Warm greetings to all in the San Francisco Swedenborgian church community, near and far. This is my first weekly e-news message as I temporarily step into the role of main pastor for our church. Our dear Rev. Junchol Lee, after many years of tireless service, without once ever taking a longer break, is finally embarking on a well-deserved sabbatical for three-and-a-half months. We wish Rev. Lee much respite and reflection, and success with his occasional fishing and crabbing on the coast! And we look forward to his return later in August.
It’s a deep honor to serve all of you and this special space that brings us together while Rev. Lee is away. I became a member of the church shortly after I moved to the Bay from Germany in 2011, with my wife Suzanne and two girls, Sophia and Catherine. Later, after becoming ordained in the Swedenborgian Church of North America (in 2023), I’ve been serving this community as assistant minister. I can distinctly remember the first time I entered the church space back in 2011—the warmth of wood and crackling fire in the fireplace, the glimmer of stained glass, the tree bark and special, luminous paintings on the wall. It felt – and was – a world apart, like stepping into a different dimension where time unspooled, widening like the ripples of the Japanese gong that was rung during the service for meditation.
Since 1895, through catastrophic earthquakes and world wars, periods of civil and social unrest, and the holocaust of the AIDS crisis, our church has stood as a special sanctuary, offering refuge and reflection for San Franciscans in times of need. In the 1980’s, in particular, as AIDS was ravaging the city’s LGBTQ communities, our church provided innumerable memorial services for families and friends who were otherwise denied closure by their own churches, synagogues, and temples. As a spiritual community today, we find ourselves again at a moment of great national turmoil, with much unfolding suffering and great uncertainty. It is my hope and prayer that during my time with you that our church can continue this legacy of sanctuary, so that when we leave the forest-like space of a worship service together, we are spiritually fortified for the ways we are needed in the larger world outside.
I look forward to getting to know all of you better in the months to come, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to set up a conversation or a chat (revdzuber@sfswedenborgian.org). On some Sundays I will be joined by my family, pictured here (a snapshot from the SF Ballet this past December).
With hopeful anticipation,
Rev. Dr. Devin Zuber