RealTalk Blog

Fifty years ago, congregants from GLIDE Church organized a potluck for their hungry neighbors in the Tenderloin. Their pastor, Rev. Cecil Williams, GLIDE’s Co-founder and Minister of Liberation, requested fried chicken—a staple of any festive gathering in the African American community of his youth. That’s the origin of what has come to be known as...

Whenever someone within my faith tradition has overcome something that seemed otherwise insurmountable, has been cured from something that had death as the prognosis, or survived something that no one has ever walked away from, my people say, “Somebody, surely, must have been praying for you.” I believe that we are all the recipients, the...

A Homoneutics of Liberation At the outset of PRIDE Month 2021, we return to a sermon delivered on June 30, 2019, that shows us where LGBTQIA+ love shines within the text of the Bible. Last week, I talked to you about applying a “Hermeneutics of Incarceration” to the bible as a way to interpret the...

A focal point of GLIDE’s Sunday Celebration is the “I AM GLIDE” testimony, in which a member of the community takes the pulpit and tells their story, in their words. GLIDE is a place for healing and recovery, and one of the ways we empower each other is by telling our stories. Indeed, we often...

We are thrilled to relate that Antwan Matthews, a Phlebotomist and HIV Navigator on the GLIDE Harm Reduction Team, was recently awarded a prestigious fellowship from Rise Up, an Oakland-based organization advocating a better future for youth, women and girls globally. This year, Rise Up selected 22 winners out of 550 applicants who are using...

A look at what our community’s kids and parents can count on. Summertime is almost here—a time when children suddenly have seemingly endless hours of free time. But what do the working parents of low-income families do about childcare once school is let out? It’s no secret that the cost of childcare in San Francisco,...

This month GLIDE celebrates the 20th anniversary of the eBay Auction for Power Lunch with Warren Buffett. This exciting annual effort raises funds for GLIDE’s comprehensive programs benefitting some of the most in-need and marginalized San Franciscans. It also represents a special relationship that has only grown stronger with the years—one that includes Mr. Buffett,...

This year, the GLIDE Center for Social Justice (CSJ) along with our community partners at Skywatchers have been proud to create a new Leadership Academy with residents of the Tenderloin. Skywatchers is an arts-based ensemble that has been working in the Tenderloin for eight years with SRO residents, centering performance-based and multi-disciplinary art and stories...

In keeping with our values of radical inclusivity and acceptance, GLIDE has a long-standing policy of welcoming all people, as well as their animals, through our doors. On any given day at GLIDE, you will see dogs in backpacks, strollers, baby slings, tote bags and on leashes. In celebration of the unconditional love that animals...