OUR BPMH GRADUATION EVENT WRAP-UP Saturday, May 30th was a bright and happy day in our hearts, if not in the sky as we honored our BPMH graduates.  From our two youngest, Makaria and Timmy, leaving pre-school and making the important transition to kindergarten, to our MAs, Sharma and Saad, and Peter our Doctor in Christian Counseling to our proud PhDs, Sukhun and Pasesa, honoring these seven was a joyful experience.  We were grateful to Dr. Chai Motupalli (our very own dear Chai) for his thoughtful and timely message to the graduates.  Grateful too to each of those graduates who made such inspiring and wise comments at their journeys end.  All of the participants in the program, Polly and Art and Sally held the hope that they helped to create something of a fond memory for our graduates in this 2020 year of Covid-19.  There is no punctuation mark more fun than a bagpipe procession.  That will be a fond memory for us all to enjoy for years to come!

Climate change is a moral challenge that affects all people especially the most vulnerable which often suffer its effects first and most harsh. According to the United Nations “There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed.” Our faith, our planet, our responsibility aptly sums up our December 11, 2019 event at Berkeley Presbyterian Mission Homes (BPMH) led by Liore Milgrom-Gartner, Director of the Northern California chapter of California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL), a network of religious communities in California committed to addressing global warming with affiliates across America. During the event, residents discussed environmental stewardship, conservation and the effects of global warming, shared their personal experiences as well learned how religious congregations were engaging in energy and water conservation, making environmentally friendly improvements to their houses of worship, holding training programs and lobbying the government for stronger climate policies and investments in renewable energy. It was an evening of inspiration motivating us to move forward as moral and ethical stewards of the Earth that God has entrusted to us, here on campus, in our faith congregations, communities and the world at large. To find outRead the Rest…

The BPMH Community of residents, Board members and Volunteers gathered on Saturday, June 1 for its annual graduation party and BBQ. This year, most of the graduates were the children (sons) of residents: Shan Shan Kashung, son of Johnny and Soyaphy and Erik Ko, son of Yong Kook and Hyun-Jung. Both boys are graduating from pre-school and looking forward to being kindergarteners in the fall. Also Ramaiah Sapolu makes the big move, graduating from elementary school and heading to middle school.We also said congratulation to Lia Rochill, who completed her M Div degree at ABSW and plans to continue on to get her D Min degree.The community also applauded the announcement of this year’s Virginia Hadsell Global Leadership Scholarship, awarded to Linna Gunawan from Indonesia. The party was a fun event with lots of great food, emphasizing the importance of eating a plant-based diet, hence, the BBQ black bean burgers!  Well, yes, there was some BBQ chicken too, but at least we got started on reducing our carbon footprint. BPMH will continue to work on this new emphasis at all official community events. This summer BPMH Executive Director, Rev. Sally Juarez, will attend the national conference of Presbyterians for EarthRead the Rest…

Hungarian goulash was the featured entre at the dinner that preceded the presentation by Lehel Molnar, archivist for the Unitarian church in Transylvania. While living and working in Romania, Reverend Molnar is Hungarian and so the meal was designed to honor his country and please his palate.   The Rev. Lehel Molnar who has served for more than 20 years as Archivist for the Hungarian Unitarian Church in Kolozsvar, Romania, was the guest presenter at a BPMH Multi-faith Program on Wednesday night, January 23.  Rev. Molnar is spending a year at Starr King School for the Ministry as this year’s Balazs Scholar. In his presentation, he described the persecution that Unitarians endured during the Counter-reformation and under 20th century Communism. He described the digitization of the historic Unitarian documents that is now taking place under his direction and he summarized the key features of the Unitarian faith tradition.