Instrument -- Fall 2004 issue

Looking in the rearview mirror: A beginning to our ongoing journey

by Fr. George Belcher

I remember buying my first brand-new car. I'd dropped out of college and was living in a mixed co-op house. I knew I could afford the huge sum of $2050 Canadian dollars for a sparkling new 1972 mustard yellow Toyota Corolla. The $60/a month loan payments still allowed me to pay my rent and share the food and party expenses, the last being the most serious fiscal obligation.

The first time I took Ophelia (as I named my car) on the highway I noticed etched in the outside rearview mirror these words: "Objects are closer than they appear." I'm sure you've seen the same thing in your vehicle mirror.

Eight years ago when I moved into interim ministry and began working with congregations on visioning, these words, written on every rear-view mirror, became very important to me. I realized very early in the game that congregations who can work on understanding their past are far better at discerning God's call to their future.

So that's why we started with history night way back on June 7th, 2003. What we heard that night was vital to all the work the visioning team did in the next fourteen months or so.

That Saturday night in June, you began to share your history as a community of faith and together tell the story of how St. Francis Lutheran Church and its predecessor churches interacted with God for over 100 years. It's your sacred story, and the stories we tell, coupled with our parish records, is our scripture. In a very real way, that was just what we needed to launch our visioning process.

It is impossible to understand our present, much less our future, without understanding our past. As a congregation we need to know our myths or great stories, and we need to come to terms with our history, the good, the bad and the ugly (to steal a theme from the wonderful spaghetti westerns of the seventies). History night was the beginning of systematically and lovingly coaxing the skeletons along with the happy memories out of our closet, so we could examine them critically but respectfully in the light. It's only when we unpack our stories that we begin to know ourselves from the inside out. And so the journey began.

Now, after eighteen months of work and the acceptance of our final report a few weeks ago on September 12th, the visioning hasn't ended, but we have paused. Now our journey together as a parish family continues.

Peter Senge says this about vision in his popular book, "The Fifth Discipline: Developing Learning Organizations:"

Vision is set of guiding principles and practices and shared pictures of the future that provide energy that draws us into the future. It is not a leader's charisma, not a crisis for which people galvanize into action, not a cookbook with step-by-step instructions. Vision is the picture that we carry around in our heads of what we want to create, a sense of commonality that binds people together for the grater good, and that uplifts people's aspirations. Vision binds people together around a common identity and sense of identity.

As we went from history night, to cottage meetings, to norms night and literally dozens of interviews, and hundreds of pages of collected information, a vision formed. It was a long hard task -- often fun, sometimes painful -- but always challenging. I believe what we have in our visioning document is the shared vision of St. Francis Lutheran Church, inspired by God, accompanied by Jesus, and guided by the Holy Spirit. It is your vision.

Now the hard work of forming real stuff from the vision begins. In fact, it's well on its way, and it's going to work, thanks to God's guidance, lots of love, and of course, your incomparable Lutheran work ethic! Almost every member of St. Francis Lutheran Church has worked hard, and struggled with this task, and for that alone, you deserve our thanks.

One final time for the record and for the scholar that reads these words maybe hundreds or thousands of years from now, I want to thank the V-Team by name: Fran Bridge (Chair), Michael Callahan, Lynne Ohlson, Richard Penrose, Jessica Prentice, Gabriel Proo, Tom Tragardh and Susan Tucceri.

As you move forward to a wonderful future, remember to give the objects in the rearview mirror an occasional glance. That's all part of vision.

Fr. George Belcher, a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada, has been St. Francis' interim pastor for the last year and a half.

St. Francis Lutheran Church and Francis of Assisi: is there more than a name in common?

by Paul Brenner

Radical discipleship

Within the report of the V Team to the membership of St. Francis Lutheran Church, a revision of the congregation's mission statement has been amplified with a statement of vision and values. Within these words and concepts and ideas are some interesting correlations with the historic life, teachings and activities of Francis of Assisi and his partner, Clare of Assisi.

Noticing this correlation made me wonder whether our congregational name is simply a way of identifying our congregation, in distinction to St. Mark's Lutheran Church, SS. Mary and Martha, etc., so we get the right mail -- or is there a spiritual dimension, that is, is there something inherent in Francis of Assisi that can inform, inspire, influence the essence of our life together and our formulation of our role in the world? In what ways can an exiled Lutheran congregation be "Franciscan?"

"Radical discipleship" is a term that appears in the V Team's report to describe the commitment of the congregation, but without definition. The term is commonly used to describe efforts to take the teachings of Jesus, especially the "hard" ones, seriously. At different points in history "radical discipleship" has meant different things. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it mean the struggle against fascism, militarism and racism, on the one hand, and confrontation with an established church comfortable with cheap grace, on the other. In the 1860's, in the United States, it meant the liberation of slaves and the dismantling of the biblical ideology that was used to justified slavery. To the so called "liberation theologians" of Central and South America, it describes commitment to the disenfranchised and poor, and their struggle against exclusion from self empowerment, access to power, resources, health care, education, opportunity, etc.; it means the church aligns itself in solidarity with their struggle, rather than live comfortably as the religious exclusive country club of the established elite.

For Francis of Assisi, "radical discipleship" meant renouncing his position of privilege and advantage, and entering into solidarity with the poor and the sick of his time. This led him to create a community of men and with Clare a community of women who shared this vision. From this beginning grew an understanding of the unity of all creation and need to live in a harmonious relationship with the created world, an effort to establish peace between warring "Christian" Europe and the Moslem Middle East, and an engagement with the church of his time for renewal through a new focus on the teachings of Jesus.

A brief biography of Francis of Assisi

Francis was born into a family of wealth and privilege in the hill town of Assisi in Umbria in 1181or 1182. It seems that his father, Peter Bernadone, was wealthy through trade with France, and during a trip to Francis his son was born, and the child, though named John, was called Francesco, "the French man." As a child and young man, Francis enjoyed a carefree life associating with peers of the noble class. As a young man, he took part in a war between Assisi and Perugia, and was taken captive and imprisoned for a year. After release and recovery from illness, he joined the fight under Walter de Brienne for the Pope against Germans, wearing the finest clothing and armor of the time. The story is that on the way to this battle, he met a knight in shabby clothes, and, spontaneously, gave the knight his armor and clothing, and took the knight's. That night he had a dream of walls hung with armor marked with the sign of the cross. The next day he fell ill and heard a voice calling him to "serve the Master."

Leaving the campaign, he returned to Assisi to pray, and heard a voice instructing him, "Francis, go and repair my house." He went to his father's warehouse, loaded up a horse with all the valuable cloth it could carry, and sold the cloth along with the horse in the market, giving the money to the priest of St. Damian's church in Assisi. When his father found out, Bernadone demanded the money be returned, and beat his son and locked him up. His mother set him free, and Francis took refuge in St. Damian's.

Bernadone had Francis brought before the bishop of Assisi, who, after hearing the story, urged Francis to restore the money to his father and trust in God. Francis returned the money, stripped himself of the clothes he was wearing, and said that from that time forward he would only acknowledge as father his Father in heaven.

As Francis lived as il poverello (the poor one), others began to be attracted to him and joined him. They adopted a distinctive brown tunic and rope with three knots, as a garment demonstrating their solidarity with the poor who could only afford such rough dress, and established a simple monastic order based on passages from the Gospels. As the movement grew, the pope approved the new order called Friars Minor, or Little Brothers, in 1210. The Order grew rapidly, sending preaching missions throughout Europe. In 1219, Francis undertook a mission to the Saracens of Egypt and Syria, including audiences with Melek-el-Kamil, Sultan of Egypt. At the same time, he also challenged the lack of discipline among the Crusaders and their delight in carnage.

Franciscan themes

Following Jesus: For Francis, following Jesus brought him into juxtaposition with both the church and the world. Since Jesus had nowhere to lay his head, Francis embraced a life of radical poverty since the disciple is not above his master. Francis approached the Gospels very literally. His identification with Jesus was so intense that in 1224 he had the vision which left him with the stigmata in his hands, feet and sides.

Christmas: It is from Francis that we have the tradition of the Christmas crèche. However, for Francis, Christmas was not so much an event in the past as something in the present. He wrote, "We are mothers when we carry him (Jesus) in our heart and body through love and a pure and sincere conscience; we give birth to him through our holy manner of working, which should shine before others as an example."

Community: Community for Francis operated at many levels. First, among the brothers of the Friars Minor, he insisted there be no distinctions in practice, for all were equal, valued for their gifts, affirmed, supported, and loved. From the strength of this community, the brothers entered the world of the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised, that is, those on the margins of society whom they embraced as valued, included in the community God intends for the world. Third, he understood the creatures of the world, birds and animals and water creatures also to be "brothers and sisters" as well as the created order of earth, moon, sun and stars. To Francis everything belonged, everything was part of community, and called for a relationship of respect and mutuality.

Peace making: Francis was bold and daring is his peace making work, whether involved in conflicts between the wealthy and poor in Assisi, the nobles and their serfs in issues of conscription, Christian Europeans and Muslin Arabs, or social "insiders" and "outcasts." He counseled his fellow Franciscans, "While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart."

Bridging the centuries

It seems that there are themes which make Francis and Clare very contemporary to us, a congregation of men and women who are named for him. As we are attempting to "chart" our way into the future, we may find things in Francis and Clare that inform our own attempts to grapple with "radical discipleship" in our common life and our relationship to the conflicts in the complex world in which we live out our discipleship.

This is not to suggest that the solutions or understandings of Francis and Clare are inherently appropriate or to be imitated or established with us, nor is the monastic call on option. But perhaps Francis and Clare provide a model for us as we pray and study and work our way through the complex and inter-related issues confronting us.

I would like to examine these "correlations" through questions about our personal lives, our congregational life, and our lives as members of the larger society and world community.

First, how do we take the difficult and challenging teachings of Jesus in the Gospel "seriously" in our personal and congregational life? Since the doctrines, hymns, liturgies,

teachings, assumptions many of us grew up in churches have been found to be inadequate or even off the mark, how can we separate the "bathwater" from the "baby?" How can we find value in the Scriptures which have been used to justify war, slavery, suppression of women, marginalization of the poor, and rejection of those labeled "unrighteous," including many of us who are sexually diverse? How can we challenge "the tradition" while at the same time make our stand fully within "the tradition?" How can we avoid falling into the "literalism" that characterizes fundamentalism and conservative Christianity while finding a different way to take the Scriptures seriously?

Two, how do we develop a meaningful personal spirituality within a culture of materialism? How can we utilize the communal supports of the congregation, including clergy, members, liturgy, and work to enhance the spiritual development of our lives?

How can we develop each other's wholeness as humans and not just use wholeness as a slogan? How can we enhance our integrity in a world obsessed with image, position, status, privilege, winning at any cost? How can we find within the heritage those things which can nurture and nourish our internal life? Amid all the busy-ness of our lives, how can we commit to those internal personal practices that support our transformation?

Third, how do we respond in an effective way to the overwhelming complexity of issues and problems confronting the city in which we live, the state and country of which we are a part, and the human community as a whole? How do we support our members in the "callings" that connect them to the larger issues of society and the world? How do we lever our limited resources, personal and material, to their most effective advantage? How do we create linkages and connections with others who are also engaged in these larger issues?

It may be that the process of struggling with the issues we share with Francis and Clare can help us be true to our own mission, vision and values:

Finding a way to live personally with integrity in the midst of materialism and privilege.
Challenging religious institutions to reform their use of power, control, authority.
Responding to complex relationships between differing religious systems, beliefs and "pictures" of God as peacemakers, bridge builders, and risk takers.
Care and empowerment of all those who are marginalized, profiled as undesirable, and disenfranchised, for any reason, including sexuality.
Living in the world in a way that is respectful and harmonious of mother earth, our precious resources of air, water, plants, land, and our place within the vastness of the Galaxies.

I am bold to suggest that the issues of discipleship, community, and peace making, which were central to Francis and Clare, as they had been for those who left us the Gospel documents we have, is also central to our mission, vision and values. Might not this time of renewed focus for our congregation be a time to deepen our relationship with the saint whose name we bear in our own community?

Paul Brenner is an ordained Lutheran pastor. He presides and preaches at St. Francis from time to time.

Excerpt from the 13th century Rule of Francis

Therefore let us desire nothing else, let us wish for nothing else, let nothing else please us and cause us delight except our Creator and Redeemer and Savior, the one true God, who is the Fullness of Good, all good, every good, the true and supreme good; Who alone is Good, merciful and gentle, delectable and sweet; Who alone is holy, just and true, holy and right; who alone is kind, innocent, pure, from Whom and through Whom and in Whom is all pardon, all grace, all glory, of all the penitent and the just, of all the blessed who rejoice together in heaven. Therefore let nothing hinder us, nothing separate us or nothing come between us. Let all of us wherever we are, in every place, at every hour, at every time of day, everyday and continually believe truly and humbly, and keep in our heart, and love, honor, adore, serve, praise and bless, glorify and exalt, magnify and give thanks to the most high and supreme eternal God, Trinity and Unity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Creator of all, Savior of all who believe in him and hope in him and love him, Who is without beginning and with end, unchangeable, invisible, indescribable, ineffable, incomprehensible, unfathomable, blessed, worthy of praise, glorious, exalted on high, sublime, most high, gentle, lovable, delectable and totally desirable above all else, forever. Amen.

Opening the circle

by Rachel Hoobing

I have now officially visited the Midwest.

In June, I went to Chicago for a Reconciling In Christ (RIC) training. A month later, I went to Minneapolis to attend the Biennial Assembly of Lutherans Concerned/North America (LC/NA) combined with the biennial RIC Conference.

On an early morning in June I rode in a BayPorter to the Oakland International Airport. My destination was to attend a Reconciling In Christ (RIC) Core Team Leadership Training in Chicago. There a man whom I had never met before drove me to my destination, an RIC Lutheran church in one of the suburbs of Chicago. By the time I reached the church, it was time for dinner. Most of the group arrived late due to rush hour traffic, so we grabbed our dinner and jumped right into the training.

The RIC training is an intense workshop for three and a half days that is intended to give participants the skill set and knowledge base to build local or synodical teams equipped to work effectively to foster the expansion of the RIC Program within area congregations. About 40 people from all over the U.S. and Canada gathered for this training. Five of us represented the Bay Area. Five people represented non-Lutheran denominations.

The days of working and learning together were also filled with Emily Eastwood giving talks that were motivating, emotional and prophetic. The important pieces that I walked away from the RIC training were that in order to make systemic change we must be organized. We need to have the people and money to make change happen. Second, I learned how to utilize tools that can be helpful for churches becoming RIC. Third, I learned how to do some community organizing.

LC/NA's strategic plan is to increase the number of Lutheran congregations that openly welcome people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. The plan includes the formation of RIC Core Teams in each synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCiC). We were there to essentially change the face of Christianity as we know it today.

I went to the RIC training to learn some tools that help churches utilize a process that allows for movement forward in difficult conversations. I went to the RIC training because I believe that we can make the world a better place. I imagine a church that welcomes everyone regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, racial background, political affiliation, relationship status, ability, class, and etc that potentially separate ourselves from our fellow sisters and brothers.

I went to the RIC training because when I am old and gray I want to be able to say that I helped make the world a better place. Maybe I am a dreamer, but it is through dreams that we build the future.

In July, I prepared for the biennial Lutherans Concerned North America Assembly and RIC Conference called Gather Us In. It was to be my first time attending a Lutherans Concerned Assembly and my first time visiting Minneapolis.

As soon as I landed at the St Paul Minneapolis airport, I was off to Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Thanks to living in the Bay Area, I was well versed in public transportation, and used it to reach my destination. Once at the assembly, I felt like I was going to a wonderful family reunion. I ran into people I know and I met people who I now consider friends. I met a woman who is also a pastor's kid and who lived in the same small town in Eastern Oregon that I once lived in -- in fact, we had lived in the same house. I met a man who was in my father's class at seminary. It was a wonderful time spent with wonderful people. I met so many people that I have bumped into since coming out and entering a sort of "LGBT Lutheran land."

This year the assembly was marked by a step the organization had not taken before -- the intentional inclusion of bisexual and transgendered persons. Lutherans Concerned has followed a path typical of gay-positive organizations. In the beginning, it was concerned mainly with the issues of the inclusion of gay men. Later, the inclusion of lesbian women happened because faithful women and men envisioned and acted out of the incarnation of God's inclusive love.

In the recent past, the group's intention was to use the RIC program to change the church by focusing first on the inclusion of gay and lesbian persons, and only later bisexual and transgendered persons. By the time of this year's assembly, the organization realized this strategy was inadequate, and specifically included bisexual and transgendered persons in its strategy. Now the assembly was set to come up with educational materials which included people who are bisexual and transgendered.

This change happened because the leadership of the organization realized the implications of their call to follow Christ and God's all-inclusive love.

One of the greatest experiences that I had at the assembly was the ability to learn more about persons who are transgendered. I have to admit that I was largely ignorant of the issues and struggles of transgendered persons, and I was determined to become more educated. So I attended workshops and film screenings, including the showing of "Call Me Kade" and "Transgendered Voices in the Church." The first film is about a biological female who transitions into a male identity by the time he's in high school. It's about his transformation and the experience of his family and friends as he goes through the transition. The second film provides some basic education about transgendered issues and tells the story of four or five transgendered Christians, their experiences in their day-to-day lives, and both the costs and the joy of living authentic lives.

After seeing these films, I felt more confident about the issues that transgendered persons face and what I can do to make a difference for our transgendered brothers and sisters. I admired the courage that my transgendered brothers and sisters have to become themselves and I am thankful for being transformed.

I was able to attend the Assembly with the help of a scholarship from the St. Francis Foundation and Lutherans Concerned North America. I was able to attend both events thanks to the local chapter of Lutherans Concerned -San Francisco. I want to extend my thanks to these generous organizations for giving me the opportunity to learn more about this important mission field.

The assembly was an event that was motivating to me to help make change in the church and in the world. If you are interested in being a part of making change consider donating some money to the RIC program through Lutherans Concerned. Or, consider attending the next RIC training.

For further reading

To learn more about Lutherans Concerned and the Reconciling in Christ program: lcna.org

Some theses on gay marriage

by Carl Jech

Why is the word "marriage" itself such an issue in relationship to "gay rights"? Because allowing gay people to use this word would symbolize basic acceptance (not mere tolerance) of gay and transgendered sexuality.

Too many people are just not yet ready or willing to internalize such acceptance. Fighting a civil rights struggle for secular civil gay marriage may succeed.

The principle of the separation of church and state must be held high. But unless anti-gay (often religiously based) world views are replaced, the struggle for gay "civil marriage" (and especially religiously blessed gay marriage) may never fully come to fruition.

Recognizing that the civil rights argument alone is not enough, the following theses are offered as discussion points in the struggle for hearts and minds as to the equal value of heterosexual and sexual minority marriage relationships.

1. The "structure" of creation is not heterosexuality but diversity. The main biblical creation image in Genesis is the diversity of a garden -- of nature. The Hebrew Bible is antithetical to "fertility religion" with its sexualized rituals such as child sacrifice and temple prostitution. Heterosexuality is an important part but only one part of nature.

2. Sexual orientation is morally neutral. Basic sexual ethics are the same for everybody -- responsibility, non-exploitation, consent, respect, care, love.

3. Marriage is not only about procreation. Infertility does not bar a heterosexual couple from marrying, so neither is lack of offspring a legitimate argument against gay marriage. Besides, there are many ways in which gay couples can become parents and form family units.

4. Anything less than civil marriage for gay people creates second-class citizens and second-class families.

The United States is a constitutional democracy. Separate is not equal. In a constitutional democracy majority vote is not the only bottom line. The protection of the rights of minorities is also a core principle. A number of major court decisions have held that the Constitutional obligation to protect the general principle of equality is greater than the obligation to promote a particular limited version of morality.

5. For much of Western history, most marriages were "common law" unions without benefit of clergy or ceremony. Only upper class folks with significant property formalized their marriages which were often more like business transactions than love unions. In biblical times, women were generally seen as property more than as persons. Women were sometimes viewed as not even fully human. Yet, even the New Testament image of the husband as the "head" of the wife included the notion that as "head" the man was to "give himself for" the wife as Christ loved and served the church.

The ethical and cultural views found in the Bible are often contextually dated, but hints of a more inclusive and humanizing tendency are frequently present in relation to issues such as slavery, gender, and marriage. The few apparent references to same-sex issues in the Bible all have numerous possible interpretations and it is highly unlikely that those passages reflect anything like our contemporary understanding of sexual and transgender orientations. Biblical fundamentalistic literalism makes the mistake of reading poetry as prose, metaphor as scientific fact, and the entire Bible as the product of entranced stenographers whose every word is equally the Word of God; such a reading lacks an interpretive principle by which we can separate fundamental theological themes from culturally and historically conditioned ideas and images.

Martin Luther's interpretive principle is "Whatever points us to Christ." No particular view of marriage and the family is a core doctrinal pillar of Christ-centered faith. (It is significant that in the New Testament no mention is ever made of Jesus having a wife or children.)

6. Marriage is more about customs and mores than about basic ethical principles. The United States is multicultural. There is a lot of polygamy in the Bible and in some cultures yet today. One might still well ask whether consensual polygamy or polyandry necessarily does any real harm.

7. To oppose later cultural developments by citing the mores of biblical times is to demonstrate anthropological and theological ignorance. The root etymological meaning of both "moral" and "ethical" is "custom, manner, habit."

8. Anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of anthropology knows how variable human culture is. When people are over-socialized to follow customary rules with a childish submission to unquestioned authority they become unable or unwilling to make mature moral judgments. When theologian Paul Tillich described the Christ as "The New Being with The Courage To be" he was saying in part that Christianity must be much more than a mere upholder of the status quo. (See Bruce Bawer's book "Stealing Jesus.")

9. To restrict marriage to "one man and one woman" is sexism and genderism. Objections to allowing gay couples to use the word "marriage" is largely about preserving male privilege, patriarchal culture, and heterosexist hegemony. It is this sexism/genderism that often has straight men drooling over lesbian scenarios while excoriating any hint of gay male sexuality. This same sexism is also less bothered by artistic portrayals of female frontal nudity than by portrayals of male frontal nudity.

10. Both love and sex are inherently risky. Loving intimacy is emotionally risky and sexual intimacy is physically risky. Life is risky. Our goal cannot be to eliminate risk but to take reasonable measures to minimize it. Fear of the risks of sex have often led to fundamentally sex-negative attitudes -- attitudes that deny the Genesis theme of the essential goodness of God's creation. Discomfort with the physicality of sexuality causes many not to see that sexual minority folks are indeed making love when they have sex.

11. Sexual minorities are legitimate minorities in the same ways that religious and ethnic minorities are legitimate. Oppression and unfair treatment is the issue. Irrational prejudice is the issue. Majorities may rule but minorities have rights. Sexual minority people feel "born that way" at least as much as the members of particular religions feel "born that way" (and one could say that sexual minorities actually have a biological/physical component of their status), so explicitly protecting them against discrimination is at least as valid as protecting folks from discrimination based on creed/religion!

12. In an egalitarian society marriage should be about love between equals. The King James Bible phrase in Genesis describing the woman as "helpmeet for" the man could just as well be translated as "companion equal to" the man. Gay couples certainly can be equal companions.

13. It is irrational prejudice that condemns gay people for being promiscuous and then condemns gay people for wanting to marry. Catch-22s are unjust and, therefore, immoral. Another example of gay folks being "damned if they do and damned if they don't" is that if their orientation is seen as a choice it is denounced as sinful but if it is seen as caused by biological factors such as genetics or hormones it is seen as a curable disorder. Either way gay folks are being given a message that they should hate themselves, and hating yourself because of who you are is a whole different ball game from simply confessing one's sins. The biblical concept of Sin as a state of being only applies to the entire human race equally as a comment on the both good and evil capacities of human nature.

14. Supreme Court justice Harry Blackman from Minnesota (often described as a conservative Nixon appointee) wrote: "The fact that individuals define themselves in a significant way through their intimate sexual relationships with others suggests, in a nation as diverse as ours, that there may be many ‘right' ways of conducting those relationships, and that much of the richness of a relationship will come from the freedom an individual has to choose the form and nature of these intensely personal bonds."

15. Canada, Holland, Denmark Norway, and Australia allow their citizens to bring same-sex lovers into the country as legal residents. Some of these countries also have legalized gay civil marriage (religious groups are not required to bless such marriages). There is a significant trend here and to stand against it is as backward as it was to stand against suffrage for women and freedom for slaves. State of the art science also tells us that the "unnatural" argument that was used against interracial marriage is likewise backward and invalid when it comes to gay marriage.

16. When anti-gay attitudes motivate gay people to force themselves into heterosexual marriages, great suffering is likely for both gay and straight folks as a result of this submission to the tyranny of heterosexist arrogance. Heterosexual marriage must not be the only choice for anyone who wishes to marry. It is worse than ridiculous to argue that gay people do have an "equal right" to marry someone of the opposite sex -- it is not equal since heterosexuals are not "equally" asked to go against their nature and identity in order to be married.

17. More and more studies are showing that heterosexual families have no monopoly on successful child rearing. Same-sex parents are no less likely than opposite-sex parents to raise healthy children. Children have many kinds of opportunities to experience a variety of gender role models. We need to idealize a diversity of parenting models, not a one-size fits-all ideal of the perfect heterosexual nuclear family. One-dimensional perfectionism (another version is the abstinence-only approach to sex education) does not have a good track record. Children who grow up in "unusual" families have an added benefit of learning early in life to be empathetic to the reality of human diversity.

These points are presented as "theses" partly in imitation of Martin Luther's famous 95 theses. Luther's intent was to stimulate debate within the church of his day on important issues calling for reform and rethinking. If the Lutheran Church is to remain true to its heritage surely it must continue to engage the challenging issues of a changing world with faith that "the Spirit is leading us into the truth."

Carl L. Jech is a former Lutheran pastor, currently Music Director at Christ Lutheran in Fairfax, and teaches Humanities at DeAnza College and the College of Marin. This article is based on his book Will the Gay Issue Go Away? Toward A New Theological Consensus on Sexual Orientation.

Get to know the Friends of St. Francis Childcare Center

by Gabriel Proo

The mission of Friends of St. Francis Childcare Center is to provide comprehensive, educationally based childcare services to a culturally and economically diverse population. This is done by using a family support model which promotes the physical, intellectual and emotional wellbeing of the children through active involvement of parents and continued support and cooperation of the community.

While serving on the Visioning Team, I heard parishioners say that our congregation needed to be more involved with children. This made me realize that we sometimes forget that St. Francis Lutheran Church helps and supports in many ways the maintenance of one of the most respected Childcare Centers in San Francisco. Since San Francisco leads the state in its commitment to childcare services, this suggests that Friends of St. Francis is one of the best childcare centers in the state. I hope this is the first of a number of articles to focus on the many elements of Friends of St. Francis. In this first article I hope to explain some of its history, its present structure and staff, and then take you on a tour.

Friends of St. Francis Childcare Center is celebrating its 28th year. John Rollefson, the pastor serving St. Francis in the 1970s, was an integral part of the formation of the Center and its early operation.

He involved Friends Outside, a social service agency serving the families of ex-convicts. They rented their space from St. Francis Lutheran. They had their office in one of the apartments above what is now Burgermeister. They also ran a thrift shop in what is now El Castillo. Some of the first parents of the Childcare Center worked at the thrift shop.

Friends Outside obtained a CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) grant to pay for teacher salaries, administrative costs, the phones, etc. One of the current teachers, Flo Nagar, dates from this grant.

John Rollefson obtained the space and obtained grants to pay for the improvements necessary to get the facility licensed. John worked with the Community Design Center and its director, Chuck Turner, to design the Center. In fact, we still work with the Community Design Center and Chuck Turner to this day, most recently in designing and meeting the specifications for the new front garden.

St. Francis Lutheran Church offered space for the Center in the social hall of the Finnish Church at 50 Belcher Street. In May 1976, the Center opened as a joint project of the congregation, Friends Outside, and neighborhood families. The Center's first Executive Director was Lacy Hamilton, a Bay Area early childhood educator.

Directors and staff

The Center is governed by a Board of approximately twelve, including five church members: Gabriel Proo, Vice-President and Chair of the Membership Committee; Jeannine Janson, Fundraising Committee Chair (and a recent President of the Board); Scott Beckerley, Chair of the Spring/Fling/Primavera Committee; Paul Brenner, Long Range Planning & Fundraising; plus Sarah Wells, liaison from Church Council. Other board members are parents and members of the Community such as Jean Dahlstrom, President and Linda Kahn, Treasurer.

The Center has been managed since 1983 by Sally Large. As Executive Director, she is responsible for all the day-to-day operation of the Center as well as grant writing.

Lori Backer, Coordinating Teacher, just received her license as Program Director after working at the Center for four years. Lori supervises the other teachers. Karen Bagshaw and Kathleen Pullen teach the four year olds; Flo Nagar and Dorothy Smith teach the three year olds; and June Mookerjee, Sally Jane Malave and Diane Reyneker teach the two year olds. Another staff member, Shelby Sgamna, acts as a floating teacher wherever her help is needed. The Foster Grandparents Agency and Self Help for the Elderly provide several senior volunteers, some of whom are retired teachers.

A nurse, an Occupational Therapist for children 3 to 4 years old, a Child Development teacher and a Resource Specialist for the Staff and children are also available; these positions are funded by the city or by grants. Our own Nancy Record is the Parent Services Coordinator, interviewing and assessing the needs of new families who come to the center for services.

The Center is fortunate to have a mental health consultant, Dr. Mariam Jafari, who works with the students three hours a week. Mariam was assigned to us by the San Francisco Children's Council to concentrate on 3-4 year olds, their families and the staff. Mariam meets individually with children to observe any special needs, developmental issues or behavioral problems; she meets with parents to share her observations and sometimes is able to highlight particular conditions -- such as attention deficit disorder -- that may need special curricula. In other cases, she refers parents and children to follow up medical conditions. She meets with parents for individual or group therapy as needed and follows up on a regular basis. She also works with teachers to better understand developmental issues and possibly modify curriculum.

Mariam trains parents on issues such as their children's appetite or behavior, and follows up with parents by meeting with them as often as needed, often several times. Through the Children's Council's "Inclusion Program," Mariam makes referrals to other resources, such as psychotherapy, more extensive assessments, or an Individual Education Plan, a plan tailored to a particular student's style and needs. It is also Mariam's job to broaden the scope of being a parent, to get parents involved with education and with the school.

Inside the center

As you enter Friends of St. Francis Childcare Center, you come into the Main Room -- formerly the parish hall of the Finnish Church -- neatly organized into specific learning stations: the book corner, dress-up corner, blocks area, doll house corner, manipulatives area, the science table, and four large all-purpose tables with chairs. To the left of the main room is the Toddler Room where toddlers learn to walk, talk and cooperate. This room is light and overlooks the front garden. Recently added to the Toddler Room is a new built-in diaper changing station and new deeply padded carpet. This room is also divided into stations, and on the fourth Wednesday of the month, this room becomes the Center's board room as we pull adult-sized chairs and tables from the closets.

Adjacent to the Toddler Room is the Kitchen, which is getting some much needed remodeling. A new floor and new cabinets are part of the renovation, funded by one of the grants we applied for. No children are allowed in the kitchen, but it is as busy as any room in the Center. Lunches and snacks are prepared by a part-time cook. The Kitchen has a sunny and cheerful view of the back garden. Just outside the kitchen door that leads into the Main Room is Lori's office.

Like so much at the Center, space is at a premium, so it is all the more remarkable that so much quality, care and education blooms in its low-ceilinged rooms. To the west and down the center of the Main Room a hallway leads to the back yard. To the right is a Resource Room filled with art and teaching supplies, a VCR and a TV. On the left side of the hallway are the clean and miniature children's toilets. On the left, just before you enter the garden, is a Winchester House-like stairway that isn't used, that connects to the former sanctuary above.

A gem of a garden

Stepping out of the hallway leads to a porched area with a low table and little chairs. The garden is larger than the indoor space and is also divided into work and play stations. Most impressive is what is underfoot. With grants and the help of St. Francis Lutheran Church (thank you, Property Committee) the dust, mud, drainage and safety problems which used to make the garden less than desirable have all been solved with new rubber matting. Children are better protected and staff are less fatigued. The Garden receives much light, but also has some wonderful shady areas under some very mature trees. The buildings to the west, on Sanchez St., are tall enough to provide protection from some of San Francisco's afternoon winds.

As a teacher who incorporated gardening and environmental issues into my curricula in the public schools, I am most excited by the garden in the northwest corner of the yard. It is fenced off and it creates a sense of calm in a larger garden of happy voices. Within this small garden is a lawn with a tree in the center. Around the sides of the lawn are beds of vegetables that the children get to eat. This peaceful area of the yard enables the staff to teach nature lessons such as The Living Earth, Cycles and Changes, Interdependence, Ecology, Garden Creatures, Climate and Nutrition.

In the southeast corner is a staircase that leads down from the parsonage; this makes the garden available to the Frost-Zillhart family on weekends. Pr. Ruth Frost has painted a light well near the top of the stairs and has placed a green umbrella in the well that adds to the cheeriness of the garden. Underneath the stairs, volunteers from the Levi Strauss company built a puppet theater. They also painted murals on the storage lockers on the south side and the fences all along the south and north sides. A beautifully landscaped flower bed divides the puppet theater area from the very large play area with room enough for tricycle riding and a climbing structure.

In the central and western part of the garden is a very large sandbox that has also recently been renovated. It has new, clean sand that is protected at night from neighborhood felines with a large tarp. The children have work table/basins that they can fill with sand or water.

In the northeast corner of the yard, under the stained glass window of the old sanctuary, are two plastic play houses and more room to roll around.

Many features of the yard and garden, including the rubber matting, the puppet theater, the sandbox, and the enclosed garden, as well as labor to paint and refurbish needed areas, were supported by corporate contributions and grants. Sally Large, in addition to managing the day-by-day operations of the center, is the grant writer. Unfortunately, funding from granting agencies is down sharply in the last few years. This means the center depends even more on individual donations, as well as support from St. Francis church. Meanwhile, our fundraising efforts have tripled the amount of money we raise directly through events such as the Spring Fling.

If anyone is interested, I can take you on a personal tour of the Center. The Center is looking good this autumn. More good changes are coming, Sally applied for and received a grant to improve the landscaping and safety concerns in the front of the Center. We are also looking forward to getting new office furniture. Come visit our shining contribution to the youth of our neighborhood and City!

A report from the road

Always reforming

by Michael Hiller

It was a Saturday, and I had just gotten home from the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market. "Have you discerned today?" was the question/greeting with which Arthur met me.

The answer was, at that time, "No." It's not that discernment about my vocation is not happening, it's just that it is an iterative process, and like a quantum event -- probably not observable. This process of spiritual discernment takes place in discreet but small quanta -- sometimes unknown to me, except in retrospect. So I was pleased when I was asked to write something for Instrument, sharing what has been going on since we last looked at one another over the altar.

In order to do that I have organized my observations into three categories: Sacrifices, Gifts, and Enlightenment. These categories move from the deeply personal (although others might identify with them, and even appropriate them) to the more general -- specifically meant for the people at Saint Francis Church. They are not meant to be chronological, but rather scattered events that have given me a bit of insight, grief, or joy.

Sacrifices

In the late summer of 1995, prior to the congregation of Saint Francis Church being expelled from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), I paid a visit to Bishop William Swing, Episcopal Bishop of California. I have known Bp. Swing since I returned to San Francisco in 1981, and we bumped into each other from time to time, at liturgical events or in airports. I needed his advice on what to do at the point in my career as I faced personal expulsion from the ELCA. I was looking for a life raft.

Good priest that he is, Bishop Swing encouraged me in my ministry at Saint Francis, and dissuaded me from jumping ship. He did encourage me, however, to prepare to make "sacrifices" in my vocation -- sharing examples from his own priesthood. Perhaps it was public ministry itself that I was being called to give up, to sacrifice? That moment was to become a touchstone for me – a reminder that at some point I might have to sacrifice my ministry.

During the period of discernment following my departure from St. Francis, I have noticed that I have indeed sacrificed many things. The one most immediately discernable was the sacrifice of community. I have left congregations before, and usually moved onto another one. One community substituted itself for the other, and life went on. Now, on Sundays, I am keenly aware of the sacrifice of my community with you. It may be temporary or it may be permanent, but it is felt and known in the now of things, and this time, finding a substitute is not easy..

Coming on community's heals is the sacrifice of context. By context I mean how the community became my way of looking at things. When I read books, it was in terms of their usefulness for St. Francis. At the same time I was appreciating artwork, music, human celebrations, gestures, and events, I was also mining them for their possible application to the St. Francis community. At the California Culinary Academy, one evening at dinner, I commented to Arthur on all the young people who were serving as hosts, wait staff, chefs, sous chefs, pastry chefs and sommeliers -- how all of them had a brightness of face, filled with possibility and future. It was quite contagious and wonderful. Arthur commented, "This would make a great sermon!" I burst into tears. Without the context of my ministry at St. Francis, I find myself having to look at these things differently -- perhaps in their usefulness to me or to a different set of others.

When I wrote the notes for this article over brunch at Citizen Cake on a warm Sunday afternoon, I wrote the word outlet, but later came to realize that it was more than an audience that was sacrificed in my decision. Another word better summarized the sacrifice, and perhaps suggested a move beyond the sacrifice, and that is the word playmate. Whether in the formalized play of the liturgy, Bible Class, or committee work, or in the casual play of off-hand meetings or casual conversation, my work there was also play -- and I realize that I have sacrificed my playmates. In teaching I was taught, and in leading liturgy I, in turn, was led. In preaching, I heard your voices, and in work it was the togetherness that counted. Now I have to learn to play by myself or to find others who wish to enter my Christian play.

I miss the focus I used to have. It was sharp and clear. Asked where I was going or what I was doing, I usually could give a cogent answer, and looking back on my time at St. Francis I have become aware that I actually had a vision and kept to that vision's course.

My work with the people at Saint Francis also provided me a measure of balance. I found, in my initial days after my final services at St. Francis, that I was edgy, even angry, at work. St. Francis had served as a foil to my work at the Credit Union, and the same was true in reverse. My world suddenly got smaller, and the balance of things became undone.

Finally, I think that there was a sacrifice of a future. In my heart of hearts, I always thought I'd plug along at St. Francis until I died in the pulpit, or at the altar, or some such other dramatic thing, after which I would, of course, be buried in the Memorial Terrace, up against the brazier. Now the future is different -- indistinct -- as unknowable as it should be.

Gifts

The "sacrifices" portion of this little article is, obviously, the other side of a coin. The obverse is "gifts" -- things received as a result of the sacrifice. They are the silver lining.

The first of the gifts is family. In spite of the fact that we no longer go to church together (although truthfully, we never did or could) I am realizing how much more I can give to my relationship with Arthur. Conversations are now at a minimal level when it comes to Saint Francis, with most of our conversation revolving about ideas, friends, books, buildings, and other interesting things. I no longer need to leave the dinner table to retreat to my office, and there are actual and viable Saturday nights that are devoted to us.

There was one gift that was given to me just as I left Saint Francis, and that was the gift of retrospection. When in the midst of doing a thing, we are likely not to realize its full outcome or meaning. The farewell dinner the congregation hosted was not only wonderful from the aspect of being able to say goodbye, but also because it gave me a kind of report card. Had all my preaching, teaching, writing, working, talking, listening, cajoling had any effect -- had it mattered in the lives of people?

What was really interesting was to hear what people had understood in my teaching and preaching. These themes were not readily perceived by me. The evening was a mirror that prepared me to look back and learn from myself.

Another gift is that I have started reading fiction as well as history and biography. For the first few weeks I would pick up biblical history or theology and think about getting them -- but no longer. Augusten Burrows, David Sedaris, The Rule of Four, Michael Cunningham, Q, Terry Gross, Jean Genet, Barcelona, Mary Roach, Brian Greene, and The Invisible Century have all entered my life and accompany me on the train, in the bedroom, or on the living room sofa. And that is because of the other gift of time. I have time now to become a nuisance – hanging around Arthur, waiting for us to do something together when he is busy with other things. I haven't filled all of that time yet -- and that is the delight. There will be things that will fill my future days, but these things are yet to be discovered and beheld.

Finally, as above, there is future. What goes away gives place for possibility and growth. Now I get to grow into something different and greater than what I had planned for myself. Forced to have a serious discussion with my boss, John Davis, at Stanford Federal Credit Union, on career planning (mine), I was actually able to sit down and envision several possible courses of action -- all involving totally different futures.

Enlightenment

I am not the Buddha, and perhaps this section would be better named "Aha!" An even better title might be "learnings," but "enlightenment" puts the right cast on the discussion.

Church shopping is more difficult than I had imagined. When someone visits your church, they are doing a brave and difficult thing. One of my enlightenments about church life, really parish life, is that in every place I have been, there is a sense of self-absorption. In retrospect, I suspect that visitors to Saint Francis have experienced much the same. I have listened to several sermons that were so self-referential as to be useless or unapproachable to the casual visitor. The world seems to stop at a great number of church doors, and there is the sense that everything that is said and done can be plainly understood by anyone who might not know the history of that place.

Coffee Hours are deadly. Let it suffice to say that normally friendly people and clergy, fully convinced of their friendliness and kindness, do little actually to welcome visitors. The overall effect is that the community is unfriendly and uncaring.

However, the biggest "aha!" that has come to me is about freedom. Sitting in the Church of the Advent one Sunday, I realized how much of my spiritual life was guided by people and communities really unknown to me. Whether the fathers of the Missouri Synod, or the politically correct solons of the ELCA -- all present a set of expectations about what my spiritual life, teaching, practice, and expression ought to be. As a catholic, I appreciate that which tradition sometimes demands. As a gay man I have learned that those same expectations that represented the best of the tradition could also stifle spiritual and personal growth. That Sunday as I knelt in the pew at the Advent I felt free to develop my own spiritual journey sans the politics

It has become abundantly clear that my discernment is a process that is done alone. There may be guidance, reflection, and advice from others, but it is essentially a lonely affair. My prayer life in the pew has blossomed again, and I have learned to stop writing critical reviews of the liturgy even as I am experiencing it. (No such luck with the sermonizing, however). I have learned, or am learning, just to be myself -- a self in need, desiring forgiveness and gospel words. With this, too, there is a future, one of further enlightenments about the church, the world, and myself. Perhaps I will share them, or perhaps, like Mary, I will ponder them in my heart. What I have really come to know is that the Church is about change and reformation. It is about bringing good news to individuals, and being changed in that encounter.

So reformation is about self, about parish (which all of you at St. Francis are learning right now), as well as about Church. I hope that Spirit that re-minds us of and in our faith will visit you as she has surely visited me.

Michael Hiller resigned as an associate pastor at St. Francis in May of this year.

Letter from South Africa

Fighting ignorance and prejudice

by Pr. Pieter Oberholtzer

Greetings to all our friends at St Francis.

Inclusive and Affirming Ministries (IAM) have three major projects for which we seek your support in prayers in the coming months. On Sep. 11 (a significant date to us all!) we will be hosting a national conference on fundamentalism; in the weekend of 22 September we will be giving our first training weekend to LGBT folk in Namibia and on 22 October recommendations will be presented to the National Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church.

These three projects entail a lot of preparation and have kept us busy over the past few months. We can certainly do with much inspiration and guidance to help us achieve our goal.

Conference on fundamentalism

Lesbian and gay people suffer daily under the effects of Christian religious fundamentalism: Even those who have turned their backs on their faith community has in one way or the other internalized the fundamentalist way of thinking and find it difficult (consciously or subconsciously) to rid themselves of these oppressive ways of thinking.

With fundamentalism we do not only mean the extreme militant forms, but also the oppressing dogmas in daily religious and other cultural practices that have made religion (and culture) into a string of excluding laws.

We have invited LGBT people, Churches and psychologists from the whole of South Africa and Namibia to attend this conference and we will be glad if at least 100 people attend. We hope to address the following issues in a participative way:

What is Christian fundamentalism? Why is it so appealing to many people? (Thousands of students have left main-line Churches over the past years to join groups like His People).
What are the sociological factors and what is the psychological analysis behind this attraction?
Fundamentalism and patriarchy -- the adverse effects on women.
Hidden forms of Fundamentalism in culture.
How does it affect us and how can we learn to deal with it?

The Namibia Assistance Project (NAP) is a partnership between The Rainbow Project of Namibia (TRP) and IAM and the LGBT people of Namibia, and works towards finding other ways for LGBT people, the church and society to deal with the challenges of sexual orientation. This includes the development of skills to raise awareness regarding sexual orientation; through specific education focusing on the complexity of human sexuality and its diverse expressions and through workshops in which participants can be trained in awareness raising skills and dialogue skills. Of course the needs and wishes of the LGBT people will be important cornerstones for these workshops.

The Namibian Constitution does not include the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. These sexual minorities still suffer discrimination, rejection and are at high risk, as they have to keep their sexual orientation a secret. Namibian President Sam Nujoma is known for his negative views on homosexuality. Namibia is a predominantly Christian country with more than 80% of the people considering themselves Christian. These people are influenced by the homophobic attitude and policies of their church communities.

NAP focuses on the impact the church communities have on LGBT people. The project aims to raise awareness about this impact and how to deal with it. Together with LGBT people, NAP wants to contribute to the empowerment of both the LGBT people and their church communities to journey together.

Given the harsh reality of LGBT peoples' lives in Namibia, NAP, through IAM, has partnered and assisted TRP with the research phase the past eighteen months. We are now busy with the development of material and preparing a training manual and workshop that would transfer the skills required to work with church communities.

The research indicated that the homophobia in the church and society inhibits LGBT people to share about their sexual orientation. In both the church and society, any sexual orientation different from heterosexuality is perceived as abnormal. In church homosexuality is viewed as sinful and it is judged as an abomination in the eyes of God. In society homosexuality is seen as alien to the African culture. Therefore, secrecy and silence regarding sexual orientation is the norm. For the majority of the participants the integration of their sexual orientation and their spirituality is difficult. Many participants think it is impossible to be a Christian and to be gay or lesbian at the same time. For them these two qualities cannot be united in one person. The majority also lacks understanding of sexual orientation and had little exposure to resources that could enlighten them.

The lives and spiritual journeys of LGBT people in the church and society stress the need for raising awareness, specific education and the transferring of skills in engaging in dialogue. In conclusion, NAP wants to give some concrete examples of education material that could be used by LGBT people, church communities and society. The focus of this first training of 22 - 24 September will focus on:

Knowledge of sexual orientation models
Knowledge of the diversity of homosexual expression
The Bible and homosexuality

The Dutch Reformed Synod (DRC)

In some mysterious way and with no communication to me about the matter, I have been "ousted" from the National study commission of the DRC that was to prepare a document and recommendations on homosexuality to the forthcoming Synod in October. As I was the only gay person on that committee and our voice was therefore silenced in their deliberations, we have found creative ways over the past year to influence the individual members of the committee. One of these was to invite them to the Student Support group we host on a Monday. The students were very articulate and voiced their concern and anger over the slow and archaic procedures of the DRC. Now, in the final phase of the document, the committee realized that they lack a "gay voice" and asked IAM for input. We proposed that the whole study committee attend our conference on fundamentalism. A few accepted. In the coming three weeks I have to prepare a paper that is both strategic (as not to alarm them!) and bold enough to ensure that at least some progress can be made in their traditionalist stance.

Dear friends we treasure your continued support and prayers and we hope that with this brief report you may have a glimpse into our work on the other side of the world.

May God bless and keep you.

Pieter Oberholzer

Pr. Pieter Oberholtzer is St. Francis Church's missionary to the LGBT community of Cape Town, South Africa.

News and upcoming events

Visioning Team's work ends; Call Committee formed

The work of the congregation's Visioning Team, or V-Team, came to a close Sep. 12 as the congregation overwhelmingly passed a motion to accept its report.

The report, which contained a summary of the team's research over the last 18 months as well as a number of recommendations for changes in staffing and programs, was the subject of intense discussion since its initial release a month earlier. The final report reflected many suggestions given to the V-Team after initial versions were released in August.

Following the vote to accept the report, a Call Committee was voted into existence. The Call Committee will perform a call process for a new lead pastor for the congregation. Its work is expected to take three to six months.

The V-Team was led by Interim Pastor George Belcher, an Anglican priest from Canada whose specialty is interim ministry. Fr. Belcher facilitated the V-Team's process, including several retreats and many meetings. (See Fr. Belcher's article on page 1 of this issue.)

Among its many findings and recommendations, the V-Team's report called for several changes and innovations in ministry at St. Francis.

Instead of a "senior pastor," as we have had in the past, the new model calls for a "lead pastor" with specific supervisorial responsibilities, as outlined in the report. A full-time associate pastor is also called for.

The report also outlined a new vision for St. Francis as a teaching parish, with an intern performing specific jobs. In addition, the report called for the development of a diaconate that would recognize lay leaders in the congregation.

The V-Team worked for 18 months (see "The V-Team Launched" by Fr. Belcher in the Easter 2003 issue of Instrument), meeting at least weekly and sometimes more than once a week. Among the most thankful for the end of the team's work were the spouses and partners of V-Team members.

The Call Committee formed on Sep. 12 will be led by Lynne Ohlson, with council members Bruce Jervis ,Jessica Prentice and Sarah Wells also serving, plus these members from the congregation at large: Patrick Brown, Wei Haur Lau, Dale Leininger, Rachel Markel and. The Call Committee gathered for the first time Sep. 29.

2004 AIDS Walk team raises over $62K

Team St. Francis set a new fundraising record in 2004 in its participation in the annual San Francisco AIDS Walk.

Our team raised a total of $63,363, breaking by far last year's record amount of $55,359. More than $3 million was raised by all teams and walkers in this year's event.

Our team -- made up of members of St. Francis and of the San Francisco State University Geography Department -- placed 5th among all fundraising teams. We placed first among small organizations, nearly doubling the amount raised by the second-place team.

In a note published in August in the St. Francis Times, team organizer Max Kirkeberg wrote:

July 18th -- as in past AIDS-Walks -- went so well. Early risers were greeted with coffee and goodies. We took team photos at 9:10 a.m. and of course some people missed it (not my fault.) We began walking at 10:00 a.m. (the masses began walking at 11:00 a.m.) which meant we could easily walk at our own paces, that the lines to the toilets were small -- and the toilets still clean; going early also meant the entertainers (belly dancers, Stanford Band, etc.) were still enthusiastic. And finally it meant that we could spread out around our booth at lunch before it became crowded. At the beginning of the walk there was a magical warm fog but by lunch we had sun. Is that not perfect or what?

Special thanks to Clifton King for getting up super early to make our coffee; to Timur Muhrlin for transporting our food and placards to the park before 7:30 a.m. Sunday; to Chuck Hancock, Ed Mall, Carl Tebell, Gabriel Proo, Fr. George and others for making sandwiches, potato salad and baked beans; to Babs and Jack Kling for storing our placards and for helping serve the food; to Bev Hines for photographing and helping things go smoothly; to Safeway for donating a $150 gift card, and Events Management Inc. for loaning us a field coffee urn; to Iris Vaughn for obtaining sponsor totals; and to parish administrator Russell Blank for all of his spectacular secretarial support.

Max also wrote that he didn't deserve all the credit for the team's success. "Both the St. Francis folks and the geographers were so easy to recruit; all I did was ask and then do a little prodding. Everybody deserves the credit for the Walk's success."

The annual event in Golden Gate Park benefits 36 local AIDS organizations with work ranging from support of people with AIDS to education to research. The San Francisco walk is one of twelve in California and several dozen around the country.

Most people liked summer worship: survey

In a survey of worshippers at St. Francis in late August, both members and visitors had mostly positive things to say about our summer worship.

Several questions asked people how they felt about Pr. Phyllis Zillhart's mass setting, which was used throughout the summer. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they liked it; eighty-five percent said they became more comfortable with the music as they summer progressed.

Many people said they missed the marginal comments on the liturgy and hymns which former Pr. Michael Hiller used to put into the worship folder. Written comments especially reflected people's appreciation of the educational aspects of these notes.

Discussing the results, the worship committee asked two members to work on notes for the Advent season; these notes will be put at the end of the worship materials. Putting the notes in the margins of our current worship materials is not feasible, Pr. Ruth Frost said. "It's very labor-intensive, and it results in hymns being split over more than one page," Frost said.

Another thing we did during the summer was designate festivals for less familiar saints, such as Chief Seattle and Dr. Albert Schweitzer (the latter became Missionary Sunday). Sixty-one percent of respondents liked this. Written comments were interesting here; there were some who liked the general idea but were less pleased with our selection of saints.

Similar comments were made about another choice. During the summer we used a contemporary reading on festival days instead of the New Testament lesson. Only 47% of respondents found this positive; several written comments said the idea was good but we could have chosen better selections.

View the results. Copies are also available in the back of the church.

Prospective members' class starting

A class for people who are thinking of joining St. Francis Lutheran will begin Sunday, Oct. 10.

The class is for those who have had no church background or education, as well as those who do. The class is designed to familiarize (or re-familiarize) prospective members with the basic tenets of Lutheran Christianity as well as our own way or worshipping at St. Francis.

For those who have not been baptized, the class serves as excellent preparation for baptism.

The class will be held Sunday mornings from 9:30-10:30 a.m. from Oct. 10 to Nov. 21, when new members will be received during the 11:00 a.m. worship service.

If you're interested in the class, it is not necessary to commit to joining the congregation.

If you're interested, call Pr. Phyllis Zillhart.

Community Night resumes

Community Night, the congregation's monthly event especially for families with children, resumes Oct. 6 with our annual barbecue.

We will catch up on the summer by eating, talking and playing. We ask Gods blessing on another year of gathering the young and the not-so-young in friendship, child-oriented worship, creative activities and community service.

The event starts at 6:00 p.m. at 50-A Belcher St.

Community Night is designed for families. Each month, we serve a full dinner, have a creative activity for kids, then a kid-friendly Communion service in the sanctuary.

If you and your child(ren) are interested in attending, call Pr. Ruth Frost.

instrument
a newsletter of St. Francis Lutheran Church

Editor: Mark Pritchard

This Fall 2004 issue was completed on 30 September 2004 and posted on the web on 30 September 2004.

Produced on something like a quarterly schedule. Submissions in MS Word format to mark94110 at yahoo.com, or on paper to Mark c/o the church office, 152 Church St., San Francisco, Calif. 94114. Submissions may be on any topic related to spirituality or the work of the people.

Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily of St. Francis Church, its staff or members.

Read previous issues of Instrument | Go back to the St. Francis home page

Contents