Blue Fire Update | Feb. 20, 2020
The Blue Fire Team is hard at work modeling all three concepts of a rebuilt campus to see which one aligns most closely with our mission, constraints, needs, values and long-term financial health. We have shifted the congregational vote date slightly to allow time for the congregation to absorb details from the final concept we will present in May. Here’s …
Lent Prayer Partners
Have you ever wondered or been curious about prayer and how it can deepen and strengthen your personal and communal spiritual life? Lent is a perfect time to enter into some new spiritual practices, and during this upcoming church season FCCB is helping to coordinate prayer partnerships (or “buddies”) for members of the congregation. If you are interested in being assigned a prayer …
Come Join in a Service of Lament
Wednesday, February 26, 8-9 pm Prophetic anger and sorrow at the current national situation fill us up and threaten to paralyze us. There are things we cannot bring ourselves to express, and tears we are afraid to cry. Terrible things are happening in our country, and it seems like more than one person can bear. Let us join together and let …
Register Now for the Women’s Voices Retreat
All women are warmly invited to attend this year’s Women’s Voices Retreat, Fri–Sat., March 13–14, at Ralston White Retreat Center in Mill Valley, a beautiful setting in which to enjoy great food, opportunities to rest, play, reflect, hike, worship, sing, dance, and immerse yourself in the warmth of a loving circle of women. This year’s theme is Making Space… . Register online now at https://bit.ly/2weANMb or …
Trees Planted on Dana Street
Photo Album On Saturday, February 8th a hardy team of 15 First Church volunteers planted two Shumard Oak trees in the Dana strip as part of Roger Bash’s design plan. The Shumard Oak will grow to be a tall tree with wide spreading branches to beautify and green-up the entrance-side of church. This is a hardy and long-lived tree with …
Geoffrey Gaskins Preaching on February 16, 2020, 10 am, Sanctuary
Geoffrey A. Gaskins, M.Div., was First Church’s Brown Barr Intern Minister from 2009-2011, and has been facilitating our Progressive Christian Bible Study since that time (since 2009!). Geoffrey’s professional life has included being an executive at a Bay Area start-up tech firm (animal cloning and stem cell research) and a marketing communications consultant to international law firms headquartered in the …
Invitation to Worship with Ministerio Latino
Our sister church and the only UCC new church started expressly for queer Latinx refugees and immigrants, Ministerio Latino in Oakland, has invited us to a very special worship service! On Friday, February 21 at 7pm, Honduran pastor Douglas Oviedo will preach in celebration of receiving asylum after being deported to Tijuana. If you would like to make a donation …
Singing Hope Fundraiser Concert
Saturday, February 22, 2020 · 5:00 pm Join City of Refuge UCC and First Church Berkeley for our annual fundraiser concert, featuring amazing musicians raising money for Berkeley-based Youth Spirit Artworks; the Alameda County Food Bank; and Keeping Our Girls in School, which aims to address some of the issues affecting girls in Kenya by providing menstrual pads, menstrual hygiene …