Kindred in Christ,

This Sunday, we gather in the beautiful rhythm of remembrance and renewal. It’s All Saints and Día de los Muertos—a sacred time to honor those who have shaped our lives and reflect on how their love still lives in us. We remember family, mentors, friends, and even beloved creatures who reflected God’s love and helped us see blessing in unexpected places.

As Jesus teaches in this week’s Gospel (Luke 6:20–31), true blessing comes not from comfort or success but from mercy, justice, and love that endures. The saints we honor this week remind us that remembrance is never passive—it’s a call to carry forward the work of compassion and justice they began.

It’s especially fitting, then, that this Sunday also marks the launch of our first joint pledge campaign for University Gathering and Green Lake UMC: Roots and Branches—Rooted in our histories, growing together in shared mission.

This is a collaborative campaign with two congregations’ separate operating budgets, united in vision and ministry. Throughout November, we’ll reflect on our Methodist roots—the connection that binds us in grace and sends us outward in service. John Wesley called this connectionalism—a network of grace linking disciples, congregations, and ministries in shared mission. Just as the saints remind us that we belong to one another across time, our Methodist heritage calls us to live out that connection today in love and action.

If the ministry of these congregations has blessed your life, I invite you to prayerfully consider your pledge for the coming year—an act of gratitude for what has been and hope for what’s yet to come.

May this All Saints and Día de los Muertos Sunday ground us in remembrance, root us in love, and send us to grow new branches of mercy, justice, and joy.

Alongside you,

Pastor Paul Ortiz

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector Block Print by Richard Beerhorst

Kindred in Christ,

Our world often feels parched—our spirits, our communities, even the earth itself. Inequality grows, the climate strains, and the work of making things right can feel beyond our capacity. And yet renewal keeps breaking through—beyond what we can do on our own—in shared vision, acts of mercy, and the surprising flow of the Spirit among us.

As we move toward the close of our All Creation Sings series, I’ve been reflecting on how every part of creation—rain, soil, breath, and heartbeat—points us back to the Source of life and renewal. This Sunday’s theme will draw from Joel 2:23–32 and Luke 18:9–14, inviting us to notice where grace is already at work among us and within us.

In Joel, the rain becomes a sign of the Spirit—restoring what has been lost, healing what has been broken, and bringing new life where the ground has grown dry. In Jesus’ parable (depicted above), we meet two people at prayer: one relying on his own righteousness, and one simply opening his heart to mercy and change. Together, these passages remind us that renewal begins not in our strength, but in our openness to grace—the Spirit raining down upon us and within us, calling us to live in ways that heal and sustain our communities.

Before we gather on Sunday, I’m also deeply looking forward to our second Vision Retreat on Saturday with our facilitator Kristina Gonzalez. A lot has been bubbling up lately—new energy, creative ministry, and meaningful collaborations between our two congregations. This weekend is a chance to listen deeply to one another, to celebrate what’s emerging, and to stay open to where the Spirit may be leading us next.

I can’t wait to be with you—listening, praying, and being renewed together.

Alongside you,

Pastor Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

Up until now in our series All Creation Sings, we’ve celebrated how worship connects us with all creatures and the earth itself—a chorus of praise, gratitude, and wonder. This Sunday, we turn to a different song: the song of groaning. It is the song of longing, of protest, of insistence that what is broken be made whole. Creation groans. Humanity groans. And the Spirit groans with us, moving through our pain toward new life and justice.

This focus is especially timely, as our nation prepares for its second wave of No Kings Mass protests this weekend—a vivid reminder that standing up for justice, even when the world seems indifferent, is part of the work God calls us to.

Paul tells us in Romans 8 that all creation waits with bated breath, straining toward freedom, groaning with labor pains for the day of God’s restoration. John Wesley also reflected on this reality in his sermon The General Deliverance, teaching that God’s grace is not limited to human hearts but flows through all living creatures, renewing and restoring the earth itself. For Wesley, groaning is sacred labor—a song of hope rising out of pain.

In our Gospel, Luke 18, Jesus lifts up the widow who refuses to be silent in the face of injustice. Her persistence—her groaning for justice—softens even the hardest hearts. She reminds us that groaning is never passive; it is action, it is hope, it is insistence. The Spirit groans with creation and with us, guiding our prayers, our protests, and our persistence toward new life and justice.

Join us this Sunday to hear the songs of creation, to enter into the groaning of the Spirit, and to discover how our own persistence—our own groaning for justice and new life—is part of the cosmic labor of God. Even in sighs and cries, God is at work, weaving life, hope, and renewal into the world.

Alongside you,
Pastor Paul

Rev. Steven Charleston Episcopal Bishop,

Academic and Member of the Choctaw Nation

 Kindred in Christ,

As we approach Indigenous Peoples Day, this Sunday we continue our worship series All Creation Sings, celebrating the sacred kinship that connects us to each other and to all of creation.

Psalm 148 calls on the heavens and the earth, sun and moon, mountains and trees, and even the creatures of the wild to praise the Lord. All creation sings! In our Gospel reading, Jesus heals ten men, yet only one returns to give thanks. Gratitude opens the heart—not just to God, but to one another, and even to those we might consider outsiders.

Together we will reflect on some words shared by Bishop Steven Charleston, a Choctaw elder and Episcopal Bishop, who reminds us:

“There seems to be a growing understanding of the kinship of all life, which, as you know, Indigenous people have long understood.”

By listening to Indigenous wisdom, we discover new dimensions of God’s presence, the meaning of kinship, and the sacredness of all creation.

Join us this Sunday as we return in gratitude, open our hearts to kinship, and join all creation in praising our Creator.

Alongside you,

Pastor Paul Ortiz

Mosaic-St Francis Praises the Creation at the University of Lourdes

Kindred in Christ,

This Sunday we begin a new worship series called All Creation Sings. Inspired by Saint Francis of Assisi, who taught us to see the sun, moon, and all creatures as our siblings, and by John Wesley, who spoke of creation as a living witness to God’s glory, we’ll explore an eco-spirituality that draws us into connection with all things. Wesley believed that the “book of nature” speaks alongside Scripture, revealing God’s wisdom and love through every part of the created world. Together, we are invited to rediscover creation not as scenery but as kin—woven into God’s song of life.

It is also World Communion Sunday, a day when Christians across the globe gather at Christ’s table. In sharing bread and cup, we remember that God’s love knows no borders or barriers. Following the vision of Francis and Wesley, we can imagine that the whole creation is gathered here with us—human and more-than-human neighbors alike—called into God’s circle of grace. Communion is not only solidarity across nations and languages, but also a reminder of our deep kinship with the earth itself.

After worship, we’ll continue in fellowship with a potluck lunch, and then lace up our walking shoes for the CROP Hunger Walk around Green Lake (see more information below). This walk is more than exercise—it’s a way of putting our faith into action by raising funds to end hunger, both in our own community and around the world.

Come ready to worship, to share a meal, and to walk together in hope and love. I’m looking forward to being with you as we begin this season of All Creation Sings.

Alongside you,

Pastor Paul Ortiz