Glide's Annual Holiday Festival: From the 'Hood to the House

GLIDE GOES FROM THE ‘HOOD TO THE HOUSE
A Benefit to Honor Reverend Cecil Williams’ 45th Anniversary
Featuring Dr. Maya Angelou, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and More

Thursday, November 12 at the War Memorial Opera House


WHAT: Glide’s Annual Holiday Festival, From The ‘Hood To The House

An evening to benefit Mo’s Kitchen and Glide’s programs

WHERE: San Francisco War Memorial Opera House at 301 Van Ness Ave at Grove Street

WHEN: Thursday, November 12:
Arrival: 6pm

Stage program: 7 – 8:30pm

Reception: 8:30 – 10:00pm

WHO: Dr. Maya Angelou, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows, Glide Ensemble Choir and Change Band; and other celebrity guests to be announced

TICKETS: Individual tickets range from $75 - $500, Sponsorships start at $5,000.
For Tickets contact:
San Francisco Opera Box Office
Monday 10am-5pm, Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm
301 Van Ness Ave
San Francisco CA 94117
415-864-3330

INFO: Call 415.674.6117, email: festival [at] glide.org or visit http://glide.org/HoldOn.aspx



BACKGROUND:
Each year, Glide’s Annual Holiday Festival raises funds for Mo’s Kitchen and Glide’s programs. Mo’s Kitchen serves up three meals a day to San Francisco’s poorest residents – nearly one million meals each year. This year’s Holiday Festival will highlight Glide’s Reverend Cecil Williams and his 45 years of service at Glide.

ABOUT REVEREND CECIL WILLIAMS:
The evening’s festivities will highlight Glide’s Reverend Cecil Williams and his 45 years of service at Glide. Reverend Williams arrived at Glide in 1963 when it was a struggling congregation. With his determination to celebrate life and bring hope to people, Williams embraced and embodied the spirit of change that was raging through our country at the time. By the late 1960s, Glide had become home for San Francisco’s diverse communities and marginalized populations and was ground zero for the counter-culture’s political and spiritual aspirations.

Over the next 40 years, Rev. Williams, and Glide’s founding president Janice Mirikitani, have built Glide into a thriving church offering a unique and powerful blend of spirituality, principled compassion, and forward-thinking programs for those most in need. As minister, author, social activist, lecturer, community leader and spokesperson for the poor and marginalized, Williams is respected and recognized as a national leader on the forefront of change and in the struggle for civil and human rights.

Often considered controversial and radical, Rev. Williams was one of the first clergy to take a revolutionary stand for same sex couples by presiding over their weddings four decades before today’s struggle to legalize gay marriage.

Williams’ ministry underscores his roots in liberation theology and his vision for the 21st Century church – a church that offers hope, compassion and real help to those in need. With a membership of over 11,000 and located in the heart of the city’s toughest neighborhood, Glide is one of the fastest growing churches in North America. People of all races, ethnic backgrounds, cultures, social classes, ages, faiths, and sexual orientations join together at every Sunday Celebration to experience the energy of spiritual liberation.