28 Feb A Long View: Compassion, Justice, and Belonging

Greetings Westwood Community,

This last weekend, during Sunday worship in both of our gatherings, we celebrated and blessed the Claremont School of Theology (CST), which is now located on our campus.

(They are, I should note, still finishing renovations in the Lower Helms Hall area, which will be their primary, regular location. Today, new carpet is being installed; the full physical move of the office is planned for next month. Because most of the classes are primarily online, the transition can happen fairly seamlessly!)

Sunday afternoon, CST hosted a convocation in The Loft, and welcomed the broader school community to experience this new home. It was energizing to be a part of that gathering, and to know that our church campus is serving as a physical home for the only United Methodist seminary on the west coast, and a preeminent graduate theological school that is leading the way in inter-religious theological education. The school’s stated values describe its work in forming leaders for compassion, justice, and belonging.

I love the ways that these values and this work align with our values as a congregation.

Recently, Patricia Barlow brought in a folder of historical records that have been in her family–photos and documents. Among them was a program from the re-dedication of our Helms Hall space in 1957. (This was just after our Sanctuary building was built, when the Helms building was no longer needed as our primary sanctuary.) The program reminded me about how this beautiful facility that we get to use as our church space today because of the generosity of people who’ve gone before us. Other leaders, who believed that Westwood would be a good location for a new Methodist Church in 1929, gave our congregation that first building.

In the program that Patricia gave me were prayers that I found moving. I adapted them so that we could pray them again, and wanted to share them with you today:

We affirm again our commitment to dedicating the buildings of our campus to the glory of God, for worship, fellowship, study, and service. Borrowing from the prayers our congregation offered at the 1929 dedication and 1957 rededication of the Helms Chapel building, we offer renewed prayers now, as the Claremont School of Theology takes up residence as a tenant on our campus.

We pray divine blessing on this faithful use of the facility, which continues the gracious legacy of the generations who preceded us, and entrusted these buildings to our community, that they would support the “high task” of building Beloved Community.

“May our step be ever onward, our trend upward, our smile sincere, our faith firm, our courage strong, and our optimism paramount” (1929).

We honor the work of this theological school, rooted in our United Methodist denomination and committed to interfaith practice. We pray for the work of the school, in forming spiritual, academic, and community leaders for compassion, justice, and belonging.

“We dedicate ourselves anew to the service of our fellow [humans] wherein can best be performed our true service of God, in obedience to the spirit of the One who said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself” (1957).

grace and peace,
Pastor Molly