Christmas Eve – Dec 24th -Worship
Join us for in-person worship on Christmas Eve or online if that better suits your schedule.
NEW ADULT EDUCATION —“ADVENT IN PLAIN SITE” Wed Dec. 1, 8, 15, 22 at 7 p.m. (ZOOM)
Join us on Zoom as we explore biblical texts & traditions which typically come up during this season and discuss what these text and objects say to us and our lives today!
Adult Education Begins Again!
Wednesdays Nov. 10 and 17, 7 p.m. on ZOOM:Viewing and Discussion of “Purple.” This is a short film that speaks to our deep interest in promoting healthy, safe, inclusive dialogue (and not misunderstanding, division and worse). A recurring theme of our recent series has been the difficulty, in these polarized times, of having honest, constructive…
Food Room Thanksgiving Donations
We need donations of frozen turkeys, chickens and associated Thanksgiving food stuffs to continue out tradition of giving Thanksgiving meals!!
Multi-Faith Action Coalition
Join your Hillcrest friends and others of various faiths to Connect, Reflect, Learn and Take action to help others in our community!
Race and Faith: Workshop 2
Free Zoom Workshop with Lev White on Transformation through Grieving into a new life of equality, justice and love.
Hillcrest Church Fundraiser for: Winter Nights
Hillcrest Church Fundraiser: April 26th-May 1st, 2021 Faith & Food for Families Feeding homeless families housed at the Winter Nights family shelter has been a fulfilling community outreach service for Hillcrest Church members for many years. This year, due to Covid-19 restrictions, we are not able to prepare and serve the meals ourselves. Rather, our…
Race and Faith : Looking Ahead Two Workshops
Unconscious Bias and Microaggressions – Sunday, April 18 11:00a.m. – 1:00p.m. This training is designed to help you identify your unintended biases and microaggressions to better engage in relationship with others who don’t share a common identity.. This worshop is free and open to all. Check out Hillcrest’s Facebook posting for more information. To participate,…
Pre-Post Racial America: Spiritual Stories from the Front Lines
Title
Description
Title
Description
Title
Description
Pre-Post Racial America
Description
Title
Description
Title
Description
Message from Rev. Fred
Senior Minister
Stones in the Temple of God
As I write, MLK Day has just passed and it is the afternoon of Inauguration Day. Many things are in my heart and mind. I want to share one image, or set of images, having to do with building.
Just a little over 1,900 centuries before Martin Luther King, Jr., a preacher named Ignatius wrote a letter from jail. He was the bishop of Syria within the still-new Christian church and had been imprisoned by the empire for his faith. In his letter, Ignatius pictured the people of God as ones defined and “kindled” by “love.” And he continues, “You are as stones of the temple of [God].” What’s more, “You are then all fellow travelers, and carry with you God, and the temple.”
Along with the love that is so core to our Christian faith and that Ignatius knew so well, the imagery of building and buildings was clearly important and dear to him. He had been arrested, taken away from his people and ministry, and carted off to the imperial city for trial. He was concerned for the future of his church and for all churches. And yet he knew and felt and prayed that the love and caring to which he had been called would not stop. And not only that it would not stop, but that it would continue to build. And it would…through people. People are the stones that build God’s temple, house God’s presence, and share God’s love in the world!
Just about 160 years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood in front of the not-yet-completed capitol dome in our nation’s capitol building and used similar language to that of Ignatius. The building must continue and it must ever go on. When we stop building with and for love and peace, then who and what are we?
Sisters and brothers of Hillcrest—here’s to the Spirit of love alive among us and alive among anyone and everyone of any faith and no faith. Let us at Hillcrest ever be about leading the way in showing people what love alive in the world looks like. Like Ignatius says, we are living stones in the temple of God.
Let it be so, O God, let it be so.
Blessings,
Rev. Fred