Join Alice Kochunov, Minister for Adult Formation, and Rev. Cal for a two-part Adult Forum series beginning on Sunday, July 27, 9:00-10:00 a.m. between the services in person in the Fireside Room as we delve into the neuroscience of prayer. We will explore how different ways of praying can activate our brains’ neuroplasticity, drawing on Alice’s training in the fields of medicine and mindfulness alike. Together, we will discuss how we can retrain our minds and hearts to become what we practice, through Scripturally-informed contemplation and prayer. All are welcome as we enter the intersection of science and spirituality in the Christian tradition! Note that there will be no childcare available on July 27.

All are welcome to a family-friendly weekly community dinner on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. in the Lower Lawn picnic area. Next week we will have pizza for dinner - hope you can join us! Your RSVPs using this Google Form are important in helping us plan for enough food.

Christ Church offers a simple Eucharistic service each month usually on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 11:00 a.m. in the Gardenia Room in The Forum’s Health Center. This month it will be on Tuesday, July 22. Although this is held in the Health Center, it is open to all residents of The Forum. It’s a simple service with music and a bread-only Eucharist, and those who attend enjoy it greatly. Come join us if you can!

Join Rev. Julie for our Adult Forum on Sunday, July 20, 9:00-10:00 a.m. between the services in person in the Fireside Room to explore the Scriptures appointed for that Sunday. We will engage the time-honored practice of Lectio divina ("Divine Reading"), unpacking the Scripture through the four-step process of Lectio (reading), Meditatio (meditation), Oratio (prayer), and Contemplatio (contemplation). All questions are welcome, and all are invited to join us in this exploration of our Scripture passages! Childcare is available in the chapel.

The Women's Read-What-You-Want-Book Club meets next on Thursday, July 17 at 2:00 p.m. in the Fireside Room. Come join our group of book lovers who enjoy talking about their latest reads. There are interesting discussions, plenty of laughter, and lots of great book recommendations. Give it a try!

All are welcome to a family-friendly weekly community dinner on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. in the Lower Lawn picnic area. Next week we will have Mediterranean food and pizza for dinner - we hope you can join us! Your RSVPs using this Google Form are important in helping us plan for enough food.

Join us for a holy hike at Windy Hill Preserve on Sunday, July 13 at 2:30 p.m. We will meet in the parking lot of Christ Church Portola Valley & Woodside, located at 815 Portola Road, Portola Valley. Our walk will start from the church parking lot promptly at 2:40 p.m. We'll be joined by members of Christ Church Portola Valley & Woodside for a fun afternoon adventure with both parish communities. This hike will be beginner-friendly, and all ages and levels are welcome! Click here to view the flyer for this hike. Please RSVP to Rev. Cal at cal@ccla.us so he knows you're coming before the group hits the trail. 

Join Rev. Cal and David Deatherage for a special Adult Forum on Sunday, July 13, 9:00-10:00 a.m. between the services in person in the Fireside Room. This special Forum, "Surprisingly Spiritual Songs," will be a listening session for the nonreligious songs that hold spiritual meaning for each of us. You are invited to send Rev. Cal (cal@ccla.us) the YouTube or Spotify links to one or two songs that resonate with your soul, regardless of genre. We'll listen to each song, hear from the person who submitted it about how the song feeds their spirit, and share reflections as a group. All are welcome to this spiritually-minded listening party! Childcare is available in the chapel.

Note: There will be no Community Dinner on Wednesday, July 2.

All are welcome to a family-friendly weekly community dinner on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. in the Lower Lawn picnic area. When we gather on July 9 we’ll have a potluck which means everyone needs to bring something to share (last name A-I brings main dish; last name J-Q brings side dish; last name R-Z brings dessert). Sign up for what you will bring here. Please bring any required serving utensils for the dish you bring. Hope you can join us! Your RSVP using this Google Form will help us plan for enough food.

All are welcome to join our weekly yoga class in the Church Narthex. The class will be held on Monday, July 7, from 8:30-9:45 a.m. in the Church Narthax. 

The yoga class will then be on break through the end of July returning on Tuesday, August 5 before the moving to weekly on Mondays. 

No previous yoga experience is required to attend, and contrary to popular belief, flexibility is not a prerequisite for yoga! Options or modifications will be offered for every pose to accommodate individual bodies. Please bring a yoga mat (though we have extras if you don’t have one) and dress for ease of movement. 

Join our Minister for Adult Formation Minister, Alice Kochunov, and Rev. Cal for our Adult Forum on Sunday, June 29, 9:00-10:00 a.m. between the services in person in the Fireside Room. Drawing on Alice's gifts in the visual arts, we will delve into the practice of Visio Divina, a multi-sensory adaptation of Lectio Divina ("Divine Reading"). Together, we will explore that Sunday's Scriptures through the visual contemplation of Christian art to delight the senses and engage both the mind and the heart. All are welcome! Childcare is available in the chapel.

Christ Church members are warmly invited to attend the memorial service for longtime parishioner, Carole Lopez, to be held in the Church on Saturday, June 28, at 11:00 a.m. A reception in the Parish Hall will immediately follow the service.

The service will be live streamed via Zoom.

Download the service bulletin

Join via Zoom

• Click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84955104031?pwd=8NpJZ6KySUnVTlvWN9hkkjdy1eFaUQ.1

• Meeting ID: 849 5510 4031; Passcode: 671749

This Sunday we will celebrate Trinity Sunday. Rev. Sheldon will hold a special Adult Forum on Sunday, June 15, 9:00-10:00 a.m. between the services in person in the Fireside Room to explore the mysteries of the Trinity, which have perplexed and inspired Christians for two thousand years. Together, we will delve into the strange and wondrous dimensions of our Triune God. All questions are welcome, and all are invited to join us in this exploration. Childcare is available in the chapel.

Slavyanka Chorus presents “Songs of the Soul,” a concert of Russian spiritual music on Saturday, June 14, 7:00 p.m., at Church of the Redeemer, 380 Magdalena Avenue, Los Altos. The concert will include music from the Orthodox Church – and monastic poems of ancient chant, spiritual chants of the late 17th-early 18th centuries, folk poetry, songs of wandering lyre players or pilgrims, and even some deeply moving contemporary music on spiritual themes – as some performers used to say, "songs in the presence of God." More information and tickets can be found here.

All are welcome to Justice Vanguard’s 6th Annual Juneteenth festival on Saturday, June 14, 11:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. at 97 Hillview Avenue, Los Altos. Thousands of Bay Area students, parents and families attend every year. Come engage with the community in a positive celebration of culture and progress, and have fun at an outdoor summer festival. There's no cost to attend and all are welcome! Find out more details and reserve your free tickets here.

Linden Tree Books is incredibly excited to welcome bestselling author Ann Liang on Saturday, June 7 at 6:00 p.m. to celebrate the launch of her fantastic new young adult novel, Never Thought I’d End Up Here, a hilarious and romantic rom-com about a former model determined to get revenge on the boy who ruined her life. Ann will be in conversation with author Kyla Zhao. This event will be held at Christ Episcopal Church and will include a public signing and time for audience Q&A. This is a free event, but you must RSVP as space is limited. We recommend using this form to pre-order books which will be available for pickup at the event. Copies of Never Thought I’d End Up Here, as well as Ann and Kyla’s other books, will also be available for purchase at the event. We hope you’ll join us!

The meditation group is on summer break and will return on Wednesday, September 3. Details will be in the newsletter a couple weeks prior to starting up again.

On Thursday, May 29 at 6:00 p.m. there will be an Ascension Day Eucharist Service at Stanford Memorial Church (450 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford) sung by the combined choirs of local Episcopal and Lutheran congregations. Bishop Austin Rios of the Episcopal Church Diocese of California will be preaching, and Bishop Jeff Johnson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Sierra Pacific Synod will preside. An outdoor reception will follow. All are welcome!

The meditation group meets via Zoom on Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. If you’re interested in learning more about contemplative practices drawn from the Christian and Buddhist traditions, as well as contemporary psychology, you’re welcome to attend. All are welcome!

Join via Zoom

• Click this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/197694657?pwd=ekg3Y24zL2RjV2pKNEs5eVpFVzdidz09

• Meeting ID: 197 694 657; Passcode: 450305

Former Christ Church section leader Ivan Dario Vielma will have his Senior Voice Recital on Sunday, May 11, at 1:30 p.m. at the San Jose State University School of Music Concert Hall. His recital will feature art songs in varying languages, as well as a set of mariachi rancheras, and a set of some of his favorite musical theatre songs. All parishioners are welcome to attend!

We have room for more volunteers! Join the Christ Church and Ventana School community to pack meals for Rise Against Hunger in the Parish Hall, on Saturday, May 10, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Our previous events have been fun, energizing and inspiring as we came together to make a positive impact and provide food for over 10,000 families in an impoverished country. Children of all ages are encouraged to participate - there is something for everyone to do. All are welcome! Registration is required, click here to register. We need volunteers for set up and clean up, you also can sign up for either of those when you register.

On Wednesday, May 7, we will kick off our spring and summer season of outdoor community dinners with a special Neighborhood Celebration! Join the Christ Church and Ventana School communities as we welcome our neighbors to celebrate the warmer weather on the lower lawn at 6:00 p.m. Enjoy live music from parishioner Bob Stanfield's band The Sunday Seven, food trucks and getting to know our neighbors. Feel free to bring picnic blankets to sit on the lawn! Your RSVP using this Google Form will help us plan for enough food.

Join us on Sunday, May 4 at 11:45 a.m. in the Parish Hall during coffee hour for an update on the campus Master Plan. You will hear from vestry members on the progress of our campus master planning followed by a discussion of our next steps. We hope you'll join us!

All are welcome to a family-friendly weekly community dinner on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. in the Parish Hall. On April 30, our Community Dinner will feature a presentation by Dr. Kalpa Bhattacharjee, a licensed clinical psychologist based in San Francisco (rescheduled from a date earlier in March). She will share information about myriad topics relevant to parenting, including how to identify whether a child may possess the trait of high sensitivity and some insights about how to parent highly sensitive children skillfully.  In addition, she will shed light on psychological testing for children, the concepts of neurodivergence, normalization of some psychological challenges inherent in parenting, and how to identify whether a parent needs to seek additional support. In addition to seeing individuals in private practice, Dr. Bhattacharjee is also an adjunct professor in the PsyD program of the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium, and adjunct professor in the School of Nursing and Health Professions Clinical Psychology PsyD program at USF. We’ll have dinner from 6:00-6:30 with Dr. Bhattacharjee’s presentation from 6:30-7:30. Childcare will be provided during the presentation. Hope you can join us! RSVP using this Google Form so we can make sure that we have enough food.