PBPC Announcements

PBPC Family, The first Sunday in October, this year October 1, is often celebrated as World Communion Sunday. It is a day to remember that we are bound together with Christians all over the globe. When we receive communion, we partake in a celebration, a ritual, that binds us to our brothers and sisters in every corner of this earth. Whether we receive a piece of sourdough bread, flaky paratha, or a fresh tortilla, we all eat from the same loaf, the same body.  As we celebrate communion this Sunday, I invite you to do so with an awareness and gratitude for the global body of Christ. Here is a communion sonnet by Malcolm Guite. Love's Choice This bread is light, dissolving, almost air, a little visitation on my tongue, a wafer-thin sensation, hardly there. This taste of wine is brief in flavour, flung A moment to the palate's roof and fled, Even its aftertaste a memory. Yet this is how he comes. Through wine and bread love chooses to be emptied into me. He does not come in unima...

PBPC Family, As things come together for our joint worship service at First Pres Berkeley, I wanted to lay out some details to ensure that everyone knows what's going on! Joint Choir:  There will be a joint choir singing during the service. Choir practice will be held on Thursday (9/21) at 7:00pm and then Sunday morning (9/24) at 9:00am. Childcare is not provided at either time. Parking:  There is a parking garage underneath First Pres Berkeley's campus. Entrance to the parking garage is on Channing. If the lot is full, there is a parking garage across the street - entrance also on Channing - and First Pres Berkeley can validate your parking ticket. Worship:  The worship service is at 10:00am and the service will be around 75 minutes. Post Worship Activities:  Following worship, we will have a potluck on First Pres' plaza. There will be lots of people there so if you choose to bring something, be sure to put your name on your dish. At 12:15pm, William Yoo, who is the guest ...

PBPC Family, This Sunday, as part of our celebration of the Season of Creation, we will have a Pet Blessing. Traditionally, Pet Blessings are held on the Sunday closest to Saint Francis of Assisi's Feast Day, which is October 4th. Saint Francis is considered the patron saint of animals and the environment. While we don't observe the Catholic calendar and all its feasts for saints, nor do we hold to the veneration of and prayer to saints, we can still appreciate and adopt practices from the Catholic Tradition. I believe a Pet Blessing is one worth adopting. I'll say a bit more this Sunday, but our pets and our relationships with them are rooted in God's invitation to the first man and woman in the garden - be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over every living creature. Christians have sometimes taken the ideas of subduing creation and exercising dominion over it as a carte blanche freedom to do whatever we want. We are in charge - all o...

PBPC Family, Thank you to everyone who contributed time, energy, or stuff for the Rummage Sale - it was a huge church effort and I'm so grateful for everyones' participation. A huge thank you to everyone who prayed for the event, spread the word, donated items to be sold, helped set up and organize on Friday, served during the sale on Saturday, or helped clean up on Sunday. We raised over $2600 for City Team! We hospitably welcomed many neighbors into our building! And we got rid of a lot of stuff that was piling up in our closets! Numerous people asked us if we were going to do this event next year. I'm not ready to commit to this again, but I am glad we did it. On another note, during Sunday's sermon, I shared snippets from a poem by Wendell Berry. A few of you asked me for info on the poem. It is titled, " Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front. " I commend the entire poem to you. Grace and Peace, Pastor Calvin "Love's Limits" Romans 13:8-...