Greetings Westwood Community, A year ago this week, the United Methodist Church officially removed all the harmful anti-LGBTQ+ language from our Book of Discipline. The first vote that dismantled the first of these exclusionary rules was taken on May 1, last year; over the next few...
Greetings Westwood Community, At the beginning of this year, a group of people from Westwood read “Unmasking Autism” together. The book is written by Dr. Devon Price, an autistic trans man who was diagnosed later in life. His story, and many of the stories in his book, resonated...
A Wide Embrace" by Lisle Gwynn Garrity | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org Greetings Westwood Community, Last Friday night, as I was sharing a holy moment with Kaiser mental health care workers on strike--eight of whom had been fasting as a hunger strike all through the week--I heard testimony...
Greetings Westwood Community, Lately, I’ve been leaning hard on treasured wisdom from our Christian faith: keeping love at the center of everything, claiming belonging in divine power that’s stronger than even death, holding onto defiant hope in the face of so much that feels under threat....
Greetings Westwood Community, The last few weeks have been quite busy for me! Gabi, Isaiah and I recently returned from an amazing vacation in Ireland. For religious studies and theology nerds like myself, Ireland is a bit of a pilgrimage because the country is dotted with a multitude of...
Dear Westwood Community, Last month, our Church Council started a process aimed at helping clarify and articulate the vision and mission of our church; this will be a significant part of the work of the Council this year. Already after our first conversation, some common themes...
Dear Westwood Community, In many activist circles, people refer to “radicalizing moments.” It’s essentially a “come-to-Jesus” moment in the context of social justice, often a moment of witnessing something that is so deeply wrong and unjust that you realize you have to be a part of...
Dear Westwood Community, Last week, President Trump gave what was, for all intents and purposes, a nearly one hundred-minute state of the union speech. The speech included his usual pomp, half truths, and outright lies. I didn't watch the speech because I love myself too much...
Dear Westwood Community, Whether or not we are ready, Lent arrives, inviting us into a journey of transformation. This season invites us to be intentional about our devotional lives, drawing from the deep well of meaningful practices in our spiritual tradition. This year, we encourage you to...
Dear Westwood Community, Last Sunday, we celebrated baptisms in the Sanctuary. Baptism Sundays are some of my favorite Sundays. I love that our tradition of infant baptism gives us a courageous claim on grace--it reminds us that our belonging does not depend on our knowledge or...
Dear Westwood Community, I confess that, among a variety of emotions, I've been resentful lately: I am tired at having to explain what I believe about God in reaction to some really bad ideas, offered by powerful voices. It's not new: I've long been frustrated at the...
Dear Westwood Community, It's been just over a month since devastating wildfires ignited here in LA County. So much has changed in that time. My prayers continue to be with those whose lives and families are forever reshaped by this disaster--especially those who have lost homes,...
Dear Westwood Community, Last week, I had the privilege of participating in a meeting of leaders in the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church in the US. At one point in the long meeting, when everyone’s energy was waning, we decided to sing. Someone on...
Dear Westwood Community, Last Sunday in Grapple, we watched the widely circulated video of Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde speaking directly to President Trump at the National Cathedral’s Inaugural Prayer Service, held on the Tuesday after last week’s inauguration. For any of you who have not seen it,...
Dear Westwood Community, In the last book published before his murder, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. asks a question that our country still wrestles with today, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” Today, January 20, 2025, will be remembered as a day...
Dear Westwood Community, This week has been a lot--for all of us. Especially for those who have lost so much: workplaces, homes, even loved ones. My heart breaks for all that has been changed by the wildfires that are not yet contained here in Los Angeles...
Dear Westwood Community, Like you, I have been on edge for the past day, watching and praying as wildfires move through our community. While the church is at present safely away from the fires, members of our congregation have evacuated--some anxiously awaiting word about whether their homes still...
Dear Westwood Community, This new year's eve, I am sitting with words from Cole Arthur Riley, shared as a prayer invitation on her Black Liturgies Instagram feed: Hope is not tethered to remembrance. We don't move forward by forgetting. Hold space for every joy and every sorrow of the year. We...
Merry Christmas! I hope that your Christmas celebration has been good already, and these next days will be full of tender joy as we mark the precious gifts of this season. I wanted to share two little gifts with you today: First, a video we made at...
Dear Westwood Community, Advent is a season of endings and beginnings. Christ’s birth brings new ways of living and loving into our world of uncertainties and injustice. In many ways, pregnant Mary was surrounded by endings—large and small, personal and political. But Mary proclaimed hope in...