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President's Message - February 2023

Thanks for the great turnout at the January 22 Annual Meeting. It was so good to see so many Park Churchers gathered together ratify our purpose (and the budget!).


I will speak for myself here, but I know this may apply to others – I had almost given up on the Christian church with all its political push me-pull you and the homophobia, misogyny, and arrogance. I’m so glad I found you all! And slowly but surely, Rev. Gary is eroding the calcified layers of my resistance to knowing about the teachings of the historical Jesus and how what we can excavate about him holds such powerful relevance to contemporary culture.


I am a retired person, but I am not done with work – I still want to see what there is out there that I can help move forward. My grandmother used to say, ”In this world there are two kinds of people, there are lifters and there are leaners.” I know that joining with you, we can give a mighty lift.


This came across my feed recently:

  •  If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your body, a roof over your head, a place to sleep, you’re richer that 75% of the entire world.

  • If you have money in your wallet, and you can go anywhere you want, you are among 18% of the world’s most wealthy people.

  • If you are alive today, and healthy, you are more blessed than the millions of people who will not survive this week and will die.

  • If you can actually read and understand this message, you are more fortunate that the three billion people in the world who are blind, deaf or illiterate.

  • Life is not about complaining. Life is about thousands of other reasons to be grateful and happy.

And to this I would add, “So it’s time to get busy!”


One notion that consultant Paul Nixon heard us articulate most succinctly, when he visited and listened to us in December, was that our legacy as a congregation founded on social justice can guide our desire to grow Park today.


(To read his full report, please go to the 2022 Annual Report quick link on our website: theparkchurch.org.)


At the Annual Meeting we approved a new strategic goal: to establish a Social Justice Committee to coordinate activities within our four focus areas: Open and Affirming (O&A); Climate Justice; Racial Justice and Housing Justice. Council will next dive into how this committee will be formed and its charge. So in the meantime, please think about which of these four areas you want to lift up.

We have so much to be grateful for and so much talent to continue to invest in our work as a congregation of lifters. When we meet and work together our efforts are multiplied and our powerlessness is diminished.

See you next Sunday! Jenny

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