St. Cyprian’s Church Fall 2011

About Me:

Name: Lu Han

College/Status: Sophomore at the University of San Francisco

Major: Finance

Introduction to the blog:

Welcome to the St. Cyprian’s Church section. I am currently helping with the kitchen project in St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church. I will update the latest news of our project, events of St. Cyprian’s and share everything I have learned from this internship.

Feel glad to listen to your suggestions and any good ideas to make blogging better!

Best,

Lu Han

About St.Cyprian’s Episcopal Church:

Saint Cyprian’s Episcopal Church is located at 2097 Turk Street, San Francisco, California. It has been a member of the San Francisco community for over 88 years. St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church is composed with a passionate group of seekers, thinkers, dreamers, doubters and believers from many walks of life.

History of St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church

On December 10, 2010, St. Cyprian’s will celebrate its 50th anniversary in the church building at the corner of Turk and Lyon streets in San Francisco. St. Cyprian’s history, however, reaches back into the 1870s when a small group of African-American Episcopalians founded Christ Mission. After the close of Christ Mission, the remaining church members and their families revitalized their quest to obtain their own church. In 1923 St. Cyprian’s held its first formal Eucharist in the Chapel of Grace at Grace Cathedral. With ever increasing numbers as more African-Americans moved west and Anglican immigrants arrived from the Caribbean, by the late 1930s St. Cyprian’s had found a home in a converted house on the corner of Lyon and Sutter streets in the bustling Fillmore neighborhood.

By 1960, with over 350 members and under the heroic leadership of the Reverend E.A. McLaughlin, St. Cyprian’s had moved to its current location on the corner of Turk and Lyon. Since that time the community and neighborhood have experienced enormous change. With passion, commitment, and courage, the St. Cyprian’s community reached out by starting a job training program for youth in the late 1960s and early ’70s, and a needle exchange program in the 1990s. Numerous clergy and lay leaders helped in these efforts. An expanded history of St. Cyprian’s is now being gathered.

One inspiring occasion in our more recent history was the visit of the Anglican Communion’s first female bishop, the Right Reverend Barbara Harris, prior to her consecration in 1989. Today, St. Cyprian’s is seeking to connect with those surrounding us, college students and seniors, young families and singles of diverse backgrounds and economic situations.

The Mission Statement

*    Gather for prayer, worship, and to hear the World of the Lord. We do this in fellowship with one another, honoring the rich tradition of our African-American/Caribbean roots and blending with American Episcopal history.

*    We are a community of faith that comforts the soul and challenges the mind, always remembering our struggles and triumphs within the Church and the world.

*    Strengthened in worship and praise, we seek to be a beacon to the surrounding neighborhood; those in distress, known and unknown; friends and members who are homebound; and families who may not worship with us.

Visit the website: http://www.saintcyprianssf.org/

Like the Facebook page: 

The Reverend Will Scott – Our Priest:

Will Scott was raised by a teacher and a social worker in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and became fascinated with San Francisco after discovering Beat poetry in high school. Growing up, Will and his family were active in a small Episcopal Church not unlike St. Cyprian’s, St. Pul’s on-the-Hill. Will graduated from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in 2000 with a concentration in Cross-Cultural Relations, having also studied in India, Tibet and Nepal with the School for International Training. Will entered Virginia Theological Seminary in 2001. His seminary fieldwork site, the ecumenical Church of the Savior in Washington, DC, still inspires him. Will came to Grace Cathedral following two years as Associate Rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church in McLean, Virginia. During his four years at Grace Cathedral, Will helped found Dinner with Grace and gather the interfaith community for vigils on the labyrinth and cathedral steps in response to local and global events. He was a regular at the Cathedral’s Sunday at Six contemplative service and enjoyed facilitating discussions on a variety of topics from contemplative prayer to sexuality, biblical studies to storytelling. In the summer of 2009, Will began serving St. Cyprian’s as Cathedral Missioner and in December 2010 was called by the congregational leadership to serve as St. Cyprian’s pastor.

Together with the congregation of St. Cyprian’s, Will looks forward to deepening this community’s ties with the surrounding neighborhoods and other places of spiritual engagement. Will and his spouse, Matthew Chayt, an attorney, live in Bernal Heights.

Cyprian’s Community Kitchen Project:

Description of Program

St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church is vitally engaged in meaningful relationships, offering hope and healing to the broken world. Part of the work of revitalizing St. Cyprian’s is making our ample space beneficial to the local community and the city. To be specific, we have a large kitchen that is used almost solely on Sundays for preparing simple meals for hospitality after services. It serves the basic needs of St. Cyprian’s and the Korean congregation that rents space from us, but we aim to create a kitchen that will serve the needs of people outside our walls: We are planning programs that will have the kitchen used by those serving populations in need, culinary entrepreneurs who will give back to the community, an after-school program, and a culinary training program.

These goals will require a significant investment in the rehabilitation of our kitchen. Years of deferred maintenance mean that the kitchen is far from being in compliance with city codes. In addition to new appliances, structural improvements are needed, and some structural changes to the kitchen are necessary before new commercial appliances could be installed.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/21785138]

Mission

A community kitchen will serve two purposes:

1. To provide health and wellness classes for the surrounding community.

2. To support food ministry programs serving the city of San Francisco.

A community kitchen would further benefit:

*  St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church

*  Simply Sandwiches

*  Village Project

*  Alcoholics Anonymous

*  Bay Area Organizations

*  SF Live Arts

Also see the website: http://cyprianscommunitykitchen.org/church/home.html

Kitchen Budget

St. Cyprian’s has created a draft budget for the Community Kitchen project, arrived at through our research, examining local costs, and the assessments of four professionals: Joe Yick, principal, Robert Yick Company, Inc.; Samir Salameh, interior architectural designer; Alec Bauer, owner, Kitchen, Restaurant + Bar Specialists; and Jeff Hanak, owner, NOPA Restaurant. All have estimated that the project will cost approximately $150,000.

*  Service and labor: $50,000

Accounting for architect/designer, contractor, electrical, plumbing

*  Appliances: $50,000

Includes commercial-grade refrigerator, range, hood, dishwasher

*  Cabinets/flooring/countertops: $25,000

*  Plumbing/sinks/faucets: $25,000

There will also be costs incurred for inspections and permits and the unexpected. We are seeking support from other organizations, and in December we were awarded an outreach grant of $7,500 by St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Orinda, California, to assist us with this project.

Partners

We have a congregation that is both ethnically and socioeconomically diverse, and a wide spectrum of people and groups walk through our doors every week.

*  Alcoholics Anonymous

*  The Bureau of Veterans Affairs

*  Korean-American Presbyterian

*  Bay Area Organizing Committee

*  University of San Francisco

*  San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

*  North Panhandle Neighborhood Association

*  The Village Project

*  St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

*  Al-Anon

Key to the future of St. Cyprian’s is the development of long- and short- term partnerships with area non- profits, individuals, and businesses.

My Tasks:

I am currently working on the coming event of Dinner for a Neighborhood Community Kitchen. On Saturday, November 12, at 6 p.m. a host of us will host a dinner for those interested in being a part of creating a community kitchen in St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church. Local foodies, grandmas, students, chefs, gardeners and culinary entrepreneurs are invited for the conversation about creating a community kitchen for the neighborhood.

The Cyprian’s Kitchen Committee has begun to apply for grants; however, it still need the help from banks, culinary enterprises, volunteer communities, and neighborhood those are expected to make contributions to help build a kitchen.

I would like to share my achievements so far:

(Here is the flyer that I have created for the event Dinner for a Neighborhood Community Kitchen.)

                                               – Created by USF Intern: Lu Han, Oct. 12th, 2011

(Kitchen Brochure for the information of St. Cyprian’s Community Kitchen) Kitchen Brochure 

My Experience:

My internship with St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church is a valuable experience for my future work life. Through helping the Kitchen project, my business knowledge and skills are improved, my design background is strengthened and my work experiences are expanded. The most important thing I have learned from this internship is how to work well with partners, which is an essential skill required for all successful businesses no matter small companies or large enterprises. I learned how to negotiate with partners when we have different opinions on subjects, how to efficiently accomplish a project, and how to deal with the time limit problems. By working with Pastor Will, I am completely influenced by his enthusiasm of the work and rigorous attitude. He always helps and encourages me when I have difficulties and shares his own experiences when teaching me how to do subjects such as researches, Evite, etc. With this internship, I am growing and I am learning.