St John's Call
June 17, 2010
From the Pastor
We will be sending Fred Goff off to the Presbyterian (USA) General Assembly as Overture Advocate for St. John’s overture to end the war in Afghanistan. I thought Cornell West’s comments on President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize might be pertinent.
Below is a transcript of Dr. West's comments. He will be a guest on next week's Tavis Smiley Show.
"It's gonna be hard to be a war president with a peace prize. Gonna be difficult. Very, very difficult. And so I think he knows that and we as fellow citizens have to—as brother Tavis would say in his wonderful book “Accountability”—keep him accountable and loving and self-critical, not in a self-righteous way. I think it's very difficult for any head of an empire to be under the pressure of peace. 'Cause you're head of the largest military in the world, you got over a thousand military installments on the globe, you got ships in every sea. It's very difficult. And I think following brother Martin King, we know that peace is not the absence of conflict, peace is the presence of justice. They go hand in hand. Thank god for Hebrew scripture, Amos is no joke. Connected.”
Off to Guatemala, June 20-July 7, The Lynn Family, and Peggy Lynch, Danny Bennet, and Bobby Messenger, to visit the health clinic in Xicauic. Please offer prayers for us as well.
Yours in Christ,
Max
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Let’s go the movies!
Flick Flak will meet on Friday, June 25, at 6:30pm, for a potluck, in the Campbell Reception Room. The film to see is "The Secret in Their Eyes" still at the Albany Theater. "Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders" has left the Elmwood and is only at the Opera Plaza in San Francisco.
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Need to talk, share, get to know women in the church?
Women at the Well will meet Saturday, June 26, 8:30-10:30am in the church office.
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Sing to the Lord a summer song
Summer Choir will meet at 9:00am to sing in worship on June 27. Anyone who would like to arrive at church an hour early is welcome! No prior experience necessary. This is a risk-free opportunity to try out your pipes (vocal chords) with other eager singers.
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Plan ahead to hear about the Lynn family’s trip at Women’s Bible Study, Thursday, July 8, noon to 2pm.
Marietta Harvey,
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Pepsi is giving
away millions to fund great ideas for people, businesses, and
non-profits with We've applied for $25,000 from the Pepsi Refresh Project to: * repair the play deck with new stairs and railings * purchase a sandbox cover and toy storage * replace the old riding toys and trikes, tables, and chairs * replace moldy and defective flooring in the 2 bathrooms and the kitchen We've already
fundraised and spent over $70,000 and more than 500 parent/staff Voting for our
project is EASY! Here's our link: Sign up, then
just a click a day and we are closer and closer to our
goal. The top 10 St. John's Childcare, email: stjohnit@gmail.com, website: http://stjohnit.googlepages.com
Pepsi is giving
away millions to fund great ideas for people, businesses, and
non-profits with We've applied
for $25,000 from the Pepsi Refresh Project to: * repair the play deck with
new stairs and railings * purchase a sandbox cover
and toy storage * replace the old riding
toys and trikes, tables, and chairs * replace moldy and
defective flooring in the 2 bathrooms and the kitchen We've already
fundraised and spent over $70,000 and more than 500 parent/staff Voting for our
project is EASY! Here's our link: Sign up, then
just a click a day and we are closer and closer to our
goal. The top 10 St. John's
Childcare, email: stjohnit@gmail.com,
website: http://stjohnit.googlepages.com -------------------------------
Camp
Elmwood, still cooking after all these years!
Invite friends
and neighbors to enroll their children in Camp Elmwood. Pick up flyers
to post and applications to distribute in the narthex. Families new to
Berkeley often appreciate the invitation to our program in
August before school begins.
----------------------- Got car? Pastor Max is looking for a good, cheap, used car that gets good gas mileage. If you are thinking of trading in or know of someone with an available car, please let him know. ----------------------- Adult
Education at St. Johns in 2010
Looking back
this year we began with sharing our stories about our life at work. For
us as followers of the way of Jesus, this can be a challenge but also
an inspiration. In Lent we turned our attention to nourishing our
spirits through meditation, reading, scripture (the Psalms) and
theological reflection on how we understand the life and death of the
historical Jesus and how the continuing presence of the living Christ
opens us to God’s saving grace.
At the end of those reflections our teacher, Bruce
Willats, challenged us not to stay inward focused, but to move out into
the world of fear and hurt to do God’s healing work. In the last six
weeks we have focused primarily on three areas: Jewish/Christian
relations especially concerning Israel/Palestine; The War in
Afghanistan; and poverty in our own backyard.
Some of this emphasis will continue in our summer
Sunday Forums:
June 20
This forum on the War in Afghanistan will be led by
all of you who earlier expressed a desire to do more than our Overture
to General Assembly or the Postcard campaign “Not My Priorities” to
challenge the thinking and policies that have led us into a military
campaign that destroys what it claims to be working for – peace. Fred
Goff will also share his thinking again about the Overture he will be
advocating for at the GA in Minneapolis. He is reading up a storm and
trying to think clearly about what do we, as a Christian community,
have to contribute to this issue. Help him!
June 27 Bolivia – on the cutting edge of environmental movement. We will hear from three American Presbyterians who recently returned from a two-week trip to our partners UMAVIDA. Their report is full of hope and challenge with many opportunities for how we can make a difference. July 4 Torture: The issue that just will not go away. Marilyn Chilcote recently attended a conference and will share a video and thoughts with us. July 11 Our pastor, Max Lynn returns from his trip to Central America where he hopes to visit the Quiche community in the Guatemalan hill country, much of it still recovering from recent flooding. He will be meeting with the folks whose clinic we are supporting. July 18 Fred Goff will bring us a report from the biannual General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA meeting in Minneapolis MN, especially the Overture on Afghanistan. David McPhail, Chairperson, Christian Education Commission ------------------------------------------------------
Lend a hand! Be a "Friend of Fair Trade" You're needed... to help set up and tear down the fair trade display — about 20 minutes to set up and 10 to tear down on the second Sunday of each month, when we celebrate "Chocolate Sunday" to help achieve justice for the people who make our tea, cocoa, and rich dark coffee. Any takers? Become a "Friend of Fair Trade" and we have a T-shirt, or a Fair Trade mug waiting for you! Call Bob McKenzie or Marilyn Chilcote at
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