11 Aug Welcome Everest Harvey, Director of Youth and Social Justice

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 Loft, and during Grapple
Group.

I had the opportunity to meet Everest and to see them in leadership last summer during our Sierra Service Project (SSP) trip. Everest was on staff at the site in Del Norte County, and we got to experience their gifts in leadership during that week. I look forward to the ways that Everest will lead in our midst, and know you will help us welcome them to our community.

I was moved by the ways that Everest describes this role on our staff as a match for their calling. Here is how they describe it:

“The position combines several of my lifelong passions: building and participating in communities of faith, working with and facilitating spaces for young people (and people of all ages), and pursuing social justice in a loving and intentional way.

“I was raised going to an Episcopal church in a relatively conservative part of California. Growing up, I was one of the only queer Christians I knew. My story echoes a narrative common throughout queer corners of Christian faith communities – one of feeling drawn to follow Jesus even as I struggled to find my place among the people who claimed to love Him. Being queer in Christian spaces has challenged me and frustrated me, but it has also taught me to love through that frustration and recognize God’s light in everyone, especially those who are unsure of how to do the same for me.

“For me, conversations about faith have always been wrapped up in conversations about social justice, not only in relation to my own identity, but also in the ways Jesus’s story and legacy speaks to the political and social issues of the world at large. Studying sociology during my undergraduate career gave me tools for approaching, talking about, and addressing the societal issues I had felt passionately about since middle school, and shifted the way I viewed what it means to practice a life of faith. Through my studies at school and through returning to scripture, I came to know Jesus as a radically forgiving and loving leader, living out the idea that every single person is worthy of love and redemption, and I realized the only way to follow Him authentically was pursuing justice for all people, building communities that not only welcomed people in, but also extended love outwards into their larger communities.”

I encourage you to help me welcome Everest to Westwood!

grace and peace,
Pastor Molly