January 2006 – Shared Life of Old First

February 5 Annual Meeting

& Congregational Lunch

On Sunday, Feb. 5, our Annual Meeting will be held in the Sanctuary right after worship. The Congregational Lunch will be held in the Fellowship Hall immediately afterward, with the meal catered by a local Thai restaurant.

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

Lunch tickets will go on sale at Coffee Hour on January 8, 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 and $4 for the youngsters.

There’s Still Time to Make your Pledge

Stewardship Committee Moderator Jean Olson reports that pledging for 2006 is going well, with ten new households pledging this year.

“We didn’t set a pledge goal,” she says. “We want people to consider their giving a matter of grace..”

If you plan to make a pledge and haven’t got around to it, please don’t wait much longer. It’s time for the Finance Committee to work the new budget.

From your Friendly Local Transitional Pastor

My prayer for you is that the Advent and Epiphany seasons deepened your awareness of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. We depend profoundly upon God’s activity in history as the Spirit continues to guide us along the path of faith, hope, and love.

One year ago I wrote the following in the January 2005 Shared Life. I share it with you again because we are coming closer to completing the Mission Vision document. It will serve as our guideline to doing ministry for some time. Prior to that event, I invite you to continue thinking about this congregation’s work at this point in its long history.

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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 it the story will become clearer, and your newly hard-won perspective will give you a picture of the whole rather than just the parts.

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Although we have not engaged in many all-church events that focus on these five tasks, I believe that we have come a long way:

* We cannot change what happened in the past, but the passage of time gives us the opportunity to reconsider and re-cast our memories and feelings in the light of God’s continuing love for all of us. We have had some time to mend damaged relationships, and to rethink how each one of us handles conflict, differences of opinion, and other complexities that are part of the package of being human beings of faith.

* I hope everyone has read the current version of the Mission Vision document (copies are available in the church office, and it can be accessed online on the church website). It lays out the direction that the leadership of this congregation will take for some time to come. We will emphasize the building of community in everything that we do, for the web of relationship itself, and how we interact within that web, are a large part of what makes a vibrant, welcoming, grace-full faith ‘home’.

* We treasure the contributions of those who have completed their terms of active service on Session and the Board of Deacons, and we say ‘thank you!’ to all of them. We see some new faces in those groups, as the Spirit continues to guide experienced and new church members into and out of leadership positions according to their sense of timing and call. It is important that we pray for the current elected leaders of this congregation. The year 2006 is a pivotal time in this church’s history. It is time to make our Mission Vision an integral part of who we are and how we work and worship together. This will take commitment, courage, and learning to do the ministry of this church according to a shared vision of how God is leading us. This means that we will need to make choices as we decide to do some things and not do others.

* We hosted the May 2005 meeting of the Presbytery of San Francisco in this building, and drew upon the contributions of three other churches to make it a success: Christ United, Ocean Avenue, and Mission Bay. This was an important step in the renewal of our relationship with the Presbytery, and it required a lot of planning and people to make it happen. We need to continue building that relationship, so that we are able to share our gifts with the larger Church, and that Church has the opportunity to share its gifts with us.

* New pastoral leadership (the next called and installed pastor) will come to you when it is time. Remember that the Biblical understanding of ‘waiting’ is an active, expectant attitude that pays attention to what is right in front of us in the light of where we believe God is leading us. The future will come. What is needed is our remaining awake and alert to the opportunities for ministry which present themselves to us here and now. That is why it is important that each and every person who calls Old First ‘home’, or ‘my church’, responds to the call of God in large and small ways beginning now. This is, after all, a community, and you and I are what constitute that community.

May this new year be a time of exploration, renewal, and increasing joy, as we encourage one another along the Way of Christ.

As I wrote a year ago, I’ll write again now: I invite you to contact me for tea, lunch, or other times for conversation and prayer. Contact me by phone (415-776-5552 ext 305) or email (jeff@oldfirst.org).

Peace to you and yours,

Jeffrey Cheifetz

Improvisational Movement Classes Start Jan. 8

Pastor Jeff will lead a Sunday morning 9:30am adult education class on improvisational movement, for four weeks, January 8 - 29.

We will learn a series of forms that will help us express what is in our hearts through body movement. We will also discover ways to express what we know in our heads about building community. This is based in our Christian incarnational theology.

It is not dancing, and does not require athleticism or agility. It is motion for every body. All that is needed is your willingness!

Jazz Vespers - First Sundays, 5 pm.

Jan. 1- Gerry Grosz Jazz Kitchen

Feb. 5 - Geoffrey Keezer & Scott Pingle

March 5- Paul Scheffert Trio

April 2 - Clairdee & the Ken French Trio

Church Town Hall Meeting Sunday,

January 29 after Worship

to hear from the Mission Vision Team

Young Adults Small Group

After receiving a number of inquiries about the availability of a small group for younger adults, Pastor Jeff put out the call for those interested in the formation of a 'young adults' (20's-early 40's) small group that would gather periodically for mutual sharing and support, spiritual growth, meals, playful activity, and service activities within and/or outside of the church structure.

A meeting was held in early December with six adults and one infant present. Everyone indicated their desire to build a sense of community, and for a safe place where they could get to know people, talk freely about what is important to them, and explore the intersection between their Christian faith and everyday life. The next get-together will be a weekend potluck dinner in January, date and place to be arranged.

Also discussed were: service projects, Bible study, reading and talking about a book, and opportunities for picnic lunches and dinners together.

If you are interested in becoming part of this group, please contact Pastor Jeff at 415-776-5552 ext 305, or jeff@oldfirst.org.

January 15 Concert Honors Dr. Bodo

Sunday, January 15 at 3 pm, Old First Concerts will present a Commemorative John Bodo ‘Cello Concert in memory of the late Dr. Bodo, who founded Old First Concerts 36 years ago.

Cellist Stephen Framil and the Pacific Union College Chamber Orchestra will perform works by Bach and Hayden. A reception will follow.

Tickets are $15, and $12 for students and seniors.

Lectionary

Jan. 1 - 1st Sunday after Christmas

Isa.61:10-62:3; Ps. 148;

Gal. 4:4-7; Luke 2:22-40

Jan. 6 - Epiphany of the Lord

Isa.60:1-6; Ps. 72:1-7,10-14;

Eph. 3:1-12; Matt. 2:1-12

Jan. 8 - Baptism of the Lord

Gen. 1:1-5; Ps. 29;

Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11

Jan. 15 - 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Sam. 3:1-10 (11-20);

Ps. 139:1-6, 13-18;

1 Cor. 6:12-20; John 1:43-51

Jan. 22 - 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jon. 3:1-5, 10; Ps. 62:5-12;

1 Cor. 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

Jan. 29 - 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Deut. 18:15-20; Ps. 111;

1 Cor. 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28

Feb. 5 - 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isa. 40:21-31; Ps. 147:1-11, 20c;

1 Cor. 9:16-23; Mark 1:29-39

Notes from the Minutes

of Stated Meeting of Session,

Oct. 25, 2005

Since Pastor Jeff was out of town due to the death of his mother, the meeting was moderated by the Rev. John Anderson, Pastor of St. John’s Presbyterian Church.

Mission Vision: Session discussed the revised MV report at length and approved it with minor revisions. The next step is to submit the approved report to the Presbytery’s Healthy Congregations Committee.

Finance - Budget is in good shape; income and expenditures are very close.

Evangelism - Megan Rohrer is re-designing the Old First website. Ted Chiao is checking out prices and regulations for banners on lightpoles on Van Ness.

Operations - Steve Taber is getting a new quote on backlighting the rose window.

Central Gardens Update

by Johnni Olds

Thanksgiving was wonderful at Central Gardens. After a brief service with my remembering counting stars with my grandaddy, the children of Old First put on a talent show.

Abigail Lee played her father's favorite, "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem", on the piano. Her sister Hannah, sang a special song to her teacher. Joshua Cheng wowed us with his martial arts skills. Angela Brown sang a variation on "Ode to Joy".

Camryn Hollarsmith displayed her art skills by drawing one of the birds that lives at Central Gardens.. Samuel Cheng captivated us

all by playing “Sonatina” by Diabelli. Jonathan Lee's niece, Tiffany, sang "Go Tell It On the Mountain". Last, but not least, Annie Cheng and Felicia Brown performed ballet to Bach's “Minuet in G”.

All of these young people deserve a big hand, not just for their talent, but for the willingness to share with the elderly. Yvonne Cheng is doing a fantastic job teaching them to respect their elders. I hope and pray we all help to continue with this education.

Sponsoring Flowers and Coffee Hour

The new 2006 calendars for sponsoring flowers for worship services and coffee and doughnuts 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.)

Elizabeth Meets Rita

Elizabeth Pride moved to Orange, Texas in 2003 to live with her friends Glen and Margaret Light. About a year ago they all moved into a new house that was built with Eizabeth in mind.

Soon after Elizabeth’s 97th birthday, Orange experienced another big event -- Hurricane Rita.

On September 22, Elizabeth and the Lights and their three young cats evacuated to a shelter in a Baptist church in Pineland, Texas. After spending two hot days there with no electiricty, they were very fortunate to find two rooms in a motel in Longview, east of Dallas.

They spent anxious weeks there, trying to enjoy being in a part of Texas that was new to them. However, they weren’t able to find out how much damage their house had suffered -- or even if it was still standing. They did hear that their church had been damaged, but that was their only communication.

When they finally got back to Orange more than a month after the storm, they saw major damage everywhere -- but their home had suffered only a little roof damage and the loss of some trees. As of Nov. 14, they had electricity but no phone service.

Elizabeth wrote to Tom Kearney: "It was wonderful to open all the notes from friends at church and also from Thea in Knoxville and Dick and Betty Bobb in Hendersonville. I don't need a thing, Tom, but I will admit that I worried about all my treasures from S.F while we were in Longview. However, we rose above the worry and really enjoyed our adventure."

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Acts

by Forrest Cummings

A year ago, to honor Martin Luther King Day, I wrote about my experiences with the emerging civil rights movement. This past fall a great heroine of that movement, Rosa Parks, passed away. Rosa, an ordinary citizen, through her courageous act of refusing to sit at the back of the bus, started a process that ultimately transformed the racial equation in American society.

Extraordinary acts by ordinary people -- I have been witness to such acts in my years of living, as I am sure you have as well. One such story involves my own son Frosty and a church in Burlington, Iowa, and the involves the local barber who had his small shop near McCormick Seminary in Chicago, Illinois.

For some years our family was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Burlington, Iowa. This was an all-white parish of about 600 worshipers in the late 1950's. It served the population in the city who were mostly middle-class business people. No minority person had ventured through its doors until my son Frosty brought his black school friend and the boy's mother to worship one Sunday. Frosty brought them to sit in the pew with our family. Although there was not an overwhelming welcome extended to them, a couple of parishioners did make an effort to make them feel at home.

The mother and the son continued to come each Sunday and sit with our family; gradually the congregation accepted them as their own. The last I heard, the mother had become a teacher in the church in the adolescent program. One small act of inviting a school friend to church changed a congregation.

The second story involved my barber, who had his shop close to McCormick Seminary in Chicago. McCormick was situated in a transitional or mixed neighborhood made up of mostly poor whites and Latinos on the north side of the city. I had befriended a black student in the seminary program. One day he expressed to me that he would like to have his hair cut in the neighborhood, and I approached my barber and asked him if he would cut this young man's hair. His response to me was that Yes”, he would cut his hair -- no matter what the consequences would be to his business. He felt in his heart he had to do this. One small act of cutting hair broke the racial barrier in a barbershop.

These are just two small examples of ordinary people doing extraordinary acts in their lives. They were simple acts that today may not seem like much, but given the context of American society in the late 1950's and early 1960's they were courageous gestures. I am sure you too have your stories to tell, maybe you were even part of them yourself.

Today we have come a long way from the initial days of the civil rights movement. There still remains a lot to be done, however, and we should not ever take for granted that racism ceases to exist in our society. It remains there, I feel, in new forms and may not be as easily recognizable. We still need ordinary people performing extraordinary acts.

Hurricane Rita: Red Cross Makes It My Beat

by Nina Jacobs

Buna, Jasper, Lumberton, Beaumont, Kountze, Batson, Port Arthur, Sour Lake, Sabine ..... I type the town names over and over as I enter data from Hurricane Rita’s destructive path. Four weeks after Rita came ashore in the Port Arthur/Beaumont area, blue tarps, piles of debris in front of houses, and Red Cross intake forms mark the world that was left behind in its wake.

I joined the Red Cross as a volunteer right after Hurricane Katrina wiped out my hometown of New Orleans, and was eager to be sent into the field to help any way possible. After three days of training at my Silverado-Napa chapter of the Red Cross, I went out to collect the hardship gear I was told to take with me — a sleeping bag and air mattress borrowed from a friend whose Eagle Scout background showed as he packed me a first aid kit; toilet paper, bottled water and a phone card from the grocery store; instant cameras and power bars provided by a close friend. I packed. I sat by the phone. I added items and waited for the call to head south.

Three weeks went by, and I started to haunt the chapter office, volunteering to assist the folks who arrived from New Orleans and its environs. I attended meetings, made calls, filled out forms.

Finally, after Hurricane Rita hit Texas, and six weeks after Katrina, the call came. I was briefed at the office and told I’d head to Dallas as a “family services” worker, told to take my hardship gear. With the rallying cry of the Red Cross — “flexibility!” — ringing in my ears, I flew out, clutching a duffle crammed with six weeks of collected necessities and a small suitcase of clothes

..... and landed in a large hotel in downtown Dallas, training on the CAS, a huge database of every person in the affected areas who was given Red Cross assistance. Intake forms guided us as we checked for duplicate entries, filled in lines of identifying addresses, phones, family members, and then — the crowning glory — “activated the CAC”, loading money on the client assistance debit cards, which were carefully guarded and sent to their new owners.

I worked the night shift (10 pm to 6 am), the morning shift (6 am to 2 pm) and saw a bit of Dallas through sleep-filled eyes. My fellow volunteers became familiar: old retired folks, students on breaks, workers taking their vacations, men and women of varying economic and geographic backgrounds: cheerful, dedicated and sleepy.

After a week and a half, with people leaving at the end of their tours (2-3 weeks), or volunteering to extend for three weeks to serve in Florida with Hurricane Wilma, the Dallas Call Center was shut down. We were transferred to Baytown, Texas, near Houston, where our days ran 8 am to 7 pm. Once again in a hotel, I was loading data in my sleep, smiling every time the computer read “Load Successful.”

Then one day it was over. My three weeks were up, and I said goodbye to Jim and Nancy from South Carolina, Yvonne from New Hampshire, Nicole of Illinois and Joel of San Francisco. I came home, schlepping my big blue duffle with the sleeping bag and air mattress never opened, but my heart satisfied that I’d done my bit in the big war and glad that I’d been flexible to the end.

They also serve who only sit and type.

Nina is a former member of Old First who now lives in Napa.