It took a while to do so, but I have re-established the links to the 2007 sermons on the Sermon Archive page. It will be another project to add them to the podcast feed.

Dear Members and Friends of First Congo,

There will be a congregational meeting on this Sunday, December 7, 2008, from 1:15 - 3:15. The meeting room will be announced. The purpose of the meeting is for the congregation to:

Elect Board members.

The Nominating Committee's slate is as follows:

For election to an initial two-year term: Victor Lewis and Webb Mealy.
For re-election to a second two-year term: Charley Lerrigo and Karen Moore.

Receive updates on our infrastructure.

1. Pastoral Relations Committee membership.

2. Former CAP (i.e., capacity building) Team.

3. Infrastructure for ministry programs.

Provide input to the Board on allocation of the congregation's mission money.

Each year the church tithes 10% of its annual income from congregational giving and makes donations to other organizations whose missions are aligned with ours. The decision-making policy adopted by the congregation is for the Board to make recommendations, and the congregation to give further input to the Board for its final decision.

Approve in principle the proposed 2009 budget.

Final budget approval will be made at the Annual Meeting in February-March of 2009, after the 2008 financial books have closed.

Determining our leaders and the use of our financial resources are vitally important decisions in the life of our community. Please participate in learning and conversing about these topics. Everyone is welcome, and all members may vote.

I am profoundly thankful for your presence in this Body of Christ,

Pat Bruce-Lerrigo
Moderator
First Congregational Church of Oakland, United Church of Christ.

Took longer than I'd hoped to get Tony Lewis' sermon, Every Blessing in Abundance, online because I missed church last Sunday.

Here it is!

And I see the feed is up and ready

I haven't been updating as much in What's New largely because the updates were mostly announcements that the sermon is online. I've created the blog Sermons at First Congo to keep track of those changes and to provide a vehicle for the podcast feed

I did recently add the general church email address info@firstoakland.org to the front page after someone emailed me to let me know they search all over the website and couldn't find a general email. Which was true. Thank God for feedback!

Later today I will edit the audio file tags (The ID3 tag) of yesterday's sermon from Pastor Lynice so it will display better on your mp3 player. I'm assuming that Feedburner will grab the revised file later.

Our resident theologian and newly published author Dr. J. Webb Mealy, preached Render Unto Caesar--Or Not last Sunday. I just uploaded the feed so it probably won't show up on iTunes until tomorrow.

Oops: I incorrectly configured the Sermons at First Congo blog and Rev. Stringfellow's sermon Gay Black Man didn't apparently make it to Feedburner correctly. I'm hoping that now that I've fixed the link it will automatically update and make a feed available via iTunes.
Tomorrow?

Subscribers please let me know if it worked.

An eagle-eyed reader pointed out recently that I hadn't updated Pastor Lynice's bio to reflect her formally call as Senior Pastor.

The podcasts seem to be working, so I've mostly been leaving the updates when I upload sermons to the stripped-down sister blog Sermons at First Congo, which I set up to supply the feeds to the podcasts.

And I updated the News at First section, as Kai Lavatai has assumed the newsletter duties. For now the newletter is by email only (announcements will be inserted into the weekly paper bulletin). Subscribe to the New at First here

Learning more and more about this podcasting business.
Still not sure if it is working correctly.

This morning's sermon from Pastor Lynice, I See Dead People, is here.

Fixed the problem with Nichola's photo on her page for her sermon from yesterday, Love's Labor. I still don't get why sometimes an image I save has a JPG extension instead of a jpg extension, but CMSimple (the content management system used on the website) doesn't like the uppercase extensions.

Last week Pastor Lynice preached Solitary Confinement.

At around 2:30 pm this afternoon, at the end of a duly called congregational meeting, First Congregational Church of Oakland, United Church of Christ, Reverend Lynice Pinkard was called as Senior Pastor

The vote was unanimous, with 56 members voting.

To voting members and friends of First Congo:

This is a reminder to attend the September 14 congregational meeting whose ultimate outcome is for voting members to vote whether to call Pastor Lynice Pinkard as the church’s Senior Pastor.

Our bylaws require having at least 30% of the voting membership present. We hope to exceed that requirement substantially. Please come!

Our bylaws also require that actions of the church such as calling a Senior Pastor are taken by voting members present at duly-noticed congregational meeting.

Our denomination advises that voting be done by confidential ballot in the case of calling a Pastor.

For those reasons you must be present at the meeting to cast your ballot.

We deeply regret that this means voting members who cannot attend the September 14 meeting will not be able to vote.

Please come! All of us want to know that the decision made on September 14 represents the will of a substantial portion of the congregation’s membership.

The meeting is on September 14, in the sanctuary, 1:15-3:30 pm.

With thanks and blessings,

Pat Bruce-Lerrigo, Moderator

Board of Trustees

I just now noticed that the latest sermon, Family Feud preached by Pastor Lynice Pinkard, ends abruptly on the website.

Probably because the file became split in the recording and I didn't catch it when I uploaded it. I'll look into it tonight.

9:49 pm: Fixed!

Dear Members and Friends of First Congregational Church of Oakland,

Since May of this year, the Rev. Lynice Pinkard has been our Acting Senior Pastor. After prayerfully and deliberately considering this congregation's hopes and needs and Pastor Lynice's gifts, the Pastoral Search Committee recommends that she be called as Senior Pastor of First Congregational Church of Oakland, United Church of Christ.

According to our bylaws, that decision must be made by a duly-noticed congregational meeting. This is your official notice of that meeting, which will be September 14, 2008, in the Sanctuary from 1:15 until 3:30.

At the meeting:
1. The Pastoral Search Committee will review the steps it has taken in its deliberations, and the reasons for its recommendation.
2. The congregation may share its questions and reflections with the Committee or Pastor Lynice.
3. Voting members will vote whether to call Lynice Pinkard as our Senior Pastor by secret ballot.
In the United Church of Christ, it is the congregation that calls the church's Pastor. Our bylaws require that at least 30% of the voting membership be present at a meeting to call a Senior Pastor. We hope many more than that will attend. The bylaws also specify that the candidate must be elected by a minimum two-thirds majority. Both Acting Senior Pastor Lynice and the Search Committee have agreed in this case that her call by the congregation will require an 80% favorable vote of the voting members present on September 14th.

Please participate in this profound decision in our congregation's life together!

With deep thanks to you and for you,
Pat Bruce-Lerrigo
Moderator

Pastor Lynice preaching Stubbing Your Toe on the Rock. mp3

I think I have the podcast feed set up. On the very bottom left of every page of the website is a link Subcribe to our podcast. This should take you to the First Congo page of Feedburner, where you can use iTunes or another application to have the sermons downloaded automatically onto your computer every time they are uploaded. We'll see if it works!

Two very important messages from Pastor Lynice directly on the front or home page.

Printable versions of her statement on interculturalism in this church (that is, beyond multiculturalism) and her vision of ministry. These correspond to the Pastor's Letters for July and August 2008.

An exciting event next Thursday at First Congo, 7-9 pm

Angela Jernigan Farrell preaching Love in the Badlands
Pastor Lynice preaching The "I" of the Storm.

Angela's was the first I've uploaded without increasing the gain of the mp3 file, as the that process appeared to be distorting the audio quality of the files, even though it make it louder.

The direct links to the mp3s:
The "I" of the Storm;
Love in the Badlands

Pastor Lynice preaching Weeds and Wheat. mp3

Seminarian and chaplain Grant Kinney preaching Bartering for Love. mp3

Oops: forgot to say I uploaded Pastor Lynice's sermon from last week, The Prodigal God mp3 though until the day before yesterday it was on the home page.

And the First Congo community has our very own Facebook page and Facebook group.

Pastor Lynice's sermon from yesterday Noose or Yoke?


Otherwise known as Sacred Rest (the title on the CD). mp3

And Dr. Webb Mealy is editing his sermon from the week before yesterday.
I'll let you know when the new version is online.

Same church, different photo: This one taken (by Jenn Breismeister?) at the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration last week of the members of our contingent in the PRIDE parade.

Dr. Webb Mealy preached Pride Sunday in the special early 9 a.m. service. mp3

Next Sunday, June 29, the Sunday service will start at 9 am. (instead of 10:30) and will last for just one hour. Dr. Webb Mealy will preach.


From the First Congo Calendar:

Put on your marching shoes or sparkly pumps and join the Open & Affirming Team Ministry as we march in the San Francisco LGBTQQIA Parade. We will be singing, walking, doing blessings, and handing out beads & fliers in an effort to let the world know that First Congo is truly a faith community where Love Is First. You can sign up and pick up a packet every Sunday beginning June 8th. Please note: there will be a mandatory parade safety and preparation meeting on Friday, June 27th at 7pm. Hope to see you there.

Contact Erica B. for more info or questions: (510)-331-4849

Note: The Calendar had said the service starts at 8, but it actually starts at 9 am.

Pastor Lynice's sermon from last Sunday--The Integrity Dilemma--
is here. mp3

Ryan Dowell Baum preached his third sermon at First Congo yesterday: Contending with the Cross.

Adapted from an email I just received from Kai Lavatai, our new Administrative Assistant.

This coming Sunday, June 15, the Danville United Church of Christ has asked to join us in engaging in the United Church of Christ's Sacred Conversation on Race.

They will leave their church after their service ends, arriving at First Congo at about 11:30. Then they will join us for lunch and a special program facilitated by Ron Buford, who so ably facilitated our retreat, Pastor Lynice and their pastors. The program will include scripture, discussion, and finding "next steps" to encourage an on-going relationship between our two congregations.

Please come and invite your friends for this important meeting and chance to fellowship, grow and grapple with this most challenging issue: personal, interpersonal and institutional racism.

Well, this is interesting: the Sermon Archive is broken again. The sermons for 2007 are online, but the archive links are broken. You can still retrieve them from the links in this blog (for example, Ryan Dowell Baum's previous sermon, Something About Money, is here. And here. He will be preaching again this coming Sunday, June 15. mp3

I needed a little project, I suppose, so I'll use this time to rearrange the Archive and put the 2007 sermons on their own section.

Meanwhile, check out Pastor Lynice's latest sermon from last Sunday, Live Dog Religion.
mp3

It's been up for a few weeks, but Pastor Lynice's office hours information is on her staff page.

Reformatted the Pastoral Transition section a little, adding a printable version of the latest What's Happening.

The biggest news is I'm adding a lot to the Pastoral Transition section about the newly created search committee.

Sermons online that I missed in my regular updates:

Pastor Lynice's Chaos Theory, Megan Bean Smith's And God Saw That it Was Good, and Reverend Donna E. Allen's Signs of the Times

Oh, and it's a small thing, but I changed the favicon to match the UCC Stillspeaking comma.

Some exceeding important additions to the website tonight: a completely new section regarding the Pastoral Transition and our search for a new Senior Pastor. Please read all three documents (the Letter from the Board, Pastor Lynice's thoughts on the Search and the Charter of the Pastoral Search Committee).

Please plan to attend the special congregational meeting this Sunday, May 11, submitting your nominations (one or two) for the Pastoral Search Committee (to Pat Bruce-Lerrigo (pblerrigo (at) sbcglobal.net) beforehand.

The Board of Trustees have hired a new Church Administrator, Kirsten Swenson.
The new First Congo organization chart is here (PDF file, Adobe Acrobat Reader required to view)

And: Pastor Lynice's sermon, Holy Ghost Power to the People is online.

Ron Buford's sermon from yesterday, Good News for Orphans is online. Also, I'm very aware that the "Audio Library" header in the sermon pages doesn't link to the Sermon Archive page. I've been trying to figure out exactly which bit of code include that text so I can make a link.

Oh, and check out the red comma on the front page (hint: it's clickable)

Curious about what the next week's lectionary reading is? I always include a link to the S.A.M.U.E.L page on the UCC website on the front page of the website. Now thanks you Webb Mealy you can print out a copy of the 2008 Lectionary suitable for framing or magnetting to your refrigerator!

Sunday morning a worker in Whole Foods Market across the street asked me if I worked at the church across the street. When I said yes, I'm a deacon there she said her co-workers were wondering about the marquee, which had Pastor Lynice's sermon Let's Go Get Stoned.

Coincidentally preached on 4/20!

Also, I put the details of the upcoming Retreat online here and as a printable pdf .

Pastor Ama's final sermon at First Congo is here. I think this is complete, though since the entire service ran to 2 CDs I'm not completely certain. The audio ends just before the Litany of Leaving.

And I improved the Farewell to Pastor Ama section, adding the letter from the Board of Trustees laying out the UCC guidelines for departing pastors

Yesterday I uploaded Pastor Ama's penultimate sermon at First Congo.

Her last sermon before she leaves is this coming Sunday, April 13.

Please Join Us for Pastor Ama's Final Sunday With Us This Sunday, April 13th, followed by a celebratory Goodbye Luncheon

(You are Welcome to Come As You Are or Dressed to the Nines!)

I've created on a page that includes her resignation letter as well as responses from the Board and the Deacons.

Several changes: Pastor Ama's sermon In God's Hands and Pastor Lynice's sermon Plumbing the Ruins are online. And there's a link to the United Church of Christ website from the UCC Still Speaking logo on the main page

The Maundy Service tonight starts at 7 p.m., not 6:30, as it says in the latest edition of News at First

Check out the schedule for Holy Week!

The formatting is a little funky, yes, I know.

And Pastor Lynice's sermon from last week, Haunted by God, is online

I'm getting more comfortable to tweaking the Settings of the website, as you can see. I've switched the font on the main page from Papyrus to Verdana, a font specifically designed to be readable on computer screens.

And I uploaded Pastor Ama's sermon from last Sunday, Blame and Other Options.

Just before the end of the month I am finally updating the Calendar.


Andrew Schwiebert's sermon from yesterday: Come Rain or Come Shine, is online

Guest preacher the Reverend Dr. Kenneth L. Samuel's sermon from yesterday, Giant Upsets, ends a few minutes before the end because that was the end of the recording from the CD burner. I'm not certain if the full sermon is on the recorder but didn't make it onto the CD because of lack of space. I'll check that this week.

Several updates today!

Pastor Ama's sermon from yesterday, Fat Sunday is online.

Also, the February News at First, Pastors' Letter (written this month by Pastor Ama), and the Calendar for February.

I'm in the process of updating the Google calendar to more closely match the printable version

I've done some updates to the Rent Space pages, adding photos and cleaning navigation.

Pastor Ama's Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday sermon is up.

As is the January 2008 News at First! Remember, this is a PDF file, about 2 megabytes.

The January Newsletter is coming soon.

Meanwhile, check out Pastor Lynice's sermon from yesterday:
The Baptism of Christ.

There was no December Newsletter and I haven't received this month's newsletter, but will upload it when I get it.

Pastor Ama's sermon from yesterday, Epiphany, is online.