A Message from Pastor Kaji
Dear Church:
I know that you will join me in giving thanks for our Regional Minister, Rev. Thad Allen, who preached for us last Sunday. His presence matters so much.
I will be back in the pulpit this Sunday with the sermon “Say Her Name.” Our scripture is the genealogy of Jesus retold as a matrilineage. All of the names are there in the Gospel. They always have been. What changes is the choice to gather them, to speak them aloud, and to notice what happens when the story of Jesus is no longer told as though women were footnotes or interruptions rather than carriers of the promise itself. I am excited to enter this scripture with you and to listen together for what God reveals when erasure is no longer allowed to have the final word.
Thank you to everyone who supported The Park Sets the Table for Thanksgiving. Your generosity helped our neighbors prepare their tables and mark the day with dignity and care.
We are now preparing 50 Christmas meal kits, and we need you! Many of you have already signed up, and I am grateful. We still need additional volunteers for packaging on Sunday the 21st and for distribution on Monday the 22nd.
This Sunday is also the final Sunday to bring new, unwrapped toys for the children served by La Hermosa. After worship, the gifts will be delivered directly to the church. Thank you for continuing to show up for families who rely on this care during the season.
We are also sharing the list of elected officers (see below) who will begin their service at the start of the year, as well as thanking our outgoing leaders who are completing their terms. We give thanks for their time, their labor, and their faithfulness, and we hold both groups in prayer as one season of leadership closes and another begins.
I look forward to being with you on Sunday. Advent invites us to look again at what we thought we knew, to notice who has been missing from the telling, and to trust that God meets us when we are willing to dig deeper.
Scripture Preview
Matthew 1:1–16
A genealogy of Jesus Christ told through the women whose lives carried the story forward. This text is adapted from A Genealogy of Jesus Christ, compiled by Ann Patrick Ware of the Women’s Liturgy Group of New York and shared in the public domain.
Study Guide
1. As you hear the genealogy told through the women, what do you notice that you have not noticed before, and what does that change for you?
2. This text raises questions of erasure and choice. Who gets named, who goes unnamed, and who decides. Where do you see similar patterns at work in scripture, in the church, or in the world around you?
3. What might God be saying to us about faith, growth, and responsibility when we choose to look beneath the surface of familiar stories and recover what has been left out?
Pastor Kaji
A genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of Miriam, the daughter of Anna: Sarah was the mother of Isaac, And Rebekah was the mother of Jacob, Leah was the mother of Judah, Tamar was the mother of Perez. The names of the mothers of Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon and Salmon have been lost. Rahab was the mother of Boaz, and Ruth was the mother of Obed. Obed’s wife, whose name is unknown, bore Jesse. The wife of Jesse was the mother of David. Bathsheba was the mother of Solomon, Naamah, the Ammonite, was the mother of Rehoboam. Maacah was the mother of Abijam and the grandmother of Asa. Azubah was the mother of Jehoshaphat. The name of Jehoram’s mother is unknown. Athaliah was the mother of Ahaziah, Zibiah of Beersheba, the mother of Joash. Jecoliah of Jerusalem bore Uzziah, Jerusha bore Jotham; Ahaz’s mother is unknown. Abi was the mother of Hezekiah, Hephzibah was the mother of Manasseh, Meshullemeth was the mother of Amon, Jedidah was the mother of Josiah. Zebidah was the mother of Jehoiakim, Nehushta was the mother of Jehoiachin, Hamutal was the mother of Zedekiah. Then the deportation of Babylon took place. After the deportation to Babylon the names of the mothers go unrecorded. These are their sons: Jechoniah, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor and Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, and Joseph, the husband of Miriam. Of her was born Jesus who is called Christ. The sum of generations is there: fourteen from Sarah to David’s mother; fourteen from Bathsheba to the Babylonian deportation; and fourteen from the Babylonian deportation to Miriam, the mother of Christ.
(“A Genealogy of Jesus Christ” was compiled by Ann Patrick Ware of the Women’s Liturgy Group of New York, who has graciously put this text in the public domain for all to use.)
2025 Nominations Slate — Elected Officials
Below is the slate of elected leaders affirmed during the Congregational Meeting.
We are grateful for each individual’s willingness to serve and lead within our community.
Ministry Council
- Jasmin Andrews
- Candace Ballard
- Andrew Ellis
- Rhonda Henderson
- Sharon Jenkins
- Vanessa Lindley
- Johnson Liu
- Valerie Mitchell
- Yohon Tatum
Elders
- Brandy Andrews
- Candace Ballard
- Bonnie English
- Khaleigh Laicher
- Johnson Liu
- Beth Mandelbaum
- Stephen Sekyiamah
- The Rev. Dr. Tanya Williams †
† Minister Elder
Deacons
- Amanda Cathers
- Benjamin Cathers
- Patti Cathers
- Patricia Dorsett
- Patrik Dousa
- Julianna Laicher
- Talik Lewis
- Yohon Tatum
- Maxwell Wallace *
- William Walker
- Langford Wiggins *
* Associate Deacon
Nominations Team
- Brandy Andrews
- Candace Ballard
- Benjamin Cathers
- Sharon Jenkins
- Johnson Liu
- Yohon Tatum
