We’re based in California’s Bay Area, but our Zoom-based gatherings regularly have participants from Arkansas, Southern California, Kentucky, Indiana, and the UK. Wherever you are, wherever you come from, wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome!
✨ Transitions Group: Thursday @ 10:30am PT
✝ Scripture Seekers Bible Study: Thursday @ 5:30pm PT
💒 Worship: Sunday @ 10:30am PT
Sunday, February 2 in some Christian traditions is the celebration of Candlemas or “The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.” In Gaelic cultures, this is also called Imbolc, or St. Brigit's (or the more ancient Goddess Brighid’s) Day. St. Brigit/Brighid’s day falls between the winter solstice and the spring equinox- and it marks the very first stirrings of spring. As the new buds start to appear in my garden- it always makes me think of a significant event in my own Spiritual Journey that I want to share with you.
I had the luxury of spending most of the day by myself while I was visiting the Isle of Iona (Scotland). And I decided to climb to St. Brighid's Well at the top of Dun I which is the highest hill the island. There are a lot of wells dedicated to St. Brigit/Brighid in Scotland, Ireland, and England but this well on Iona is also called “The Well of Eternal Life.” It has been a place of pilgrimage for seekers (especially women) for a thousand years. I didn't realize what a treacherous climb it was until I was over halfway up. And I lost the trail among the rocks and scree and felt stuck.
I started to panic as I tried different ways of traversing and fell and scraped my knees. Blood was running down one of my legs making things worse. But I moved through my fear and tried not to look down. I found a discarded walking stick that helped me balance better, and (suddenly out of nowhere) as I walked and prayed, I was greeted by a fellow hiker- an 82-year-old Dutch nun- Marta who had climbed to Brighid’s Well many times as pilgrimage. She was more prepared than me- and retrieved a first aid kit from her pack and helped me bandage my knee. She then invited me to get behind her and follow her lead on the faint trail she pointed out. She spoke English, and we chatted freely about our spiritual lives and traditions. She was a wonderful hiking companion and as I followed in her footsteps, I realized that I was on a liminal Holy Ground, walking inside a beautiful metaphor for my spiritual journey with the Divine Feminine. When I was challenged, the Holy Spirit showed up in very human form. I found what I needed, and as I prayed - help, guidance, and companionship came in a surprising way that spoke my language. As Sr. Marta and I made it to the top, my eyes filled with tears. It was her 18th trip and my first. And the view and experience of the water splashing on my face from that “Well of Eternal Life” as I looked back over Iona was well worth the struggle and the climb.
May clarity and guidance find us all- as we climb around in unmarked, challenging places longing for streams and wells of living water in our nation and in our communities. And may St. Brighid and the Holy Spirit show up in all the ways we need as we embrace this collective, bruising, scary, journey of finding springs of living water in the challenging terrain we are navigating right now.
Belief is more than just a word on Christmas decorations—it shapes our faith, our actions, and our understanding of truth. From the wise men’s journey to the choices of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, history reminds us that what we believe—and how we act on it—matters. In a time of rising fear and division, will the church bear witness to love and justice, or remain silent? Explore the meaning of belief, faith, and action in this reflection on Jesus, history, and our calling today.
Read Moreby Kirk M.
The following is only my concept of God and is possibly quite divergent from the views of others. This is not meant in any way shape or form to discount or demean any other’s understanding. I am an individual with my own history, prejudices, and ways of thinking.
My title is borrowed from “systemic racism” because the recent discussion /controversy has partly influenced my thought. Being newly retired, getting into doing more gardening, and having more time to put things into perspective have also been a significant influence
First, I don’t believe God “creates” or “created,” instead I believe God is at the center of a system that will never be fully understood by humans (or our creations). I also believe that is as it should be. This thought came to me recently while pruning our lemon tree and potato bush. Both these plants grow in ways that seem quite chaotic to my simple engineering background. In pruning, you think about the reasons the plant grows in specific ways which you may be able to work in harmony with. These plants are part of a system that is everything. If ever the system could be fully defined by some algorithm, equation, story or other means, that would be God.
God is:
The leaves, the flowers, the branches the roots the soil and so much more
The face, the touch, the voice of your lover, your father, your mother, your daughters, your sons, your brother, your sister your friend and so much more
Our planet and others, the sun and stars, the universe, the background radiation of the universe and so much more
Matter, dark matter, energy and dark energy and so much more
In short
God
Is
by Jennifer Ruth Lynn Garrison
There [Peter] found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, for he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed!” And immediately he got up. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord. – Acts 9:33-35 (NRSV)
I have an app that grants its users virtual rewards for performing real self-care tasks. “Wake up!” it chirps at me each morning, followed by “Make your bed!” and “Enjoy a shower!” I complete these and a couple dozen other tasks and then click a button. With each task, a little fake confetti explodes joyfully on my phone screen and I collect a few fabricated gemstones. Even though I know it’s an algorithmic celebration, not a natural one, the dopamine hit with each of those confetti explosions is real.
I wonder what Aeneas’ dopamine response was to his healing. He had been bedridden for almost a decade when Peter commanded him to jump up and perform a little job. I wonder if, for the rest of his life, he associated his healing with making his bed. If so, was this little chore a celebration every day? Or, in time, did both the healing and the task become commonplace? What did it take for him (or really for any of us) to rejoice daily in both the miraculous and the mundane? My ultimate goal is to train my brain to associate my morning tasks with a tiny high so I can just bypass the app altogether. But in the meantime, I’m going to click “finish writing” on my phone and celebrate.
Prayer
Healing Friend, guide us to naturally rejoice in it all, every single day. Amen.
Rev. Jennifer Garrison (formerly Brownell) is a writer, spiritual director and pastor living in the Pacific Northwest. Her published work most recently appeared in the book The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, available from The Pilgrim Press.
This blessing knows how to bide its time, to watch and wait, to discern and pray until the moment comes when it will reveal everything it knows, when it will shine forth with all that it has seen, when it will dazzle with the unforgettable light you have carried all this way. —Jan Richardson
One of our favorite choruses at UCH for the Advent season is “Emmanuel” from the Chalice Hymnal: “Emmanuel, Emmanuel, His name is called Emmanuel, God With Us, Revealed in Us, His Name is called Emmanuel.” (Chalice Hymnal #134)
Matthew leads early on in his Gospel with Isaiah 7, “A young woman shall conceive and bear a son and will call his name Immanuel” Emmanuel is not a common word in the Bible - but it’s an important one because Matthew tells us that in addition to being called “Jesus” that Jesus shall also be called Emmanouél (Ἐμμανουήλ), which means God with us — in the present moment.
The word often used for revealing (or revelation) in Greek in the New Testament is ἀποκάλυψις (apokálypsis), translated — according to Strong’s — as “through the concealed.” An apocalypse is a disclosure of knowledge, a lifting of the veil or revelation. In religious contexts it usually refers to bringing something hidden to light.
As that chorus has floated around in my head in recent days, alongside my grief and anger, I have found myself asking: How is God with us right now? What is being revealed in us right now? How are we being called to give birth in the light of Christ in the world right now?
We will bring these questions into our Advent and current events container as we explore four powerful points of revelation in the traditional Advent scriptures: Ancestral Lines (Matthew’s Genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1), Threshing Floors (an image in John the Baptist’s Apocalyptic Preaching Matthew 3), Finding Voice/Utterance under Duress (Mary’s Magnificat Luke 2), and Standing in Integrity/Wisdom in the face of Injustice (The Magoi/Herod. Matthew 2).
I look forward to being with you for the four Sundays of Advent, and the Christmas Eve Service @ 6:00pm PT on Sunday, December 24. Message us for the link to join live, or find us on Facebook for the sermon livestream.
– Rev. Jeanne
The entire Bay Area, and especially The Tri-City area is so historically rich! We have become aware of some of that richness, thanks to Bill Ralph who gathers enticing, and little-known facts about events, historic spots, key persons, their dreams and hopes, and brings them to life for us to marvel at the courage, foresight, and results of some of our predecessors’ efforts. Since we have received many positive comments about those articles, we are featuring a column each month entitled “Historic Snippets.”
Cody’s advance staff traveled into the Bay Area weeks ahead of the Wild West Show caravan to begin obtaining licenses, and renting fifteen acres of open space for upcoming performances in San Francisco, Oakland and in San Jose. In addition to beginning publicizing the upcoming events, the staff also made arrangements for the purchase tons of flour, meat, coffee and other supplies for up to five hundred cast and crew members, hundreds of show-and-draft-horses, a couple of elephants and a small herd of buffalo. The epic show traveled from town to town with two trains, fifty flat cars loaded with wagons, box cars, cattle cars, sleeping cars, power and commissary cars. The outdoor traveling show also carried its own grandstands and acres of canvas-covering to seat twenty thousand spectators,
At its peak in the late 1890’s plainsman, scout and showman William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show was making hundreds of performances a year and traveled over eleven thousand miles in the United States and in Europe entertaining millions of eager attendees. Cody traveled to Northern California with his extensive cast, crew and huge menagerie several times between 1877 and 1913.
As the orator boomed the script and Cody’s cowboy band created mood setting music in the huge outdoor arena, the stereotyped-cowboy and native American performers would kick-off their two-hour series of highly anticipated well-known skits, tableaux and demonstrations. The riding of the Pony Express, Indian attacks on wagon trains, stage coach robberies, a buffalo stampede and the grand finale re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand were interspersed with shooting, roping and riding demonstrations by headliner star performers including the famous Annie Oakley. Following the elaborate show comprised of hundreds of costumed performers, trained animals and the appearance of Buffalo Bill Cody himself, the entire show would be struck, loaded back onto the trains and moved overnight to the next town where the complex choreographed operation would be repeated.
With the general fading of interest in the “old west”, smaller audiences, increasing costs and a four thousand dollar a day overhead, and the growing popularity of motion pictures and professional sports, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show made its final Bay Area appearance in 1913, just months before going bankrupt and disbanding. True to nature, showman and entrepreneur William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody immediately went about getting into the motion picture business by seeking backing to shoot and distribute The Indian Wars, a five-reel silent film.
The entire Bay Area, and especially The Tri-City area is so historically rich! We have become aware of some of that richness, thanks to Bill Ralph who gathers enticing, and little-known facts about events, historic spots, key persons, their dreams and hopes, and brings them to life for us to marvel at the courage, foresight, and results of some of our predecessors’ efforts. Since we have received many positive comments about those articles, we are featuring a column each month entitled “Historic Snippets.”
Nestled on the hillside above Mission Blvd. across from downtown Niles and hidden from view by trees and bushes is the Belvoir Springs Hotel, one of several hostels serving the busy Southern Pacific depot at the turn of the last century. Giles and Nana Chittenden purchased the one hundred- and five-acre parcel and flowing spring from Jonas Clarkin in 1884 and built a large three-bedroom farmhouse.
Over the years the Chittendens developed a profitable fruit and nut orchard, dairy, and vegetable farm west of Sulphur Springs Ranch and adjacent to John Rocks’ California Nursery Company.
With the beauty of the surroundings and Nana’s welcoming charm, they added a summer camp for friends and travelers, and guest rooms in the farm house basement to board school teachers and railroad employees during the winter months. When a fire destroyed much of the original building the Chittenden’s took the opportunity to replace it with three-bedroom a twenty-two-room craftsman style hotel they named Belvoir Springs (French for “Beautiful View”).
Niles was a sleepy agricultural community when Gilbert “Broncho Billy” Anderson and the cast and crew from Chicago’s Essanay Film Manufacturing Company arrived in town in 1912 with many of the troupe temporarily staying in tents on the hotel grounds.
As they found permanent housing, a who’s who of silent screen stars continued to visit the Belvoir Springs Hotel for lunch or dinner. Marguerite Clayton, Anderson’s leading lady, lived at the hotel, while Anderson, Augustus Carney, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, James Gleason, Edna Purviance, Ben Turpin and Charlie Chaplin could be spotted making their way from the studio on Niles Blvd., crossing the Southern Pacific tracks and Hayward-Mission San Jose Road and strolling up the shaded driveway to the hotel to dine and unwind after long days of cranking out fifteen-minute westerns and comedies.
The Essanay Studios closed in 1916 after four short years and the troupe left town just as quickly as they had arrived. Nana Chittenden decided to retire the following year and the once flourishing hotel changed hands multiple times in succeeding decades. The acreage was sold off piecemeal and the hotel allowed to fall into disrepair.
In 1994 new owners undertook a major renovation of the historic Belvoir Springs Hotel and its remaining grounds to create an upscale special events and extended stay venue. However, as of this date the website appears to be abandoned and the ambitious venture unsuccessful. Now a private residence, the historic hotel with the “beautiful view”, sits on the hillside above Niles, out of view and unknown by passing motorists on Mission Blvd.
How vibrant is your outreach to others as you continue to be “Light for the World” and “Salt for the earth?” Such a wonder-filled responsibility we have received. . . What is it you really care about? How does that make a difference in your life?
Stewardship and gratitude can be expressed in many ways. We opened our November Journey Notes issue with this poem by our own Pamela Blank.
The Beauty of Wrinkled Hands
Thank you God for my wrinkled hands I see and use each day,
It’s a gentle reminder of life I’m living and to be grateful in every way.
Each wrinkle is a memory, as the years pass by for me,
A long life is such a gift, that many do not get to see.
So, each morning as I wake and my hands have daily chores to do
May I feel blessed for every wrinkle, knowing life is a gift from You.
by Marchae Grair | published on Dec 2, 2019
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years,and a thousand years are like a day. – 2 Peter 3:8 (NIV)
I grumbled as I shuffled to the outdoor trashcan after cleaning up my dog’s millionth accident. I reached for the doorknob of my apartment and couldn’t get in. I had locked myself out and my partner was asleep. I had such a long to-do list for the morning that I immediately started berating myself. How could I finish unpacking in a timely manner if I accidentally dedicated an undetermined amount of time to creeping around my house, seeing if I could get my partner to let me in? Where would I reallot my regular morning session of worrying about things I couldn’t change?
After about fifteen minutes, I accepted my fate. I was wedded to my front stoop until my partner found me.
And then, I saw the kind face of the woman collecting cans from neighborhood receptacles and the gentle gaze of the man who wanted to make sure she made it up the hill without losing her cart. I saw my next-door neighbor for the first time, as he wished me a great weekend. I met a sweet neighborhood dog, whose excitement eventually made my dogs bark and led to my partner finding me.
I would have missed so much of a beautiful morning working on the things I thought couldn’t wait, chasing time and simultaneously hoping time didn’t catch up with me.
I’m so thankful for the reminder that God’s time isn’t about my tasks or to-do lists. God’s time is about the interconnected breaths and moments that remind us we all belong to each other.
Prayer
Dear God: Keep resetting my clock to keep me mindful of others and closer to You. Amen. (Marchae Grair)
As Autumn moves along, we begin to think of falling leaves, and eventually, harvest time and gratitude. It’s a good time also, to be grateful for the way FESCO (Family Emergency Shelter Coalition) walks along with and provides resources for families to recover those things we often take for granted like electricity, running water and a place to call home. Perhaps, you too have faced the trauma of being “One paycheck away from homelessness.” Be inspired by FESCO’s vision and practical resources.
– Jackie F.
FESCO’s Mission: We know that quality, affordable housing is scarce and nearly impossible to find. As a result, many of our friends and neighbors have found themselves in unexpected situations, which can include couch-surfing, temporarily living in their cars, or in even less stable conditions. Our mission is simple and complex: to end homelessness.
We accomplish this goal by assisting homeless and low-income families and individuals to secure permanent housing, using approaches that instill or restore dignity, self-respect and self-reliance, so that families, individuals, and the community are strengthened. Since 1986, FESCO has built a community of organizations and people, just like you, that pool our resources to give these families a fighting chance though:
Emergency Shelters
Transitional Living Homes
Supportive Coaching and Access to Resources Like Job Training
Please invite friends and loved ones you think would benefit from this circle of support and wisdom. We use poetry as a container and do talk about spirituality and the divine, and our format is very ecumenical and welcoming of all. I’m grateful we have this opportunity to offer each other the big-hearted spiritual journey support that is one of our core strengths at UCH. We are using Jan Richardson’s book The Cure for Sorrow: Blessings in Times of Grief to guide our conversations.
In 1884 John Rock and four business associates purchased the Jose de Jesus Vallejo Adobe located on five hundred acres of rich alluvial soil near Alameda Creek in Niles, and established the California Nursery Company. Rock was an experienced nurseryman with three successful operations on Coyote Creek in San Jose and planned to focus the new site on wholesaling grape vines, ornamental plantings, roses, fruit and nut trees to California’s flourishing agricultural industry. He worked with Luther Burbank and other West Coast plant breeders in introducing new horticultural hybrids and within a few years listed nearly five hundred varieties of fruit trees, seven hundred ornamental shrubs and two hundred and fifty roses in his widely distributed mail order catalog.
The booming California Nursery Company, an occasional location for Bronco Billy silent western films, was commissioned to landscape a portion of the grounds of San Francisco’s Pan Pacific International Exposition in 1915 by providing four hundred Canary Island Palms to line the fair’s grand promenade. CNC also received a gold medal for its immersive redwood forest exhibit, attracting the attention of William Randolph Hearst who selected the Rock’s Niles based operation to landscape the grounds of his fabled San Simeon castle.
Ownership of the nursery changed hands several times after Rock’s passing, and in 1917 George C. Roeding, proprietor of Fancher Creek Nurseries in Fresno, purchased California Nursery Company. George Jr. took over management from his father in 1926 and at the time employed as many as one hundred fifty workers, reached annual sales exceeding $200,000, and had customers located around the world. Roeding guided the nursery through the great depression by scaling the grounds back to two hundred and sixty acres and receiving the assignment of landscaping the approaches to the newly completed Golden Gate Bridge. California Nursery Company became a destination for local gardeners and aspiring horticulturists in the 1940’s and 50’s with up to five thousand attendees to the Annual Spring Bulb and Summer Rose Shows. The City of Fremont restored the Jose de Jesus Vallejo Adobe in 1975 and began the creation of the twelve-acre California Nursery Historical Park at the corner of Niles Blvd. and Nursery Avenue that now attracts curious visitors to its informative entry plaza, heirloom rose garden, towering palm trees, eclectic forest, shaded pathways and rich history.
Hello Everyone,
This Sunday we will be going “live” for my sermon on Facebook for the first time! (Live: means that anyone can watch it that wants to-during or after.) This has been something the Tech Team has wanted to do for a while, and Ashley has been hard at work making it happen in recent days. It is not easy to get Zoom and Facebook to play together. But Ashley is demonstrating that it is possible. This will drastically increase our outreach potential.
Ashley will be with us during worship and driving everything behind the scenes- including managing folkx that have comments or want to chat on the livestream about what I am saying. We need for everyone on Zoom to make double sure you are muted during the sermon so we can get the best sound possible and avoid echoes and delays. Also be aware that the reflection portion of worship (after the sermon) will not be livestreamed (at least yet). That is something we can talk about doing as we go.
Your Tech Team is excited about this upgrade in our outreach and also grateful to Ashley for navigating all of it. We invite you to pray for this new outreach endeavor. And we’ll see you in Zoom worship on Sunday (Message us here to join live!).
-Rev. Jeanne and the UCH Tech Team
with Professor Jodi Magness, Holy Land Archaeologist
Thursday evenings at 5:30
Comb through the rubble of an ancient citadel in the City of David, the contents of a rock cut tomb in the Kidron Valley, correspondence from caves in the Judean desert, and other remains from one of the most important regions in the history of civilization.
Delivered by archaeologist and award-winning Professor Dr. Jodi Magness, “The Holy Land Revealed” helps you relive and encounter life in the ancient Holy Land through the lens of archaeology. These 36 lectures are your change to get up close and personal with ruins, artifacts, murals, documents, and other long-buried objects that will take you deep beneath the pages of the Bible.
Dr. Jodi Magness is the Kenana Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Dept of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has excavated throughout Israel and Greece and has codirected excavations of the Roman siege works at Masada and the Roman for at Yotvada.
Each night we will be viewing a 30-minute lecture and having discussion afterwards. I will also be bringing relevant scripture to the conversation that highlights the sites and artifacts Dr. Magness is discussing. I look forward to being with you.
P.S. This course has lots of graphs, and pictures. Here is the video preview so you can take a look. It’s the perfect time to join us if you have been thinking about it. Please contact me with any questions.
-Rev. Jeanne
What does a Christianity look like that is not deeply tied to racial injustice and White Christian nationalism, forces captured in the images of the January 6, 2021 insurrection? With a national election just around the corner, how might Christians live into a richer narrative that underscores the nonviolent legacy of Jesus?
Join us for an intimate, online conversation with three renowned thought leaders on the current state of Christianity in the US. Our guests Gary Dorrien, Obery Hendricks, and Grace Ji-Sun Kim are internationally known for their insights on the Christian faith and the role that it can play for those committed to democracy, peace, and social justice. (Follow the links or see below for additional information about our guest panelists.) The Christian Century's editor/publisher Peter W. Marty will serve as moderator.
Sponsored by the Christian Century and the D.L. Dykes, Jr. Foundation, this conversation will explore the challenges that the growing presence of White Christian nationalism poses to congregations and people of faith and conscience.
Note: This is an online only event and requires registration.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
Gary Dorrien is the Reinhold Niebuhr professor of social ethics at Union Theological Seminary and professor of religion at Columbia University. He is the author of 24 books that range across the fields of social ethics, philosophy, theology, political economics, social and political theory, religious history, cultural criticism, and intellectual history. His books include American Democratic Socialism: History, Politics, Religion and Theory and Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr and the Black Social Gospel.
Obery Hendricks is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Democracy Collaborative in Washington, DC. He is the author of the bestseller The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus’ Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted. A widely sought after lecturer and media spokesperson, Dr. Hendricks’ appearances include CNN, MSNBC, CBS, Fox News, Fox Business News, the Discovery Channel, and PBS.
Grace Ji-Sun Kim is professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion. She is the author of 24 books including When God Became White and Surviving God (co-written with Susan Shaw). Grace is a series co-editor for the Palgrave Macmillan Series Asian Christianity in the Diaspora and has served on the American Academy of Religion’s Board of Directors. Grace hosts the Madang podcast.
Except for several low-level passes, travel between east and south bay communities with California’s inland valleys has always been thwarted by the coastal range of hills. Dublin Pass through Castro Valley and Niles Canyon in Fremont are busy routes. However, one of the Bay Area’s toughest commutes is Interstate 680 between Fremont and Pleasanton where motorists are funneled through Mission Pass and over the infamous “Sunol Grade”. Unaware of its storied history, tens of thousands of people travel this route daily connecting the valleys: Livermore, San Joaquin, Central, and Sacramento with the South Bay’s “Silicon Valley”, through the natural gap in Mount Hamilton Range near Mission San Jose.
The Ohlone people settled in this region thousands of years ago in permanent villages near marshes and springs, collected shellfish from the bay shores, hunted abundant migratory waterfowl and established a trail through the natural low-level pass below Mission Peak for trading with inland tribes. Spanish explorers Pedro Fages and Padre Juan Crespi were the first Europeans in 1772 to cross the Pass, later used for clandestine inland expeditions by Spanish soldiers. Jedediah Smith restocked supplies and made wagon repairs at Mission San Jose in 1827 before traveling east through the pass. Two years later Kit Carson traveled the same route after trading furs with the missionaries for fresh produce. John C. Fremont’s California Battalion camped at Mission San Jose and mapped Mission Pass in 1846, staying long enough to be enthralled by the region’s beauty and Mission Valley’s fertile soil, and making an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the entire region.
Following the discovery of a gold at John Sutter’s lumber mill in 1848, hordes of hopeful prospectors disembarked eastern sailing ships in San Francisco and made their way to the village of Mission San Jose where they purchased food and supplies for the trip through Mission Pass to Stockton, the jumping off place for reaching the gold camps of the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Automobile gas stations and garages began replacing buggies and blacksmiths in the early 1900’s and at least six Mission San Jose gas stations and several towing services served motorists heading east through the pass. Fig Tree Station, named for several of the vintage trees planted on the site by Spanish Missionaries, opened in 1925 with two outdoor gas pumps on the gravel roadside. A repair garage, covered fueling area, and restrooms were added in the 1940’s. Through the years the humble little roadside station has provided petroleum products from Mobil, Standard, Flying A, McMillan and Tidewater. Now a Chevron property, with roots in Mission San Jose for 99 years, it patiently serves the local community as well as anxious commuters backed up for miles, unaware that they are following in the footsteps of the Indigenous people, Spanish Missionaries, Trail Blazers, and 49’ers.
Returning from vacation usually means coming back with renewed energy and happy memories, (even though we know the return also means unpacking, doing laundry, putting away items, answering emails, etc.!) Ah, yes, but the MEMORIES REMAIN!
Sometimes, we come back to face an “Empty Nest Syndrome” even though our adult children left home years ago, or perhaps because our children- still-at-home are moving into an unknown we never had to face.
Empty Nest Syndrome occurs anytime we are involved in the process of change, whether that change is happening around us or within us.
At UCH we experience a nest, empty of how it used to be: of Bingo games, potluck suppers, flea markets, and other gatherings. However, we balance out that sense of “emptiness” with the reality that we have come very far in building a foundation utilizing technology enabling us to reach the hearts of others city-wide, nation-wide, and world-wide through Zoom – something we did not even imagine 10 years ago.
Although we might not see dozens of new faces appearing at our worship service, we know that our outreach of Transitions Groups, recorded sermons, Bible Study, Healing Circle, Guided meditations, Podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc., are touching the hearts of others by the responses we receive. And isn’t that what church is about, anyway: providing outreach avenues where people are encouraged and inspired in their own relationship with the Holy One.
Awareness of an empty nest syndromes always calls us to look deeply at our values and their relationship to the reality we are living in now. It calls us to grow through problem solving. It calls us to renewed hope in a God who is still speaking.
We can, therefore, rejoice because an empty nest of “what used to be” is being filled in another way – a way we had not imagined. This is a time for hope and encouragement – because “we are not done yet.” This a time to remember that our God is a God who provides what we need as we continue moving forward into the Unknown of this marvelous Journey of Faith.
Autumn does not officially begin until September 22 this year, but there seems to be a hint of it in the air already. Even though sometimes within our own journey we experience winter in the midst of summer, and spring in the midst of autumn, seasons are great reminders of the importance of our own growth cycles. Seasons also remind us of beautiful realities we seldom notice.
Yard Trees
Hardly noticed
since you’re always there
silently amid rustling leaves
breathing in
my breathing out
and breathing out
my breathing inUnseen symphony
graciously offering
graciously receiving.May my grudge
of raking your leaves
become a simple song
of gratitude.— by Jackie Freitas
“When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross” — Widely attributed to (but never confirmed) to Sinclair Lewis
From a recent interview with Rev. Jeanne Loveless, here are a series of resources about the very real threat of Christian Nationalism in the United States:
Book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez More info
Book The False White Gospel by Jim Wallis More info
Video Series White Nation Under God by Jemar Tisby Watch here.
Documentary Bad Faith with William Barber Watch here.
Podcast American Idols and Book American Idolatry by Andrew Whitehead
Documentary God & Country Watch here.
Toolkit A Preacher's Toolkit for Confronting Christian Nationalism by Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn More info.
Statement Christians Against Christian Nationalism Read and sign here.
Share this: This 5-minute video is from interviews conducted with Rev. Jeanne in May 2024 talks the rise of Christian Nationalism and why she’ll never tell you how to vote from the pulpit.
The United Church of Hayward is an open and affirming church that serves the Bay Area community.
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When the Israelite people were in the wilderness, Moses invited everyone whose "hearts were stirred and spirits were willing" to offer their gifts, time, and talents so the people could gather, worship God and serve the community. They discovered they had everything they needed and then some! Is your heart being stirred to support our UCH ministries in the Hayward area? Click here to make a difference!
