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mission yearbook

Time for more prayer, less talk

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Six months had passed since our elders transitioned to more prayerful session meetings. I was checking in with Vic, one of our crustier members who had resisted the change. “So, how are you dealing with the new meeting style?” I asked.

Minute for Mission: International Roma Day

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It humbles me the extent to which our Roma friends and colleagues practice hospitality, always laying a table for us with whatever they have. They are among the poorest of the poor, marginalized by a society that feels threatened by an alien culture living in their midst. I don’t use the word alien as a negative, just a reality. They are a people with deep traditions, a strong sense of family and community, their own language, their own music, their own style of dress. They do not wish to be assimilated, but they do wish to live in peace with their neighbors, if it is only possible. Often, should a job be posted, as soon as a Roma man or woman applies, it is not available. The Roma are also subject to violence (pogroms) and blamed for any bad incident that takes place in a community. It is assumed that they will steal what is not nailed down.

Minute for Mission: Holocaust Remembrance Day

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Henry owned a parcel of land. He had bought a 100-by-100-foot lot in a dangerous part of town years ago hoping to make a profit when the neighborhood improved. For a time, he lived in the vacant building on the lot to chase away squatters and even got beat up a few times. Henry was a big man. What I remember most about Henry was the way he walked, with a purposeful stride, wearing a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. My partners and I had gone to see him about buying that piece of property. He was a tough negotiator, but eventually we came to an agreement.

A voice to affirm all people

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The Washington Corrections Center for Women is both the largest and the only maximum and medium security prison for women in the state. It’s surrounded by barbed wire, and you have to go through five locked gates to get to the main population.

Minute for Mission: One Great Hour of Sharing

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The pandemic has stretched the Church in many ways — but we are still very much … here. Although it was hard at first, we have expanded our thinking, and our doing, in new and innovative ways to close the distance and be together. We have continued to worship. We have continued to build and shape community; we have continued to take care of one another. And on top of all that, we have continued to come together to serve those in need; both here in our own community and all over the world. Despite the difficulty, struggle and loss, the Church continues to declare its presence in the world, through different means, certainly, but toward the same purpose.

The great bookcase reveal

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I couldn’t wait for the livestream of “Take Me to the World” to begin. The show was touted as a once- in-a-lifetime Broadway event, featuring a star-studded lineup of performers coming together to celebrate the 90th birthday of Stephen Sondheim, the prolific lyricist and composer of such musicals as “Into the Woods” and “West Side Story.”

Just passing by …

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Has anyone ever come into your life to help you, just when you needed help and had nowhere to turn? Have you ever been that urgent helper for someone else?

Picking out a frame

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The canvas before us looks to be from a surrealist artist. In the center, a figure in a beaked plague mask rides a green horse. To one side, bed-sheet banners with the message “No Job, No Rent” hang from apartment windows. To the other side, shirts on marching protesters bear the inscription “BLM.” And scattered through the scene are darkened churches painted upside down.

Beyond buildings, borders and geography

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During a recent fast-paced two-hour Zoom conversation, the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow led more than 100 participants in a discussion on “The Scattered Church: Pastoring in a Time of Pandemic.”

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” — Luke 23:42

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