2021 Annual Report
Session • February 25, 2022
If you would like a paper copy of the Annual Report or have questions, please contact David Foster at davidfoster@calpres.org .
The hymns we sing in church have a theological and often biblical basis. “Holy, Holy, Holy,” one of the most familiar hymns to Presbyterians, takes language from Revelation. Revelation can be a confusing, difficult book, but the writer was responding to the crisis faced by first century Christians: Do we worship God,
What if the glory we're waiting for is already shining through us? Presbyterian trailblazer, Janie Spahr, preaches on Job's cosmos and Mark's mountain — where Transfiguration means seeing what was always true: dazzling glory, holy mountains, and the light hidden in ordinary flesh. Holy Communion.
Why do so many of us feel so much pressure to compete, judge, produce, win? The Parable of the Prodigal Son is about two sons. One son learns the hard way that he doesn’t have to earn his father’s love. The other son doesn’t get it. With which son do you identify?
God does not create for the sake of creating. Rather, God creates in order to enjoy, relate, connect, and abide in love with all that is created. Sabbath allows us to enjoy and rest in that love.
“Observe the Sabbath day, and keep it holy,” says Deuteronomy's version of the Ten Commandments. Does that sound like one more religious rule that’s too hard, or at least, too inconvenient, to take seriously? Or might an intentional break from our hectic lives be a path to freedom?
The "morning after" our country’s 250th, we turn to a similar would-be dynasty with its own ancient treasury scandal, arbitrary system of discrimination, and freewheeling corruption. As in Queen Esther's time, we live somewhere between our nation's promises and betrayals. And yet miracles still find us!
If you’ve ever thought, “I’ve never heard God’s voice. I couldn't possibly be part of God’s plan or called by God,” the story of Esther is for you! Esther felt the same way. And believe it or not, like Esther, we are called to a particular service, for particular people, in particular times. What do the times call us t
Before Pastor Marci leaves for Sabbatical, she'll share a vision the Session is dreaming for the church, and how we can use this sabbatical time to live into our vision.
In our story from Paul's letter to the Romans, we're reminded that we're called to particular service when we follow Jesus. How can we be faithful?
Today we hear the ending of the story of Ruth, and while it is a happy ending, of sorts, Ruth is still “acquired” in a transaction by Boaz at the city gates. As honorably as Boaz behaves in this story, he still buys her as property. At the end of the story, Boaz is still Boaz and Ruth is still a Moabite woman—being ac
Who is the hero in a story of two women on the margin, looking to survive, praying for a break? What does the story of Ruth and Naomi teach us about the way we care for each other, about the way we structure our society? Where is grace to be gleaned in a story of famine?