Dear friends, Michael and I were wonderfully overwhelmed with your kindness and love this weekend. Thank you so much to everyone who participated in our wedding, in ways large and small. It was truly a community event with a real family feeling to it, even though there was only one blood relative in attendance (Michael’s twin brother Brian). From the children who…

I’d like to thank everyone whose efforts made Kickoff Sunday a huge success! From those who brought their tools in for the “Blessing of the Tools” to those who created presentations and brought snacks in for the Committee Fair, we are grateful for your work. Our congregation is blessed with so many creative, talented, hardworking, thoughtful people – and with such diversity…

Talitha’s Take We’re coming up on Kickoff Sunday this week (or, the day which I’m hoping people call “bring your cappuccino machine to church Sunday”). As I wrote last week, we’re going to have a “Blessing of the Tools,” so you can bring a symbolic item to join in this fun ritual. So now I’m stuck wondering what item I should bring,…

Kickoff Sunday is coming soon: September 18th. If you were out of town and missed Rev. Ben’s sermon on Labor Day weekend (http://mpcfamily.org/sermons/honest-work/), you may not have yet learned that your work can be an act of prayer… particularly if your work is the preparation of a sublime cappuccino. Well, on September 18th I’ll be preaching, and in addition to calling it…

I’m home! Thank you for all the well-wishes. Between getting married and today celebrating my birthday, it’s been quite the amazing few weeks of celebration. It feels great to be married! Now Michael and I are settling into our temporary digs in North Oakland, and eagerly anticipating having a house of our own when the manse is ready later this fall. The…

Talitha is taking two weeks’ vacation and will be back in the office on 8/30.

We are back! With HUGE thanks to adult advisors Debbie Fallehy and Niki Hicks, the youth group returned safely from their trip to Chicago (and for many of them, a trip to Indiana as well). It was an epic adventure, and we used just about every possible form of transportation. We flew there and took Amtrak home, had lots of public transit…

Pastor Talitha is traveling to meet MPC Youth for their Mission Trip in Chicago.  Stay tuned for highlights!

Talitha’s Take: General Assembly   The 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) met two weeks ago in Portland. I wasn’t able to attend in person (as Ben was), but being a committed polity wonk, I followed in close detail on Twitter, facebook, and livestream video. I understand that many people consider such interest in the nitty-gritty of Presbyterian politics to…

Dear friends, How are you doing? It’s a nasty world out there right now. We are coming up on Pride Weekend (at least, Pride as it is celebrated in SF, though other cities celebrate other weekends) and I can’t help but think how different it is from last year. Last year the Supreme Court had just gifted our nation with a historic…