Sacred Oak

Years ago, I kept a quarter horse at Windy Hill Farm on the top of Spring Street in Santa Cruz. Almost every day I would ride into Pogonip, now a 614 acre city park, lying directly below the University of California campus and above the City of Santa Cruz. One day I rode around an oak tree standing alone in a meadow deep into the park and made it a regular point of destination. And then I noticed it! The downside of the tree was a figure of The Crucified. A limb had been lopped off that left what looked like a head with a semblance of eyes and a mouth and the enormous limbs as outstretched arms. I didn’t fall off my horse, like the Apostle Paul was said to have done, but it did make a lasting impression. So much so, that ever since that year, around l977, I have been conducting services at the Sacred Oak, as I came to call it, every Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving. We walk in at around l0:30am on the holiday and have a non-sectarian service including communion. The public is invited. For information call Paul Lee at 469-3384.

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Paul Lee