PBPC Announcements

PBPC Family, Happy New Year! Many blessings to you all as we close out the year. A Mozarabic Prayer from Prayers Ancient and Modern O Unchanging God, Let us pass through this new year with faithful hearts, that we might in all things please your loving eyes. Amen Looking forward to worshipping with you on Sunday! Grace and Peace, Pastor Calvin " Teach Us To Pray Luke 11:1 Calvin Sodestrom Communion + Potluck Sunday: Please remember your elements if worshipping via Zoom and a dish to share if coming in person. FYI: There is no childcare on Sunday. Click here to join Livestream Lectionary Readings for January 4 Church Office Closed from Dec 25 - Jan 4. The church office will be closed from December 25 to January 4. If you have a pastoral emergency, please contact Pastor Calvin at  pastor@pbpc.org . He will periodically check email. December Bible Reading Plan Here's the Bible reading plan for December .  Christmas Offering Our Christmas Offering will go to support our Emergency ...

PBPC Family, A few announcements as we near the end of the year. Please join us for Christmas Eve worship at Oakland City Church at 4:00pm. It will be a Lessons and Carols service. Please give yourself time to find parking as there is only street parking. The Church office will be closed December 25-January 4. We will have service on December 28 at 10:00am in the Sanctuary. It will be a Service of Thanksgiving. Pastor Calvin will be out of the office from December 25 to January 4. He'll be around on Sundays but taking time off during the week. If something comes up, please email him at pastor@pbpc.org - he will check email periodically. Our facility manager, John Wright, accepted another position and is no longer working at PBPC. We are sad to see him leave and fortunately, we had another applicant who is still interested in the position. We hope that this person will begin in the new year. Merry Christmas to all of you and many blessings as you welcome Christ into your homes and ...

PBPC Family, About a month ago, I received an email from a team member for KFAX (1100 AM) reached out and asked if Park Boulevard Presbyterian Church would like to be the Church of the Week. KFAX, and their sister stations KDIA (1640 AM) and Gospel (1190 AM) select a local church to feature for the week. Thirty percent of their audience does not attend a local church and so they highlight churches in the hopes that their listeners may get plugged into a body of believers. This week, Park Boulevard is the Church of the Week. As part of that, they will feature 25 ad spots highlighting PBPC during the week. I also was interviewed for Life!Line which will air on Thursday, 12/18 at 6:00pm and Sunday, 12/21 at noon. The Sunday re-air will be aired alongside a sermon from PBPC. I am thankful for FKAX's willingness to highlight local churches - I did have to confess to them that I didn't know KFAX existed before I got their email - and their generosity in spotlighting PBPC. Looking for...

PBPC Family, First, thank you to everyone who helped with Sunday's service. It was a wonderful joint service and though it was a lot of work for us, it was also a joy to join with others in worship and share a meal together. Thank you to everyone who helped set up, organize the food, brought a delicious dish, cleaned up, or shared the gift of your presence. What a gift to remember that we are connected to other congregations and part of the body of Christ in Oakland and around the world. On a completely different note, I am pleased to announce that we have hired a Church Office and Facility Manager. John Wright, originally from Texas, lives in Fairfield with his wife (Tammie) and daughter (Maddie, she turns 12 in 5 days!). He comes to us with a wealth of experience; a former pastor, building manager of a large church in San Francisco, and an outreach director for a church in Palo Alto. He is currently working on his doctoral thesis at Pacific School of Religion. His thesis is an ex...

PBPC Family, There are lots of details in this email in light of our joint service on Sunday, so please read carefully. I know it is extra work for us, especially after I preached against busyness! But I pray that we can approach this Sunday, and all the planning that comes with it, in a posture of worship.  As we prepare to welcome other congregations, we are preparing to welcome Christ into our midst. The joy of hosting is not so that we can show off our chops and make a good impression; the joy is in the new connections and friendships we will make, the full sound of voices collectively singing praise, the way Christ will surprise us in ways we never  could  have expected or imagined. We plan and prepare for Christ to come to us this Sunday. This is, ideally, our posture every Sunday. And yet we so easily Sunday becomes another day on the calendar. Going to church slides into regular routine. My prayer is that this joint service will awaken within us a new hunger and expectation for...

PBPC Family, Sunday is the beginning of the Advent Season and, as announced, we will be joining the Advent Conspiracy, a movement to reclaim Advent and Christmas from the busyness and consumerism that marks this time of year. There are a number of ways to engage with the Advent Conspiracy this year. We will have fliers available on Sunday with more info but you can also refer to this email for more information. November 30 - Stick around after service to help us pack Blessing Bags to be handed out at our Food Pantry on December 10. December 2 at 7:00pm. Our first book discussion of the Advent Conspiracy will be on Zoom at 7:00pm on December 2. We will meet for four weeks on Tuesday at 7pm. December 7 - Joint Worship Service. We are hosting other Oakland churches with a potluck following the service. We will need some help with getting the potluck set up and organized. Please reach out if you can help. December 10 - Food Pantry from 5-6pm. Please arrive at 4:30 to help pack bags. Decemb...

PBPC Family, Last year, in our final food pantry of the year, we wanted to be a blessing. A team of us discussed how each month we give away essentials - food and hygiene supplies - and we are so glad to provide these critical resources to our friends and neighbors. But God doesn't just give us what we need - God is gratuitously generous. God provides us with gifts far beyond the essentials of food, water, and shelter. We decided to follow in the footsteps of God's generosity and give away more than just food. We made "Blessing Bags" filled with treats, blankets, hats, gloves, and a $50 Target gift card. This year, we want to continue in that same vein. Our final food pantry of the year is Wednesday, December 10 from 5:00-6:00pm. We're going to make Blessing Bags, give away a nice votive candle, treats, and a $25 Target Gift Card. We're also hoping to have hot cider, cookies, and live music during the food pantry. We hope to create a space where people can lin...