Coming at Foothills
Part of the family
Please call Susana Leung, (650) 948-8430
with names for this section.
March 1 Ash Wednesday Service, 5 p.m.
March 11 Cook Altar Guild Luncheon at
Home
March 12 Godly Play Lessons for Adults
April 1 All Church Clean-up Day
May 5, 6 Rummage Sale
June 15-18 Conference Annual Gathering, Rohnert
Park
We remember in our prayers . . .
Foothills folk involved with treatment or
hospitalization this last month: Devin Utter,
Carol Utter
Mary Peabody at a home, Sunnyvale Ruth Polata at Alexandria Victoria in Santa Cruz Jean Stafford at home
Norma Hough at Glorian Manor, San Jose
Ruth Powell at home

Jean Ehret at the Forum
Don and Carol Holmes at The Forum
Rejoice with us : Fay Oliver turns 90 on
February 17. Congratulations, Fay
Circle of Women meets for simple potluck
and sharing in the Learning Center from 7
to 9 p.m. on Monday, March 27. Questions?
Contact Irene Ogawa.
Book Group Please join us on Tuesday,
March 28, for a discussion of Ordinary Grace,
by William Kent Kruger. We meet in the
Fireside Room at 10:30 a.m. Questions? Call
Ann Nelson.­­
Women’s Fellowship Bring your bag
lunch and join us at noon Tuesday, March 14
in the Fireside Room for an hour or so of
chatting, laughing, and problem solving.
Questions? Call Ann Nelson.­
Check out
our church website
at www.foothills-church.org
(see Footnotes in color!)
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Foothills
Congregational
Church
Associate Minister’s message
Called to be the Light
of the World
Psalm 119:1-8; Matthew 5:13-20
United Church of Christ
March 2017
Los Altos, California
Rev. Melanie J. Weiner
Editor’s Note: This is the sermon Melanie delivered
Feb. 5. Many of us, I believe most, found it powerful and
persuasive. Understandably not everyone agreed, and for
more than one reason. But — and this is the first time in
the 23 years I have edited this newsletter that I’ve made
an actual hard editorial decision — I present it here in
full. Because in this difficult time I believe strongly in its
message, and the appropriateness of presenting it in our
church. If not here, where? — Stan Turnbull
T
oday is the fifth Sunday in the season
of Epiphany, a season of revelation, of
new ideas, of new beginnings. There is much
that is so new right now. We have a new interim
minister, with whom we will build new relationships and learn new ways. We have new lay
leadership and new members on our boards,
bringing fresh ideas to our ministry together.
We have new families coming to church, bringing new light into our congregation. And this
is all beautiful and wonderful.
But not all new things are good. How many
of you read or watch the news with increasing
anxiety or anger? Our society is changing, and
some of the changes are not wonderful.
Perhaps you have noticed that every sermon
I have preached has had one central message.
God loves each and every one of us no matter
what. This is very near the core of my faith,
and I believe it with every fiber of my being,
but times have changed. I have changed. Yes,
God loves each of us no matter what, but God
also calls each of us no matter what.
About a week ago, I gathered up several of
my children and Brian and one of his daughters
and we drove up to the airport in San Francisco
Continued on page 6
From the interim minister
Greetings Sisters and Brothers,
I am delighted to serve as your interim pas-
tor during this season of transitions. Patrisha
and I appreciate your warm welcome and
extravagant hospitality.
As I reflect on what it means to be an interim
minister I am reminded of a humorous story
about the big city salesman who got lost in
Vermont. Driving along a backcountry road he
came upon a farmer getting his mail at the end
of the driveway which led up to the farmhouse.
“Excuse me, sir,” said the weary salesman.
“Could you please tell me where I am?”
“Yep,” came the reply. “You’re in Gallup’s
Mills.” With a sigh the frustrated salesman
asked, “Well, could you kindly direct me
to Lyndonville?” Pondering for a moment,
the farmer replied, “You can’t get there
from here.”
As we honor traditions, appreciate the history of the church and create new traditions,
FOOTNOTES
Foothills Congregational Church,
UCC
461 Orange Avenue, Los Altos CA 94022
Phone (650) 948-8430 Fax 948-8206
e-mail: [email protected]
www.foothills-church.org
and new ways of being church, it might feel as
if we are entering strange territory. We might
ask how do we get there from here?
Images of the Hebrew people wandering
in the wilderness, with a sense of confusion
and uncertainty, may be present in the congregation. I agree with the writer and author
Rodger Nicholson, who said:
“The interim time is a moment in the
congregation’s life when the members have
a chance to look back and appreciate their
history, both recent and long term; it is also
a moment to consider the present scene, discerning the good and the not so good in the
congregations life; and it is a special opportunity to look ahead and chart out the future
course of the congregation.
“Every change of pastoral leadership is a
unique opportunity for you to learn from your
past, weigh your strengths and weaknesses,
and prepare for a new future under the guidance of a new pastor.”
As we walk together on this leg of the journey, I ask that we spend time in prayer, meditation or a spiritual discipline of your choice
for a few minutes, daily, as we seek the divine
presence to be with us; to guide our feet, and
to hold our hands.
Speaking through the prophet Isaiah,
God says, “Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive
it?” (Isa 43:19, RSV)
Blessings,
Pastor Janice
This sermon was challenging, and while
many found it deeply meaningful, some
found it difficult. I would love to discuss
it with you, no matter how you feel about
it. Please give me a call.
— Melanie
I’ll be there.” She replied, “Responsibilities
are overrated.” Now not all responsibilities
are overrated, but I was talking about guests
I had invited for dinner. When I called to say
why dinner was off, I am grateful that they
responded “When are you picking us up?”
 Pray. Pray with your heart, with your voice,
and with your hands and feet.
 Look for ways to do more. Let’s work as a
congregation and with other congregations
to find ways to call out and push back against
any injustice we see in our world. This is what
Jesus calls us to do. It’s what he means when
he preaches love and faith and righteousness.
 Perhaps above all, do not be afraid. Have
courage. Remember that God did not create
us with hearts of fear, but rather with hearts
and spirits of power and of love.
I leave you with this poem by actor and playwright Danny Bryck. The probably unfamiliar
word at the end, kinehora, is a Yiddish saying
warding off the evil eye or any kind of evil.
I know, I know
Interim Minister: Janice Steele
I know, I know
If you could go back you
would walk with Jesus
You would march with King
Maybe assassinate Hitler
At least hide Jews in your basement
Associate Minister: Melanie Weiner
Footnotes Editor: Stan Turnbull
[email protected]
Deadline: 15th of each month
Page 2
alism has risen before. Fear has been wielded
as a weapon before.
 Protest peacefully when the opportunity
arises. When a former parishioner told me
about the protest at the airport, my first answer
was “If I can hand off some responsibilities
Foothills Footnotes
Foothills Footnotes
It would all be clear to you
But people then, just like you
were baffled, had bills
to pay and children they didn’t
understand and they too
were so desperate for normalcy
they made anything normal
Even turning everything inside out
Even killing, and killing, and it’s easy
for turning the other cheek
to be looking the other way, for walking
to be talking, and they hid
in their houses
and watched it on television, when they had
television,
and wrung their hands
or didn’t, and your hands
are just like theirs. Lined, permeable,
small, and you
would follow Caesar, and quote McCarthy, and
Hoover, and you would want
to make Germany great again
Because you are afraid, and your
parents are sick, and your
job pays peanuts and where’s your
dignity? Just a little dignity and those kids
sitting down in the highway,
and chaining themselves to
buildings, what’s their f****** problem? And
that kid
That’s King. And this is Selma. And Berlin.
And Jerusalem. And now
is when they need you to be brave.
Now
is when we need you to go back
and forget everything you know
and give up the things you’re chained to
and make it look so easy in your
grandkids’ history books (they should still have
them, kinehora)
Now
is when it will all be clear to them.
—Danny Bryck
Page 7
Continued from page one
where there was a hastily put together gathering to protest the order banning immigration
from seven Muslim-majority nations and the
detention in that airport of people who traveled to this country legally.
On the way up, we wondered if it would be
a small thing, 20 or 30 people. Would it matter? Would it make a difference? As it turns
out, it was not a small thing. Hundreds of
people gathered, so many that airport officials
cheerfully and San Francisco police officers,
less cheerfully, shut down the roadway at
international arrivals. It was a powerful gathering. We waved signs, we sang, we chanted,
and we talked with one another.
And I had an epiphany. I walked away from
that protest different, with a new understanding of what it means to be a child of God and
a follower of Jesus. I walked away an order of
magnitude more determined to do what I can
to work to preserve the progress our society
has made and to stop the injustices creeping in.
Jesus calls us to be light to the world. We are
not to hide our light, but hold it high for all
to see. How do we do that? Well, it’s different
for different people with different gifts, but we
start by paying attention, knowing where the
light is needed. Injustice is on the rise in our
country. The most glaring example right now
is the new immigration restrictions.
We pride ourselves on the religious freedom
enshrined in our constitution, but we are discriminating against Muslims because we have
been conditioned to fear them. Worse yet,
we are banning refugees fleeing for their lives
from war-torn nations. This is diametrically
opposed to what Jesus commands – to love
the stranger, to share what we have, to care for
those in need. To reject a refugee, to send them
back into harm’s way, is to reject Jesus himself.
As Christian people, as people who believe
in a living, loving God, as faithful followers
of Jesus, we cannot stand by and watch and
Page 6
wring our hands and cry over pictures of dead
children and hope and pray that someday
someone will do something. That someone
is us, and that someday is now.
I know that there are reasons that we don’t
get out there and do something. We are busy.
We have family and work obligations. We are
tired. We don’t know what to do. That protest
I went to last week? I have a confession: that
was only the second protest I have ever participated in, for all of those reasons. It isn’t my
last, but it also isn’t enough.
Marching for what we believe in, spreading social media posts, and preaching about
justice are great for showing what we stand
for, for cheering people on, for reminding
our elected representatives and appointed
officials what we stand for in mass numbers.
It is talking the talk. But we also have to walk
the walk to the greatest extent that we are able.
 We can begin by walking next door and
meeting our neighbors, talking to people who
don’t look like us and who don’t worship
like us. Eating together is even better. There
is something sacred about breaking bread
together that makes the the image of God in
each person crystal clear.
 Write or call your representatives. Tell them
what you are concerned about. The rejection of refugees may be one of the greatest
concerns now, but other things are brewing.
Much of the progress our country has made
is under threat – firearm safety laws are
being dismantled, healthcare laws that have
brought insurance to so many uninsured are
threatened, the rights of our LGBTQ brothers
and sisters may be undermined. You may
see these issues as political issues, but I am
here to speak about them as being matters
of justice.
 Know history. Scapegoating people of one
religion or race or other way of calling someone “other” is nothing new. Me-first nationFoothills Footnotes
Beyond
the courtyard
Norwegian roots in
the American heartland:
Virginia Greene
Born on a 160-acre “Centennial Farm” in
Illinois that was homesteaded by her Norwegian immigrant great-grandparents, Virginia
Christian absorbed her parents’ cultural traditions: “It was a little community with a big,
big Lutheran church and we
were taught a serious work
ethic – you must work hard,
because that’s what it takes
to be a good Norwegian!”
Virginia says.
“I had three older sisters but
the closest one was five years
older, so I was really quite isolated on the farm with just my
dog and my pony for company,”
she recalls.
“I rode the pony or walked over
fields to a one-room school house
up to the fourth grade, when our
family moved to town, Yorkville.
Then I was so happy because I had
friends – playing together, reading comic
books, just regular fun and my introduction
to a wider world.”
It was the Great Depression but Virginia’s
dad had a government agricultural job in
Yorkville, managing FDR’s farm programs.
“He knew every farmer in the county,” she
says.
She wasn’t sure about her career direction
when she graduated from Newark, Illinois,
High School, near their new house on the
farm, so her parents allowed her to move
to Aurora, a larger town nearby, where she
worked in an up-scale department store as a
saleswoman.
“I was shy and living in a room in a private
home, and I remember feeling very lonely. But
three older women at the store nurtured me
and gave me advice about living in a larger
world,” Virginia says.
It was at this store, Alshuler’s Department
Store, that Virginia met Ron Greene, who
(quite a bit more recently) has served on our
chuch diaconate, been clerk of the church, a
member of the Executive Council
and done a lot else for our congregation.
“Ron came in and said he wanted to buy a present for his aunt
who lived in California,” Virginia
remembers. “I think I sold him
some gloves.”
As Ron remembers, “I didn’t
actually need to buy anything,
but I talked to her and asked
her out.”
Thus began a courtship that
lasted about five years, with
Virginia attending Bradley
University in Peoria, returning to the job in Aurora, then
spending three years at Illinois State Teacher’s
College, earning a B.S. in Education.
“It was a circuitous route, but I finally made
it!” she says.
Her first job was teaching women’s physical
education at Albion College in Michigan, and
she was then recruited by the Whittier, California, School District to teach high school
girls’ PE. After a year she returned to Aurora,
where she married Ron in 1958 at her family’s
Lutheran Church.
“I wanted to marry someone smart and
Photo: Bob Willwerth
Foothills Footnotes
Continued on page 4
Page 3
Continued from page 3
enterprising – and I got it!” Virginia says. “My
life with him has never been dull.”
The Greenes lived and worked in Illinois
for a few years and then moved to California,
where Ron’s career took him to Lockheed
and General Electric. An industrial engineering and metallurgy graduate of MIT, he
also helped develop a speculative residential
building company, Greendol. Virginia taught
school for a total of 10 years, and also owned
a dry cleaning company, Sparkle Enterprises,
which included managing the Blossom Valley
Dry Cleaners in Mountain View for 27 years.
“The great thing about doing that was
joining the organization of International Dry
Cleaners and attending their meetings all over
the world – Europe, Asia, everywhere – Ron
and I really travelled a lot,” she says.
They lived in Palo Alto from 1963 to 1977,
raising their two daughters, Susan and Nancy, and attending the First Congregational
Church there. They built their Los Altos
home in 1977 and attended Foothills Church
for a few years before joining: “The interim
minister, David Held, asked us to join and we
looked at each other and said, ‘Yes, let’s do,’”
Virginia remembers.
“Our family is so small; Foothills Church
has been like a family for us, a place of friendship and fellowship. And the sermons and
the music are important parts of the whole
package.”
Virginia has contributed to Foothills
Church in many capacities, starting with the
music board and serving on the diaconate,
the executive council, and currently on the
fellowship board. For many years, she was
on the Monday team that counts our weekly
contributions.
For some 20 years, the Greenes have spent
Page 4
much of each winter season in Sun City,
Palm Desert, where they have a home and
enjoy many friends, line dancing, tennis and
bridge.
“I really have two lives,” Virginia says.
“Even though that is supposed to be our
vacation, we are busier in Palm Desert than
here in Los Altos – there’s always something
good going on.”
—Carolyn Barnes
Check out
our church website
at www.foothills-church.org
(see Footnotes in color!)
Foothills Footnotes
Financial
Report
. . . Virginia Greene
Year starts out nicely with $3,328 surplus
The operating fund started off the 2017 year with a surplus of $3,328 at the end of January.
Operating income for the month was $35,813 and operating expenses were $32,487. As you can see
in the above chart, which shows the income budget by month, we expect contributions to decline
as we move into the summer months and then pick up in the fall. We hope the year can end with a
surplus again. Giving for outreach totaled $5,452 for the month.
–Del Fillmore
Foothills Footnotes
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