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Let’s Talk: 2020 Annual Gathering Theme

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By Conference Minister Diane Weible Last week in our newsletter, our Moderator, Eppie Encabo, shared information about our 2020 Annual Gathering plans. Today I want to take some time to explain the theme, “The Elephant in the Room.” The decision for the theme comes from a well-known parable that originated in India, “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” The origins of this can be traced to sacred texts of the Buddhist, Hindu and Jain faith traditions. In this parable, several blind men come across an elephant and because they have never encountered an elephant before, they use their sense of…

By Davena Jones

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Let’s Talk: About the Fires

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By Conference Minister Diane Weible My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by the fires that broke out this past weekend. From the loss of homes and businesses, to the very real and imminent fire danger, to being packed up and ready to go if told to evacuate, to wanting to offer their church building for those evacuated but knowing that they too might soon be in the evacuation zone which would mean disrupting people a second time, to medical devices that couldn’t run without power, to trips to urgent care to get relief from the smoke.…

By Davena Jones

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Let’s Talk: About Dust Bunnies

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By Conference Minister Diane Weible When my children were young, one of our favorite movies was, My Neighbor Totoro, a 1988 Japanese animated film by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Early in the movie, the family moves out to an abandoned farm outside of the busy city. They begin to open windows and doors to let in the light and the breeze and then, as they clean their new house, the animated dust bunnies come to life and scurry away. Their darkness, where they were allowed to grow and multiply, has been disturbed. They have nowhere to go but away.…

By Davena Jones

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Let’s Talk: About Becoming Aware

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By Conference Minister Diane Weible As a white, cisgender, female Christian, I live in a world where I take things for granted and don’t always see what I need to see. And, I’m working on it. I’m working on seeing the world around me in new ways and seeking to find new awareness. A few weeks ago, I was trying to explain to my daughters the work I’m doing in this area and I was receiving a lot of pushback. They reminded me that they grew up in Japan where they were the only white children in their school. And,…

By Davena Jones

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Let’s Talk: About Power

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By Conference Minister Diane Weible I’ve been thinking about power this week. I’m sure you all have too. I just want to take a few minutes to reflect on the power of the Holy Spirit. We sometimes get so caught up in our day-to-day “to do” list. It feels that there is so much to do and just not enough hours in the day. When we finally call it quits at the end of a long day, we start thinking about what is going to happen tomorrow. Our personal power sources get depleted quickly. I recently returned from a wonderful vacation…

By Davena Jones

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Why We Give: First Congregational Church of Redwood City

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Fifteen years ago, when our congregation was struggling to keep the doors open, pay staff, and remain good stewards of our campus, we reached out to the Northern California Nevada Conference (NCNC) for help. They were available to listen to our concerns and fears, point us toward resources, and help us formulate our thoughts into a solid plan allowing us to move forward as a community of faith. During this challenging time, we donated very little to Our Church’s Wider Mission (OCWM), so we are extremely grateful to the churches who were able to give a portion of their own…

By Davena Jones

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New Website Launch

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We're thrilled to launch our new website as part of a multi-year information services upgrade. Since our last redesign in 2016, we've rethought our website from the ground up. Tighter integration across all of our information technology means more responsive, efficient service for our stakeholders along with streamlined workflows for our staff and volunteers. Between now and the end of 2019, you'll notice new features and new functionality come online. Of course, with any change comes a period of adjustment. In order to ease that adjustment, we've created a list of commonly-used resources on our website -- along with an…