Racists Anonymous, Rev. Laurie Manning and Nancy Taylor

Today, Discussion 12-1 PM, after Fellowship (more discussion to follow)

Earlier this week I spoke with, my colleague, UCC minister, Rev Ron Buford, who started a program , entitled Racists Anonymous. (Racists Anonymous is a support group, based on the 12 step model. Ron, who is an African American gay man, created the program over his frustration with typical attempts to deal with race issues which merely either left him feeling angry, or white participates leaving feeling guilty. The first meeting was held in 2015 following various police shootings and the Dylann Roof mass murder.  Since this time, the program has been adopted in four countries. A basic dictum of the organization is that all people are racist to varying degrees, and that it is impossible not to be racist if raised in American culture, and that one can engage in self-improvement, as opposed to “fixing” oneself.  Particularly given the current climate of rising institutionalized, implicit and explicit racism in our country, we are more impacted than we are conscious of. All are welcome to this exploratory session. Pastor Laurie at (421-2646) [email protected].  http://rainternational.org/

Justice Jam and Homelessness

Wednesday, Feb 5, 6:30-8 pm

Join Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church to hear about the intersections of homelessness, housing insecurity, affordable housing and housing values. Find out how to get involved in addressing the Bay Area housing crisis. Doors will open at 6pm. Light Refreshments will be served before the meeting.  PastorLaurie (421-2646) [email protected]

Location: 3534 Lakeshore Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610

I Am Not Your Negro, Potluck and Movie

Friday, February 21,  potluck 6:30, movie 7:30.  

The film,  “I Am Not Your Negro”, is from James Baldwin’s unfinished book on the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.  It’s narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, beautifully done with photos, footage and music of the Civil Rights Movement era.  Contact Nancy T via the office.

Here are some reviews:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/movies/review-i-am-not-your-negro-review-james-baldwin.html?_r=0
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_am_not_your_negro/
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/i-am-not-your-negro-review/515976/
https://skylineucc.org/righteous-indignation-to-resist-injustice/
Here’s the trailer: 
http://www.iamnotyournegrofilm.com/

Cry the Beloved Country, Potluck and Movie

Jim Schubert & Pastor Laurie invite you to join us for movie and potluck evening here at Skyline to watch and discuss the classic film,  “Cry the Beloved County”.  Bring a friend and some food to share! Most importantly, bring your passion for ending white supremacy within our culture by learning from the history of Apartheid in South Africa. 

Proclaimed “a monument to the future” by no less a figure than Nelson Mandela, the movie, directed by Darrell James Roodt, is an exercise in solemn uplift that is touching despite an atmosphere that at moments becomes stiflingly reverential.

Why risky? Because movies have become so invested in the unleashing of violent emotion and the escalation of hostility, that expressions of restraint, reconciliation and forgiveness can easily be read as corny cop-outs. “Cry, the Beloved Country” is not corny, and it doesn’t cop out.
Here are some reviews of the film:  
https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/15/movies/film-review-searching-for-answers-in-yesterday-s-south-africa.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1952/01/24/archives/the-screen-in-review-alan-patons-cry-the-beloved-country-with.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/19/movies/in-cry-the-beloved-country-a-new-voice-from-the-past.html

Here we are, in the dawn of a fresh new decade. 

What does this new year and new decade hold for us? Hope or despair? New life, or destruction?  How can we avert war with Iran? How can we restore representative government in our country? How can we save our planet from the unfolding climate crisis? 

We are in new territory as a civilization, living in a world that would have been considered wildly imaginative science fiction just a few decades ago—with revolutionary new technologies and global interconnections through the internet and global threats of nuclear war, threats to the environment and a global refugee crisis, to name only some of the changes.

At the same time an increasing percentage of our society has given up on institutionalized religion’s ability to  help us find our way through the new landscape of our lives. 

Yet we have as much reason to hope as any generation ever had. The prophetic words of  Isaiah echo through the ages:

“Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness…. See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare.”

Where do we begin, in the face of the enormity of these events, at the dawn of this new decade?  It begins by taking a new journey, of rebirth, beginning with our own souls, and recognizing that we are all connected. It means choosing  the road of hope tied to action. I resolve to live myself into hope, into a better year. 

What does that look like? For me, it starts within my own soul and a conscious commitment to really see people beyond the societal labels assigned to them. It means I am determined to work for equity and justice believing I can make a difference. It means more kindness in each interaction and more listening to those whose views are different than my own. It means not letting bitterness or cynicism take root in me. It means turning my anger into the power of radical love. It means believing that every single one of us is called by name, as God’s beloved.   

• Here in the Northern hemisphere it’s hard to keep our spirits up in the absence of much daylight, warmth, and sunlight. 
• Then there are all of the expectations  that this season places upon us, to be generous, to purchase gifts for loved ones, and to be jolly.
• The longer we live, the more memories we have of the past, and especially the memory of loved ones: our parents and grandparents, our spouses, and siblings, and best friends who have died.
•  The more news we read, the easier it is to become overwhelmed with unrest and anxiety, about the state of the country and of the world, and of our planet. 

Join us for a wonderful child friendly puppet show, telling the Christmas story, created by David Guerra, featuring some of our favorite puppets.  David Guerra ( [email protected])

Sunday, December 22 during service at 10 AM