Kindred in Christ,

I am thrilled that this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, from 11am-7pm, we will be out at the U District Street Fair, co-hosting a free button making booth! We are joining forces with UW Lutherans Campus Ministry and University Lutheran Church. You can find our booth on University Ave between 47^th and 50^th Streets. Please plan to stop by to make a free button or sign up to volunteer below—we still have a few shifts open! This will be a fun and creative way to meet our neighbors and make art together.

This weekend is also Pentecost Sunday, a.k.a. the birthday of the Church! This is totally appropriate, because as Acts 2 reminds us, the Church was born when the Spirit led a group of people out of a building and into the world. The text tells us that on the day of Pentecost they were all gathered inside one room and “suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire building where they were sitting” and the Holy Spirit filled the room with “flames of fire” on each of them. And with all that wind and noise, and the hazardous pyrotechnics of the Spirit, the text tells us that the Apostles were moved outdoors to begin their multi-lingual proclamation. While they began indoors, the Spirit pushes them outdoors to connect with new people in new ways. Rather than starting outdoors and being moved inside a temple, the Church is born when a group is empowered to finally “come out” and connect with the world in a new way.

This Sunday we are also kicking off our yearly LGBTQIA+ Pride celebration series, God is Proud of You! Throughout the next several weeks, we will reflect on the many ways the Holy Spirit is inviting us as a community to be birthed anew and to “come out” in the world through spirited passion and blessed queerness.

I hope to see you on Sunday for Pentecost, and out in the streets this weekend!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

Last Sunday we had the joy of baptizing some beloved members (and mermaids) from our community and celebrating the grace that is poured over all our lives. One of the many things baptism represents is the waters of new birth, or the waters of the womb of God. It is a bold reminder that since the beginning, before we were even aware, God’s sustaining love and grace was already with us. And this grace that brings us to new life is still flowing through us, propelling us into a meaningful life of love, service, and justice-seeking in the way of Jesus.

Something powerful happens when we collectively remember our baptisms. If we allow it, the communal ritual of baptism of friends and family members becomes the Spirit’s invitation for all of us to open ourselves up to what new birth can look like for our world, church, and selves in the present.

This past week, our denomination experienced a new birth of the Spirit, as diverse Methodist delegates from around the world gathered to pray, discern, and vote to finally remove the prohibitive and discriminatory language against LGBTQIA+ people, which had been imposed into the United Methodist Book of Discipline and Social Principles for so long. An overwhelming 93.14% of General Conference delegates voted to remove the harmful restrictions that sought to ban queer folk from living into their call to ordained ministry. And 76.46% voted to remove the “incompatibility” clause from our social principles and expand the definition of marriage. Along with this, the UMC has also moved to regionalize the U.S., meaning that we are decentering the United States and striving to decolonize our denomination to truly be a global church that shares power equally with other nations. These and many more strives forward are clear signs of rebirth for the people called Methodist.

While U Gathering and our Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church has celebrated the ordination and marriages of the LGBTQIA+ community for years, this now makes it possible worldwide.

As I saw diverse delegates and members at General Conference crying tears of joy, and erupting into spontaneous worship and praise as they celebrated these historic changes in our denomination, I found myself feeling deeply connected and blessed by God’s grace that is still bringing new life. May this past week be a blessing and a charge. May we be blessed that we got to see the day our denomination changed, and may we accept the charge of living into a new day of greater inclusion and justice in the way of Jesus.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

On the first stop on my recent pilgrimage was the baptistery of St. Lydia in Philippi (Φίλιπποι), Greece. Near the ancient, archaeological site of the market (agora) of Philippi is the river that is believed to be the site where Lydia was baptized by the Apostle Paul (Acts 16). On the bank of the river there is an open baptistery in the form of a cross like those preserved in early Christian basilicas. There is also a chapel in honor of St. Lydia near the river. It was quite an experience to receive water and a blessing on our foreheads as we remembered our own baptisms and sank a little deeper into the abundant grace that drew St. Lydia to become a significant part of the early church movement.

St. Lydia, as we will explore further this Sunday, was a self-made woman in a patriarchal world. Commentators tell us that she likely started on the bottom of society and worked her way up from a life of slavery by hustling in the purple textile industry of that time—purple fabrics and clothing were highly sought after by upper society in that time and culture. Along with her financial success, she was also a spiritual seeker. She was drawn to a divine love and grace that she did not have to earn and fight for—unlike everything else in her life. After baptism, St. Lydia opens her home in hospitality for the growing movement in the way of Jesus.

Join us this Sunday, as we explore the story of St. Lydia further and continue in our series, A New Way of Being Human. We will also baptize three people from our own community into the waters of God’s grace! And plan to stick around for a special celebration lunch and cake after service!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

After an inspiring pilgrimage following the footsteps of the Apostle Paul through Greece and Turkey, I am looking forward to being back with you this Sunday! Along with visiting the lovely Greek islands, numerous monasteries, and ancient churches, a significant portion of our journey was visiting the ruins of Ephesus, Philippi, and Corinth (all three pictured above). As you may be familiar, the Apostle Paul spent significant time in each of these cities planting new communities in the way of Jesus. And he wrote several pastoral letters to each of these early churches, a few of which are preserved in the New Testament.

As our tour guide waked us through what used to be the markets (agoras) of these cities, she explained that it was common for philosophers and thinkers to stand in public and share their new ideas to the gathering crowds. In fact, in an age before social media, people went to the agoras to hear new ideas from these visiting, street performing philosophers.

As a Wesleyan who loves our history of John Wesley proclaiming a new way of doing church and being community out in the streets of England during the 18^th century revival movement known as Methodism, I deeply appreciated seeing the places where the Apostle Paul would have stood and preached to the gathering crowds about a new way of being alive in God.

The Apostle Paul and the people of The Way [what the early Christians called themselves] proclaimed “a new way of being human” (N. T. Wright) that viewed everyone as equal and valuable in God. This message was in sharp contrast to the Roman Empire which relied heavily on a strict social hierarchy and colonization.

Join us this Sunday as we kick off our new series, A New Way of Being Human. We will explore together how we are being invited into new ways of being fully alive in our present!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Mary Magdalene Proclaims the Resurrection by Laura James

Kindred in Christ,

This year, Easter Sunday comes a little earlier than usual, and lands on the last day of Women’s History Month! This is totally appropriate, especially considering that the first evangelists and preachers of the resurrection were women (Luke 23:55-24:12). As depicted above, Mary Magdalene, and the other women disciples were not only the first ones to encounter the wonder of the empty tomb but were also the first to boldly proclaim to others that Christ is risen from the dead. Yet the male disciples did not believe them and regarded their statements as an “idle tail.”

The biblical Greek word translated into “idle tail” is lēros. Biblical scholars suggest that a saltier innuendo is meant by the word lēros. And in fact, the term is equal to calling something total BS!

Perhaps the other disciples were too sexist to trust the testimony of women. Perhaps the story was too bizarre to accept at first glance. Perhaps it seemed too good to be true. Like me, you may relate to all of these when first encountering the hope of the resurrection in our lives.

Rev. Dr. Thomas G. Long suggests that perhaps the other disciples’ initial resistance to the resurrection was because it would ask something big of them, and that freaks them out!

Long writes, “If they don’t accept the message, they can just call themselves alumni of Jesus’ school of religion. They can just call themselves students of an inspiring, moral, ethical teacher who had a tragic death. But if they accept the story that he is risen, then the story is far from over. In fact, it is just beginning, and their lives will change. And they will be sent out. And they will have to carry the message too. And there are some mixed feelings about that!”

Join us this Sunday at our new site, or on Facebook Live, as we encounter the beautiful and bizarre story of the resurrection and explore how it is calling us to share this message of hope with others!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz