Pastoral Reflection

Sally is Summing Up Summer:

We have been blessed in busyness this summer with nine weeks of the Kinship Program from the Family Support Services of the Bay Area delivering quality program to 40 youngsters. Two of our own youth, Princess and Maka, helped with that process by serving the meals and cleaning up afterwards. Now, the children are back in school after having spent the summer within these lovely Julia Morgan walls and we are gratified by having been able to share our space with them.

On the neighborhood front, our Parks for Peace project at Brookdale with the City of Oakland was an enormous success. We have launched the rededication of our city parks in a process that will continue over the course of the next year. We were honored and proud to have spearheaded this positive symbolic action in Oakland. Now the real work of transformation begins as we develop more and more Project Mosaic projects and programs, inviting other neighborhood institutions and organizations to take part. We pioneer that right here at High Street with six home maintenance workshops for youth, offered by our own retired building contractor, Fred Mc Glothin in October and November. Also in October, Dr. Rebecca Payne, 25-year veteran educator donates her time to offer a workshop for parents to help them recognize and respond to the learning and behavioral challenges they see in their children and youth. And finally, I will at last get to sing in my favorite voice, the voice of drama, as I work with six youth from Primera Iglesia Presbiteriana, our Hispanic sister church, on the creation of a theatre piece that lifts up the human side of the Immigration Issue from the perspective of youth.

The benediction that we say together each Sunday includes the words from the Great Command, to love the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul and love our neighbors, as we love ourselves. This is the basis for our response to the crime we see in our neighborhood. Our Project Mosaic is faith based and love based. Let us respond to the crime and violence around us by offering life-giving options to the youth and their families. Let us radiate the light of love into the corners of darkness, the darkness of crime and violence, and the darkness of despair and hopelessness. The Spirit is with us, guiding us in the development of this inner city, urban ministry. It is a vision, a dream, a goal and a prayer to transform our neighborhood. With God's help, we will become known, not for shootings, violence and crime but for the flow of love, creativity and support to those around us. May it be so. AMEN.