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Our Giving Tree was such a success after this past Sunday’s 10 a.m. service that every single wish was spoken for! Thank you so much for your generosity.
But wait… there’s more! Several people have mentioned that they did not have a chance to take a wish before they were all gone. In response, we have added another family to bless this holiday season. Please keep an eye out for new wish ornaments on the tree. They will be available just before this Sunday’s first service. As a reminder, we are sponsoring families through CRECE (the Central American Refugee Committee of the East Bay). Founded by a refugee and survivor of the Salvadoran civil war in the 1990s, CRECE organizes and educates the Latino immigrant community to help improve social, economic, and cultural conditions. All three families currently reside in Oakland. You can participate by selecting one or more wish ornaments, purchasing new gifts, then wrapping them and bringing them back and placing them under the tree. All gifts will be delivered to CRECE on December 8 and shared with the families. I love that we are helping to make Christmas a joyful experience for families in our community by helping their wishes come true! Denise Bingham
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“You can try other churches, but you’ll always come back to St. John’s.”
It was Brian Marion who brought me to St. John’s. I moved to Oakland in 2002 as a lapsed Catholic who only went to Corpus Christi when my parents were in town. Then in 2009, I began dating a woman in Southern California who was a cradle Episcopalian at St. Cross in Hermosa Beach. I began attending services there with her. In December, she was coming to visit me in Oakland for the first time and asked me what Episcopal church we should attend. I of course had no clue, so she asked Brian, who she knew had recently moved from Oakland. Brian strongly recommended St. John’s. “You can try other churches,” he said, “but you’ll always come back to St. John’s.” Just like he did. At my first St. John’s service, Molly Darling preached about how “Luke loves the ladies.” Ken Fuller introduced himself and asked me if I wanted to join the Vestry. After first greeting me saying that I looked familiar, Helen Nicholas remembered that she was my realtor in 2002. I stayed in the shadows for my first couple of years, though Brian was always pushing me to get more involved. He eventually convinced me to become an usher, join the Men’s Group, and eventually the Vestry. I am grateful that he did, since it allowed me to ease into this community and develop relationships that have kept me at St. John’s long after Brian passed and my relationship with the So Cal girlfriend ended. My banner would quote Brian: “You can try other churches, but you’ll always come back to St. John’s.”  Thank you to all of those who have pledged for this "Banner Year" stewardship season! If you have not already done so, you may fill out a digital pledge card using this link. Paper pledge cards may also be returned by mail, given to a member of staff, or left in the plate on Sundays.
Thank you to all the St. John's members who gave testimonials. You and your words are what this community is all about! Written Testimonials Video Testimonials  We first came to St. John's after running into The Rev. Kathleen Moore at the Montclair Holiday Stroll. She mentioned they were looking for a baby Jesus for the Christmas nativity and asked if our daughter might play the part. The fact that they would invite a baby with two moms to represent Jesus was such a beautiful act of inclusion, I couldn't say no.
That invitation captured what St. John's is all about. For the past two years, we have felt nothing but warmth and genuine welcome here. When we make it to services on Sunday, people greet us with smiles and encouragement. When our daughter was baptized, the joy in the room was palpable. And in harder seasons, like when I was going through IVF again and coping with disappointment, this has been a place where I could sit quietly under the stained-glass window that reads "Faithfulness" and feel held even in moments of deep sadness and grief. One moment I will never forget was meeting Rev. Kathleen for coffee at Arizmendi soon after our daughter was born. I apologized for not making it to services as often, and she simply said, "It doesn't matter how often you come, you're part of our community." I nearly cried. That sentence sums up what St. John's means to me: belonging that doesn't need to be earned. My wife plays on the church softball team, and we have even hosted the end-of-season party at our house. It is those small, joyful connections that make this place feel like home. St. John's has given us a place to celebrate milestones, to find spiritual grounding, and to show up fully as ourselves—as a queer family, as parents, and as people of faith. If I could hang a banner for St. John's, it would read: You are welcome here. Really. How I came to St. John’s and why I’m still here.
In 1979, Joe and I had just moved to Oakland. As Joe got off BART at Rockridge a group was caroling and invited him to join in. When I disembarked they welcomed me, too. Tom Bowman invited me to come sing at St. John’s. Committed to sing at another church, it wasn’t until the week after Easter that I contacted St. John’s Music Director and came to my first choir practice. He auditioned me and scheduled me to sing a lively Bach duet with Julie Booth (Knell) . On Sunday, the choir gathered in the room next to the kitchen where our robes were hung. The director didn’t arrive to rehearse us. It was almost time for the service: “You all don’t know me, but I can get us through the service.” Reilly Rix turned pages as I sight-read the Proulx Gloria. I did my best to conquer the small beast which was our Conn electric organ. Following the service, Father McCann offered me the job of Music Director. (The former director’s resignation letter had been sitting on the organ.) Fast forward two years, and the Booth Family had overseen the build-out of the altar area so we could see our priests during Communion. The altar rail was replaced by the carpeted “Squircle” and the baldacchino installed. We had the option of standing or kneeling for Communion. We were served real bread and real wine. We were worthy. For me, this was huge – my last exposure to the Episcopal Church had left me “not worthy to pick up the crumbs from under the table.” In addition to taking over the direction of our choir and accompanying them, I restarted a Youth Choir which eventually grew to over 30 youth ages 4 – 17, who performed 57 concerts and sermons. (Kellor Smith was a big contributor of ideas and youth!). Outreach included singing at Rockridge BART, the former Jack London Village, the downtown Marriott and several East Bay nursing homes. We have so many long-time friends we’ve met at St. John’s. So many of those early kids are now in their 50’s, and are still my friends. Their children have been singing in our Youth Choirs (and we hope there will be more!). I was invited; I was included, and the circle grew; I witnessed faith and a community in action. Invitation, inclusion, faith, and action. My banner: Make a joyful noise! Come sing with us. Nourish- to sustain life- is the word I associate with St John’s. Through community, we nourish others and the community nourishes us. An example is VISION, our food ministry. The VISION PROGRAM, in its sixth year, provides bag meals weekly to Mission for the Homeless and Operation Dignity. To date, over 37,000 bags have been delivered to our unsheltered community. I say community because this is not charity- it is an opportunity for our volunteers (both St John’s members and those who are not) to build community with each other, with the Alameda County Community Food Bank (ACCFB) staff and our Vision contacts.
The project began in the early pandemic and the small community of doers has grown quite large. Basically we provide a bag lunch that centers on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a hardboiled egg. Over 50 families provide the cooked eggs and sandwiches. Each week a small group of shoppers go to the Food Bank, returning with 300-400 pounds of fresh fruit, flip top canned protein and snacks. As the food bank does not have bottled water, another team from the Men’s Club purchases 400 bottles of Costco water every two weeks. That is 430 pounds! Another team acquires free water from local grocery stores. These 220 lunches are bagged by volunteer groups on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. We also have a team that buys the paper bags, napkins and compostable utensils for the canned protein. The water costs are typically covered through a grant from the Episcopal Diocese. And yes, that involves another team, assisted by St John’s Admin staff. It is a way for us to get out of our St John’s cubbyholes and build community with others from a different service. It is in giving that we receive. Despite this being a large operation with the acquisition, processing and distribution of 600 pounds of food each week, it doesn’t feel like that. It feels like community. It feels like St John’s. I used to believe that I had to attend traditional church services to be considered a genuine member of the community and a parishioner. This created a real dilemma for me as past church-based trauma stopped me from crossing the threshold into the sanctuary. I became resigned to being an outsider, satisfied with crumbs of involvement. Then I found the St. John’s community, a place that welcomed me and accepted my limitations. Here, I found generous, open, and loving people who embrace and support me in my ever-evolving journey. I have landed softly in the loving arms of this community and say with pride, “I am a proud parishioner St. John’s.”
Some community members find it helpful to have a sense of how much others pledge in considering their commitment each year. That information can be found below:
On Sunday, June 8, St. John's celebrated the 40th anniversary of the ordination to the priesthood of the Rev. Dr. Fran Toy:
 St. John's Parish Retreat:
SPOTS STILL AVAILABLE! May 9-11, 2025 at The Bishop's Ranch Registration for the 2025 Parish Retreat is OPEN! Join us May 9-11 at the glorious Bishop's Ranch for a weekend filled with everything you want it to be. Scholarships are available, all are welcome! See all of the great activities planned for this weekend here. GREAT NEWS: St. John's Oakland won The Bishop's Ranch tournament this Spring with the most new donors giving on a monthly, quarterly or semi-annual basis! At our Parish Retreat next weekend, we'll be honored with a trophy and most importantly, with a NEW cookie named for us! Thank you to all who participated! |
