the story of Paul and Silas in prison — how even in chains, their faith stirred the very foundations. It’s a story of defiant praise, sacred disruption, and the kind of hope that sings even in the dark.

We, too, are called to be that kind of hope. Not the kind that denies struggle, but the kind that resists despair. The kind that claps with the beat of justice and shakes loose what keeps others bound.

I hope you’ll take a moment to read the full reflection — and share it if it resonates with you. Let’s be a people whose love shakes walls, not builds them.

Peace and Blessings,

Rev. Christopher Czarnecki

Senior Pastor, Holy Covenant UCC

Let’s lift up Pastor Chris’s voice — and continue living our bold faith, everywhere. 🕊️