Celebrate with us on Sunday, February 12th at 10 AM

For our annual “Preschool Sunday,” we will celebrate Valentine’s Day by honoring the theme of “One Love” – love for ourselves, love of our families and friends, and love for the world. Preschools families and children will be joining us, and we will share gifts of love with area agencies. A fun-filled worship service, with dancing in the sanctuary, which will almost feel like Mardi Gras!

Afterwards, we will enjoy the parents’ potluck preparations and a farewell cake for our outgoing office manager Chrysalis Hyon in the Preschool. Come, join us!

Yes, it’s the Superbowl, and even though the SF 49ers won’t be in it, we’ll be playing in our own Souper Bowl, tackling hunger, raising awareness and funds for people in need, right here in Alameda County, especially now in this tough economy – where one in six people don’t have enough money to buy healthy food. We will continue to support Alameda County Community Food Bank because of their remarkably effective programming:

You can read more about ACCFB’s remarkably effective programming here!

During worship we will have an exciting “Souper Bowl” skit, during children’s time (if you have football helmets, balls, & jerseys, please bring and or wear them!

During the offertory, the children will return to the service, to collect our special offering for the Food Bank.

This Sunday, January 15^th at Skyline, we will honor the memory of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., his sense of God’s calling in his life, and the larger civil rights movement to which he gave his life.  We will also take seriously our call in this time, to participate in the civil rights movement of our times for greater economic justice, particularly within our country.  Together, one day, we shall overcome!

Please bring with you – friends who would be drawn to this celebration; books, photos, quotes, memories of Reverend King (to be placed on the Sanctuary communion table). Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to discuss ways that you’d like to take part at revlauriemanning@aol.com.

And for those of you interested in exploring parallels between the black civil rights movement of the 1960′s and the current Occupy movement, please check out:

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/441-occupy/9281-black-churches-to-energize-occupy

Finally, here’s a link to learn more about the various events taking part here in Oakland to honor this great man, and the urgent need for our collective leadership at this time:

http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CEDA/o/Redevelopment/o/CulturalArtsMarketing/HolidayEvents/index.htm

   Blessings, Reverend Laurie Manning

This Christmas Eve, come experience the wonder of our candlelight service celebrating the birth of Jesus with carols, anthems, scripture lessons, and instrumental music. The service will be followed by delicious Christmas treats, hot apple cider, and fellowship.

This is a beautiful way to celebrate the season with your entire family. ALL are welcome!

December 24th at 8:00 pm

For more information please contact the office at 510.531.8212

Journey Through Advent  - 3 Wednesdays in December: 12/7, 12/14, 12/21

Join us as we journey through Advent — waiting, preparing, opening ourselves to the Light of God, to be born within us.  Join us on Wednesday evenings, December 7, 14, and 21st from 7 – 8 pm, as we journey through the lectionary, walk the labyrinth with candles and behold the stars, and share our reflections for our lives and for the world. Pastor Laurie will be leading; hot apple cider and snacks provided. Call Pastor Laurie for more information or if you will need childcare.

Wednesday, 12/7 Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Luke 1:46-55 ~ Heartbreak of Justice

Wednesday, 12/14  Luke 1:26-38 ~ God With Us

Wednesday, 12/21 Luke 2:1-17, 8-20 ~  Sing With Us

A Thanksgiving Reminder for Pies . . . and more!
Pies for Downtown Oakland Thanksgiving Dinner
Once again, I’m asking for your help in providing pies for the Downtown Oakland community Thanksgiving dinner. Whether homemade, Safeway produced, or from your favorite bakery (or a check and we’ll buy the pies). Please bring your pies and leave them in the Friendship Room prior to 9:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning (11/24). I will pick them up then and deliver them to the Lake Merritt Church.

In addition to pies, there is a need for volunteers* to help cook turkeys and set up tables on Wednesday (23rd), to help serve the meal on Thanksgiving (12:00 to 2:00 p.m.), and to help clean up after the dinner is served. If you have an extra turkey, those are also much appreciated . . . if frozen, they would need to be delivered to the Lake Merritt Church 2 days ahead, if thawed, by 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the 23rd.

Some of the food for the 700 meals we serve is through the Alameda County Community Food Bank; and some (like the pies) is home made and donated. Lake Merritt Church is a food distribution point, twice a month, for the ACCFB.

I will circulate a “sign up” on two Sundays: Nov. 6th & Nov. 20th. This is a wonderful experience that has been my passion for over 12 years. Any questions, directions, comments, etc. just ask me or Dave, but PLEASE bring those pies!

- Paula Byrens

*Volunteer at our partner United Methodist Church’s Thanksgiving Dinner.
Other assistance needed before the event include Publicity and Musicians. Be sure to RSVP either to Paula at church, or directly to Stephen Ford. They sometimes have too many volunteers in one area and not another, so please be sure to RSVP.

Thank you!

“Justice is not an ancient custom, a human convention, a value, but a transcendent demand, freighted with divine concern” — Abraham J. Heschel

We stand at a point in history when the onerous weight of inequity has become so burdensome that it calls forth the forces of resistance. We are witnessing one of the most pronounced divides between rich and poor in the history of this country. That divide has manifest itself in the most palpable ways: months of unemployment, foreclosed homes, mounting debt and precipitous loans, and cutbacks in social services. We would be remiss to ignore that those who have been most adversely affected are disproportionately people of color, further cementing our history of racial disparity.

The circumstances we now face are similar to those described by the prophets of the Old Testament. Amos decried those who “trample on the poor” and “push aside the needy at the gate,” Jeremiah spoke out against those who “have become great and rich” with “deeds of wickedness,” and Isaiah railed against those “who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one.” In the New Testament, we read of Jesus overturning the money changing tables and calling on the wealthy to give their possessions to the poor, These are the voices of our tradition, crying out from the pages of our most sacred text.

Those same words of righteous indignation now echo through the streets of our nation. They can be read on the signs of people camping out on Wall Street. They can be heard on the lips of seasoned protestors and disillusioned young people, returning war veterans and longtime union members. The spirit of principled resistance, so epitomized in scripture, is now spreading through our country.

As Progressive Christians, we speak of God’s call to work for justice and righteousness in the world. We speak of the good news promised by Jesus—that the last shall become first, the hungry shall be fed, the naked shall be clothed. We speak of an age of hope and possibilities, of new beginnings that draw ever closer to God’s kin-dom. This nascent movement is an opportunity for progressive Christians to add voices and our vision to the plurality of people calling for change. The occupation of Wall Street & the subsequent protests that have sprung up across the country call us forward to live into our faith, to lend what resources we have, to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, to articulate our expectations and our dreams.

People of faith will gather for a meeting in early November. For more info on official UCC coverage of the Occupy movement, check out these links:

http://www.ucc.org/news/ucc-leaders-issue-pastoral.html
http://www.ucc.org/news/ucc-congregations.html

Please call or email Pastor Laurie or Kay Gilliland if you would like to get involved!

Our Music Director, Ramin Haghjoo, invites all children, teens, and adults who love to sing to join the choir for the Christmas Eve Service!

Rehearsal Schedule:

Sunday, 11/27: 12:00-1:30PM
Sunday, 12/4: 12:00-1:30PM
Sunday, 12/11: 12:00-1:30PM
Sunday, 12/18: 12:00-1:30PM
Saturday, 12/24: 5:30-7:30PM

If you cannot make it to all the rehearsals, please at least come to the last two (12/18, 12/24). Contact Ramin beforehand if you need the music in advance.

If interested, please contact Ramin for more information:
Contact Ramin via Email
714.797.9765

Our 2011 Blessing of the Animals was A Re-Barkable Success!
Thanks To All Who Came Out to Celebrate Our Animal Companions

This year’s Blessing of the Animals was a wonderful blessing to all of us. Our gathering drew nearly 70 participants with upwards of 40 dogs, a cat and a kitten, and a small gerbil-mouse.  We were so pleased to have been featured by some local newspapers highlighting the day’s sweetest moments:

For the Oakland North’s short but sweet video of our event, please click here: http://vimeo.com/30334566

For the accompanying article, please click here: oaklandnorth.net/2011/10/10/dogs-and-a-few-cats-blessed-at-the-skyline-community-church-in-the-oakland-hills/

Here’s a blog piece from SF Gate/SF Chronicle:  http://blog.sfgate.com/inoakland/2011/10/10/dogs-and-a-few-cats-blessed-at-the-skyline-community-church-in-the-oakland-hills/

We are honored to carry on this special tradition and welcome All to come again next year!