I hope you had a joyous World Communion Sunday yesterday. We on Presbytery staff had fun putting together resources for World Communion Sunday, and I was gratified to hear from a few churches that they were helpful to you. As I sometimes say in a prideful moment, for San Gabriel Presbytery, we are the world, and the world is us, and this service is a glimpse of that. The timing could have been a little better, though, since we were also preparing for an equally joyous Presbytery meeting, and helping with two major congregational meetings on Zoom and several other tasks. I’m just thankful that we didn’t get evacuated from the Bobcat fire in the midst of it!

Some of the elements in the service can be used other times, so you’re welcome to go to our World Communion Sunday Google Drive and see what might be helpful to you.

Now that we’ve considered Christ’s church gathering at the Lord’s Table all around the world, we might also consider more deeply the land on which God has placed us. Next week, on October 12, we remember what is traditionally called “Columbus Day,” commemorating Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas. More recently, people have also called this day “Indigenous Peoples Day,” raising the fact that people have been living in this land for many centuries prior to Columbus “discovering” it, and that these people suffered due to the expansion of immigrants from Europe.

The more spiritually damaging aspect of this migration was the “Doctrine of Discovery,” the religious and legal construct that had been upheld by United States and international law, justifying claims of ownership of lands that were taken from indigenous peoples. The Presbyterian Church (USA), along with several other denominations, has repudiated this and apologized for our complicity in perpetuating it. Each level of the church is also expected to recognize and show respect for the peoples who inhabited the land before our ancestors settled on it.

In last November’s Presbytery meeting, we acknowledged the people who have lived in the Los Angeles-San Gabriel Valley area, the Tongva people. Utilizing a wonderful resource on Native American Day (which used to be recognized in September, but seems to be missing from our calendar now), we worshipped for reconciliation with our indigenous siblings in Christ, including the Tongva people but also recognizing Taiwanese and Hawaiian peoples, with whom our Presbytery members have roots. Click HERE for a copy of this worship service, in case you would like to use some of the resources or the brief historical overview of the people who have lived in this area, perhaps for as long as 8,000 years.

We know that the question of land rights is an ancient one. The scripture I reference from Joshua 24 is an inversion of the more frequently used description of God’s shalom, the fulfillment of God’s will of justice and peace for all:

They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat.                       Isaiah 65:21-22a

As we know, the book of Joshua chronicles the conquest of the land of Canaan by the people of Israel, which according to the Bible was God’s gift to God’s chosen. Joshua 24:13 is in fact the culmination of Joshua’s report to the people of Israel of God’s care throughout their history, as the basis for their covenant of loyalty to YHWH. The challenge is: what looks like mercy for the people of Israel, was conquest for the people of Canaan. And it has been too easy for later conquerors to justify their taking of native lands as God’s will.

In North America, the conquest of this land has resulted in Native Americans losing their land and true sovereignty, and they have lost countless lives through exposure to foreign disease, expulsion, violence, and intergenerational trauma. Most recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) reported that the incidence of Covid-19 cases among American Indians and Alaska Natives was 3.5 times more than the rate of White people. The Navajo Nation has lost more people to Coronavirus than 13 states. I was in a meeting recently, and one of the participants is Native American; she started to list the community leaders they had lost already, and it was daunting. And a few weeks ago, Bong Bringas and I heard of the death of colleague Rev. Cecil Corbett, due to Covid-19. Cecil, a Nez Perce/Choctaw pastor member of Inland Northwest Presbytery in Spokane, was a long-time leader of our denomination and co-writer of the hymn “O God the Creator,” which is in the blue Presbyterian Hymnal, #273 (note that the hymn was meant to be sung to the tune “They’ll Know We Are Christians”).

There are different times when a church might recognize the peoples whose land we now inhabit; I often think of this as part of the November Thanksgiving season. My hope is that as we seek Christ’s realm of justice and peace, we seek that justice and peace for all peoples. And as we consider the ways God has given us so much privilege and power—over the rest of Creation and even over other less-resourced peoples—we use this privilege and power in a way that Christ might want us to do. May we add our efforts to God’s will of shalom for this world, a shalom where all are fed, all are respected, all are free to live and work in God’s vineyards together.

In Christ’s peace,

After weeks of heat, smoke, ash, and flames, I stepped outside for a bit on Saturday morning and thought I was hallucinating. The air was cool and damp; in fact it was misting! It felt like a miracle, and was a wonderful reminder of God’s providence before our Presbytery meeting this last weekend.

Our Saturday meeting was our second Zoom-based meeting, and we continued to look for ways to utilize the possibilities of meeting through the internet. We were able to meet and receive Lisa Hansen, new pastor and head of staff for

Pasadena Presbyterian Church, as she was on the road on her way from Texas to California. On the suggestion of GA commissioner N’Yisrela Watts-Afriyie, we also gave people a glimpse of the first on-line General Assembly by playing videos of Stated Clerk J. Herbert Nelson, which we played for our opening prayer and benediction.

We also experienced the video production talents of several of our younger Presbytery members such as Becca Bateman, who produced videos for the Tapestry Youth Work Week

and the upcoming WinterFest training event. As a couple of us remarked via chat, the WinterFest video made us tear up out of love and gratitude for our San Gabriel Presbytery. Ally Lee coordinated the Call to Worship, led by youth and children from several of our churches. Lauren Evans produced the Scripture readings in Korean, Arabic, Kikuyu, Thai, Farsi and German, hearing the voices of San Gabriel members and friends: Heidi Park (from Seoul), Maher Makar (from Temple City), Priscilla Ngunju (from South Pasadena), Esther Wakeman (from Chiang Mai), and Ryan White (from Berlin).

And Lauren and Jennifer Ackerman produced music videos for worship.

Several of these videos are being offered as parts of a World Communion Sunday virtual service, which will be available for churches early this week. We have enjoyed receiving musical offerings from several churches as well, so churches can choose the music they want, and all or select parts of the worship service. If you’d like to see what is available and download what you want, go to https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1J_ef_B3rZlMeA8mjF0S0eKuOTW8vJJ8N?usp=sharing.

With the WinterFest video, our Education, Equipping, and Empowerment Committee announced a new approach this coming year. Rather than one day, where attendees are limited to only two workshops, this WinterFest will be held throughout the week of February 1-6, 2021, all online. The sessions will be recorded, and saved as the beginnings of a resource library of trainings on diverse topics for church leaders. And the week culminates in a plenary celebration and worship service on Saturday, February 6. Details and registration information will be available at https://sangabpres.org/wf/

We also met several new friends who are helping us with some new initiatives. Rae Huang, lead organizer with LA Voice, described the voter education work they are doing, and the inaugural Belong Circle, a relationship-building small group approach to help us connect better across differences. We will start the first group on October 13 with a select group of leaders to “beta test” this curriculum.

Tapestry is organizing a larger Belong Circle for youth, and we are inviting young people from any of our churches to participate. Contact Ashley Roque at mailto:ashleylroque@gmail.com if you are interested.

LA Voice has also played a crucial role in helping us envision an exciting new use for the site of our Baldwin Park church property. We hope to use this property for affordable housing and transitional housing for asylum seekers. We are grateful for the multiple ways our mission work is strengthened through our partnership with LA Voice, so this meeting’s offering was designated towards LA Voice; if you would like to contribute, go to https://sangabpres.org/donate/ and designate your gift “to Presbytery Offering” and we will send it to them.

Speaking of asylum seekers, Kristi Van Nostran gave an update on our Immigrant Accompaniment Ministry.  What an inspiration!  This past year we helped 85 people transition out of Adelanto Detention Center, and when we were able, Kristi hosted visits to Adelanto, enabling us to show our support in person. This ministry has been so effective that we received a grant from a mission partner in Claremont, and another year grant from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. This coming year Kristi will be working with San Gabriel and now Riverside Presbytery.

Of course, we heard several reports—on finances, revisions to our Presbytery Employment Handbook, Representation, and we got two excellent perspectives from GA commissioners Maria Cacarnakis and N’Yisrela Watts-Afriyie. Stated Clerk Diane Frasher announced the schedule of Presbytery meetings for 2021: in addition to WinterFest February 1-6, Presbytery meetings will be held January 26 (7 pm), March 20, June 19, September 18, and November 16 (7 pm).

We heard about the funds offered to all churches, to help alleviate the financial challenges from COVID- 19: $2,000 for every active church and fellowship, and 10 churches requesting and receiving $10,000 grants. We also heard from three of the national church agencies: René Myers on the Matthew 25 initiative at Presbyterian Mission Agency, Maggie Harmon from Presbyterian Foundation, and Mickie Choi from Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program; blessings to Mickie especially, as she will be retiring at the end of 2020. And we heard from Veronica Ota from Wyoming, who was enrolled as a CPM Inquirer, and Sam Bang, who will be starting a new worshiping community in Rowland Heights.

As our churches have learned, there are certain advantages to this technology. We are getting better attendance than in physical meetings: 150 participants on Saturday. We are able to connect with friends near and far. We weren’t able to gather at San Marino Community Church, who was scheduled to host us, but San Marino’s Jessica Vaughn Lower celebrated communion with us.

All in all, this meeting gave us inspiring glimpses into the life of our presbytery, highlighted some exciting ministries we are offering, and celebrated the connections with the larger church. In the midst of uncertainty and challenge, our churches and all levels of the Presbyterian Church (USA) are finding ways to be a beacon of hope and light for ourselves and this hurting world, a reflection of the glory of our God. Thanks be to God!

In Christ’s peace,

Wendy

These past few months have been a series of transitions for many of us. Our daily routines have changed. Many routines require more thought and energy than ever before. Who knew that preaching a sermon could take three to four takes with additional work to edit the video? Not to mention learning how to edit the video in the first place. Or that connecting with people we normally see every day would require learning new technologies to be able to see their faces. We are exhausted from learning new ways of being in the world. Even for those of us who are digital natives, the speed of the transition has taken its toll.

As many of you know I work part-time with the Presbytery of San Gabriel as the Presbyter for Administration and the Associate Stated Clerk. My other part-time job is as the Associate Pastor at Knox Presbyterian Church. One of the areas that I oversee at Knox is our children’s program. Over the past few weeks, we have been going through Compassion Camp by Illustrated Ministry. This curriculum written as a virtual VBS teaches basic skills for building compassion and this week’s theme is loving yourself. What this curriculum highlights is that in order to love others well, we must learn to love ourselves. If the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, then we have our work cut out for us to learn how to love well.

When I was younger, this passage from Philippians 2 was taught in such a way that I thought caring for myself was an act of conceit. Being humble required putting aside your own needs. The exhortation was to serve as Christ served and that required humiliation. However, what I think those teachers missed in their exegesis was that there is a distinction between conceit and self-care. An even great distinction between tending to your needs and selfish ambition. I wonder how often we have tangled up those ideas and at who’s expense? If we are only able to love others as well as we love ourselves, then how well are we caring for our neighbors?

My question for us this week is how are you learning to love yourself? In this season of transition and new learnings, how do you show yourself kindness? I encourage you to take some time this week to reflect on these questions. Then, take some more time to find a practice or an activity that will nourish your soul or give you respite.

Grace and peace,

Ally

I’ve been working as the presbytery’s Chaplain to Retired Church Workers now for a little over three years now, and I’ve come to know a number of the Honorably Retired members of our community. I’ve had the chance to listen to the stories of folks who have lived lives of service in ways that they never could have predicted – lived through extraordinary circumstances that they could never have anticipated. This has been a constant theme, especially among the stories from our retired missionaries: being willing to let God lead the way. This means letting God lead even when that means leaving friends and family and one’s home in order to do God’s mission work as strangers in strange lands. It means letting God lead even when that means finding oneself living a life that was never expected, that didn’t work out the way they’d planned, and yet finding that their life was still filled to the brim with life abundant.

What can we learn from our Honorably Retired community during this particularly unprecedented time in our history? Certainly this year has unfolded in ways none of us had anticipated. What have they learned about bending with the circumstances, acting like bamboo that moves with the stormy winds and survives instead of like the oak that cracks and falls?

One of the gifts that comes with hearing the stories of our retired church workers means getting a chance to see the overarching narrative of God’s hand in the life of another. And it truly has been an enormous gift — it is so easy for us to get lost in the midst of this immediate moment. And getting lost in the midst of the demands of the immediate world means finding our gaze directed almost anywhere else but at God. It becomes so very easy to ignore or even forget that God is the one at the helm of our lives, and that God is playing the long game. We may look at the fraction of life that is in front of us and wonder where God is, failing to see that God has been at work in shaping our journeys from our first steps in the world and will continue through our very last breaths.

Getting the chance to sit down with some of our retired church workers and listening to them tell the story of their journeys makes God’s active presence in their lives much easier to see, however. Telling our story means taking a step back in perspective, as though we had been standing too close to a painting in an art museum but finally walked far enough to see what was really going on. And as our retired church workers have taken those backward steps with me to look at their lives together, the clear guidance of God’s hand through every step becomes obvious.

I am relatively young in my ministry, and in the grand scheme of things even young in my own journey with God, but the gift of my work with our HRs and their families is in the realization that just as God has guided and continues to guide their steps in extraordinary and unexpected ways, so too does God guide my own steps. As I listen to the stories of others, I hear God

calling gently to me to take a step back in my own life, to see the whole of my story so far, to see God’s hand in my journey and to have the hope and trust in God to lead me still in the years to come.

There is much to learn when we look backwards, because it reminds us of the constancy of God’s presence in our future. What would change about your own perspective this week if you took a moment to look back, to tell your own story of faith and ministry? What from your history gives you hope for the future, or helps you trust that God is with you in this immediate moment?

In grace, Lauren Evans

Chaplain to Retired Church Workers