Hillside Swedenborgian Community Church

Rodrigo Marcus preached Sunday, and his sermon has been posted to the Sermons page!  I’m still working on the audio (Rodrigo) and video (Kim Hinrichs) files from previous Sundays. . . hopefully they will be available soon.

Sunday the 18th will be very special.  This is the weekend of the Pacific Coast Association meeting, and there will be ten Swedenborgian ministers worshipping with us!  The service will be led by Sky Paradise (liturgy), Carla Friedrich (sermon) and Rachel Rivers (communion).  Everyone is welcome to stay for the spaghetti lunch we will be serving at 12:00.  Please do join us!

“Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.”  Can you solve Samson’s riddle?  See Jim Lawrence’s sermon on the Sermons tab for the answer!

I’m having a little laugh today as I look at the title of Kim Hinrichs’ sermon from last week — “Why Isn’t It Just Easy?”  My thoughts, exactly, as I struggle to upload the video file of her sermon and the audio file of Rodrigo’s sermon (“Stone Soup”) from yesterday.  Stay tuned while I get help with these technical difficulties, please!

Sunday was a beautiful, beautiful day at Hillside!  Rev. Kim Hinrichs was our worship leader.  Roland Warthan videotaped the sermon, and the plan is to upload the file to this website.  Check back in a few days — it will be on the Sermons page!  The Board of Trustees voted at their meeting before the service to appoint Amy Kang to finish out Jim Frykdahl’s term.  Jim began attending a Berkeley Quaker meeting this summer and has decided to resign his membership at Hillside.  He is involved with a youth program at his new church and feels very happy and useful.  We will miss his expertise on the Old Rugged Cross Crew!

Rodrigo Marcus will be preaching again this coming Sunday.  For the preaching schedule, check the Calendar page!

This was a busy weekend at Hillside — “Mama, Mia!” on Friday night, an Edgar Cayce workshop all day Saturday, then on Sunday our worship service and discussion group, Kyudo and a 65th birthday party.  And along with all these activities:  thunder, lightning and RAIN!!  Yay!

Beginning this month, Rodrigo Marcus will be preaching on the second and fourth Sundays.  Rodrigo is a retreat facilitator and spiritual counselor practicing across the United States.  He teaches dream work at John F. Kennedy University, where he received his master’s degree in Consciousness Studies and a certificate in Dream Studies.  He values Emanuel Swedenborg’s insights into the way love and truth comprise our personal and communal relationship with God.  Today’s sermon is posted in the Sermons section. 

Next Sunday’s worship leader is Rev. Kim Hinrichs from the Swedenborg House of Studies.  At 6:30, Sean Maddox will present a talk titled “When Heaven and Earth Kissed: the Bible’s Hidden Love Story,” which is about his search to find the feminine side of God in the Bible.  See the Events page for more details!

We happily welcomed Jim Lawrence back from the summer hiatus!  He spent two weeks in August teaching at the Earlham School of Religion, which is the Quaker seminary in Indiana.  Jim already has a reputation for having looooong periods of silent prayer during his services, but now it’s official — we had a full three minutes of silent contemplation during the patoral prayer.  I loved it, although I found myself mostly praying that the dog next door would stop barking. . .  Anyway, his sermon is posted in the Sermons section.

We also welcomed three visitors  — Joy’s mom Carol, visiting from Virginia; John Robert Gwynn, from the San Francisco church (thanks to the Bay Bridge closure); and Alex, a philosophy graduate student at Cal.

We are closed in July for Summer Recess!  The preaching schedule when we return is:

      August 2 – Lesley Ferguson

     August 9 – Carol Anne Fusco

     August 16 – “Uses” Sunday

     August 23 – Lana Sandahl

     August 30 – Jonscot Springwater

     September 6 – Jim Lawrence

     September 13 – Rodrigo Marcus

 Have a relaxed and restful month — I look forward to seeing you all again in August!

Love, Linda

Interested members will be taking a field trip to the San Francisco church for their 11:00 worship service, followed by coffee hour.  Anyone who would like to join us, please let me know!     Linda

Our visit was wonderful — we were so warmly welcomed!  For me it was “old home week” and I loved being back in the sanctuary where I worshiped weekly for 15 years.  I look forward to having the San Francisco folks visit us!  Click on “1 comment” below to read Eileen’s impression of the day.

Also, the El Cerrito Fourth of July Festival was lots of fun!  We handed out flyers and talked to many people about Hillside.  The free lemonade was very popular.  Thank you Eileen, Carol Anne, Moose, Christina, Annamarie, Johnscot, Lesley, Kathy, Amy and Ishak for helping!

This will be our last Sunday worship service before the July Summer Recess!  Moose is our scheduled speaker.  Coffee hour will feature zip lock baggie omelets again!  After we eat, we will be squeezing lemons to make lemonade for our booth at the 4th of July Festival — please bring lemons if you have access to a tree.

What a great day!  After a “joyous” service led by Moose, we enjoyed zip lock baggie omelets around the kitchen table.  It was wonderful to have Helen back with us, and to meet Eileen’s son, who is visiting from Portland.  A small, dedicated crew juiced all six bags of lemons that had been brought in — thank you to the donors, and thank you to the squeezers!!