14 Jun Nourish

Dear Westwood Church family,

This week, our regional church gathers for our Annual Conference; our theme this year, “Nourish,” responds to the vision we’ve named together: “Ending Spiritual and Physical Hunger.”

I’m always glad to connect with old friends at Conference, including leaders from churches who helped shape me as a pastor, and colleagues who’ve inspired and challenged me. It’s a gift to remember the diversity of people who are a part of our United Methodist Church, and a joy to worship and sing in varied languages and styles. I look forward to hearing inspiring sermons, and stories of faithfulness. These things nourish my spirit.

This year, it’s a special joy to get to experience the ordination of Dr. Christopher Carter. I’m so grateful to be in ministry with him here at Westwood, and excited to be present in the community as Bishop Dottie Escobedo-Frank will instruct him to “take authority as an elder to preach the Word of God, to administer the Holy Sacraments and to order the life of the Church, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Every year, as we celebrate new ordinations, I’m reminded of the authority and responsibility given to me in my own ordination, nineteen years ago. I’m also reminded of the authority and responsibility that comes to all church members through baptism.

Just recently, as we Confirmed eleven young people here at Westwood, I renewed my sense of the gift, weight, and significance of disicipleship–of choosing to shape our lives around the love of God in Jesus Christ. This love requires so much! It compels us to say “no” to so many things that dehumanize and devalue others. It compels us to take up the discipline of compassion, grace, and hope. It reminds us of the power we have, to work with God, for the sake of love.

I encourage you to remember this responsibility we all bear, together: of “sharing in Christ’s ministry of love and service in the world, to the glory of God, and for the redemption of the human family and the whole of creation” (from the UMC Order for the Ordination of Elders).

May we do so, with love!

grace and peace,
Pastor Molly

p.s. I am excited to be able to travel with our Sierra Service Project trip this summer, as the sixteen of us go to serve others on the Navajo Nation in Tsaile, Arizona. We leave Sunday morning, early. I am grateful that Dr. Carter will be preaching and teaching in both the Sanctuary and the Loft these next two Sundays, and hope you will join him and help celebrate with him.