About forty-five years ago, near the important business and cultural harbor city of San Francisco, a few Tiburon peninsula Presbyterians began meeting together with the thought of forming a new congregation.  They found available space in a small room above Herbert's Sherbet Shop on the Boardwalk near the current location of the Fa Choy Restaurant.  Charter members Ruth Adrain, Martha Bigelow, and Vicki Winblad were deeply involved with all the Presbyterian paperwork and details required to form a church in addition to decorating the worship room with burlap and locating railroad cars to be used as church school classrooms.  It was a busy time.  Soon, the members moved to the current location filling up the classrooms and old sanctuary which is now Findlay Hall with children and active adults.  They worshipped, studied and responded to their faith with action.  Some helped to start The Marin Food Bank.  Others were active with free health clinics, youth counseling and the forerunner of the Marin Interfaith Council.  Hit hard by the controversies of the Sixties, the congregation was not of one mind but involved in many discussions of the Viet Nam War, civil rights and Love-Ins at Golden Gate Park seeking God's guidance as they considered faithful ways to respond to the issues of the time.  In the late Seventies, as the denomination confronted the topic of the ordination of gay or lesbian persons as church officers or pastors, Westminster was deeply touched by the issue.  A young man who had grown up in this church was serving as a youth elder.  After the vote of the 1978 General Assembly meeting, Mark told the church officers of his gay sexual orientation.  He asked the elders if they would like him to submit his letter of resignation..  The governing board of this church refused, and instead, chose him to be a member of the new Pastor Nominating Committee that formed two years later.

 The background was slightly different for that little church in Antioch near the middle of the first century.  Over 300 miles from Jerusalem, Antioch was a very important harbor city at the crossroads of business and culture from Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine.  Greek-speaking Jews had a long history in Antioch of observing their own customs and worshipping in synagogues.  Followers of Jesus from Jerusalem might never have traveled to Antioch were it not for the stoning of one of their own, Stephen, and the subsequent persecution of their small sect.  Some dispersed as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus, as well as to Antioch speaking about Jesus only to those who had the same Jewish background.  However, some also talked to Hellenists, to Greeks who were familiar with Judaism but not worshippers of only one god.  The stories of Jesus interested those Greeks enough to create a worry back in Jerusalem.  What would be the influence on the Jesus/Jewish community if Hellenists became involved?  They didn't know the traditions.  They weren't circumcised.  Would the faith become too welcoming, too watered down if people with no heritage to Abraham were allowed into the community?  When the group of disciples still remaining in Jerusalem heard of this, they quickly sent Barnabus to Antioch to evaluate the situation.  Barnabus, who was originally from Cyprus not far from Antioch, celebrated all that he found there.  Many people were coming to know about Jesus so Barnabus recruited Paul from where he was living in Tarsus and the two of them met with and taught the people in Antioch for over a year.  For the first time, these believers, both Jews and Greeks, began to be known as Christians.  Paul was later to write in his letter to the church in Galatia, "There can be neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (3:28)  This early church community in Antioch was open to Jews and Greeks, meeting, studying, and worshipping without discrimination.

 It was into this community, formed as a result of persecution and filled with the Holy Spirit that one of the prophets from Jerusalem came.  His name was Agabus.  Agabus stood up to get their attention and made a prediction by the Spirit, that there would be a crisis over all the world.  That crisis would be famine and one did take place during the reign of Claudius, 46-47 A.D.  It is not recorded that Agabus asked for help or suggested any particular action.  A natural response to this information would be for people to begin to save grain, hoard supplies so they would be prepared.  However, there is no mention of the community doing so.  Instead, they responded to Agabus by "determining that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers in Judea, and this they did, having Barnabus and Paul take their contributions to the leaders of the people there."

 Do you suppose there were those who asked, "Why are we helping them when the famine is expected to affect the whole world including Antioch?  Shouldn't we be planning for our own survival?  Aren't there others nearby who would need the food?"  Instead, their response demonstrated the understanding and faith of this new community.  They knew and lived the scriptures that Jesus knew, for example, from the prophet Isaiah, "Isn't authentic worship when you share your food with the hungry?"  They must also have been aware of Jesus' commandments that summed up all that was in the Law and the Prophets, to love God and to love your neighbor.

 So, into this little church community in Tiburon came Douglas K. Huneke, May 15, 1981.  The local people in Eugene, Oregon, headlined, "University of Oregon's activist chaplain moving to California."  There was obviously some concern that he might not be happy here, or, heaven forbid, he might be selling out to the establishment.  As a chaplain and professor in the honors program, Doug had been active in gay rights issues, local public school issues, and interfaith ministry.  His view of the role of clergy came from the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, that religious leaders are expected to amplify the needs of the oppressed, to make them known.  The Westminster Pastor Nominating Committee told Doug that they did not want someone who would tell them what to believe but wanted someone who would ask the questions the congregation members might not ask themselves.  He was told that this church wanted a pastor who would guide discussions of issues from a biblical standpoint.  The biblical standpoint does not encourage one to exercise faith in silence.  Doug is quoted as saying, "I don't intend to be silent just because I'm going to a parish.  Fortunately, I'm going to a parish that doesn't want silence."

 Doug, in the past twenty years you have been anything but silent.  Your sermons have been thought-provoking, stimulating and biblically based as you have repeatedly reminded us of the oppressed not only in our community but around the world.  Similar to the way Agabus did in Antioch, you have raised questions and this community has reacted and responded in study and in action.  It has not been easy.  We have not always agreed as we wrestled with issues of local affordable housing, of offering meals to homeless and hungry people here in our building, of finding a site for a homeless shelter in a "not in my backyard" culture, and certainly as we continue to confront a denomination that treats gay and lesbian people as second-class citizens.  We were proud and very willing to share you when you were tapped as the first trustee representative of the Marin Interfaith Council on the new Marin Community Foundation board in 1986.  We didn't really have to share you, however.  You worked fulltime in both positions helping the Foundation define itself in a way that addresses the needs of the vulnerable in our community.  During the same years, this congregation tripled in size and grew at least five times in the classes, programs and mission work available to the membership and the community.  The building of this beautiful sanctuary was a necessary response.

Equally as important, Doug, you have been aware and responsive when we as members and staff have felt oppressed or vulnerable.  During our own personal crises, you have been present regardless of the time of day or night.  You bring a prayer, a helping hand, and assurance that we are not alone whether we are fighting an illness or a political system, whether we are grieving or just trying to solve the confusions of life.  You are also willing to joke and laugh at times when humor is exactly what we need.  You have developed a congregational community that responds in the same way to others, spontaneously or in an organized manner though the Board of Deacons and Parish Caregivers.  And maybe most importantly, you have allowed us to be present to you when you have struggled - jailed by the KGB in Moscow, flat on your back in the months approaching the wedding of your daughter Karen, in the TAM program working so hard to go from Type A to Type B+, and in your most current transition our prayers continue to be with you and Jane.

Doug, this congregation and the church staff are grateful that, like Agabus, you remind us of today's problems that need our faithful response.  In your not so subtle ways, your written words, your spoken words, your actions, and your presence, you encourage us to be the people God created us to be, living in community with others.  Thank you for an incredible twenty years.  In the words of Thomas Aquinas, "Always rejoice in the good work that you do."  Westminster continues to be a parish that does not want you to be silent.

Let us pray: