COASTSIDE LUTHERAN CHURCH
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900 Cabrillo Highway North 
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
​(650) 726-9293

A Spiritual Oasis where all are welcome

Mission Statement
Coastside Lutheran Church is a spiritual harbor where all, without exception, are welcome and accepted with open arms. We are fed and grow by sharing in the grace of God through Jesus Christ, so we can go out to serve the community inspired by the
Holy Spirit.


Affirmation of Welcome
We seek to provide a loving community to everyone regardless of sex, race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, physical or mental ability, age, or station of life. We are a Reconciling in Christ congregation.
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All public gatherings of any kind are postponed until further notice.
​
SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP VIA ZOOM @ 10 AM with fellowship after
 
Every Sunday experience virtual Holy Communion ​​where ALL are welcome without exception!
 
Zoom link for worship and fellowship:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84381518830?pwd=aVdLbXBkWWNiTHJFYUVWc1JsOGhuQT09  
dial in:   +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 843 8151 8830 Password: 656832

Zoom Sunday mornings at 10am for worship or view any time from our website or Facebook page. 



During this difficult time, we ask that you consider donating to CLC to keep our staff and programs going during this "shelter-in-place". Your financial contributions are much appreciated. You can donate via check (mailed to 900 Cabrillo Hwy N, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019) or with the PayPal link below. Read our giving letter from our Council President HERE. Thank you & God Bless.

Keep in touch--see current newsletter for details


Women's Daytime Gathering is @ 2 pm-3:30 pm via zoom on January 12th  
Every 2nd Tuesday 
each month. We have new zoom link and passcode.
Theme for January/February is "Journey with Angels"

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85211109648?pwd=QU9CNXhrcThUSXZvMzV4ZjhHeDRUZz09
Dial by your location: +1-669-900-9128. Meeting ID: 852 1110 9648. Passcode: 150680


Diverse Stories Discussion Group is ON for 4th Thursday, January 28, 2021 New January Book! The Dutch House, latest novel by Ann Patchett
Set over 5 decades, it delves deeply into questions of inheritance, love, forgiveness,
how we want to see ourselves and who we really are.
 

Meets 12-1:30 pm Via Zoom 
 
 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/331354783 
Dial by your location: +1 720 707 2699  Meeting ID: 331 354 783

Check out January 2021 Newsletter for more information!  Thanks Marian Lacey for your lead!

Prior Books read: Help, Thanks, Wow--The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott, H is for Hawk & Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald, The Invention of Wings by Sue Kidd Monk, Tattoos of the Heart & Barking to the Choir by Father Gregory Boyle, Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber. 
​
ELCA reaffirms its commitment to combat racism and white supremacy:

 https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/8039?_ga=2.203446617.875481088.1604845974-1493876312.1604845974 

Here is a link to our other Social statements and policies: 
 https://www.elca.org/Resources/Faith-and-Society 

CLC providing sandwiches on Friday for the hungry via Abundant Grace!
If you would be willing to donate cheese and meat for the sandwiches (packaged cookies would be fun too!) or would like to help make sandwiches, please contact Marian: melacey@pacbell.net



Here are uplifting links you may find helpful while we shelter in place.
​

PRAY AS YOU GO--10 minute daily devotions of song, scripture, and meditation
​

Salt Project weekly commentary, poem, & almanac on Sunday readings 

Wednesday Evening worship with The MANY 6 pm PST   

Holding On to Hope National Prayer Service
ELCA Bishop Eaton joins other religious leaders in a worship for healing and wholeness for our Nation. 

Learn about ways you can be an anti-racist on our Resource Page
(or click here to Download List of Recommended Books/Films as a PDF)


Online connection for those in recovery

Family Sunday School lessons from SparkHouse Publishers

900 Cabrillo Highway North, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
​Office: (650) 726-9293
info@coastsidelutheran.org

Happy New Year, 2019!

1/3/2019

 
Happy New Year!

May the Beloved Three in One bless this new year with wonder, beauty, and joy—holy moments that cause you to catch your breath in awe. One of my favorites in 2018 is Sue Holland becoming a part of staff in February while she waited for call and her ordination. It has been a joy to see how life unfolds. God keeps watch over all, especially this congregation here in Half Moon Bay. On January 6, we will vote to extend a call to Sue as Associate Pastor here. I’ve asked her to share call story. Watching and waiting for God with you in 2019, Pastor Dawn

Following the Light

In January, the twelve days of Christmas concludes with the celebration of Epiphany, the revelation of Christ to the world and we read the story of the Magi who followed the star, first to Jerusalem and then on to Bethlehem in search of the newborn king. I’ve often thought about the story of the Magi. Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t give us many details about their trip before they reach Jerusalem other than to say that they noticed an unusual star rising in the east. Our traditional Christmas nativity sets conflate Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth with Matthew’s and place the Magi around the manger in the stable alongside the shepherds and the heavenly host, but if we continue reading Matthew’s account, the Magi tell King Herod that the star appeared as much as two years before they arrived in Jerusalem and before they find the child Jesus in a house with his mother. And so I wonder about the Magi. Surely a new star in the sky would have been visible to many people and certainly would have caught the eye of all those claiming to be astrologers, which is a more accurate translation of Magi than kings. What was it about this twinkling light that caught their eye and maybe more importantly, what was it that prompted them to set out on a two year journey? And what did that journey look like? Was it a straight line from their observatory somewhere in the east to Jerusalem or did they wander about, making discoveries along the way, and even needing the unlikely help of anti-heroes like Herod to lead them to the babe in Bethlehem? And when they finally found the child, the newborn king whose birth they were convinced had been heralded by the cosmos with this mother (and not a royal entourage) in a house (and not a palace), did they find what they had expected? And then after that initial encounter with joy, was the quest over?

In many ways, I feel like the journey of the Magi could be a metaphor for my own faith
pilgrimage. I was baptized a Lutheran as a young child and taught about Jesus, the light of the world but left the church in my teenage years because I didn’t experience that light in that place.

My high school and college years were spent, as I can see in retrospect, searching for something; practicing Buddhism for a brief period of time and attending other churches with friends, but primarily focusing on my studies and my career as a systems engineer. After graduating from college, I married but my marriage fell apart by the time I was 30. From the deep darkness of that period, I saw a twinkle of hope when I was introduced to a group of young professionals from St. John’s Lutheran in NY who welcomed me into their circle and gave me a home. There was peace and love in this community, and I remember thinking, “I don’t understand what these people have, but whatever it is, I want it.”
​

When Bill (who I was dating at the time and would eventually marry) and I were transferred to North Carolina, I searched for a similar community and was welcomed by what would become my home congregation, Christ the King Lutheran Church. It wasn’t until shortly after Sam, my second son was born and required surgery at the tender age of four weeks that I realized that what I was desperately searching for was to have God with me. Pastor Ray of CTK baptized Sam on the operating table before his operation and stayed with Bill and me until the surgery was over. Through Pastor Ray’s presence, I could feel the comfort of the Spirit. Months later, another crisis would lead me to pray and this time, I felt God speak directly to my heart and I was overwhelmed with a feeling of peace and love.
​

From that time on, I have been hungry to know God better. I began attending Bible study at CTK and in my neighborhood and exploring the scriptures. In some of the studies I participated in, I once again encountered some of the same troubling theologies that had driven me from the church as a youth. This time, however, instead of walking away, I found myself more committed to getting to know this God that I had fallen in love with. This was what led me to take my first classes at Duke Divinity School.

At the same time, participating in the life of the church helped me to see God’s power in action. I felt the movement of the Spirit when the women of CTK were ignited by the Spirit to help our sister church in Malawi feed the orphans of the AIDs epidemic there. The campaign we initiated to raise a modest amount of money took on a life of its own and raised over three times that much. As a Stephen Minister (a lay person trained to provide spiritual care), I’ve walked on “holy ground” with people facing divorce, marital strife, illness and grief. As a chaplain intern, I’ve felt the love of God pass through me as I held the hand of a scared, lonely man awaiting surgery. And in worship, I have felt the power of God’s love, inclusion and forgiveness in the sacrament of Holy Communion. I keep finding God and Jesus in unexpected places: in people who were just like me, in people very different from me, in little kids, in the elderly, in the sick, in the poor, in a new state on the other side of the country, in wine and bread; and I keep discovering that the Spirit is always one step ahead of me. And with each step of the journey, I find myself compelled to continue to seek Jesus and to invite others to “come and see.”

Through it all, I have felt a call to use my gifts and experiences in God’s service to speak God’s word of love and inclusion to a suffering world, and to offer myself as a vehicle through which God can reveal God’s love to a world filled with fear and hate. One step has led to another: from those first classes at Duke Divinity School, to applying to the Master of Divinity Program there, to applying to be a candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church and then completing a Master of Sacred Theology at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary and a year of internship at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Durham, N.C. Each step of the journey has had its challenges but has also been filled with unexpected joys. This past year, it has been a pleasure to journey with all of you here at Coastside Lutheran. Like the communities at St. John’s, CTK and St. Paul’s, I have seen the movement of the Spirit and have experienced the love of Christ here. And, just like the Magi, I have been filled with joy. As we again
approach Epiphany, I can’t wait to see how the journey continues.

In Christ’s love,
Pastor Sue


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    • Mission & Values
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    • Giving to CLC
    • Lutheran 101
    • Spiritual Growth
    • Staff
    • Facility Use/Forms
  • Ministries
    • Past Worship Services
    • Music
    • Confirmation
    • Children's Activities
    • Service
  • Calendar
  • Newsletter
  • Resources