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Weekly Worship Schedule:
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We worship in the:
Pacific School of Religion Chapel |
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Upcoming Services and Events: MCC Valley/Bay Area Network Gathering New Spirit’s Annual Steward’s Dinner Sunday, January 29 Sunday, January 29 Wednesday, February 1 Sunday, February 5 Sunday, February 5 Wednesday, February 8 Saturday, February 18, 2012, 7:00 pm MCC Denominational Men’s Conference Check our Events page for a more complete listing of upcoming things of interest. |
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Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
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| Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help, love lifted me, Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else could help- Love lifted me. |
Dear Friends,
I am filled with such optimism about all off the possibilities unfolding around us. A new year on the calendar, a new fiscal year for the church, a new semester starting here at school. Of course, it is always possible to make a new beginning- but in our common life at New Spirit, some of these things are aligning in ways that reveal God’s presence and God’s purpose for us. The Board of Directors is deep into preparation for our upcoming Annual Stewards’ Dinner so that we can leverage our resources to coincide with the abundance of Spirit in our midst. Simply put, if we can raise $10,000 at this dinner- and this is an ambitious but attainable goal for us, it will enable us to do all we hope to this spring without anxiety. We appreciate all of your support, and if you can attend or make a gift to this dinner, it would mean the world to us. You can email Daniel to make reservation and to make arrangements to pay, in one sum, or in installments. In my family, we have arranged to do this monthly, because that’s how we can afford to do it- and it allows us to express extraordinary support the church even with uncertain income at times.
I am especially m excited about this upcoming Sunday where I will be preaching at City of Refuge UCC www.sfrefuge.org. To me this is the Cathedral of Liberation for churches in our area. I have known Bishop Flunder for nearly 25 years. When we first met she was a minster and distinguished gospel singer at the Love Center in Oakland. We have experienced many things together over the years, working side by side in San Francisco politics as well as religion. We’ started the Queer Youth Shelter in the Castro at a time when neighborhood residents vociferously opposed locating it there, we’ve been to South Africa and Zimbabwe and the Mother of Peace HIV/AIDS orphanage, and we have shared a common passion that has brought both MCC and the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries together in part to made a strong statement about solidarity and the inseparability of racial justice and sexual orientation justice issues and work. At times, we have even born a certain physical resemblance (though she has broken rank and lost weight in recent years) and we call each other brother and sister in ways that speak to our level of affection and commitment. I share all this because to preach at Refuge is an opportunity to thank them for sharing Ann Jefferson and Niels Teunis with us this year, to appreciate the common hopes we have about justice, and also for spiritual renewal. Every time I go to City of Refuge, I receive spiritual insights and gifts I didn’t even know I needed but having experienced the gift of them, I am reminded about God’s faithfulness, and her ability to restore and renew
I am preaching at New Spirit at 11 a.m. and then after church going over to Refuge; their service starts around 1 p.m. and goes for a while. Please join me at both places this week- and I can promise the same spiritual enlivening for you that I don’t take for granted but that I have come to cherish. My preaching text will be 1 Corinthians 13. I have been reading Ernesto Cardenal’s Love: A Glimpse of Eternity, and re-reading bell hook’s All About Love: New Visions, and the accompanying book of poetry; which are helping me see a social analysis dimension to this passage which we hear so often at weddings and funerals, I just read Ann Patchett’s moving memoir about her passionate friendship with the late Lucy Grealey, and her account of the love that unites the life journeys of friends is as important as the romantic love we often associate with this scripture. Peter King and the New Spirit singers will lead us in everything from “Love Divine All Loves Excelling,” to the old gospel hymn “Love Lifted Me” to the more contemporary “Testify to Love.” We’ll also recite together poetry by Judy Grahn and Alice Walker. Come sing pray, hear, proclaim and yearn with us- this Sunday it’s all about Love.
Yours,
Jim
This is our greeting to be shared today at the ordination of former member Ben Files in Oklahoma City.
Thanks to Edward Cervantes for making the film.
