Dear Westwood Community, Hello! Everest here. As you may or may not know, I am not, in fact, a cradle methodist. I was raised in the Episcopal church, took communion every week, you know the drill. As of last week, I’ve been at Westwood for two...
Greetings Westwood Family, By now, I am sure that most of you have met Everest Harvey, our new Director of Youth and Social Justice. Everest has been hard at work, meeting with many of you and getting the pulse of what social justice issues our community...
Dear Westwood Church Family, Today, October 4, is St. Francis Day - celebrated in many parts of the Christian church for the ways Francis of Assisi shaped our understanding of our relationship to our world and all its inhabitants. Born into wealth in late 12th Century...
Dear Westwood Church Family, I've been pondering this image over the past week, of a seedling and its roots. On the surface, a tiny tree is visible. Beneath the surface, a delicate and extensive web of networked roots connects that visible plant to its home. These...
Dear Westwood Church Family, When we became a Reconciling United Methodist Church, we adopted the following statement: In an address aimed toward the whole United Methodist Church, the President of our Council of Bishops, Tom Bickerton, challenged us to “be the architects of a renewed, revived and...
Dear Westwood Church Family, When we became a Reconciling United Methodist Church, we adopted the following statement: "We, the faith community of Westwood Church, affirm that a God-filled perspective understands and embraces diversity and radical inclusivity; for that reason we embrace and affirm the full inclusion of...
Dear Westwood Church Family, I've had "Home" from The Wiz stuck in my head all day: "When I think of home, I think of a place where there's love overflowing...
Dear Westwood Church Family, I was recently asked, “Do you believe in a higher power?” Uh. Yes. But then I had to explain it (somewhat). So this is what I wrote: DO YOU BELIEVE IN A HIGHER POWER? Yes. I love the second story of creation in the Book...
Dear Westwood Church Family, This past Saturday, many of our Westwood UMC staff members met up for a day of visioning together. In the busyness of our lives and shared ministry, it's a rare and lovely gift to have time to dream together. It helped me notice...
Dear Westwood Church Family, On vacation in France this month, we stopped in a beautiful hillside village near the Gorges du Verdon, called Moustiers-Sainte-Marie. Above the winding streets of the village, we walked up worn stairs to visit the 12th century church above; since long before...
Dear Westwood family, I am very pleased to welcome Everest Harvey to our church staff, as Director of Youth and Social Justice; Everest officially begins this work tomorrow, and we will have the chance to welcome them on Sunday in worship in The Sanctuary and The...
Dear Westwood family, This coming Sunday August 6th, Pastor Diana and I will be speaking in The Loft about the role and importance of creating a community where all people - including our children - feel like they belong. In my preparation for this Sunday I...
Greetings Westwood Community, I'm getting ready for a family trip to France, which I'm pretty excited about. Vacation planning is one of my favorite hobbies, and I've been working on this one for a while. We have the privilege of traveling as tourists, with the assurance of...
Greetings Westwood Community, Last week, I visited my parents' home in Colorado, and then drove from there to the farm my dad grew up on in central Nebraska. I visited to help host our annual Field Day for the non-proft Grain Place Foundation we started to...
Dear Westwood Church family, Every summer in The Loft - well, every summer since I have been here! - we spend a few months reflecting on one of the four value-pillars that inform the life of our worship community. Those values are Compassion, Conversation, Belonging, and Decolonization, and...
Dear Westwood Church family, While hanging out with my family yesterday, I ended up laying back on a grassy lawn, grateful for the shade from a tree that covered me, and for the breeze blowing by. Plus, the leaves of the tree were lovely as they...
Dear Westwood Church family, I had an incredible experience last week, with young people from our church participating in the Sierra Service Project on the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona. I'm inspired by our Grapplers, who showed commitment and compassion during the experience. On our way home, we stopped...
Dear Westwood Church family, While Pastor Molly is away with our youth, she invited me to write the pastoral note this week. Earlier I had made the list below at the behest of my adult children who have me writing each week for Storyworth. I’ve been...
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...
Dear Westwood Church family, This Sunday, in the Church calendar, we begin "Ordinary Time." I've always found the name of this season, which stretches all the way from Trinity Sunday to past Thanksgiving at the first Sunday of Advent, amusing. It amuses me because of the...