On the eve of the State of the Union address several young people (young is a relative term, right?!) in their 30’s and 20’s sought me out to set up a time to walk and talk, and of course I happily agreed. 

1. The twenty year old shared with me, “I’ve been thinking about my legacy,  what I am called to do with my life?”

2. The father of two in his mid 30’s shared with me, “I’m happily married, I have my wife and kids; we have our jobs and a house, and all of our basic needs are met. I’m searching for something more. There must be something more  that has to do with why we’re here, why I am here, and what’s my purpose in this life? 

3. Another woman in her mid thirties shared with me, “sometimes the world seems so competitive and divided, and at its worst, religion can exacerbate it.  Can we find another way to live with one another?”

To me, these are profoundly spiritual questions. Asking these questions is a sign of being alive; questions that we need to ask throughout our lives, individually, and as a society. Join us this Sunday as we explore these questions of meaning in our lives. And, if you’d like to explore more after the service, join us for our Inquirer’s Session from 11:30 am -12:30 pm. Childcare is provided.

I’d like to share with you a few responses from various traditions to these questions: 

Paul Tillich, 20th century:  “Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.”

Rabindranath Tagore, 20th century Nobel Prize-winning poet:  “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”

Albert Schweitzer, 20th century: “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

Booker T. Washington, 20th century: “Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”

Martin Luther King Jr., 20th century: “Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Fred Rogers, 20th century: “Life is for service.”

Some of the Sanctuary Activities Skyline is Already Involved In – By Mirtha Ninayahuar)

Examples Accompaniment, Advocacy, and Rapid Response work

Accompaniment

I have accompanied Guatemalan mother and daughter for the last 2 years. We’ve built a strong and caring relationship. I visit or contact the family monthly to see how they are. I assisted them with finding urgent dental care for daughter. I act as liaison between school teacher and non-English speaking mother. I drop off items needed such as a bed, groceries, school materials. We went on picnic with other accompaniment families. I took her to court appointment and found that she and her daughter had been granted asylum. 

I’m a volunteer for Court Accompaniment. Went to Immigration court in San Francisco with a mother and her toddler son and after we went to breakfast. I went to S.F. Immigration Court in support of a father separated from his pregnant wife and children, one of the children having special medical needs. Shared the experience with other volunteers so we can learn from one another on what to expect at the court.

I’ve been a volunteer Sunday  Nueva Esperanza preschool teacher for more than a year at Guatemalan Mam Church, with Nancy Taylor.

Skyline Church families decorated Easter bags and filled them with toys and healthful snacks. E’lijah, Skyline Youth Director, Pastor Laurie and Nancy Taylor delivered the bags to the Nueva Esperanza Preschool and visited with the children.

David G. and his daughter came to the Nueva Esperanza Preschool to do an art project with the children. David made animal themed hats for all the children, too.

Suzie H. volunteered as a preschool teacher at the Nueva Esperanza Preschool.

Skyline Church supports Sanctuary by donating food, toys, and clothes to immigrant/refugees in Oakland via Iglesias Presbyterian on High Street and Guatemalan Mam Church on Farnam Street in Fruitvale area.

Advocacy

Requested Skyline Church to vote on signing an electronic petition to denounce the holding of undocumented families in for-profit inhospitable detention centers. Congregation voted to approve signing petition. Congregations support is of more impact than an individual signing. Skyline hosted movie/potluck and to educate and discuss the root causes of migration from Central America.

I continue to sign electronic petitions in support of the immigrant community. Nancy Taylor and I joined caravan to Sacramento to lobby for Ca Sanctuary State Bill. Nancy collected signatures in support of bill.

For many months participated in the 120 Montgomery SF Immigration Court Vigils with placards to bring attention to the plight of the refugees. Also handed out stuffed toys and snacks to children entering the court building.

Participate in monthly interfaith vigils at West Count Detention Facility to support immigrant detainees. Recently I’ve been asked to welcome people visiting the detention facility and ask if they would join the vigil and if they have any prayer requests.

Participated in Holy Thursday/Passover Foot Washing Ceremony at Immigration Customs and Enforcement Building in San Francisco. Religious Leaders washed the feet of immigrants and children from local congregations/community organizations. Some shared testimony of their hardships getting here. The washing ritual symbolizes respect, humility, servanthood and the ways in which we are to treat our fellow human beings with respect and love, without prejudice as to where they come from. Clergy, religious leaders and lay leaders, immigrant janitors (diverse ethnic group) members of SEIU Local 87, immigrant domestic workers from Mujeres Unidas y Activas were some in attendance as well as media.

 Participated in the same foot washing ritual last year in front of SF City Hall.

Acted in skit for International Immigrants Day held a Fruitvale BART bringing attention to story of son forced to leave his family and country to help his family survive. Photos of missing immigrants posted for mothers’ in search of their children.

I participated in Vigil at Santa Rita Jail to pray and show support against the expansion of jail and to bring attention to lack of due process for undocumented detainees.

Networks of Protection & Rapid Response

Nancy Taylor and I have signed up to be in network made up of many organizations under Bay Resistance. (https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-for-updates-27) We are part of the mass text alert for when a presence of witnessing or public action may be needed to show support for those targeted by the new administration. Interfaith group has a public action scheduled in March as part of Resist Trump Tuesdays.

This Sunday, very much related to this theme of living waters, we renew our baptismal vows and connect deeply with  the truth that we are God’s beloved. Related to this theme, I offer you this poem, by Nobel Prize winner for literature, Derek Walcott, entitled “Love after Love”.

May the rains renew your souls this week.

Blessings, Pastor Laurie 

Love After Love by Derek Walcott
The time will come 
when, with elation 
you will greet yourself arriving 
at your own door, in your own mirror 
and each will smile at the other’s welcome, 

and say, sit here. Eat. 
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart 
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you 

all your life, whom you ignored 
for another, who knows you by heart. 
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, 

the photographs, the desperate notes, 
peel your own image from the mirror. 
Sit. Feast on your life.

As a new year begins, we turn inward to reflect about the state of our lives:

• What lessons have we learned in the past year and which new ones now call us forward?
• To whom do we still owe an apology or expression of thanks?
• And with whom must we draw fresh boundaries?

As we pause from our regular rhythms of rush-rush-rush, we open ourselves to new perspectives and possibilities. We give thanks for these moments and for the wisdom they afford us. May they help bring us together in the sacred dynamics of life so that we—as individuals and as members of this community—might reach our full potential.

As we step across this threshold, let this new year be a year of greater awe and gratitude, deeper kindness and acceptance, and more courageous acts of conviction.

For a kinder, more equitable and sustainable world is not only possible, she is on her way. And in the quietness of this sacred community, we can even hear her breathing.
Amen.

Join us for Mirtha’s story of her pilgrimage to the Nogales Arizona/Mexico Border as part of School of the Americas Watch Border Encuentro.  Mirtha was one of nine women in the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity journey lead by Rev. Deborah Lee, Miriam Noriega and Hilda Cruz.

Sunday, December 3 after the service.  

Come one and all -families, children, grown-ups are welcome to be part of the fun and festivities! Come to church in clothes that you can help in!  We’ll have a beautiful tree to decorate thanks to Dorothy, and holiday cheer to spread around the sanctuary.   If you have evergreens in your yard and can spare some branches, please bring them!  Contact Pastor Laurie with ideas, suggestions!   

It’s getting awfully cold and dark, isn’t it? For some of us, cold and dark bring forth the deep grief of sickness, of loneliness, of endings, or of death. Why, then, is this the season where we begin the new liturgical year? Because we need the hope of new beginnings, especially now. 

Whatever losses and hardships we have endured personally this year, in addition to these,  2017 has been quite a year!… Inaugurations, investigations, mass protests and counter-protests. Hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires.  Muslim travel bans, transgender rights rollbacks, open assault on the poorest and sickest people in America through cruel legislation. Two of the largest mass shootings our country has ever seen.  White supremacists openly on parade, with torches, and without masks. Nuclear holocaust nightmares, redux.

Yet, It’s also been the year of: the largest single-day protest (the Women’s March on Jan 20). The annulment of much of that cruel legislation by an engaged electorate.  The takedown of wealthy and powerful sexual predators, and the unmasking of sexual harassment and assault nationwide by women on the political left and the right. White people awakening to their privilege and showing up in greater numbers to protest white supremacy.  And, soon, the seating of newly elected trans folks, women, and people of color in political office throughout the land.

This is the season of Advent… not just about the coming of baby Jesus in the manger, but the season of Apocalypse.  Which means, not only the second coming of of the adult Jesus (look busy!) in judgment, but also, uncovering.  It brings to mind the uncovering of the snow in the deep of winter, that with the sun’s love, in the spring, becomes the rose blossoming into the fullness of life. May it be so, in our lives, individually, and collectively. 

I leave you with the hopeful words from Bette Midler’s beloved song, the Rose, https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bettemidler/therose.html

After Service this Sunday, Nov 12, 11:30-12:30

Pastor Laurie will do a short slide presentation of what she learned at the Climate Reality Leadership Training last month with Al Gore.  Lora Jo Foo will give an update on the No-Coal-in-Oakland issues, especially about their campaign to get the coal interests to dismiss their lawsuit against Oakland. 

Ms. Foo is a retired labor organizer and attorney, nature photographer, author, and climate justice activist.  She devoted seven years to organizing workers in the garment and hotel industries, and litigated for 15 years representing unions and individual workers in sweatshop industries. Because the impact of climate change is greatest on people of color and low-income families, she has devoted the next decade to keeping our earth habitable for our children and their children.  She has worked towards bringing community choice energy for the East Bay, led a ballot measure campaign that successfully banned fracking in San Benito County, and in 2016 helped lead the successful campaign in her hometown of Oakland that stopped the building of what would have been the largest coal export terminal on the West Coast.

The United Church of Christ General Synod 2017 has just overwhelmingly approved the Climate Resolution calling on clergy and congregations across the denomination to take action to protect the environment, and churches are lining up to stand behind it publicly.

 Thank you to  Skyline, to our  NCNCUCC conference,  and to our UCC General Synod, for their  full support for this resolution. We stand with the rest of the world and commit ourselves to protect and defend the earth for the generations to come, because we are called to be lovers of creation.

Rev. Laurie  Manning  is  the NCNCUCC  conference rep for climate justice,  and a member of the UCC Council on Climate Justice.  She has already planted a sign in front of her church in support of the resolution and the Paris Climate Accord. “This sign expresses who we are now and how we pledge to live.”

Churches interested in the sign can download it here.

In honor of July 4 weekend, I want to lift up an excerpt of a presentation given by former President Barack Obama at the 2016 national prayer breakfast.  It is a prayer for our country that I believe is particularly relevant now. 

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  I pray that by His grace, we all find the courage to set such examples in our own lives —  not just in the public piety that we profess, but in those smaller moments when it’s difficult, when we’re challenged, when we’re angry, when we’re confronted with someone who doesn’t agree with us, when no one is watching.  I pray,  that our differences ultimately are bridged; that the God that is in each of us comes together, and we don’t divide.  

I pray that our leaders will always act with humility and generosity.  I pray that my failings are forgiven.  I pray that we will uphold our obligation to be good stewards of God’s creation — this beautiful planet.  I pray that we will see every single child as our own, each worthy of our love and of our compassion.  And I pray we answer Scripture’s call to lift up the vulnerable, and to stand up for justice, and ensure that every human being lives in dignity.

Blessings to all who love you, on this weekend when we’ll remember who we are called to be; as individuals and as a nation, at our best.

with love, Pastor Laurie