On our Corner, in Our City, and in the World
Click here for online streaming worship
Click here for Sunday's bulletin
Click here for our Lent devotional booklet
Click here to sign up for food bank
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Old First Presbyterian Church enthuiastically invites all people into our community!
This church was the first Protestant congregation established on the west coast of the U.S. during the gold rush. And we are proud now to continue sharing Christ's love, justice, and welcome to modern seekers who arrive in San Francisco now 175 years later. We have taken a leadership role both locally and nationally welcoming LGBTQIA+ Christians into full participation in the life and leadership of the Presbyterian Church. We strive to bring hope, joy and justice reaching out to people of all ethnicities, incomes, races, and life situations, and like Jesus, we always try to offer a smile and welcome the outcasts.
We hope you will come visit and consider becoming part of our community. We want to know you and share your own particular gifts, experience, and insights with us on our corner, in our city, and in our world.
We worship every Sunday at 11:00 am both in person in our beautiful sanctuary and on line via YouTube livestream. We celebrate communion on the third Sunday of the month. Worship is our joyful praise and thanks to God - our celebration of God's Love.
We have a wonderful choir singing a mixture of classical and modern music and singers are always welcome. Our organ is one of the most renowned in the city. We founded and support an amazing variety of new artists each week in our Old First Concerts programs.
Bringing God's love, welcome, justice, in our neighborhood, city and world and working to make the world a better place for all are important to us. We are a founding member of the weekly interfaith food pantry every Saturday and host a free community meal on the 4th Saturday of each month. We work with many local, national, and international groups to promote racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, and other human rights, to end gun violence, and to help immigrants.
We feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, and work for justice. We always need volunteers to help with all of these projects.
We believe that learning and growth are important for all ages. We offer regular book studies, Bible studies, theological discussions, and topical classes for adults on issues important in our culture. Small groups meet on Zoom and in members' homes for study and support. We make time and space for children in worship and offer regular, broadly graded children's church school every 1st and 3nd Sundy. We also have excellent childrens' and adults' libraries.
We love to read and support the Little Free Library on Sacramento Street. Bring you books to share with the community.
February 18 - April 2
This Lent, our theme focuses on remembering that Christ's good news really is good news. It is joyful—like fine wine saved for celebration. It grows like a mustard seed and smells like perfume poured from an alabaster jar. It tastes like bread passed endlessly through a hungry crowd. It sounds like laughter and feels like mercy. The good news is alive in the world. We will look at what was central to Jesus’ life and ministry: radical welcome, love for neighbor, care for the vulnerable, nourishment for the hungry, nonviolence in the face of injustice. At the heart of Jesus’ teachings, we find liberation, love, mercy, and grace—all of which are meant to be very good news for us all. Join us in this reflection for the next 40 days before Easter.
We have prayer cards for each day of Lent available at church. We also have an excellent, thought-provoking Lenten devotional booklet available online by clicking below.
March 2 - 8
Imagine that you're hosting a really fancy dinner party - white table cloth, gourmet food, candlelight, soft music! And you invite that new itinerant preacher in town, Jesus. But then, in the middle of the party, this awful woman bursts into the room as the servants try to hold her back. She's overly made up, is wearing skimply clothing and torn stockings. She's one of those disgusting women selling themselves on the street and now she's here to ruin your party. And then, to everyone's shock, she lets down her hair, pours out some pungent perfume, and starts plying her trade on Jesus's feet! SHOCK! HORROR! DISGUST!
But instead of chastising her and sending her away in anger as he should, Jesus LOVES her! What kind of man of God is this? He forgives her sins! She's the worst of the worst, and yet, Jesus has the audacity to say that she is better than you are. Really? How can Jesus love her? How can we love her? How can God love US, sinners that we are? But Jesus loves her, Jesus love us, and we love neighbors - all of our neighbors. That's amazing good news!
March 8-14
Our theme this week is suggested by this art work. Jesus takes a loaf of bread and two fish and feeds 5000 people with it. Impossible! And yet, it seems to have happened... somehow. The Good News is that together, the impossible can become possible. In today's lingo, we should be coming at problems from an abundance mindset, not scarcity. Our devotional writer this week says it this way: "This feels overly optimistic in light of today's world. People still go hungry. Wars rage. The earth groans under our misuse." But she points out that we already have enough if we would just distribute things justly. And "enough" is abundance. Those 5000 people getting fed in that field didn't think, "Oh dear, we'll ever have enough, so I need to save this for my family." Instead, they realized, "we have enough" and shared. In this war torn, unjust world, let us focus on the hope that God can provide everyone if we can but work together and love. That is good news!
What's Happening at Old First