Calvary Presbyterian Church

2.14.21-Worship Bulletin: Read, print or download this week's bulletin.- https://www.calvarypresbyterian.org//02/2-14-2021-Digital.

Although we still can't be in the same room on Sundays or for the community activities we usually enjoy together, we can still connect! Hospitality at Calvary is friendly, generous, and online. BYOC (bring your own coffee) and connect online with Calvary friends, old and new. Each week, until we can meet again face to face, Calvary will host various small, coffee hour groups. And each week, the groupings will be unique.... You can enroll in the Virtual Coffee Hour program here: https://www.calvarypresbyterian.org//virtual-c/2021-02-21/ Once enrolled in the program, you’ll get a confirmation email each week to confirm your participation for that coming week. Once confirmed, you’ll get a follow-up email with a Zoom link for that week’s Virtual Coffee Hour session. And you can enroll at any time.

The season of Lent invites us to reflect, reassess, and renew our commitments to confession, unity, reconciliation, justice, and action. Whether you’re new to Bible study and small groups or whether it’s your favorite part of church, all are welcome to join us for this year's Lenten Study, Visible Unity: A Lenten Study on The Confession of Belhar, and runs from THIS Sunday, February 21 Sunday, March 28 To learn more about the study, see available group times, and sign up, v...isit: https://www.calvarypresbyterian.org/2021-small-group-lente/ Our Lenten Groups begin on Sunday, February 21 with a Kick-Off Live Zoom. Click here to sign up for the Kick-Off! https://www.calvarypresbyterian.org//lenten-study-kick-off/

"Transfigured by Love" At both the baptism and transfiguration of Jesus, God calls him beloved. How does love transform us? How might love transform the world?

This Wednesday, February 17, from 3-6 pm, we are offering a Drive Up Ashes to Go. Pictured are Lenten activities and handouts for families from Alison Faison. Come get these wonderful faith formation items for kids! Kit includes: Lenten and Easter Children's Bulletins, Lenten Journey scratch off sheet made by Barbara Lyon, Calvary Camp Co-Director, Mardi Gras/Prayer Beads, The Greatest Commandment heart, and an Easter bag. #AshWednesdayDriveUp

We invite you to join us for a beautiful online Ash Wednesday worship service at 7 pm, 2/17, premiering here on Facebook, the Calvary Website, and YouTube.

Plan to join us via Zoom Sunday, November 15 (4:00-5:00 pm) for the Racial Equity Initiative Movie Discussion of "13th." It can be a long process to understand the way our systems and structures prop up and cause racial inequality-especially for people who haven’t suffered directly, and may even have benefited from these systems. One way to begin is by watching great movies or reading books that illustrate key aspects of systemic racism. The stories and images can shape our i...maginations in powerful ways, and film can be a force for rewiring how viewers see the world off-screen, too. As part of Calvary’s Racial Equity Initiative (REI) to recognize and to educate ourselves about systemic racism and to explore the unconscious bias in our own hearts and minds, we are launching a series of programs to help promote discussion and understanding. Go here to find out more about the movie and Calvary's REI, and ALSO TO REGISTER for the facilitated group discussion on Zoom. https://www.calvarypresbyterian.org//racial-equity-initia/ Important Note: Participants should watch the movie on your own prior to the event. http://www.avaduvernay.com/13th This month: 13th Named after the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery in 1865, director Ava DuVernay’s Emmy-winning documentary draws a historical through-line between slavery and the mass incarceration of Black people in the United States. Challenging and confrontational, this documentary illustrates why millions have been calling for total police reform for years.

All men are invited to join the Men of Calvary Bible Study, a wonderful opportunity to deepen their faith and fellowship with one another. Join us virtually on Mondays from 8 9 am. Men of all ages are welcomed and encouraged to attend. Our next meeting is Monday, November 2. For more information, please contact David Barnes at [email protected].

Sunday Studio Online 2020 is in full swing, and we invite your child to join the fun! Sunday Studio provides a sacred space online for children to play, learn, and fellowship. We get to know each other, sing, read the lectionary Bible story, and do a fun theme-related activity. Ages: Kindergartners to 3rd graders... 9 -9:30 am online every Sunday during the fall season on Zoom Theme: Stirring Up Courage and Faith Breakout groups: K 1: Recipe Makers 2 3: Chefs For more information or to sign up contact Alison Faison at [email protected].

How are Christians responding to a God that would allow COVID-19 and human suffering? We invite you to join us for the Adult Education & Spiritual Formation discussion: God, COVID-19, and Suffering with Dr. Greg Love, Sundays November 8 & 22, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm Pacific. (Here on Facebook, and also on YouTube)... This 2-part online series with Rev. Dr. Gregory Love will guide us through four main models of the Christian response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Watching this series will help you better understand what many different Christians mean when they talk about suffering, including in the media, and also help you figure out your own view. Gregory Love is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at San Francisco Theological Seminary and The Graduate Theological Union. Dr. Love’s research, writing, and teaching have focused on bringing three voices together: the sciences, contemporary theology, and feminist theory. He is a Presbyterian pastor, speaker and teacher who enjoys making difficult theological material come to life for people whose daily vocations are in the public sphere.

God doesn’t love us because we do nice things for people. We don’t earn our faith or salvation. God’s grace is sufficient for us. We would say BECAUSE God loves us, we are freed to care for others. We live out the vision of Matthew 25 in response to our faith. The national church has embraced a Matthew 25 vision and has invited congregations, presbyteries, and synods to join, as well. They have lifted up three focal points for our ministry together: Building Congregational V...itality Dismantling Structural Racism, and Eradicating Systemic Poverty Recognizing an alignment between those three areas and the work we are already doing with our Breaking Cycles of Poverty partnerships and justice-centric ministries in the community, Calvary's Session (similar to a Board of Directors) voted for Calvary to become a Matthew 25 congregation. We hope this Matthew 25 vision will serve as a lens to focus and deepen the work we’re already doing, and will give us access to other resources to engage that work. Matthew 25 is also the focus of our stewardship campaign this year. We engage in the world as people who seek to share our blessings, as we have been blessed. Learn more here: https://www.calvarypresbyterian.org/calvary-is-a-matthew-2/

Starting next week! We invite you to join us for the series, Racial Equity Initiative: Books to Discuss Together. We'll be reading The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander. On Thursdays, November 5, 12, and 19 (6:00-7:00 pm) we'll gather online for a lively discussion of the issues raised by the book, and how we can address systematic racism in our midst.... Register here, and learn more about Calvary's Racial Equity Initiative: https://www.calvarypresbyterian.org//racial-equity-initia/ Important Note: Participants should get a copy of the book and start reading before the discussion. (You still have time!) The New Jim Crow, written by legal scholar and civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander, is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States. This system has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class statusdenied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement, as well as the right to vote, won in the 19th century. Since its publication in 2010, the book has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year; been dubbed the secular bible of a new social movement by numerous commentators, including Cornel West; and has led to consciousness-raising efforts in universities, churches, community centers, re-entry centers, and prisons nationwide. The New Jim Crow tells a truth our nation has been reluctant to face. You can read more about the book here: https://newjimcrow.com/about

Join us for worship right here on Facebook, THIS Sunday, November 1 at 10 am Pacific. (Remember the time changes this weekend!) The sermon, "Dissolve Like Salt" with Rev. Marci Glass In Matthew’s account of the Beatitudes, he also calls people to be salt of the earth. In many ways, those qualifications in the Beatitudespoor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungry for justice, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecutedare the qualifications that settle down into the cracks and crevices of our lives like salt, dissolving into our very identity, invisible to the eye in most cases. They are some of the very characteristics that make us human.

The need in our community is great right now. Please consider signing up today to join other Calvary volunteers at Interfaith Food pantry. Currently taking sign-ups now for this Saturday, October 31 (7:30 -11:30 am) https://signup.com//invit/secure/667004851505698018/false... For more information on the program and what is needed, as well as safety guidelines, visit here: https://www.calvarypresbyterian.org//volunteer/2020-10-31/

Attention, Calvary High Schoolers! We look forward to the day when we can meet again in person! But for now, join us and connect with other Calvary High School youth on Zoom, 2nd Sundays after worship. We'll connect again NEXT Sunday, November 8. Let’s talk life & faith together! Please RSVP to [email protected] for the Zoom link. The link will change each month.... High School (9th 12th Grade) Sunday Zoom, following worship from 10:45am 11:30am: Second Sundays of the month (our December meeting will be 12/13)

Won't You Be Our Neighbor? We invite you to join us THIS Sunday, November 1 (11:30 am - 12:30 pm) for the Online Adult Education discussion: Intergenerational Series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Fred Rogers, the beloved host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, spread kindness and respect to people of all ages and backgrounds around the world. But he and his show did much more than that. He taught us how to be good neighbors. When Mister Rogers called us neighbors, he was calling... us out of our structures of power and sameness and into lives of mercy and care for one another. Because we are all part of God's one big neighborhood, all ages are welcome and encouraged to engage in the discussion with Rev. Joann H. Lee, Associate Pastor of Community Formation and Alison Faison, Director of Children and Family Ministries, for the second part of online Zoom conversation about being good neighbors and friends, even in this time of Covid-19. (Even if you were unable to attend the first session, we still encourage you to attend this one!) This discussion will be shaped by a curriculum geared for an intergenerational group that includes children, youth, adults, and senior adults, and from all different backgrounds. If you missed the first session you can still register by emailing [email protected]. We will begin this series this week at 11:30 am, with the theme Won’t You Be My Neighbor exploring who we are as neighbors, especially during this time of sheltering-in-place. On the following Sunday, November 1 at 11:30 am, we will continue the discussion by exploring the ways our neighbneighborhoods are Neighboring in ways that serve the common good.

Tonight... In the middle of your busy week and a hectic world, a special time where we can center ourselves in prayer. Please join us for Prayer Service on Zoom this Wednesday 10/28 from 6:00 - 7:00pm Pacific. Rev. Joann will lead us in prayer and music from Calvary's lovely chapel.... Register here to receive Zoom link: https://www.calvarypresbyterian.org//evening-prayer-servi/

The SF Bay Area and the country continue to face a severe blood shortage due the coronavirus...join us on November 15 for a blood drive at Calvary, and save lives! All blood types needed! Sign up here: https://www.bloodheroes.com/index.cfm In these difficult times, giving blood is something healthy individuals can do to help the sick. Calvary is partnering with Vitalant to host a blood drive on Sunday, November 15, from 9am 1:30 pm.... Blood drives are absolutely critical to avoiding another public health emergency: not having enough blood to meet basic patient needs. Vitalant’s highest priority is the safety of the blood supply, blood donors, patients and staff. Blood donors must be healthy, feeling well and free of respiratory illness symptoms, including fever, to be eligible to donate. Additionally... There is no inherent risk of getting coronavirus from the donation procedure itself. To minimize the risk of contracting it from others at a blood drive or donation center, our staff follow rigorous safety and disinfection protocols that include wearing gloves and personal protective gear, wiping down donor-touched areas often and after every collection, using sterile collection sets for every donation/collection, and arm scrubbing for 30 seconds. Blood donation does not impact or weaken a donor’s immune system. All Vitalant blood donations are now being tested for the SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Questions? Please contact or Robin Morjikian at [email protected]. Please note, due to social distancing guidelines and other health and safety protocols, only Blood Donors will be permitted to enter the donation site; please do not bring non-donor friends and family with you.