News

My beloved Mt. Tam Church,

Does life before the pandemic and shelter in place seem like a long ago memory? This week, as Governor Newsom unveiled the plan for churches to return to in-person worship, I had to think long and hard about what it was like to be together in worship in the sanctuary! In fact, we have been away from our sanctuary only since March 22—that’s how quickly we pivoted (love that word!) and moved to online worship. Now, we are pivoting again as we are given the green light to begin plans for moving back. Today’s letter serves as an update. 

There are two sources of authority that will guide our return to in-person worship, meetings, events, and rentals. The first is Marin County, for the Governor, has given each county the authority to specialize its own plan for the best practices locally. The second is the Annual Conference, through the office of the Bishop, as she guides our churches with safety and health in mind. With those two sources as our primary guides and using other informational resources, we are beginning to craft plans for our return. First and foremost, we will not return to in-person worship until we know we are ready and safe to do so—and even after our return, the services will continue to be available online.

This is a kind of “hybrid” programming, of in-person and online that will continue for the time being. We are preparing the physical spaces by determining best products and practices for cleaning, disinfecting, and training for the custodians, as well as ourselves. Touchless hand sanitizing stations, masks, and instant-read thermometers will be arriving soon. We have assessed each room in the church, as well as the large outdoor space between Fellowship Hall and the sanctuary, for social distancing capacity. We will begin the staff trainings required by the County in the next two weeks. We are also developing guidelines for renters, with the church being indoors, including requiring the wearing of masks, social distancing, and other safety precautions.  There are many checkmarks and forms that we must hurdle before we can return to our buildings. As we move forward, you will be kept informed about actions taken and next steps.

I hope to have a congregational conversation “town hall” via Zoom in about 3 weeks so we can all share how we are doing and how we will come back together. More information on that gathering will follow. In the meantime, we will continue to worship online—this week is Pentecost! So get out some red—a cloth for your table or a red shirt—and plan on welcoming the Holy Spirit into your home worship this week!

For the summer, our worship theme will be based on The Book of Joy (you may remember we did this as a summer project in 2017), based on the book of the title with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Because we can all use more joy, JUMP FOR JOY will be an 8-10 part series in worship, with a home devotional. I believe it is a timely topic and it will strengthen our spirits and faith in these times. 

If you have any questions as we move forward, please email me at pastorkim@mtumc.org. Also if you have any expertise and/or are interested in helping with the large project of getting ready to return, please let me know. We need all the help we can get! With gratitude to God for all good gifts, including you. 

In peace,

Pastor Kim

My beloved Mt. Tam Church,

Last week, I was feeling a bit low, missing in-person interactions with my congregation, and really missing worshipping together in the sanctuary.
Online worship is great, but I miss you all! Then, an email came from Nicole Collman and her son, Cameron, with the message that Cam was thinking about his school’s service project and what would I think about him “being church” while we worship online and take up the Food Bank offering in some form? “Thank you, God,” is what I thought and so below, please find a message from Cam. I hope you participate–big time! Remember, we enter the kingdom “like a child,” and even though Cam is almost a teenager and no child, he is definitely leading us.
Peace,
Pastor Kim

“We also celebrate Owen Hubbard’s gathering of food from his neighbors for the Food Bank for his school project.”

FROM CAM COLLMAN:

Greetings Mt. Tam Church! You may know that people are lining up hungry for hours to get food from food banks. Some of these people never thought they would need to use a food bank, but with the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of many jobs, this has become a significant problem. 

I am working on a school service project and was motivated by a news story about families waiting for hours to meet their basic food needs. I decided to do my project on collecting community donations for the food bank. I realized that our church has not been able to collect a food bank offering each Sunday because we are all worshiping from home. I thought a good project would be to collect food donations from the church members’ homes and bring those donations to the SF Marin Food Bank. Here is what I am planning to do and how you can help:

My Mom will drive me to your home and I will collect your food donation from your front porch, door, gate, driveway, etc. on Friday, May 22nd by 3:00 PM. If you would like to participate, please contact me below and I will add you to my route that day. Please donate what you are comfortable with.
I will plan to do this once per month until we are able to make our food bank donations in the church again.

I hope that this will help people who are hungry get the food they need.
Thank you!
Cameron Collman

To request a food bank offering pick-up, pleaseCall: 415-384-8835 or email: nicolecollman@gmail.com or Text: 415-608-4016

My beloved Mt. Tam Church,

With the light loosening up on the shelter-in-place rules, the church once again pivots! The first pivot was coming from the sanctuary to converting into online worship in less than one week…the steepest learning curve I’ve ever climbed. Now, as we anticipate more fully towards a return into in person worship, we pivot to a big question:

WHAT WILL THE POST-COVID 19 CHURCH LOOK LIKE?

Over the next few weeks, we will be addressing that question, for ourselves, with staff and church leaders and with the entire congregation. We are ramping up our equipment for video and audio recording, preparing our rooms for safety and sanitation, and thinking of new ways of “being church” in the months and years to come. Watch the Faith Matters for invitations to events for this discussion. And if you have a special interest in the church’s online presence via the website, live streaming, and programming, please let me know. 

It’s great to have good news to share this week! Through the federal stimulus package Payroll Protection Program for Small Businesses and Nonprofit Corporations, we received a loan/grant for 8 weeks of our staff costs!! With that said, first comes thanks to God for generosity and grace. We also give thanks to everyone who made the application and follow-up possible: Laurie Cummings, Marilyn Angelo, Ivania Miranda, Allen Barr, and Lynn Barr.  Everyone gave their time and talent. Furthermore, without Lynn’s tenacity and perseverance in finding a lender and seeing through all the minute details, it might not have happened! The money is in the bank and now, we are learning about the best practices for using the funds. Thanks be to God!

Good news—new ways of being church. What a week to be grateful.

Peace,

Pastor Kim

My beloved Mt. Tam Church,+

Go by the church property and it looks like the church is closed. But that is far from the truth! Mt. Tam Church is active, alive, and moving—through virtual and online services, groups, classes and care. We’ve concluded this year’s youth confirmation class, “Confirm not Conform,” online and have a great group of middle schoolers ready to be confirmed when we are back together in person. We’ve launched an online coffee hour following worship—a few more moments with each other to share and check in. (see link near bottom of email to register for coffee hour on zoom) The only downside: you have to supply your own coffee and goodies! (I miss Evelyn’s liver pate!) And of course, there is Godly Play and worship….
Now a new opportunity: starting next Tuesday, May 5th, the Tuesday Engaging Faith group is opening to new participants at the start of the study of Rachel Held Evans’ book, “Inspired.” A combination of Bible study, personal reflection and contemporary critique, Evans gives us an intelligent and accessible place to start discussion of issues ranging from the role of faith in political life to interpretations of the Bible. Since you are at home right now, perhaps with a bit more flexibility in your time, maybe it’s time to join in! The class is ongoing; this study will last 6-8 weeks. If you are interested, please email me at pastorkim@mtumc.org and I will send the Zoom link to you. The book is easily available online—we recommend using local book stores such as Book Passage.
In last Sunday’s sermon, I read a prayer/poem from Belfast Ireland, resourced to me by Betty Pagett. Many of you have asked for a copy. Here it is! And I look forward to ‘seeing you’ for online breakfast church on Sunday!
Peace,

Pastor Kim

When you go out and see the empty streets,
the empty stadiums, the empty train platforms,
don’t say to yourself, “It looks like the end of the world.”
What you’re seeing is love in action.
What you’re seeing, in that negative space,
is how much we do care for each other,
for our grandparents, our parents, our brothers, and sisters,
for people, we will never meet.
People will lose jobs over this.
Some will lose their businesses.
And some will lose their lives.
All the more reason to take a moment, when you’re out on your walk,
or on your way to the store, or just watching the news,
to look into the emptiness and marvel at all of that love.
Let it fill you and sustain you.
It isn’t the end of the world.
It is the most remarkable act of global solidarity we may ever witness.

My beloved Mt. Tam Church,

 Happy Easter!  I am grateful to God that Easter is not just a day but a season, 8 Sundays to sing and cry out, “Christ is risen!”  I am encouraged by your strong and loving participation in online worship—reading the comments on Monday morning is like a shot of grace and love.  It seems like we’re doing okay with the live streaming format—well, that is, if the pastor remembers to turn on her microphone!  Thank goodness we have a professional sound engineer running the show!  Who knew that the pastor’s family would become the production team (along with Jeff Brown!) for online church? And online we shall be, at least for the foreseeable future. I miss you all so much in person and yet, for the sake of all of us, we will remain online. And at home—which will become our focus for Easter season. “The Heart of the Matter at Mt. Tam Church” is based on a series developed by Dr. Marcia McFee, adapted for worship at home and online. I’m calling it “breakfast church!” You are invited to be at your table with whoever is your family at home at 10:30 on Sundays—our service will be interactive and aimed at people of all ages. We’ll pray together, light a candle together, bless the food (or coffee or whatever you have at hand), “break open” God’s Word through reading and reflection, pray and give thanks. All in about 30 minutes—all while at your table at home. So, get ready for “Heart of the Matter!” And let us give thanks to God for the blessings that are with us even in this most challenging and difficult time.  

Peace,

Pastor Kim

My beloved Mt. Tam Church,

Christ is risen!  Alleluia!

Even though we cannot be physically present with one another in the sanctuary this Easter, we will be together online and in our homes to welcome the resurrected Lord!  For our homes are not tombs, but sacred places of safety and love in which the Risen Christ already dwells! Our hearts, while sometimes heavy, afraid, and uncertain in the current times, are the home of the living Spirit that moves in God’s world, even here, even now.  So this Sunday, let us be of good cheer and worship together in love and faith. Let each of us push away the stones at the mouth of the tomb and with the Spirit of Mary proclaim:  Christ is risen! Along with thanksgiving and joy!

Peace

Pastor Kim