January 2005  

Evening Prayers - Wednesday, Jan. 5 - 7:00 - 7:40 pm 

January 15 Congregational Conversation         

The next Congregational Conversation, sponsored by your Mission Vision Team, will be on Saturday, January 15, from 9:00 am to 12:00. We will have a conversation about our hopes for the future and what God intends for Old First. Please come! We need your help to put meat on the bones of the Mission Vision.

“Faith in the Public Square” Class on January 16

In these days of political turmoil in the public square, it seems appropriate for the faith community to discuss its role in forming public policy  A well formed strategy, based on theological principles, will empower the faith community to influence public policy regarding issues close to its heart. 

With this in mind, during Adult Education in the Munro Room at 9:30 am on January 16, 2005, the following questions will be considered in a discussion led by Alfred Martin:

            1.  Why should persons of faith be involved in the public square?

            2.  What is politics ,anyway?

            3.  What is the separation of church and state?

            4.  How can we make a difference in the public square?

            5.  Where do we need good public policy?

Officers Retreat January 28 and 29

Old First’s elders and deacons will hold their annual Officers Retreat on January 28 and 29 at the Ralston White Retreat Center in Mill Valley.

January 30 Town Hall Meeting

After the worship service, we will talk about our Small Groups Program.

Feb. 6 Annual Meeting and Congregational Lunch                 

On Sunday, February 6, our Annual Meeting will be held in the sanctuary right after worship. The Congregational Lunch will be held in the Fellowship Hall immediately afterward.

A major item of business at the Annual Meeting will be a review of Old First’s 2005 budget.

Lunch tickets go on sale at Coffee Hour on January 9, with a special early bird rate of $6 adults, $3 ages 6-12. After that, an adult ticket will be $7. On the day of the event, tickets will be $8 for adults, $4 for young  folks.                   

A Note from your friendly local transitional pastor

Old First faith community:

The season of Advent was full of music and artwork that helped us visualize our journey toward the feast day of Christmas and beyond. Hopefully, somewhere in the midst of your comings and goings you found some quiet time to sit still and reflect upon the last year and your faith journey. Time passes so quickly that we forget to take the time to consider where we have been, let alone look forward to what could be.

Now we are in the season of Epiphany. Before we can turn around, the season of Lent will guide us along the way toward Jesus’ passion, death, and Easter resurrection. This winter/spring pilgrimage connects us with Jesus’ whole life, from birth to adolescence, to adulthood and death and new life. In a few weeks and months we have the opportunity to connect our own life story with that of Jesus. We too experience growing pains, the process of maturation, our growing understanding of our own giftedness and life purpose. We must make decisions to stay on our course or make compromises. We learn that risk-taking is part of the challenge, and often new possibilities arise when we dare to go beyond the predictable pathways we know so well. We question our images of God as we attempt to reach a more complete understanding of who God truly is, and how God interacts with us and with humanity as a whole.

I keep writing about the five developmental tasks that congregations take on during a transitional ministry because they provide a way to work toward a renewed community life. They involve taking risks, and there is no one right way to do any of them; they just need to be done as thoroughly as possible. Living into them teaches us life lessons as well as prepares the way for the continuing life of a congregation. Your commitment to these tasks is the key to discovering how this congregation is being led to continue its storied ministry in this city and beyond:  Coming to terms with history, Discovering a new identity, Allowing needed leadership change/shifts of power, Renewing denominational linkages, Commitment to new pastoral leadership and a new future.

These tasks give you handles on who you are, and who you will become. They are the signposts along the way that help you gauge how far you have traveled, and what you need to explore next. Just like the writers of the gospels, when you have completed this part of your journey, you too will be able to tell the stories about how God has been present with you through it all. Everyone’s part in the story will become clearer, and your newly hard-won perspective will give you a picture of the whole rather than just the parts.

Again, I invite you to contact me for conversation and prayer. Contact me by phone (415-776-5552x305) or email (jeff@oldfirst.org) to set up a time to meet.

Blessings upon you and yours,

Jeffrey Cheifetz, Transitional Pastor

In Memory

Dee Yamamoto died on November 18.  A memorial service was held at Old First on Dec. 12.

Sponsoring Flowers and Coffee Hour

The new 2005 calendars for sponsoring flowers for worship services and coffee and donuts for coffee hour are now posted in the back hall by the Munro Room.

Each sponsorship costs $50. Pick your Sunday and write in your name on the calendar.  A few weeks before your Sunday, send a check to Tom in the church office, along with a note on how you want your sponsorship listed (“in honor of”, “to celebrate”, “in memory of” .... or whatever).

Lectionary

Jan 2      Jer. 31:7-14; Ps. 147:12-20; Eph. 1:2-14;  

              John 1:(1-9) 10-18

Jan 6       Isa. 60:1-6; Ps. 72:1-7, 10-14; Eph. 3:1-12; Matt. 2:1-12

Jan 9       Isa. 42:1-9; Ps. 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matt. 3:13-17

Jan 16     Isa. 49:1-7; Ps. 40:1-11; 1 Cor. 1:1-9;  John 1:29-42

Jan 23     Isa. 9:1-4; Ps. 27:1, 4-9; 1 Cor. 1:10-18; Matt. 4:12-23

Jan 30     Mic. 6:1-8; Ps. 15; 1 Cor. 1:18-31; Matt. 5:1-12

Feb 6      Exod. 24:12-18; Ps. 2 or Ps. 99; 2 Pet. 1:16-21;                                       Matt. 17:1-9

August 28, 1963: 

Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington

by Rev. Forrest W. Cummings

Where were you on August 28, 1963?  This was the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech  on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.  

In May of 1963 I graduated from McCormick Seminary in Chicago  and was ordained that same month. Shortly afterwards I started working as Director of Admissions at the seminary.  The fact that the March on Washington was going to take place permeated the atmosphere of the seminary. The students were all talking about it. There was a feeling that something was happening in the culture.  (I might add that at the time we had one black faculty member and no black members of the student body.) 

When I heard that King was going to address the issues of segregation and discrimination, I felt I had to be there, for I believed in what he stood for. I had been following him since the Rosa Parks bus boycott, the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and his arrest for the lunch counter sit-ins. You couldn’t avoid what he was doing if you read a newspaper or heard the news at all. They were not engaged at an academic level, however, at the seminary.

I went with a fellow named Bob Whitcomb who was on the faculty, working in the area of  Industrial Outreach.  He also thought he should be there.  No other faculty members attended that I know about.

We flew to Washington, D.C. about 6:00 a.m. on August 28th. At Dulles Airport we boarded a bus for the staging area of the march, where we found an admixture of people — black, white, all ages. It was a well-behaved crowd; there was excitement and anticipation in the air.  People were walking with each other, talking to each other: human being to human being.  In essence the battle had been won for that short interlude. 

The march lasted for something like two hours from the time we started to when we arrived at the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  It was unbelievably hot and sultry.  I took off my shoes and put my feet in the reflecting pool to cool off, and many others were doing the same thing. 

There was a series of speakers before King. He came to the platform after about an hour.

I was riveted by what he said about segregation and the chains of  discrimination that had shackled his people in the past as well as in the present.   The thing that really attracted my attention was his talking about his own children and how he dreamed that they would some day live in a nation where one was not judged by the color of their skin but by their character. 

I remember the cadence building .......  “I have a dream, I have a dream” ..... and the emotional  responses of  people in the crowd.  When he ended with “free at last, free at last!” the crowd  was very  excited, and I had the feeling  that something larger and grander was taking place.

I personally got caught up in the momentum of all that King was doing and saying, not only fighting discrimination and segregation but also his philosophy of non-violence as well as his feelings about the Vietnam War and the materialism that was taking over our society. 

A couple of years later he came to Gage Park in South Chicago to attempt to integrate the community. I  remember he got hit with a rock someone threw at him.  Shortly after that I marched with citizens and other clergy for open housing in the northwest part of the city.  We were spat upon, and people threw rocks.  We were supposed to end up at a church in the community,  but the white congregation left early rather than be there when we arrived.    

At the seminary we tried to invite black students for theological studies.   It took some years, however, before they started coming in numbers. King definitely influenced my feeling that I had been called to ministry during this tumultuous time of social change. He was responsible for my being attracted to the activism in the Bay Area and eventually moving here.  He changed my life.

December 2003,  November 2003, October 2003,  September 2003,  July/August 2003, June 2003, May 2003,  April 2003, March 2003, February 2003, January 2003

December 2002,  November 2002, October 2002, September 2002, July/August 2002, June 2002, May 2002, April 2002, March 2002, February 2002, January 2002

December 2001, Nov 2001, October 2001,  September 2001, July/August 2001, June 2001,  May 2001,  April 2001, March 2001, 
February 2001, January 2001 

December 2000, November 2000,October 2000, September 2000, July/August 2000, May/June 2000,April 2000, March 2000, February 2000