July 24, 2012

Hi All,
Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts while I have been away and thank you to Pastor Tanner and all my colleagues on the church staff for their able leadership of, and care for, the congregation in my absence. Thanks also to the leaders of the congregation for the offering of your many, diverse and marvelous gifts. I had a marvelous sabbatical. I was able to travel, study, relax, worship, participate in some fun events, participate in some significant events, enjoy some downtime with my family and single handedly encourage the A’s to their  current level of success.
One of the essentials of life I was able to experience in a new way during my time away is the simple pleasure of going to church.  There are more theological ways of describing the act of going to church other than that of “simple pleasure” yet these are words that resonate most closely with my experience. This Sunday, using the lens of Paul’s prayer for the people that we find in Ephesians 3:14-21, we will consider how and why this simple pleasure means so much to so many.
Prayers of the Congregation

• Larry Sims and family on the death of his brother Wilbert (The funeral will be this Friday in San Diego)
• Thanksgiving with Gerry Grosz and Michiyo Aoyama on the completion of her immigration process
• Bette Pancoe – Stanford Hospital
• Arnold Anderson – Eden Hospital
• Virginia Cheatham – Piedmont Gardens SNF
• Gordon White – Piedmont Gardens SNF
• Mary Karne for her cousins Sharon and Jim
• Maxine O’Guinn for for her aunt Viola Washington and family on the death of her husband and her friend Beatrice Lee on the death of her husband
• Phil and Gloria Meads for the family of their friend Frank Green who died unexpectedly
• Thanksgiving with Kay Baxter that Jamie has an apprentice barber job while he studies for the state exam in Maryland, continued prayers of strength for Kay
• Ivan Nesby for employment
• Our youth, youth leaders and American Baptist youth and leaders from across the nation as they gather in Washington D. C.
• The people of Aurora, CO in the wake of the theatre massacre
• Thanksgiving with Declan Brown for improved health
• Gloria Joseph, recuperating at the home of Paul and Johanna
• Thanksgiving for the life of Sally Ride
• John Taylor
• Steve and Carol Leichter
• Theresako Harris for her aunt Elaine

Announcements

• We will host the Bay Area Memorial Service for Rod Romney this Sunday at 2:00. We are honored that Beverly Romney plans to be in attendance.