On our Corner, in Our City, and in the World
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Click here for our Lent devotional booklet
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Old First Presbyterian Church enthuiastically invites all people into our community!
This church was the first Protestant congregation established on the west coast of the U.S. during the gold rush. And we are proud now to continue sharing Christ's love, justice, and welcome to modern seekers who arrive in San Francisco now 175 years later. We have taken a leadership role both locally and nationally welcoming LGBTQIA+ Christians into full participation in the life and leadership of the Presbyterian Church. We strive to bring hope, joy and justice reaching out to people of all ethnicities, incomes, races, and life situations, and like Jesus, we always try to offer a smile and welcome the outcasts.
We hope you will come visit and consider becoming part of our community. We want to know you and share your own particular gifts, experience, and insights with us on our corner, in our city, and in our world.
We worship every Sunday at 11:00 am both in person in our beautiful sanctuary and on line via YouTube livestream. We celebrate communion on the third Sunday of the month. Worship is our joyful praise and thanks to God - our celebration of God's Love.
We have a wonderful choir singing a mixture of classical and modern music and singers are always welcome. Our organ is one of the most renowned in the city. We founded and support an amazing variety of new artists each week in our Old First Concerts programs.
Bringing God's love, welcome, justice, in our neighborhood, city and world and working to make the world a better place for all are important to us. We are a founding member of the weekly interfaith food pantry every Saturday and host a free community meal on the 4th Saturday of each month. We work with many local, national, and international groups to promote racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, and other human rights, to end gun violence, and to help immigrants.
We feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, and work for justice. We always need volunteers to help with all of these projects.
We believe that learning and growth are important for all ages. We offer regular book studies, Bible studies, theological discussions, and topical classes for adults on issues important in our culture. Small groups meet on Zoom and in members' homes for study and support. We make time and space for children in worship and offer regular, broadly graded children's church school every 1st and 3nd Sundy. We also have excellent childrens' and adults' libraries.
We love to read and support the Little Free Library on Sacramento Street. Bring you books to share with the community.
I have been blessed to be in the presence of some amazing giving people. In NC I volunteered often at a ministry that served dinner to homeless folks. One volunteer cook would come in and prepare the comfort food people grew up on, what their mother or grandmothers would have plated at the family table. She came in 8 hours before the meal and cooked fresh greens and homemade biscuits from scratch. Guests would take a bite, and it was like they were eating the finest prime rib! It felt like home, it tasted like love.
In S.F I learned from a now deceased member named Betsy. She would sit in the back of the church especially to welcome homeless folks who came to church. They often were not dressed so well, in need of a shower, weren’t familiar with the service and she greeted them and made them feel included, welcomed, not simply tolerated. She was the kind of “church lady” that warmed the heart of God.
click here to see our letter to the mayor
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March 8
This past Sunday, Erwin Barron led our pastoral prayer and reminded us that we definitely pray for and work for justice and peace in our troubled world, but we also must look for all the joy in the world that often gets drowned out. Our Lenten theme calls us to find God's Good News amongst all of our reality. Here is the list of good things that Erwin asked us to remember this Lent. May this list inspire you to notice the joy all around us.
• The laughter, and energy of Teddy and Eden running down the aisle to deposit their Sunday offering
• A clear blue sky and sunshine sparkling on the bay waters
• A nice soaking rain that turns our brown hillsides green
• The crisp tart sweetness of an honey gold apple
• The smile and cheery hello from the barista in Phil’s coffee shop
• Warm hot cocoa on a cold, foggy night
• A friend bringing you a casserole for dinner when you feel sick
• An actual letter or card received in your mailbox
• California poppies, cala lilies, magnolias, fields of mustard yellow – flowers everywhere
• A spectacular sunset over the Pacific at Ocean Beach
• A long, quiet walk under redwoods
• The tight hug of a loved one when you feel down
• A fabulous meal in your favorite restaurant
• Quiet time alone for meditation and thinking
• Finishing a difficult task feeling satisfied
• A movie with an unexpected happy ending
• Sitting in your favorite chair reading an intriguing book
• A conversation with someone who really listens to you
• That feeling of astonishment that still comes over you every time you cross the golden gate bridge
• A beautiful SF parrot that lights on your bird feeder
• Seeing friends and sharing worship with them in this sanctuary
• Feeling the presence of God when you least expect it.
• This time of Lent when we can pull ourselves away to discover you in our lives, O God,
March 8-14
Our theme this week is suggested by this art work. Jesus takes a loaf of bread and two fish and feeds 5000 people with it. Impossible! And yet, it seems to have happened... somehow. The Good News is that together, the impossible can become possible. In today's lingo, we should be coming at problems from an abundance mindset, not scarcity. Our devotional writer this week says it this way: "This feels overly optimistic in light of today's world. People still go hungry. Wars rage. The earth groans under our misuse." But she points out that we already have enough if we would just distribute things justly. And "enough" is abundance. Those 5000 people getting fed in that field didn't think, "Oh dear, we'll ever have enough, so I need to save this for my family." Instead, they realized, "we have enough" and shared. In this war torn, unjust world, let us focus on the hope that God can provide everyone if we can but work together and love.
That is truly good news!
March 15-21
In our scripture for this week (Matthew 18:1-5), Jesus rebukes his disciples who are turning away the children so that only adults can have access to Jesus and his teachings. But Jesus instead welcomes the children with open arms because the reign of God belongs to them and to everyone who, like children, is not granted society's respect and acceptance. The children literally are welcomed, but they are also a metaphor for all who lack societal status, who so-called "decent" folk find distateful and undersirable - the migrant worker, the immigrant, the alien, the unhoused, the undocumented. Jesus commands his disciples and us today that his church is to exist in this world as a refuge of radical welcome!
In this season of Lent, the good news is that God, through Jesus's life, death, and resurrection extends the same radical welcome to the children, to the outcast, and TO US! We are all sinners, and we are all unworthy of acceptance into God's reign. And yet God accepts us as if heaven is our home.
That is truly good news!
What's Happening at Old First