Mickey & Minnie On Ice

In 1949, six years before the opening of Disneyland, Mickey and Minnie Mouse and four additional costumed classic Disney characters made their first appearance in Ice Capades, a popular touring entertainment show, in a production number titled “Walt’s Toy Shop”. Six years later when Disneyland’s opening day was fast approaching, Walt Disney reached out to the operators of Ice Capades with a request to borrow their Mickey and Minnie costumes. Videos and home movies from the July 17, 1950, opening day show the not-so-loveable Ice Capades characters in black leotards, shorts and oversize papier-mâché heads with the creepy eye holes cut out. Evolution of Disneyland’s characters was slow and it wasn’t until the early 1960’s that Walt Disney created a dedicated Character Department formed to develop appealing and comfortable costumes focusing on character accuracy and the performers’ safety. Ice Capades thrived for the next five decades gaining in popularity, changing ownership, and growing into three separate touring companies featuring theatrical ice skating performances by former Olympic and US National figure skater champions.

In 1979, Kenneth Feld Productions, owners and producers of “The Greatest Show on Earth”, Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey Circus, purchased Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice, and approached Disney about doing a themed ice show. Feld licensed the rights to material and characters, and in 1981 began production on Walt Disney’s World on Ice. Within a few years the company had five touring shows, hundreds of cast members and dozens of trucks hauling props, stages, sound and lighting equipment between cities. The name was changed to Disney on Ice in 1998 and a new show was launched every year usually themed after recently released films, a signature Disney cross promotion and merchandising tactic.

Due to declining ticket sales, increasing operating costs, and animal rights protests, Feld’s Ringling Bros.and Barnum Bailey Circus went out of business in 2017; however, Disney on Ice, hosted by Mickey and Minnie Mouse, currently runs eight to eleven touring companies worldwide at any given time.

Berkeley's Mystery Walls

“Half a mile east of Grizzly Peak stand the remnants of stone walls which have baffled the researches and curiosity of antiquarians” reported an 1896 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, “by whom they were erected, when and why is an unsolved mystery”. Unexplained rock walls, like those in the Berkeley Hills, are also found scattered south for nearly forty miles along the ridge lines of the East Bay Hills above Hayward to the summits of Monument and Mission Peak in Fremont where clusters of the three foot tall stacked limestone rock and boulder walls extend from a few feet to over a half mile in length.

The world wide building of stone structures dates back hundreds of thousands years to the stone age and has provided limitless explanations, conjecture, and urban myths about the mystery walls of the East Bay. Were they evidence of early giant hill dwellers who gained immense strength by lifting the heavy rocks, as suggested by UC Chemistry Professor Henry Myers, after reportedly uncovering stone images, axes, and pieces of pottery? Or a colony from lost Atlantis that defended their hillside rock fortresses with spears, bow and arrows, and by hurtling boulders? A long forgotten race or maybe Aztecs of Mexico who may have used the walls for defense? In 1908 “Professor” Joseph Voyle, President of the questionable Berkeley Society for Psychical Research, using a divining rod claimed that some of the walls were remains of a prehistoric civilization (Voyle also claimed to have discovered a radium mine under San Francisco, inventing an earthquake detector, and creating a non-intoxicating alcohol substitute). Others were inclined to believe that the rock formations on East Bay ridges were the work of unknown ancients called “The Earliers”. and that the walls may have served as navigational aids for extraterrestrials.

Tentative conclusions of a recent experimental study dating the growth of lichens on the walls is that the surviving segments in the Berkeley Hills may have been built between 1850 and 1880. However without documentation, who the rock stackers were, and why the walls were constructed may remain an unsolved mystery

Reflections on Pentecost, Pneumonia, and Pride: Listening Into the Chaos Together

Below is a sermon that Rev. Jeanne wrote while ill with pneumonia. Our guest preacher, Jackie, delivered it. It’s subtitled: Embracing The Blessing that Blazes (pur: πῦρ) Among Us, and you can watch or listen to it in its entirety.

Scripture Reading: Acts 2:1-18 What Does This Mean? NRSVUE

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a mighty wind (pnoé: πνοή), and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire (pur: πῦρ), appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.  

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language (glóssa:  γλῶσσα), of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “How is this happening? What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams… Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 

Today, as you know, is my birthday, and my ordination anniversary. I love it when they fall on the same day (like they did on my ordination day in 2003 at University Christian Church Disciples of Christ of Berkeley), It was a special day on many, many levels. We processed in behind a bagpiper playing Amazing Grace- a favorite celebratory activity of Disciples who want to honor our Scottish Presbyterian roots. My friends, and mentors read scripture, sang, preached, and danced. There were beautiful altars and banners covered with fiery orange and red dupioni silk fabric. Christy walked beside me holding my hand while it shook. The sanctuary was full. And I made some important commitments and knew when they helped me up off my knees after they prayed me in while the sanctuary was filled with shouts of joy and applause that everything was somehow different. And yes. There were protesters gathered outside who we could hear chanting about how we were all going to hell which made Bill (rest in power my brother) play the organ louder to drown them out.  

In a lot of churches this morning, worship will take on the vibe of a birthday party. Pentecost is for many progressive Christian congregations celebrated as “the birthday of the church.” And it also feels like a good excuse to pull out the glitter, and rainbow leis when it falls during Pride month. Pentecost certainly does mark a threshold crossing in the life of the church. It is the beginning of something completely new because it really is time for Koinonia- the Good News - to come out of the closet. The Disciples have followed Jesus’ directions (as far as we can tell since we drop into the middle of the story). They went back home and prayed and waited together- until something weird started happening.

This story has lots of Hollywood style effects. It has wind (pnoé: πνοή, ῆς, ἡ) which is ironically the root of our word pneuma (pneumonia), fire (pur: πῦρ, πυρός) which is at the root of our word purify, and spiritual phenomena (tongues of fire) that included miraculous bewilderment because they could understand each other even though they spoke different languages and dialects (glóssa:  γλῶσσα). We can feel Luke struggling to find the words for things beyond explanation and in the realm of divine mystery in this passage. He’s definitely as the Rev. Dr. Wilda Gafney describes it “hammering nails with the butt end of a screwdriver” as he tries to describe what is going on. And this kind of hammering around the imagery of Acts 2 didn’t stop in the 1st Century. Our most gifted poets are still trying to make sense of the strange imagery of Pentecost.

Hear a word from T.S. Eliot in “The Four Quartets”

 “The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire.”

And more recently Mary Oliver writes, “Can one be passionate about the just, the ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit to no labor in its cause? I don’t think so. All summations have a beginning. All effect has a Story. All kindness begins with the sown seed. Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of light is the crossroads of —indolence, or action. Be ignited or be gone.”

Luke keeps telling us that everybody in Acts 2 was “bewildered” and “amazed and astonished” and “perplexed” Perplexed (diaporeó) in Greek, according to Strong’s means there is “no way out, or no way to solve the puzzle.” Encountering the power and movement of the divine directly can be very confusing, overwhelming, and scary. There is really no way to solve the puzzle but to surrender. The Scriptures tell us that an experience like that might even make your hair and face turn white like Moses when he came down from Sinai. Or it might cause one like Peter to start babbling about building shelters for the prophets that have shown up in spirit with Jesus as he has mysteriously started glowing during the transfiguration. Encountering the divine mystery here in Acts 2 causes Luke to start writing about divided tongues of fire, and mighty rushing wind. He’s struggling to work out a puzzle there is not a solution for. As Rev. Nadia Bolz Weber astutely reminds us, “the Gospel is not domesticatable enough for the mind to grasp.  It’s wilder than that. Like wind. It’s more beautiful and a-rational than reason alone can contain.”

Rather than get stuck trying to explain the fire, the tongues, the wind, and the mystery, I want to invite us to notice a couple of really important things that are going on in this passage. Henri Nouwen suggests that the unique thing about Pentecost is that “The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so we can become living Christs in the here and now.”  This tongues, wind and fire Pentecost event is rooted in divine timing (Jesus told them to wait- Now the time has come). And the timing is rooted in the most powerful of places- the present moment.  In order to give birth to a new iteration of church, whether we are in the first century or the 21st, we are called to embody the fully divine, and fully human mysterious a-rational Holy Spirit of the risen Christ in the present moment. We are called to listen, speak, use our voices, seek justice, transform ourselves with the help of God, and get our hands dirty. And we never quite know how we’ll be called to do that. There’s a lot of mystery there too- in the journey, in the wisdom of other tongues, and in encountering the divine in the twists and turns where we didn’t intend to find it. As Suzy Kassem puts it, “I am hearing wisdom from tongues I did not intend to listen to. I am encountering beauty where I did not want to look for it. And I am learning so much from journeys I did not want to take.”

Another thing I want to call your attention to is that Jesus taught and lived and modeled the journey we are called to embrace. At its core that journey is deeply relational. It’s about loving and being in relationship with God- loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

It is about being peacemakers and being compassionate and as Jesus puts it-doing things for the least of these because when you do it for them, you are doing it for me (Matthew 25). This Pentecost experience is not a private in the closet prayer experience. It is not rooted in pull yourself up by your bootstraps rugged individualism. It is not a call to “protect our own” like one white Christian nationalist leader stated recently. A personal relationship with Jesus is not enough. Instead, this very loud, very disruptive, very public outing of the Holy Spirit is rooted in the experience and power of being rooted in the diverse, complicated and ever evolving beloved community.

Jan Richardson captures this beloved community power in her Pentecost Blessing when she writes,

“This is the blessing
we cannot speak
by ourselves.
This is the blessing
we cannot summon
by our own devices,
cannot shape
to our purpose,
cannot bend
to our will.

This is the blessing
that comes
when we leave behind
our aloneness
when we gather
together
when we turn
toward one another.

This is the blessing
that blazes among us
when we speak
the tongues
strange to our ears
when we finally listen
into the chaos
when we breathe together
at last.”

We cannot navigate the journey alone. We have to gather together. We have to turn toward one another. We have to leave behind our aloneness, even when we are terrified, and listen into the chaos and breathe together at last. That is why the miracle of speaking in other tongues in Acts 2 is so incredible. It’s about understanding and listening and hearing across differences. It is about the DEI infused power of the Holy Spirit and the work we embody in the beloved community in the present moment. Right now friends we are drowning in chaos. It is hard to know what is true and what isn’t. The news is stressful and taxing and terrible. And yet I believe that the 2nd Chapter of Acts calls us to listen into the chaos together so we can discern our way forward together. We need each other- no matter what tongue we speak, or hear as we struggle to know how to give birth to the gospel and love our neighbors in the 21st Century.

I think the thing I remember the most about my ordination day was that my Mom and Dad were there. My home church had voted not to support my ordination process. People that I grew up refused to receive communion from me. And my parents defied all of it, flew to San Francisco (which I know they experienced like being on the moon) and presented me, during “the presentation of the signs of office” with a chalice and paten engraved with their names with best wishes for my ministry. That Pentecost day was costly to them in that church community- which my Grandparents had founded and my mother had grown up in. They lost lifelong friends. But they made a lot of new ones too. And their presence with me was healing in ways that I’m still processing 22 years later. I have tears welling up in my eyes now, because I know they listened into the chaos and standing with God and the beloved community in Berkeley that day, we spoke in and heard new tongues, and we breathed together at last. I also know now that on that Pentecost day faith, hope, and love were abiding. – And I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that of the three- the most healing and greatest for me was love.    

Reflection Questions:

• How have you experienced the movement of the Holy Spirit in your life? Was our awareness immediate? Or did you realize the Holy Spirit was present later?

• What does this very community oriented story in Acts 2 give us to celebrate in 2025? How are we at UCH called to listen into the chaos together?

Prayer Shawl Project: UCC General Synod 35, Kansas City, MO, 7/11—7/17

UCC General Synod is coming up this year, and since General Synod can be a pretty overwhelming experience, the UCC is inviting knitters and crocheters in local UCC congregations to bless and send prayer shawls for General Synod participants who would find them supportive and comforting. Our own resident knitter, Nancy Marshall, has agreed to knit and send a prayer shawl from UCH to be part of the project! UCH is paying for Nancy’s yarn, and Rev. Jeanne and Kristina will make sure the prayer shawl Nancy makes gets sent to the right place. Our thanks to Nancy for her time and generosity.

For info about the prayer shawl project use the following link.

Church Musician Wanted @ United Church of Hayward, UCC

Play for worship on Sundays etc. Remote is fine. Must be able to play in a quiet environment and have the computer equipment to play on Zoom. Trial period of 4 Sundays paid at $275 each.

Email: kkburnett@comcast.net

Historic Snippets: Rock Hound

A small, colorful, mounted slice of petrified wood presented to me upon the completion of my first year at Wadsworth Publishing Company sits on a shelf above my desk. It may have been the article about the Hayward Boy Paleontologists in the December 1943 issue of Life Magazine that was the beginning of dad’s interest in rock and fossils that he passed along to my brother Jim and me. Wesley Gordon, teacher and avid rock collector, took a group of his students on a collecting trip to the Bell gravel pit in the Irving-ton District of Washington Township known locally to be rich with fossils. On the first day of digging the twelve boys uncovered a lower jaw of a camelops, an ancient ancestor of the modern camel that began an extensive fossil dig that lasted more than ten years and retrieved tens of thousands of important speci-mens.

Dad took us to the slopes of Mt. Diablo where we collected shell fossils deposited millions of years earlier by an ancient inland sea, and trips to San Francisco’s Ferry building to see the seventy year old State Mining and Mineral Museum’s collection of rocks and minerals. Family trips to Southern California often included a visit to Disneyland’s Mineral Hall to view the display of florescent rocks and the parks seventy five million year old petrified tree truck. The Knott’s Berry Farms Rock shop and collection of “thunder egg” geodes was a “must see” as was Dire Wolf and Saber Tooth Tiger fossils at the La Brea Tar Pits. We enjoyed road trips, and stopping at highway rock shops and Jim recalls a trip to Virginia City where dad pointed out a young man picking up rocks from an unpaved parking lot for sale in one of the nearby gift shops. The Castro Valley Gem and Mineral Society and the Alameda County Fair’s Annual Rock and Min-eral shows were not to be missed and “Geology” was one of the first of the twenty one merit badges that I earned during my Boy Scouting years..

I had the opportunity to visit Yellowstone National Park for several weeks in the Summer of 1958 with the Yellowstone Science Expedition operated by my High School Biology teacher and former Yellowstone Park Ranger Wally Hennessy. Wally led us on treks to remote thermal and geological features including Obsidian Cliff, a remnant of a one hundred and fifty thousand year old slow moving viscous lava flow that became an important source of tools and weapons of the local indigenous people. We were also guided up the steep slope of Specimen Ridge through scattered needle and leaf fossils for close views of several four hundred million year old petrified trees, still standing remnants of a succession of primeval forests.

Digging roadside fossils, visiting rock shops, scrambling up volcanic mountains, and a career of making books are now cherished memories that instantly flash back with a single glance at that piece of petrified wood.

IT SEEMS TO ME

It seems to me that as we age,
and settle in to enjoy music of “our day”
and lose touch with current movie star names
and long for some “good ole tv programs”
we used to enjoy
that we reach a Decision Portal:
We look at the turmoil in the world

Yes, we experienced turmoil in our day,
but never like this – such divisive comments
such unrest – such selfishness and violence
as said our parents as our world emerged
as said their parents about their world . . .

We stand on the threshold asking
am I to become a crabby old person –
always hankering for what was
seeing nothing good in what is and
ever criticizing and complaining
I’m not talking about
living in an unreal world
pretending that violence,
unrest and selfishness,
do not exist.

I’m talking about the complaining
whose only purpose
is to make us comfortable
about not changing,
the complaining that supposedly
affirms “our generation had it all” and was a perfect world.

We know better – down deep
we are trying to make sense of it all
We are trying to survive

May we have the courage
to acquire wisdom
to bring forth what was good
leave behind what no longer is
and enter a new life-giving
portal of choice
beyond mere survival!

- Jackie Freitas

Upcoming at UCH

Oakland Observatory

Canadian born Anthony Chabot began working in California’s mining industry in the 1850’s devising the first hydraulic mining technology and establishing two water driven sawmills. Gaining the reputation of “Water King”, he built San Francisco’s first public water system and those in Portland Maine and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He founded the Contra Costa Water Company in 1866 that supplied water to Oakland and surrounding communities, and created a reservoir on San Leandro Creek that would later be named Lake Chabot. 

Businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Chabot donated a telescope to the City of Oakland in 1883 along with sizable funds to build an observatory.  Dubbed “Leah”, the state of the art 8-inch refractor telescope was located near downtown in Lafayette Square near Oakland High School in a specially constructed observatory. Unlike nearby San Jose’s Lick Observatory, constructed for astronomical research, Chabot designated that the Oakland Observatory was to be used by students and for public viewing at no charge.

By 1915 urban congestion and light pollution was impacting viewing and the decision was made to move the observatory to a remote location on Mountain Boulevard in the Oakland Hills.  A second telescope was added, “Rachel”, a 20 inch refractor with a 28 foot focal length making it the largest public refractor in the western United States at the time. During the next fifty years the observatory was expanded to include classrooms, a planetarium, and staffing by Oakland Unified School District personnel and volunteers. Renamed the Chabot Science Center, seismic safety concerns for the thousands of Bay Area students visiting  the observatory resulted in limiting access to the aging facility in 1977. The Oakland Unified School District, The City of Oakland, the East Bay Regional Park District and the East Bay Astronomical Society formed a Joint Powers Agency in 2000 creating the nonprofit Chabot Space and Science Center, a state-of-the-art science and technology education facility. A third telescope was added, Nellie, a 36” reflector telescope housed in a rolling roof observatory, along with a full dome Zeiss Planetarium, IMAX style theatre, displays and immersive activities.

Ash Wednesday (2025)

In Western Christianity, Ash Wednesday marks the start of the season of Lent, which begins 40 days prior to Easter (Sundays are not included in the count). The 40 days of Lent mirror the 40 years that the Israelite people wandered in the wilderness before entering the “promised land,” and the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness before beginning his ministry. We are also doing a lot of “wandering in the wilderness” at UCH and in our communities right now. So, I invite us all to pay careful attention to the movement of the Holy Spirit in coming days.

 Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, spiritual practice (such as “giving something up”) and repentance/evaluation (Where do we need to retrace our steps and “turn around?”).  During traditional Ash Wednesday services, the minister will lightly rub the sign of the cross with ashes onto the foreheads of worshipers as a reminder of our mortality and need for this yearly practice. Ashes from the previous year’s Palm Sunday palms are traditionally burned and used. On Zoom, we have learned to be a bit more creative.

 Interestingly, the Bible does not mention Ash Wednesday or the custom of Lent since it evolved much later out of Roman Catholic tradition. However, the practice of repentance is mentioned repeatedly by John the Baptist, and Jesus, and the call for repentance. In the New Testament: metanoia: μετάνοια (Greek) and in the First Testament: shub שׁוּב  (Hebrew) are translated as repentance. According to Strong’s these words both mean: “to have a change of mind and heart, to turn back, or to return or retrace our steps.” It is such an important part of our spiritual journey to notice the places we are called to turning around, or retracing our steps; because we all get out in the weeds sometimes. God has gifted us with the spiritual practices of forgiveness, transformation, and repentance so we can find our way back out of the weeds and onto the path. And so, we can find our way home.

This Year our UCH Ash Wednesday service, “Did You Not Know What the Holy One Can Do with Dust?” Will take place on March 5, at 6:30 Pacific on Zoom. Join us for a rich time of listening, poetry, and music. We will be participating in a creative visualization of the traditional imposition of ashes, and if you would like, you can impose ashes from a candle or palm leaves you have burned in your home on your forehead or hands. Or you can just come and be in community and out of the chaos for this simple, quiet reflective service about the joys and challenges of being human, and the transformative power of dust.

 I look forward to being with you on Ash Wednesday evening as we begin our Lenten journey together. -Rev. Jeanne

Hayward's Munchkin

Charlie Becker, a German American actor, is best known for his role as the Mayor of Munchkinland in the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Becker was born in 1887 near Frankfurt and at the age of nineteen decided to abandon a planned career as a butcher to join more lucrative travelling “midget shows”. The three foot nine performer signed on with the Singer Midgets during the first World War and moved to the United States where the popular troupe traveled vaudeville circuits throughout the country.

Hollywood entrepreneur and opportunist Leo Singer was hired as MGM’s liaison with a contract to supply little people to populate the fantasy village of Munchkinland in their upcoming film featuring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, and Jack Haley. Singer’s contract was to provide one hundred twenty-four little people from his own troupe, supplemented by others from the Los Angeles area and from across the country. Because of his stereotype “mayoral” features of a large belly, round face and facial hair, Becker was cast to play the Mayor of Munchkinland; however, because of his strong German accent the studio decided to dub his voice.

Becker and fellow little person performer Jessie Kelly met on the set of Oz and were married the following year. The couple settled on the west coast with plans on getting work in Hollywood and “stand in’” assignments for child actors; however, because of the scarcity of movie roles for little people, Charlie returned to his original business career of a butcher and the Becker’s owned and operated their own successful German Sausage company.

Charlie Becker, The Mayor of Munchkinland, passed in 1968 and is interned on the hillside at the Lone Tree Cemetery in Hayward, posthumous recipient of a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a character actor in one of the most watched films of all time.

This Week at UCH (Week of 2/2/25)

We’re based in California’s Bay Area, but our Zoom-based gatherings regularly have participants from Arkansas, Southern California, Kentucky, Indiana, and the UK. Wherever you are, wherever you come from, wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome!

✨ Transitions Group: Thursday @ 10:30am PT

✝ Scripture Seekers Bible Study: Thursday @ 5:30pm PT

💒 Worship: Sunday @ 10:30am PT

Navigating Challenging Terrain with St. Brighid

Sunday, February 2 in some Christian traditions is the celebration of Candlemas or “The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.” In Gaelic cultures, this is also called Imbolc, or St. Brigit's (or the more ancient Goddess Brighid’s) Day. St. Brigit/Brighid’s day falls between the winter solstice and the spring equinox- and it marks the very first stirrings of spring. As the new buds start to appear in my garden- it always makes me think of a significant event in my own Spiritual Journey that I want to share with you.

 I had the luxury of spending most of the day by myself while I was visiting the Isle of Iona (Scotland). And I decided to climb to St. Brighid's Well at the top of Dun I which is the highest hill the island. There are a lot of wells dedicated to St. Brigit/Brighid in Scotland, Ireland, and England but this well on Iona is also called “The Well of Eternal Life.” It has been a place of pilgrimage for seekers (especially women) for a thousand years. I didn't realize what a treacherous climb it was until I was over halfway up. And I lost the trail among the rocks and scree and felt stuck.

I started to panic as I tried different ways of traversing and fell and scraped my knees. Blood was running down one of my legs making things worse. But I moved through my fear and tried not to look down. I found a discarded walking stick that helped me balance better, and (suddenly out of nowhere) as I walked and prayed, I was greeted by a fellow hiker- an 82-year-old Dutch nun- Marta who had climbed to Brighid’s Well many times as pilgrimage. She was more prepared than me- and retrieved a first aid kit from her pack and helped me bandage my knee. She then invited me to get behind her and follow her lead on the faint trail she pointed out. She spoke English, and we chatted freely about our spiritual lives and traditions. She was a wonderful hiking companion and as I followed in her footsteps, I realized that I was on a liminal Holy Ground, walking inside a beautiful metaphor for my spiritual journey with the Divine Feminine. When I was challenged, the Holy Spirit showed up in very human form. I found what I needed, and as I prayed - help, guidance, and companionship came in a surprising way that spoke my language. As Sr. Marta and I made it to the top, my eyes filled with tears. It was her 18th trip and my first. And the view and experience of the water splashing on my face from that “Well of Eternal Life” as I looked back over Iona was well worth the struggle and the climb.

May clarity and guidance find us all- as we climb around in unmarked, challenging places longing for streams and wells of living water in our nation and in our communities. And may St. Brighid and the Holy Spirit show up in all the ways we need as we embrace this collective, bruising, scary, journey of finding springs of living water in the challenging terrain we are navigating right now.

Systemic God

by Kirk M.

The following is only my concept of God and is possibly quite divergent from the views of others. This is not meant in any way shape or form to discount or demean any other’s understanding. I am an individual with my own history, prejudices, and ways of thinking.

My title is borrowed from “systemic racism” because the recent discussion /controversy has partly influenced my thought. Being newly retired, getting into doing more gardening, and having more time to put things into perspective have also been a significant influence

First, I don’t believe God “creates” or “created,” instead I believe God is at the center of a system that will never be fully understood by humans (or our creations). I also believe that is as it should be. This thought came to me recently while pruning our lemon tree and potato bush. Both these plants grow in ways that seem quite chaotic to my simple engineering background. In pruning, you think about the reasons the plant grows in specific ways which you may be able to work in harmony with. These plants are part of a system that is everything. If ever the system could be fully defined by some algorithm, equation, story or other means, that would be God.

God is:

The leaves, the flowers, the branches the roots the soil and so much more

The face, the touch, the voice of your lover, your father, your mother, your daughters, your sons, your brother, your sister your friend and so much more

Our planet and others, the sun and stars, the universe, the background radiation of the universe and so much more

Matter, dark matter, energy and dark energy and so much more

In short

God

Is

Make Your Bed

by Jennifer Ruth Lynn Garrison

There [Peter] found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, for he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed!” And immediately he got up. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord. – Acts 9:33-35 (NRSV)

I have an app that grants its users virtual rewards for performing real self-care tasks. “Wake up!” it chirps at me each morning, followed by “Make your bed!” and “Enjoy a shower!” I complete these and a couple dozen other tasks and then click a button. With each task, a little fake confetti explodes joyfully on my phone screen and I collect a few fabricated gemstones. Even though I know it’s an algorithmic celebration, not a natural one, the dopamine hit with each of those confetti explosions is real.

I wonder what Aeneas’ dopamine response was to his healing. He had been bedridden for almost a decade when Peter commanded him to jump up and perform a little job. I wonder if, for the rest of his life, he associated his healing with making his bed. If so, was this little chore a celebration every day? Or, in time, did both the healing and the task become commonplace? What did it take for him (or really for any of us) to rejoice daily in both the miraculous and the mundane? My ultimate goal is to train my brain to associate my morning tasks with a tiny high so I can just bypass the app altogether. But in the meantime, I’m going to click “finish writing” on my phone and celebrate. 

Prayer
Healing Friend, guide us to naturally rejoice in it all, every single day. Amen.

Rev. Jennifer Garrison (formerly Brownell) is a writer, spiritual director and pastor living in the Pacific Northwest. Her published work most recently appeared in the book The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, available from The Pilgrim Press.

Advent 2024: Carrying the Blessing (All the Way)

This blessing knows how to bide its time, to watch and wait, to discern and pray until the moment comes when it will reveal everything it knows, when it will shine forth with all that it has seen, when it will dazzle with the unforgettable light you have carried all this way. —Jan Richardson

One of our favorite choruses at UCH for the Advent season is “Emmanuel” from the Chalice Hymnal: “Emmanuel, Emmanuel, His name is called Emmanuel, God With Us, Revealed in Us, His Name is called Emmanuel.” (Chalice Hymnal #134)  

Matthew leads early on in his Gospel with Isaiah 7, “A young woman shall conceive and bear a son and will call his name Immanuel” Emmanuel is not a common word in the Bible - but it’s an important one because Matthew tells us that in addition to being called “Jesus” that Jesus shall also be called Emmanouél (Ἐμμανουήλ), which means God with us — in the present moment. 

The word often used for revealing (or revelation) in Greek in the New Testament is ἀποκάλυψις (apokálypsis), translated — according to Strong’s — as “through the concealed.”  An apocalypse is a disclosure of knowledge, a lifting of the veil or revelation. In religious contexts it usually refers to bringing something hidden to light.

As that chorus has floated around in my head in recent days, alongside my grief and anger, I have found myself asking: How is God with us right now? What is being revealed in us right now? How are we being called to give birth in the light of Christ in the world right now?

We will bring these questions into our Advent and current events container as we explore four powerful points of revelation in the traditional Advent scriptures: Ancestral Lines (Matthew’s Genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1), Threshing Floors (an image in John the Baptist’s Apocalyptic Preaching Matthew 3), Finding Voice/Utterance under Duress (Mary’s Magnificat Luke 2), and Standing in Integrity/Wisdom in the face of Injustice (The Magoi/Herod. Matthew 2).

I look forward to being with you for the four Sundays of Advent, and the Christmas Eve Service @ 6:00pm PT on Sunday, December 24. Message us for the link to join live, or find us on Facebook for the sermon livestream.

– Rev. Jeanne

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show

The entire Bay Area, and especially The Tri-City area is so historically rich!  We have become aware of some of that richness, thanks to Bill Ralph who gathers enticing, and little-known facts about events, historic spots, key persons, their dreams and hopes, and brings them to life for us to marvel at the courage, foresight, and results of some of our predecessors’ efforts. Since we have received many positive comments about those articles, we are featuring a column each month entitled “Historic Snippets.”

Cody’s advance staff traveled into the Bay Area weeks ahead of the Wild West Show caravan to begin obtaining licenses, and renting fifteen acres of open space for upcoming performances in San Francisco, Oakland and in San Jose. In addition to beginning publicizing the upcoming events, the staff also made arrangements for the purchase tons of flour, meat, coffee and other supplies for up to five hundred cast and crew members, hundreds of show-and-draft-horses, a couple of elephants and a small herd of buffalo. The epic show traveled from town to town with two trains, fifty flat cars loaded with wagons, box cars, cattle cars, sleeping cars, power and commissary cars. The outdoor traveling show also carried its own grandstands and acres of canvas-covering to seat twenty thousand spectators,

At its peak in the late 1890’s plainsman, scout and showman  William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show was making hundreds of performances a year and traveled over eleven thousand miles in the United States and in Europe entertaining millions of eager attendees. Cody traveled to Northern California with his extensive cast, crew and huge menagerie several times between 1877 and 1913.

As the orator boomed the script and Cody’s cowboy band created mood setting music in the huge outdoor arena, the stereotyped-cowboy and native American performers would kick-off their two-hour series of highly anticipated well-known skits, tableaux and demonstrations. The riding of the Pony Express, Indian attacks on wagon trains, stage coach robberies, a buffalo stampede and the grand finale re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand were interspersed with shooting, roping and riding demonstrations by headliner star performers including the famous Annie Oakley. Following the elaborate show comprised of hundreds of costumed performers, trained animals and the appearance of Buffalo Bill Cody himself, the entire show would be struck, loaded back onto the trains and moved overnight to the next town where the complex choreographed operation would be repeated.

With the general fading of interest in the “old west”, smaller audiences, increasing costs and a four thousand dollar a day overhead, and the growing popularity of motion pictures and professional sports, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show made its final Bay Area appearance in 1913, just months before going bankrupt and disbanding. True to nature, showman and entrepreneur William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody immediately went about getting into the motion picture business by seeking backing to shoot and distribute The Indian Wars, a five-reel silent film.

Belvoir Springs Hotel

The entire Bay Area, and especially The Tri-City area is so historically rich!  We have become aware of some of that richness, thanks to Bill Ralph who gathers enticing, and little-known facts about events, historic spots, key persons, their dreams and hopes, and brings them to life for us to marvel at the courage, foresight, and results of some of our predecessors’ efforts. Since we have received many positive comments about those articles, we are featuring a column each month entitled “Historic Snippets.”

Nestled on the hillside above Mission Blvd. across from downtown Niles and hidden from view by trees and bushes is the Belvoir Springs Hotel, one of several hostels serving the busy Southern Pacific depot at the turn of the last century. Giles and Nana Chittenden purchased the one hundred- and five-acre parcel and flowing spring from Jonas Clarkin in 1884 and built a large three-bedroom farmhouse.

Over the years the Chittendens developed a profitable fruit and nut orchard, dairy, and vegetable farm west of Sulphur Springs Ranch and adjacent to John Rocks’ California Nursery Company.  

With the beauty of the surroundings and Nana’s welcoming charm, they added a summer camp for friends and travelers, and guest rooms in the farm house basement to board school teachers and railroad employees during the winter months. When a fire destroyed much of the original building the Chittenden’s took the opportunity to replace it with three-bedroom a twenty-two-room craftsman style hotel they named Belvoir Springs (French for “Beautiful View”).

Niles was a sleepy agricultural community when Gilbert “Broncho Billy” Anderson and the cast and crew from Chicago’s Essanay Film Manufacturing Company arrived in town in 1912 with many of the troupe temporarily staying in tents on the hotel grounds.

As they found permanent housing, a who’s who of silent screen stars continued to visit the Belvoir Springs Hotel for lunch or dinner. Marguerite Clayton, Anderson’s leading lady, lived at the hotel, while Anderson, Augustus Carney, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, James Gleason, Edna Purviance, Ben Turpin and Charlie Chaplin could be spotted making their way from the studio on Niles Blvd., crossing the Southern Pacific tracks and Hayward-Mission San Jose Road and strolling up the shaded driveway to the hotel to dine and unwind after long days of cranking out fifteen-minute westerns and comedies.

The Essanay Studios closed in 1916 after four short years and the troupe left town just as quickly as they had arrived. Nana Chittenden decided to retire the following year and the once flourishing hotel changed hands multiple times in succeeding decades. The acreage was sold off piecemeal and the hotel allowed to fall into disrepair.

In 1994 new owners undertook a major renovation of the historic Belvoir Springs Hotel and its remaining grounds to create an upscale special events and extended stay venue. However, as of this date the website appears to be abandoned and the ambitious venture unsuccessful. Now a private residence, the historic hotel with the “beautiful view”, sits on the hillside above Niles, out of view and unknown by passing motorists on Mission Blvd.

Stewardship & Gratitude

How vibrant is your outreach to others as you continue to be “Light for the World” and “Salt for the earth?”  Such a wonder-filled responsibility we have received. . . What is it you really care about? How does that make a difference in your life?

Stewardship and gratitude can be expressed in many ways.  We opened our November Journey Notes issue with this poem by our own Pamela Blank. 

The Beauty of Wrinkled Hands

Thank you God for my wrinkled hands I see and use each day,
It’s a gentle reminder of life I’m living and to be grateful in every way.
Each wrinkle is a memory, as the years pass by for me,
A long life is such a gift, that many do not get to see.
So, each morning as I wake and my hands have daily chores to do
May I feel blessed for every wrinkle, knowing life is a gift from You.