Friends, Last week I got in a bit of an argument on Twitter with a former Ukrainian Orthodox priest who—apparently—doesn’t believe religious humor should stray too far into the sacred realm. I tend to disagree and I have disagreed for some time now. Years ago, when I was a regular contributor to KQED’s Perspectives program I wrote about religious humor. It was…

Friends, This week, instead of writing out my contribution to Contact, I have reverted to COVID practice and I have made a video. My hope is that this video will provide information about and generate excitement for the trip to Spain I hope to lead in Spring of 2022. Here is a link to the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iI15kmdZ7c If you want to skip…

Opinion Piece by Guest Writer Jean Mudge Our times are seemingly dominated by untruths, from deceptions to outright lies. And their influence expands when, in some quarters, they’re irrationally perpetuated. But also in our times, in large part thanks to COVID, one truth so pervades society that it has become self-evident: Microbes coexist & compete with us. Whether it’s bacteria, viruses, fungi…

Friends, I have been reading a bit of Tolstoy recently. It started with his last novel, Resurrection, and from there I started reading some of his writings on pacifism and religious liberty. Prior to this I’d never read any of Tolstoy’s nonfiction, but I’m glad I’ve started. His writing is clear, profound, and timeless, even when he is writing about matters rooted…

Guest writer this week is Jim Allardice, Commission Lay Pastor This Sunday—Pride Sunday—is a day to celebrate, a time to look back and a time to look ahead.  To most Americans,  just half-a-century ago “queer” meant odd, bizarre, or just plain strange; however, for over a hundred and fifty years it had been a self-identifier of the gay community.  Today queer is…

Friends, As you probably know by now, on Tuesday the State of California lifted a lot of its rules around masking and social distancing. Oddly, I haven’t seen too many changes in the ways people actually live their lives, at least not as of the writing of these words. On Wednesday at a Starbucks across from a Costco on the Hayward/Union City…

Friends, I wrote this Contact piece while up against a deadline imagining, I’m sure, that I probably needed to address some kind of Big and Important subject in the life of the Church or the world, but all I could think about was photography. Just before writing this article, I got a new (to me) lens for my camera. It is a…

Friends, I am looking forward to in-person celebration this week with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. I’m excited because I am overjoyed by the thought of seeing members of the MPC family in person and I am excited by the prospect of worshiping in community, which is how Christian worship is supposed to happen. I’m also really happy to know that…

Friends, Our June 6 date for meeting together in person is drawing neigh! It’s hard to believe that after so many months of doing Celebration using a YouTube video play list, we will be meeting back in person. It will be wonderful. Now I have to say that we’re still figuring out many of the details, but mostly we’ve got a good…

NOTES FROM JIM In recent months, thanks to a limited amount of reporting, many Americans are starting to become aware of violence targeting the Asian American community, but violence against Asian Americans is not new, in fact, violence has been directed at Asians throughout this county’s existence.  The west coast, and particularly northern California, has seen the vast majority of these expressions…