Edgcumbe Presbyterian Church
Midweek Update January 6, 2021

In this issue: Unlearning, Annual Meeting, RJAM, Zoom, January Mission, 2020 Giving Statements

Still Unlearning
ON NOT KNOWING The older I get the less I know. Or at least: the more that I know, the more I realize that I don’t know. You know? God bless the overconfidence of youth--and I mean it, because if I realized when I was 20 how much I didn’t know, I might have given up right then. I am reminding myself today that UNLEARNING is essential for change, for growth, for healing. In order to grow into an oak tree, the acorn must unlearn being a seed. In order to become an adult, I must unlearn the patterns of childhood. In order to learn community, we must unlearn the habits of independence. And on and on.
ON QUESTIONS If you feel you are being called into a new way of thinking… If you are ready for deeper healing in your life… If old patterns and habits aren’t working for you anymore… then it is time to start asking yourself some simple questions:
What am I not seeing? What don’t I know?
Am I willing to learn a new thing?
What is the Holy Spirit trying to teach me right now?

ON MARK Pastor Luna and I have started to read the Gospel of Mark together because this whole year the lectionary follows Mark (with a good dose of John). For several reasons, we both have a soft spot for Mark’s fast-paced approach to the story and ministry of Jesus. It feels different to read a Gospel in larger chunks than just the short snippets we get on a Sunday morning. We recommend it--a chapter at a time is good pace.
ON CHOICES In the first few chapters, two things become quickly clear. One, wherever Jesus shows up, healing and miracles break out all over the place. Two, anyone who is not open to a new thing in their life tends to be very offended by Jesus. Mark’s Jesus asks us to make a very simple choice: Do I want to be defended or do I want to be healed? The exact same choice is held out to our communities. For us white males, Do we want to be defended or do we want healing for ourselves and for everyone? For Edgcumbe Church, Do we want to defend who we have been, or are we willing to unlearn old patterns and step into God’s healing river of grace and see where the current takes us? Jesus doesn’t promise safety. Jesus promises peace.

Annual Congregational Meeting - Feb 7
The Session has set our Annual Meeting for Sunday, February 7. This would usually be a BRUNCH DAY, so we begin by mourning the loss of egg and french toast casseroles and all the other delicious food we would have enjoyed together. Sigh. Anyway, what will happen is we will have a shorter worship service that day, which will lead into our congregational meeting, with at least the following agenda items:
Review reports from 2020, including the budget
Approve new Bylaws that allow us to meet online!
Elect new Elders and thank out-going officers
Approve the Pastors’ terms of call for 2021
Look for a digital 2020 Annual Report in the next week or two.

Racial Justice And Me
We have been reading the book “So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo. In the most recent chapter, we were introduced to the idea of Intersectionality, which was first defined in 2015. Since this was a new term to most of us, I thought I would take this week to share a bit more about this concept.
Intersectionality is the theory that various forms of discrimination based on race, gender, class, disability, sexuality, and other forms of identity, do not work independently but interact. The intersection of different forms of identity results in intersecting forms of exclusionary practices. If we do not consider these intersections, efforts to tackle inequalities and injustice towards one group can end up perpetuating other systems of inequalities. A company could have policies preventing discrimination against black men or against white women but then could discriminate against women of color. Hispanic women face different types of oppression than white women and addressing discrimination for one group will not fix things for the other group.
Examples of what “intersections” can look like*:
– A bisexual Latino male
– A recent immigrant Asian woman
– A homeless Indigenous gay male
– A disabled transgender male
– A white transgender female
– A non-binary mixed-race teenager
Imagine writing each of these intersectional labels on a piece of paper and then ordering those pieces of paper in terms of the amount of privilege or oppression likely felt by that group due to our social, economic, and political systems. The fact that we can actually conceive of doing such a “value” ordering is how intersectionality works.
*As we learn more about intersectionality there may be some aspects of gender and sexual identity you are not familiar with. Here is a brief glossary https://www.hrc.org/resources/glossary-of-terms
Liz Schiferl for the RJAM Team (Luna, Eleta, Connie, Leslie and Rich)

January Mission of the Month: Migizi
Our January mission focus is on Migizi, a Minneapolis based organization that acts as a circle of support for Native American development, especially youth. You can see all their programming on their website: https://www.migizi.org/
On May 28, 2020 Migizi’s home building, including priceless archives, equipment, education materials, and employment internships for 50 native youth was destroyed in fire during the spring protests. The EPC mission team encourages gifts to support the rebuilding effort to quickly bring back Migizi during 2021. Please consider a special gift this month for Migizi.

2020 Giving Statements
Please keep your eyes open for your 2020 Giving Statements that will be arriving in the mail. If you have any questions please contact Krysta at the church office by email epchurch2149@gmail.com. Thank you for your continued generosity and support of the church.