The First Pres Legacy Project
Like many congregations, First Pres has a long and storied history. Yet what makes our congregation unique is our rich tradition of social justice and engagement in the world in freedom marches and civil rights, war protests, gender equity, sanctuary for conscientious objectors and Latin American refugees, and of course our role in the More Light Presbyterian movement, just to name a few. We have not shied away from difficult issues or positions when our faith, grounded in sound theology and scripture, called us forth into the world
However, many of our long-time members have moved away or have passed on. And many of the younger generations have not heard or are completely unaware of the legacy of our church. When these members move away or pass on, we lose a part of our history, that exciting, wonderful and compelling story that is First Pres. I think it is important for us to find a way to pass on the legacy of this tradition while we still can, while many of these people are still among us. Because this isn’t just the story of First Pres, it is the story of the struggle for social justice and peace in which our community has played a significant role.
For this reason, the Session of our church has approved the Legacy Project to record and display the major events of our church over the years. This is a significant project that will require many hands. More specifically, we have a need for:
1) volunteers to inform people about the project;
2) help from a 21cent. social networking archivist;
3) help collecting photos & other memorabilia (preferably digital or enlarged);
4) video and/or audio digital recording equipment and recording;
5) a sketch artist;
6) written stories and others to transcribe them.
So if you are interested in helping us to record and preserve the history of the church, please contact me at geoff.browning@stanford.edu.
Pace e Bene (Peace and Wellbeing),
Geoff Browning
