Session Notes - March 2022
Your Session sat, by Zoom, for its regular monthly meeting this week. We conducted our usual church business (discussed in a moment), but our attention was fixed on a reality that has become obvious – the challenging transition from online to in-person worship. As Pastor Laura said, “we’re traveling off the map.”
A Word from Laura: Tiny Prayer
This week I discovered The Book of Tiny Prayer by Micah Bucey, a progressive faith leader in New York City. During the first year of covid, frustrated by isolation, Bucey created one-sentence prayers and posted them on-line each day. His book of blessings and thanksgivings may inspire anyone seeking to live courageously into God’s love and justice, as we do at Western.
Author Talk: Katherine Stewart – The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
Come join our faith community as we continue to understand and respond to religious nationalism through the lens of public theology.
A Word from Laura: A Time to Grow
Believe it or not, Lent is here again. Lent: the lengthening of days in the northern hemisphere, reminding Christians of the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness. Lent: when we bring to God the truth about ourselves and our world, trusting that God uses it to accomplish God’s love and justice for us and our world. Lent: a time to grow.
A Word from Laura: Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm, from the Greek roots en (within) + theos (God), meaning “God within”
In this time of re-entry into the world, I’ve witnessed folks rediscovering enthusiasm. Sure, re-entry may mean wearing something other than sweatpants, but it’s also the opportunity for the ways God has been at work in us to connect with God at work in others.
It’s been exciting to sense enthusiasm at Western:
Session Notes: February 2022
The bulk of our meeting – and much of our leadership retreat at the church on Saturday – was devoted to the practice of discernment and comprehensive planning…