Dear Church Family, In the coming weeks and months you will be hearing from me about Matthew 25. By this I do not mean the chapter of the Bible — though we will rely on it heavily — but an invitation and vision from the Presbyterian Church (USA) which the MPC Session voted to sign on to. The Presbytery of San Francisco…

Dear Church Family, I used the phrase “difficult times” a few too many times in 2020, and one of the teenagers called me on it. I love the question she asked: “Why do people always say these difficult times? These unprecedented times? Whether it’s precedented or not, you should call it like it is. These times are awful. Terrible.” I agree; not…

Dear Church Family,  As we approach the longest night of the year, in what feels like a very long year, I would like to invite you to examine your relationship with darkness. It is a complex subject, of course; some of us may be chemically affected by the seasonal change and require artificial sunlight to make it through the year without major…

Dear Church Family, You’ve asked me to write a Contact series about how to meet one another’s spiritual needs. The overview article is here and a piece about the second need is here. Since I’m heading into a weekend retreat – the annual Womxn’s retreat – focused on forgiveness and freedom, I thought I’d take this opportunity to write about the third…

Dear Church Family, I just got back from a truly wonderful program, Presbyterian Credo. This was my second and last week there, as they do two one-week programs a year apart for those pastors in their first five years of ordained ministry. Thinking about it yesterday over dinner with my husband I was torn on my evaluation of the program… torn over…

Dear Church Family, Earlier this year I wrote about the three core spiritual needs and how we can meet them for one another. A patient I saw at Children’s Hospital, as I was bringing Godly Play stories there last week, reminded me of what it looks like when one of these needs is really met well: the need for meaning and direction.…

Dear Church Family, Once again I’m writing to you from the past. At press time I’m at the first of 2 family reunions (to be followed by a family wedding – what a whirlwind trip!) so I’m writing this before departure. I thought I’d share some wrap-up thoughts from our two youth mission trips — the ecological mission trip to Monterey, and…

Dear church family,  I’m writing to you from the past. I’d like to pretend there’s some kind of time warp, but the fact is, on Sunday I disappeared into the black hole that is the Youth Group Mission Trip, where one rarely has time to sit down, much less write, so I knew I’d have to write this piece before departure.  And…

Dear Church Family, This weekend I was out for a beer with some friends, half of whom were Jewish, and somehow our meandering conversation struck on the topic of keeping kosher. Not just the avoidance of pork and other such options, but the cleaning of dishes and the care of the kitchen, and about how some friends had gotten married and set…