"...AND THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN..." 
When Nancy McManus came to church on Tuesday, March 14th, demolition of the little white building at the corner of Polk and Bush Streets was already in progress.   By noon, that building was no more.   We are now in the building phase of what our Church Godmother, the Rev. Nancy McKay, has designated "The Haven of Our Resurrection."<>

 
On April 1st, 2006, I will complete my fifth year as pastor of  First Congregational Church.  I never dreamt five years ago that I would be the pastor of this congregation over this period of time.  Five years ago, I became the last pastor of the old church at Post and Mason -- for one month only.  In April, 2001 we started packing, celebrated Easter, and our Deconsecration Service, with then-Mayor Willie Brown as one of our guests.

Then we moved to the Urban Life Center at St. Mark's Lutheran Church,  where we had our home for the next four years.  This was an important time for us, a time of planning and of concerning where we wanted to go as a congregation.  In the Fall of 2001, the congregation bough the site at Polk and Bush where the new First Congregational Church, "building five", will be built.  We used these years for planning and developing the plans of our new church.   In 2004, we started to worship regularly on Polk Street.  In May, 2005, we also moved our office into our new neighborhood.  We are all very excited that in a year we will move into our new church building.

As your pastor, I enjoyed all these years very much.  Coming from Germany with a different background I am grateful to become a pastor in an American congregation.  I am thankful that the members of the church treated me always with respect and friendship.  I also feel that we all learned a lot from each other.

I am very excited to celebrate Easter with you again; this year the message of the resurrection will be very important for all of us as we reflect on the construction of our new church home.  Thank you for a wonderful five years, and thank you for a wonderful common future ahead.
 
           Blessings to all of you,
 
          Rev. Wilfried
          Rev. Wilfried Glabach
          minister@sanfranciscoucc.org

   

 
Eunice Sitton suffered a major stroke  on Tuesday, March 21st.  She was hospitalized, and she died in the hospital on Friday, March 31st.  
   
A member of this church since 1961, she would have celebrated her 95th birthday on April 15th.
   
Eunice was an accomplished artist, and continued painting until recently.  We were impressed by her talent when she held a showing of her work when we were at the Urban Life Center.
   
She is survived by her daughter, Sandra Diedrick, who brought Eunice to church many Sundays in the past few years, and her son.

• April 5th:  Lenten Service -- 7 PM                      
• April 12th:  Book Study:  The Purpose Driven Life -- 7 PM
• April 19th:  Movie Night:  "Jesus of Montreal"  Discussion follows -- 7 PM
<>April 26th:  House Meeting at Ken and Richard's home with potluck dinner -- 6:30 PM.  Discussion -- 7:30 PM.  Please RSVP to Ken and ask for directions to his home.