Re: Family friendly church for a newbie

You might try St. John's Presbyterian Church on College Ave. in Berkeley. I have moved away from the Bay Area, but my family was attending there and we liked it. The minister has grade school kids and the whole congregation is very welcoming of kids and adults alike. It's a big open space, and I really liked the sense that I could just go in and sit and soak in a little peace and nobody was pressuring me to do or be anything. I also think that the minister would be very welcoming and sensitive to you if you said that you were new to this kind of experience. He himself is very left of center politically, and I think the whole congregation is; it's not a dogmatic place. In fact, we started going because of friends who were totally new to the church experience, but they went and felt very connected there and invited us along. elza