Feb 14th at 7 – 7:30 pm @skylineucc.org
A brief service with Pastor Laurie and Music Director Benjamin Mertz.
Meditation, Taize music, prayers, ashes, candlelight
Transfiguration …the indescribable mystery and beauty of standing upon the mountaintop, in radiant glory, and seeing for one brief moment the place where heaven meets earth, God incarnate. Savor the words of Pulitzer prize winning poet Mary Oliver that speaks of our desire to behold Jesus in the flesh. Join us this Sunday as we seek to experience Transfiguration as well. Also, join us for a conversation after the service to explore Transfiguration more deeply together. Childcare is provided, if needed.
The Vast Ocean Begins Just Outside Our Church: The Eucharist – by Mary Oliver
Something has happened
To the bread
And the wine.
They have been blessed.
What now?
The body leans forward
To receive the gift
From the priest’s hand,
Then the chalice.
They are something else now
From what they were
Before this began.
I want
To see Jesus,
Maybe in the clouds
Or on the shore,
Just walking,
Beautiful man
And clearly
Someone else
Besides.
On the hard days
I ask myself
If I ever will.
Also there are times
My body whispers to me
That I have.
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.”
Since President Trump has been in office, ICE reports that arrests are up 40%. However, the president’s policy has also inspired a renewed resistance, of which our denomination – the UCC, and Skyline are a part.
On Sunday, January 21st Skyline Community Church, UCC unanimously voted to become a sanctuary congregation to advocate, support, and stand with immigrants facing urgent situations.
As an inclusive, progressive Christian community, Skyline upholds the sacredness of each person, and advocates for the rights of immigrants. Over the past few years, volunteers from Skyline have provided education, advocacy, donations, and accompaniment to immigrant families in need. Our hope is to offer even more support in the future.
The most recent threat about an ICE sweep in Northern California is part of a larger anti-immigrant movement, rooted in xenophobia and racism. 800,000 young people with DACA could also be at risk for deportation and separation from their families. Immigrants are a vital part of our communities, and the breaking up of immigrant families is one of the most critical social justice issues of our time.
By voting for this resolution, Skyline denounces this latest threat against the well-being of our communities. While Skyline is not offering physical sanctuary, if the threatened ICE sweep is implemented, our Justice and Witness Team is committed to finding ways in which we can offer support to protect the families whose safety and well-being is being endangered. Now is the time to come together and act on our sacred values of compassion and justice.
At our best, as followers of Jesus, we are supporting a countercultural vision of our world, which Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven. At our best, we are supporting the thriving of a real sanctuary. We are a sanctuary for people of different genders, races, backgrounds and ethnicities who are rightly afraid today. We are a sanctuary for all those bonded to them in love. We are a sanctuary for change makers. So many of us in this community are working in one way or another for the most vulnerable and for the delicate ecosystems that sustain life itself. From my vantage point as a minister, seeing the outpouring of energy and commitment from all of you in recent months, I know that this congregation is a powerful force for good in this world.
We lift up a different image of God – God as compassion, God as love, God as friend, God as the power of liberation for the oppressed; God who became one of us, born as a refugee, and born in a barn stable much like the story of so many undocumented people in this world, and in this country; born as a nobody from nowhere, whom we remember and we follow 2,000 years later.
Thank you Skyline, for your faith in action. I invite you to read this article about ways Skyline is already taking action for inspiration.
With love, Pastor Laurie, Nancy Taylor, Mirtha Langewis-Ninayahuar and the Justice and Witness Team
Sunday, March 11, 11 AM – 2 PM
Featuring: Chris & Lee who will be moving to Redding California to begin a new life!
To help food planning, please RSVP to Catherine – via the office at 510-531-8212; [email protected]. But if you forget, please come – we want you there!
Planning team:
Catherine Kessler , Nancy Taylor, Tom Manley, Carolyn Noble, Pastor Laurie
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.
Sun, February 4, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
We hope that you are enjoying Skyline’s welcome! Are you interested in putting down some spiritual roots at Skyline? Are you considering becoming a member or official friend of the church? Come learn more about the United Church of Christ, , Skyline, and how to get involved at this comfortable gathering. You will meet Pastor Laurie and others and have time to ask questions. Anyone interested in learning more about the church is encouraged to attend, whether or not you decide to join.
If you want to take the next step in your journey with Skyline, come enjoy lunch, conversation, and a presentation on who we are and how you might fit in. Childcare will be provided.
Pastor Laurie (421-2646) [email protected]
50 yrs ago the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. preached his last sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church before his assassination. It is a remarkable sermon. In it, he discusses his own death and how he wanted to be remembered. In addition, he skillfully used the “Drum Major Instinct” theme – “thinking that you are somebody big because you are white” – to offer a deep critique of contemporary culture and an inspired, practical vision for living the Gospel. Specifically, he critiqued the dangerous down-side of the drum major instinct. He addresses white supremacy, racism, economic injustice and war.
Like so many of his sermons, this one has incredible relevance for us today, the year after an election in which various forms of the drum major instinct are on parade all across our nation. It is also what makes the message King brings home so poignant: the call of the Gospel to be a drum major for justice and peace, a drum major for serving humanity, that we may “make of this old world a new world.”
Join us this Sunday, as we listen to the prophetic voice of Dr King, 50 yrs later.
I share with you an excerpt from his sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church:
… And when we were in jail in Birmingham the other day, the white wardens and all enjoyed coming around the cell to talk about the race problem. And they were showing us where we were so wrong demonstrating. And they were showing us where segregation was so right. And they were showing us where intermarriage was so wrong. …And then we got down one day to the point—that was the second or third day—to talk about where they lived, and how much they were earning. And when those brothers told me what they were earning, I said, “Now, you know what? You ought to be marching with us. [laughter] You’re just as poor as Negroes.” And I said, “You are put in the position of supporting your oppressor, because through prejudice and blindness, you fail to see that the same forces that oppress Negroes in American society oppress poor white people. (Yes) And all you are living on is the satisfaction of your skin being white, and the drum major instinct of thinking that you are somebody big because you are white. And you’re so poor you can’t send your children to school. You ought to be out here marching with every one of us every time we have a march.”
Now that’s a fact. That the poor white has been put into this position, where through blindness and prejudice, (Make it plain) he is forced to support his oppressors. And the only thing he has going for him is the false feeling that he’s superior because his skin is white—and can’t hardly eat and make his ends meet week in and week out. (Amen)
Delivered February 4, 1968. listen to the audio.
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.
