Friends,
I am writing in the pastoral Contact space this week because even though it is her turn to write, Talitha is away, spending the week at Zephyr Point on the shores of Lake Tahoe, which reminds me: who wants to join me at Zephyr Point on the shores of Lake Tahoe during the last week of June?
Between June 24 and 29 (the week following MPC@Tahoe) I will be a returning member of the Zephyr Experience faculty. This year I will be teaching a class called “Holy Writ for the Rest of Us,” and in that class I will be revisiting ideas I have developed and observations I have made during the Wednesday Bible study class I lead here at Montclair Presbyterian Church.
The Zephyr Experience is a latter-day outgrowth of what used to be called “Schools of Churchmanship”—weeklong opportunities for Presbyterians from the Synod of the Pacific to gather in a beautiful place and learn from scholars and teachers and to worship in the company of Presbyterians from all over California. Several such Schools of Churchmanship once existed, but today only two remain in California—the Zephyr Experience and MPC@Tahoe which began as a School of Churchmanship but eventually it was so dominated by Montclair folk that it became our program.
As I have said in past years, my fondest hope is that you will attend MPC@Tahoe, but if you are unable or disinclined to do MPC@Tahoe, or if you are able to spend two weeks in the Sierra, I hope you will come to Zephyr with me.
Incidentally, our congregation has a long tradition of folks participating in both events. Despite the fact that Montclair Presbyterian Church ended up running its own School of Churchmanship, our congregation has remained involved at the other school, which started at Asilomar in Pacific Grove before it moved to Zephyr Point in 1993. A history of our church tells me that one summer our congregation sent eighty folks, and I am hardly the first or the only person affiliated with MPC to have been on the faculty. Other MPC folks who have taught at Zephyr and/or Asilomar include Duke Robinson, John and Virginia Hadsell, Doug Patton, Paul Gertmenian, and Beth Brown. Friends of our congregation who served on the faculty include Greg Love (who will be teaching this year) and Jane Spahr.
This year’s program looks like a good one. I hope you will consider joining me. Follow this link for more information https://www.zephyrpoint.org/programs/family/zephyr-experience/
God’s Peace,
Ben