Come hear inspiring Word, Worship and Music at the Seventh Annual Absalom Jones Celebration Eucharist at St Cyprians on the corner of Turk and Lyon

The celebration remembers Absalom Jones (1746 - 1818) the first African American priest in the Episcopal Church. Jones, ordained in 1804, was a leading preacher, writer, and abolitionist in the early part of the 19th century. Jones established the tradition of abolitionist sermons on New Year's Eve. He was the founder of the African Episcopal Church of St Thomas, considered the Mother Church of Afro -Anglicans in the United States and was a close friend of Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

This year we are honored to have The Rev Dr Kwasi Thornell, former president of the Union of Black Episcopalians, as our homilist, The Rt Rev Marc Handley Andrus, Bishop of California, as celebrant, and the Stabe Wilson Band as our musical guests. A reception follows the 11 am Eucharist.

The Union of Black Episcopalians and the Afro Anglican Commission of the Diocese of California thank St Cyprian's Episcopal Church for hosting the Celebration this year.  

-The Reverend Eric Metoyer,   

Diocese of California Associate for Congregational Ministries &  

St. Cyprian's Associate Clergy

 

Bishop Swing, retired Bishop of California & founder of URI, to speak at neighboring institution,
The University of San Francisco

 

Bishop Swing to give two addresses at Paul Wattson Lectures

The Rt. Rev. William E. Swing will give lectures on "Laboring in the soil of interfaith" and "Searching for the soul of interfaith" as highlights to the Paul Wattson Lectures at the University of San Francisco on February 25. The lectures will be at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Bishop Swing is the founder and president of the United Religions Initiative and a strong proponent of reconciliation and peace through mutual understanding and cooperation. His visit is co-sponsored by the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement and the University of San Francisco. A free wine and cheese social, open to the public, will follow the afternoon program. The evening will conclude with a dinner with Bishop Swing. There is a charge of $50 for the dinner; proceeds will further the ecumenical work of the Friars of the Atonement. Reservations are required for the dinner. Parking will be found at the Koret Parking Lot at Turk and Parker Avenues.

When: Monday, February 25, 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Where: University of San Francisco, McClaren Building, rooms 251 and 252
Cost: Free (lectures and reception); $50 (dinner with Bishop Swing)
Contact and reservations: the Rev. Sumner Walters, pwlsfo@gmail.com, 415.763.5177

Ash Wednesday & Lent at Turk & Lyon

 

Lent is about mortality and transformation. We begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday with the sign of the cross smeared on our foreheads with ashes as the words are spoken over us, "Dust thou art, and to dust thou wilt return." We begin this season of Lent not only reminded of our death, but also marked for death.

 The Lenten journey, with its climax in Holy Week and Good Friday and Easter, is about participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Put somewhat abstractly, this means dying to an old identity-the identity conferred by culture, by tradition, by parents, perhaps-and being born into a new identity-an identity centered in the Spirit of God. It means dying to an old way of being, and being born into a new way of being, a way of being centered once again in God.

 Put slightly more concretely, this path of death and resurrection, of radical centering in God, may mean for some of us that we need to die to specific things in our lives-perhaps to a behavior or a pattern of behavior that has become destructive or dysfunctional; perhaps to a relationship that has ended or gone bad; perhaps to an unresolved grief that needs to be let go of; perhaps to a career or job that has either been taken from us or that no longer nourishes us; or perhaps even we need to die to a deadness in our lives.  

 You can even die to deadness, and this dying is also oftentimes a daily rhythm in our lives-that daily occurrence that happens to some of us as we remind ourselves of the reality of God in our relationship to God; that reminder that can take us out of ourselves, lift us out of our confinement, take away our feeling of being burdened and weighed down.

 That's the first focal point of a life that takes Jesus seriously: that radical centering in the Spirit of God that is at the very center of the Christian life.

-Dr. Marcus Borg
from "Taking Jesus Seriously"