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Thursday, July 19, 2012
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Dear Friends, Neighbors and Members of St. Cyprian's,

This week as I prepare for the St. Cyprian's Leadership Retreat scheduled for this weekend I have been thinking about the word "community." One of the words we use a lot to describe what we're about at Turk & Lyon, both as a church and as a center of meaningful activities. For some community means the surrounding neighborhood(s), the city,  for others it is the congregation that gathers on Sundays, or the A.A. or Al. Anon group they attend, or the band they are part of, for other folks it is anyone that comes through the door, or the whole world. I really appreciate the many different ways the word is used, and the yearning for "sharing life" that all these different meanings express. Here are a few quotes that I've been reflecting on, many from Inward/Outward an online resource developed by the Church of the Savior communities in Washington, DC...

"The community of persons closest to us has the power to keep us in the tomb of fear or to call us into the daybreak of hope. Do those around us call us to huddle more closely together...or do they help us throw the doors open because we have experienced together the freeing call to action that is the Spirit of Jesus in our midst?" - Sr. Lauretta Miles 

  

"The fundamental attitudes of true community, where there is true belonging, are openness, welcome, and listening to God, to the universe, to each other and to other communities. Community life is inspired by the universal and is open to the universal. It is based on forgiveness and openness to those who are different, to the poor and the weak. Sects put up walls and barriers out of fear, out of a need to prove themselves and to create a false security. Community is the breaking down of barriers to welcome difference." - Jean Vanier

"Community cannot for long feed on itself; it can only flourish with the coming of others from beyond, their unknown and undiscovered brothers."
- Howard Thurman

"The early Christians were known for the way they lived, not only for what they believed. For them, the two were completely intertwined. The earliest title given to them reflected the importance of their kingdom lifestyle. They were not called the people of "the experience" or the people of "right doctrine" or even the people of "the church." Rather, they were the people of "the Way." It is equally significant that the Christians were known as "the people" of the Way. More than just individuals who had been converted, they were now a people, a new community of faith, which had embarked together on a new way of life. To follow Jesus meant to share Jesus' life and to share it with others." - Jim Wallis

  

"An inner truth always has a corresponding outer reality. Our interdependence is woven through the fabric of the universe. The painful, fearful, wonderful message of the modern world is that we are members one of the other, and that we cannot live if we are not in communion with each other. The world, even for the hard of learning, is turning out to be one great household--every woman, my sister; every man, my brother."  

- Elizabeth O'Connor

  

"Since my youth, I think that I have never lost the intuition that community life could be a sign that God is love, and love alone. Gradually the conviction took shape in me that it was essential to create a community with men determined to give their whole life and who would always try to understand one another and be reconciled, a community where kindness of heart and simplicity would be at the centre of everything."  

- Brother Roger of Taize 

  

"Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language... It is to say, "My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours." 
- A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed." - Desmond Tutu

"A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each others lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves."
- Wendell Berry

"The kingdom of God is the rule of weak forces like patience and forgiveness, which, instead of forcibly exacting payment for an offense, release and let go. The kingdom of God is found whenever war and aggression are met with an offer of peace. The kingdom is a way of living, not in eternity, but in time, a way of living without why, living for the day, like the lilies of the field-figures of weak forces-as opposed to mastering and programming time, calculating the future, containing and managing risk. The kingdom reigns wherever the least and most undesirable are favored while the best and most powerful are put on the defensive. The powerless power of the kingdom prevails whenever the one is preferred to the ninety-nine, whenever one love's one enemies and hates one's father and mother while the world, which believes in power counsels us to fend off our enemies and keep the circle of kin and kind, of family and friends, fortified and tightly drawn." -John Caputo  

 

What are some quotes that describe your understanding of the word and reality of community?  How do you define "community"? 

  

See you soon at Turk and Lyon!

 

Peace,

Will

 

St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church

415-987-3029

[email protected]


 
Help make worship happen at St. Cyprian's  
 
Want to read, greet folks, acolyte, and/or lead a prayer in church on Sunday at St. Cyprian's? email Hannah & she'll set you up:
[email protected]


Want to sing or play an instrument?
Email on Sunday music coordinator, Nikola:
n[email protected]

For more information email Philip Gerrie:
 
PARENTS NIGHT OUT
This Friday, July 20th 


Parker enjoying an African drum and dance lesson
at last Parents Night Out  

Parents - - when was the last time you had a night out without your kids? This Friday July 20th can be your chance because Cyprian's arc is hosting the second round of Parents Night Out!
 
Details:
* Kids ages 4-12
* 15 kids max
* Drop-off  time 5:45 pm to 6:00 pm
* Pick-up 8:45 pm to 9:00 pm
* Kids must be signed-in by a parent or guardian
* Earlier pick-ups ok but kids must be "signed-out" by a parent or guardian before leaving
 
*Pizza/snacks/drinks will be provided for the children at Parents Night Out. 
* Child-care provided by USF students and other experienced child-care providers with at least one adult for every five kids and with a supervisor present at all times. 
 
$30 for first kid
$20 for second
$15 for third 
 
To register for July 20 or August 11 Parents Night Out, email
[email protected]. There are still spots open for this Friday!
 

JULY'S Free Community Dinner at St. Cyprian's
Thursday, July 26
at 7 p.m.

Join us next Thursday, July 26th for this month's free*  community dinner made with gleaned produce from San Francisco farmers' markets.

There will be a kitchenware and recipe swap during the event - have more wooden spoons than you know what to do with? Bring a few and you might be able to grab that perfect size whisk you've been lusting after! Have just the right amount of everything in your kitchen? Then you probably have some awesome recipes to share in our recipe swap! 

*We're happy to accept a donation to help us cover costs (utilities, transportation, and coordination). 

Want to help cook, set-up or clean up? Email Kristina: 

July & August @ cyprian's arts. resilience. community

   
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FLOWER DONATIONS
 
Would you like to commemorate or honor a loved one at an upcoming Sunday service at St. Cyprian's? Flower arrangements may be given for a special birthday or anniversary, or to honor a loved one, whether living or deceased.
For more information email Dustin Cole
[email protected]

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St. Cyprian's

In January, 2011 St. Cyprian's began sending weekly e-newsletters. You can find an archive of all these messages here. Forward messages and invite friends, neighbors, and distant congregants to join our list.  
St. Cyprian's is a congregation emboldened by the opportunity to engage with our energized urban neighborhood to create a community
where everyone matters.