The Stories We Tell. Or Don’t.
As we engage in the work of the Isaiah Project, especially as we have been examining the history of systemic racism in the East Bay, I’ve been reminded that as communities we often tell stories that remind us of the good parts that have happened, and often keep the more challenging parts at bay.
I had a similar experience when I recently watched the film Oppenheimer. I had not previously realized how much of the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the prime mover behind the creation of the atomic bomb, took place here in Berkeley. As I watched the film, several scenes of which are shot here on campus or in the area, I had a feeling of shock and dismay.
Because while I had the sense that many of the physicists and other scientists here in Berkeley were involved with the Manhattan project, I had no idea of the breadth and depth. So when I saw the places I know so well part of that story, all of the sudden the landscape of my childhood and young adulthood came into sharp focus. Names like Tolman and Lawrence, previously mostly simply place names in my life, took on a whole new meaning.
I have many joyous memories of week-long summer camps at the Lawrence Hall of Science. Those camps, in various rooms of that building shaped like the machine that fueled atomic research, were spaces of wonder and awe. A generation later I dropped my children off for week-long summer camps there, filled with gratitude because of the connection between their joy of discovery and my own. And I remember classes (not always fondly) taken at Tolman Hall. But I was ignorant that the scholars and scientists who we have honored through the naming of buildings and laboratories were so instrumental in the creation of a weapon of which I am so profoundly opposed.
Some of the significance of Oppenheimer for me was found in the willingness of the filmmakers to tell the moral and ethical complexities of the story of the creation of the nuclear bomb. This complexity––especially around Germany’s potential capabilities to build a similar weapon––is something that I have struggled with for much of my adult life, as the capacity for wanton destruction of human life so surpasses anything that we have so far created. And as humans we have been ever more effective at creating weapons that can kill other humans. When the crossbow was first used in European warfare, it was said that it would be a weapon so terrible in it’s ruthless efficiency that it would end war. That was in the 13th century.
That same hope existed for many scientists, here in Berkeley and around the world, that the advent of nuclear armament would end war. I suppose that the shock I experienced in seeing J. Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest O. Lawrence and their fellow physicists doing in the early work to design nuclear bombs here in Berkeley is that this is not a story that I have heard broadly told. There are many stories told about the Nobel laureates who have been associated with the university, but many fewer stories told about the role that these brilliant minds had creating what remains as the greatest risk to not just humankind but much of God’s creation.
So in the end, I am grateful for the story of our community that was told in the film. I’m grateful for it so that we can wrestle with the part that our forebears played in this complex and challenging history. And, I’m grateful for it so that we can be aware and vigilant in the work that is being done now, say in AI, by similarly brilliant minds. Because the stories we tell, and don’t tell, often become the paths that we follow.
Peace,
Phil+
Introducing: Our New Seminarian
Dear All Souls Community,
Thank you for your very warm welcome last Sunday! Contextual learning within the parish is a huge part of seminary, and I am so blessed to be able to spend my time with you all. When I first visited All Souls last fall I was immediately drawn to your vibrant community and welcoming worship. I'm looking forward to learning more about this church, and praying and growing alongside all of you.
I am a second-year seminarian at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, right up the hill on Euclid. I come to you from Yonkers, New York, just north of NYC, where I lived for four years.
I worked at Columbia University supporting social science faculty, and discerned a call to the priesthood at Grace Episcopal Church in Hastings-on-Hudson. I am a Postulant in the Diocese of New York, but I grew up much closer to here in Los Altos, CA, so it has been lovely to ‘come home’ for seminary as most of my family still lives near the Bay Area.
I will be serving with All Souls for the next two academic years and hope to work and learn with a variety of ministries. This semester, I will be focusing on Youth Group and Sunday School, I’ll join you in Stephen Ministry education, and broadly getting to know the Parish. I’m looking forward to spending time with many of you at the Parish Retreat this weekend, where I will be working with children and learning with you about the Isaiah Project.
Finally, I will also be adding to the community of All Souls little ones: my husband Christopher and I will be welcoming our first child around Thanksgiving this year! I am extremely grateful to you all for welcoming me during such a miraculous but also sleepless time of my life. My plan is to serve with you until mid-November, then take a bit of maternity leave and rejoin you in February 2024. Thank you all for your congratulations and warm wishes for my family last Sunday!
Peace be with you,
Harlowe Zefting
Confirmation Reflection
When I reflect back on my confirmation a few days back, I primarily remember the feeling. The feeling that I deeply made the right decision and was where I was meant to be, despite feeling different only a few years back. Being raised in the Episcopal Church and more often than not, feeling that church was somewhat of a chore, it never resonated with me in the way that it does now. I guess I can say that I was too close to my own eye in regards to church. At one point, this idea of church and God didn’t mean much to me at all, but now, it means everything.
I think It’s because I chose to come back completely on my own but more significantly, that I felt a deeper pull or call, if you will. I had the chance to get confirmed back in high school but chose not to, partially out of a natural underlying rebellion that most teens have, but just a lack of deeper emotion surrounding church. Yes, I used to recite the words of prayer in church, but never really felt them, much less believed them to be true. At the end of and soon after my college years, I felt directionless as I think most young adults, and people do.
I had good habits and life was going well, but something deeper was lacking. While it took awhile, I recognized this lack as a lack of God in my life and everything he represents. In my eyes, God is everywhere and in everything so naturally, feeling out of touch with God trickled over into the rest of my life. I began to realize that God isn’t something that is only with us in church, he’s life itself and to me, it’s impossible to be independent of him. To me, this was, and still is a massive paradigm shift as I realize that church is a place to connect with a force that is already always with us, as opposed to an obligation to get into heaven. When I really begin to understand the Episcopal/Christian church as a lifestyle as opposed to a temporary Sunday visit, my life has been shifting in unexplainable ways. So when confirmation came around, I was naturally on the verge of tears throughout most of the ceremony as this commitment to a life, but also the reality of Christ fully began to dawn on me. The music and the cathedral were absolutely breathtaking and they only added onto this deep sense of belonging and truth I walked in with, understanding that we can in fact, change.
–Anikka Wright
A Spanish Office
Dear All Soulsians,
We (Elena Ramirez and Michael Drell) have been wanting to organise the offering of a regular service in Spanish. We wonder if there would be further interest in one of the Daily Offices using the brand new translation of the Book of Common Prayer released last year.
We haven’t yet decided on the frequency or whether the service might be Morning or Evening Prayer or Compline.
Our hope would be for a weekly offering and maybe on Wednesdays. We also haven’t yet discussed the online possibilities, but we would want this to be as accessible as possible, but focused as an in-person gathering for worship with external participation accommodations available. There is certainly the missional possibility of this offering drawing UC Berkeley students or other East Bay Spanish-speaking residents who can’t make it to one of the entirely Spanish language congregations in the Diocese for Sunday worship.
When we took this idea to Phil, he suggested we establish a core team of three to help keep this offering sustainable and well-balanced. That’s where you come in! We still need one more committed person to join us in order to get this ministry started.
We welcome anyone whatever level of Spanish language fluency…or none.
Praying in another language is a wonderful way to start to learn or practise or get reconnected to a language of our heritage. Prayers can feel different in different languages, and we find a multi-lingual prayer life immensely rich for developing a closer and more diversified relationship to God, neighbour, and our siblings in Christ. It is a very exciting time for Latinx ministry in the Anglican Communion now that this long-awaited edition of the BCP has been released with more inclusive and colloquially relevant language.
Ven, ora con nosotros! (Come, pray with us!)
Paz (Peace)
–Elena & Michael
Announcements & Events
Children & Family
Nursery The downstairs nursery is open and available to you for your use whenever you’re at All Souls. This is not a staffed nursery, so an adult must be there with your child, but if you need a quiet place to take a time out, change a diaper, let your child play or take a rest, the nursery is open for you to do all of those things. If there is a service going on that’s being livestreamed, you will be able to watch the livestream on the computer in the nursery as well.
Sunday School
This week join us for Children’s Chapel during the 10:30am service. Kids of all ages are invited to follow the Children’s Chapel leaders down the center aisle after the Gospel reading for a short (~20 min) lesson. Children will rejoin their families before communion.
Starting Sept 24th - we will transition to our new Sunday School curriculum! Sunday School will begin at 10:30am. Children will head downstairs at the start of the service, then return after the “Peace.”
Pre K- 1st grade: Godly Play
2nd-5th grade: Faith Explorers
Youth The date for our Youth Group Kick-off Event has been changed to Sunday, Sept. 24th (rather than the 10th). Join us after the 10:30am service (around 11:45) to meet other youth, get to know the leaders, play games, and help us vision for the new year. Donuts provided! The permanent day/time of Fall 2023 Youth Group is to be determined. Questions about Children, Family, and Youth ministry? Contact Rev. Emily B. (emilyb@allsoulsparish.org)!
Adult Formation
Isaiah Project Report While folks are away on the parish retreat today with the Isaiah Project’s report on Repairing the Breach, we will have members of the Isaiah Project lead us through a truncated version of this project’s report. The Isaiah Project is a team put together of parishioners looking ahead to how the tithe from our Living Waters campaign should be spent and given away to organizations around the East Bay doing the work of repair and reparation. For more information, contact Lewis Maldonado, lewiscm@mac.com.
Click here to see the new Adult Formation Calendar for 2023-24.
Events & Everything Else
Stewardship Launch You all are invited for Boichik Bagels at 9:15a in the Parish Hall on September 24th, and to kick off this year’s Stewardship Campaign. We’ll have an interactive discussion and presentation by the Stewardship committee as well as an opportunity to meet our new Associate Rector, Emily Boring.
Tidepooling Expedition September 30th with the Rev. Emily Boring. Click here for more.
Blessing of the Animals October 1st just after the 10:30a service in the courtyard (pets are welcome during the service, too!).