Friends, I have been feeling melancholy recently. I’m not entirely sure why: it may be that the stress and uncertainty of the COVID era are finally getting the upper hand in the emotional mix that is my inner life; it could be that I’m still grieving as the anniversary of my father’s passing approaches, or maybe I’m just becoming someone whose eyes…

Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul, and why are you so disquieted within me? Put your trust in God, for I yet give thanks to the one who is my help and my God. Psalm 43:5 Having now come through our second Thanksgiving of Covid we may well be feeling continued heaviness and disquiet. Certainly things are better…

Friends, Let me start with a word of gratitude. I am grateful for all that you have done, and continue to do, to make our return to indoor, in person, celebration a reality. So far, we’ve had three worship services in the sanctuary, and each service has been better attended and more smoothly executed than the one before it. Certainly, we are…

Interested in America’s Relationship with Russia??  The City of Oakland has an official Sister City (and Sister Port) relationship with a port city in the Russian Far East: Nakhodka, not far from Vladivostok.  The agreements were signed in 1972 as a result of the Nixon Brezhnev détente, when 4 other US cities were paired with 4 other Soviet Cities.  In the mid-1970s…

Friends, Right now the biggest thing on my mind is the fact that we will be going back inside for celebration this coming Sunday, October 24. A return to the sanctuary has been a long time coming, but unfortunately, this doesn’t mark the end of the road for MPC’s COVID era. We will still be taking a lot of precautions and following…

Friends, I want to give you a bit of an update around plans to return indoors for celebration on Sunday Mornings. At its last meeting the reopening task force set Sunday, October 24 as the tentative date for our first Sunday in the sanctuary with the understanding that: Masks will be required, Strict social distancing protocols will be in place Efforts to…

Friends, Last week I took a vacation. Actually, these being the days of COVID, it was technically a “staycation” because I spent every night in my own bed, but on one of my staycation days I took a long drive to Lake County and back. It was a mini pilgrimage to Bo-No-Po-Ti, an island in Clear Lake that most folks today call…

Friends, This year’s church budget includes a line item for participation in the Shuumi land tax program of the Sagorea Te’ Land Trust, an urban, Indigenous, woman-led organization that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. Copied below is the letter I wrote to the land trust and enclosed with our congregations’ check of support. God’s Peace, Ben PS For…

Friends, Last weekend the folks who ordinarily would organize our annual week-long church retreat we called “MPC@Tahoe” put together “MPC@MPC”, a somewhat pared down version of MPC@Tahoe that observed some of our regular traditions in a way that was COVID safe and local. It was a great event. For me, a highlight of MPC@MPC was the keynote speaker, Nancy Davis Kho, who…

Friends, For my contact article this week I am passing along something I wrote recently. I’m hoping to see this piece published somewhere, but I’m sharing it here so that you get a sneak peek. God’s Peace, Ben Afghanistan and the Futility of War By Ben Daniel One way or another, any American Christian who professes an affinity for pacifism eventually must…