Quick Takes . . .
Half Moon Bay Looks to Green

Updated April 23, 2007

Community UMC of Half Moon Bay is preparing to be a "green" church -- environmentally conscious. Its member John Andary heads a consulting firm on building design, including green design. He notes that buildings emit 38 percent of the nation's carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming. A single green-certified building saves an average 352 metric tons of such emission annually, equivalent to 70 passenger cars not driven for a year...St. Paul's Community UMC of Point Arena joins others on the Mendocino coast each Friday evening in ringing church tower bells and lighting candles in honor of the American military, coalition troops, and Iraqi troops and civilians of all ages who have died in the current conflict...

Temple UMC of San Francisco, with the help of Cantonese speaker Rev. Ernest Kan of Epworth UM Fellowship of San Francisco, has a Cantonese Bible Study on Wednesday nights attracting 25 people, and is also offering conversational English classes to Chinese speakers on Saturdays, attracting 30. The Rev. Schuyler Rhodes says it is a matter of "determining the needs of people we seek to serve" as many Chinese-speaking people come into San Francisco's Sunset neighborhood. Temple's worship planners have supplied Bibles in Chinese, Fijian, Tagalog, and Spanish that are handed out with worship bulletins from the greeters...

Sebastopol UMC members on Ash Wednesday burned papers noting things they felt they needed forgiveness for, or a problem to give to God. There was a clay bowl sitting on a pedestal with a tea light burning in the bottom. After watching the paper turn to ashes, they received the imprint of ashes in the sign of the cross on their foreheads, the Rev. Judith Stone saying, "Wear these ashes lightly as a reminder of the love of God in Christ and the sure promise of resurrection"...

Hillsdale UMC in San Mateo had a goal of raising $5,000 for UMCOR relief of Darfur during its mid-week Lenten preaching services. It raised $6,755. "Unless we are giving to others and beyond ourselves, we cannot be Christ in the world making a difference," commented the Rev. Steve Thompson.