Tie-Dye Event a Success

Hello UGatherers- Jemina here,

As we slowly wind down from our peak summer days I can’t help but get excited for cozy sweater season and moments to reconnect and hear about everyone’s summer adventures. Although this season isn’t exactly as I imagined, it has also been a blessing in disguise. I have found moments to connect with my family through deep grief and high hopes. Most recently at UGathering we hosted our first tie-dye party and it was a fantastic experience! I’ve always loved getting my hands dirty, and tie-dye is the perfect fun mess for that. It was truly wonderful to spend time with our children and youth during these busy summer days. The joy of seeing everyone create their own funky shirts and wacky socks, and the vibrant, speckled hands, made the day special.

A big thank you goes to our dedicated volunteers from our congregation, Green Lake and Wallingford UMC! ~ especially to Pastor Willie and his yard—couldn’t have done it without ya’ll. I hope to keep uplifting the joy of our youth, and moments like these remind me of why it’s so important. The art, the pizza, the music, and the games all came together to create lasting memories.

Doing Church Differently

Happy Friday everyone!

Jemina here. This past Sunday we gathered once again to share a meal, discuss and create together. Jill and I are overjoyed by the time we spent together at brunch church and blessed to have the opportunity to share our home with others. Since joining this church, I have always believed in our ability to “do church differently” and this opportunity has truly shown our capacity to do so. At our own brunch church, we have opened up the table to children’s voices, given them a spotlight, and been blessed to have a peek into their creative minds. I am excited about the connections this different way of gathering will bring us and I am proud to be part of this community.
I also want to express my gratitude to all of you who participated in our Sweet Case activity. The unique designs that everyone created were beautiful displays of encouragement and love that will undoubtedly bring joy to foster children. It was heartwarming to see our community come together, brainstorm ideas, and decorate the bags with utmost care. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such a compassionate and creative group of individuals. Let’s continue to keep the well-being of our foster children in mind and extend our support to them whenever possible.
With much gratitude,

Jemina MarasiganFamily and Community Engagement Minister

Serenity: Courage, Wisdom, & The Presence of God

 

It is no secret that we all experience anxiety at one point or another. Sometimes it is due to more significant problems that require our attention and action. And other times it is due to more insignificant issues that do not deserve so much of our attention and worry. But how can we tell the difference?

Join us during the month of January as we reflect on the wisdom of the Serenity Prayer. Together we will explore how to be centered on God’s serenity, which saves us from becoming overwhelmed and bitter from the things we cannot change, and empowered to make a difference for the things we can change.

Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Gratitude from Molly

 

Change and transitions are an inevitable experience of life and they come with mixed emotions. Fear and hesitation, the “what if’s” and the excitement of the unknown, of something new or different. I think back to when my friend, Rev. Dr. Leroy Barber reached out to me in February, asking me if I needed an internship gig for seminary. He said he could connect me with a church in Portland, Seattle, or Alaska. After the initial excitement of an opportunity to go to the Pacific Northwest, I started to question myself and my abilities to work for a church. I was in a place mentally and spiritually where I was taking a break from church and organized religion. I know that sounds ironic coming from a seminary student, but I knew I needed space as I was healing from church hurt. I was also in the process of deconstructing and trying to reconstruct my own faith.

Because of schedules and life circumstances, Dr. Barber and I didn’t reconnect about the internship until May. At this point, I had already told myself that my summer in Seattle would not happen this year. I told myself I would be in a better place spiritually and emotionally to work with a church next summer. Apparently God had other plans for me. On June 8th I had a zoom call with Dr. Barber, Dr. Jess Bielman, and Pastor Paul. That call put everything in motion. It was just a matter of finding a place for me to stay and getting a flight to Seattle. A month later I would be boarding a plane.

The four weeks in between that zoom call and getting on the plane, I went through all the emotions. First was the excitement for the adventure and working with a church who had queer folks like myself in leadership and being able to go to Seattle, a place I’ve wanted to go to for years. Then there was the fear of ‘Am I going to make friends while I’m there?’ (Community has always been really important to me!) Will I live up to the expectations of Pastor Paul? (not that he had put any on me; I put them on myself. Darn perfectionism creeping in.) What will I be able to contribute to this ministry in just six weeks? Preaching scares me, and facilitating small groups hasn’t always gone well for me. I was up for the adventure, though, and I was willing to say yes.

These past six weeks I have learned a lot about myself and a lot from you all. I am grateful for the way you all have embraced me. I’m grateful for the words of encouragement and constructive feedback to help me grow as a preacher, a leader and a person. I learned that I actually like preaching, it’s not as scary as I thought it would be. I have been a part of leading two small group sessions and I have really enjoyed that. I was reminded of my love for writing and being able to share my thoughts and ideas. I have also felt really connected to the community here. In many ways I feel like I am just getting to know you individually and as a church community. I am sad to have to say “goodbye for now” but I am looking forward to the time we will reconnect.

I am grateful to have been a part of this church community at this moment in time– a time of transition and change for your community. I’ve been able to witness and be a part of the way you all have come together in thinking about where the church has been in the past, where it currently is, and your hopes and dreams for the future. I know this can be a time of mixed emotions as well, but I have witnessed y’all embracing those feelings and emotions and saying “yes” to where God is leading you as a congregation. I encourage you to continue to trust the process. Trust God, Pastor Paul, and each other as you go through this time of change and growth and embrace the adventure of the unknown.  I look forward to seeing where y’all are next summer, as my plan and hope is to return and continue in ministry with University Gathering.

With sincerest gratitude,

Molly Collier

Finding Equilibrium

“Hope and fear is a feeling with two sides. As long as there’s one, there’s always the other. …Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a feeling of poverty.”  -Pema Chodron.

Friends,

I write to you today at the beginning of a new month and in a moment of transition for our church. Summer is winding down. Kids will be getting ready to go back to school soon and programming will pick up at a steadier pace.  We have just come off of a month collaborating with Acts on Stage and Townsend School of Music in a worship “experiment” that was a welcome collaboration by some and others may have felt a little hesitant. Looking back on the month and the experience, I think we learned a lot as a congregation. Some of you may be wondering where we go from here. What happens next?

I imagine there are hopes of what a changing worship style might look like but as the quote by Pema Chodron says, if there is hope there will also be fear. I have found in my own life, that in moments of transition and change, I have often felt the feeling of hope and excitement for what could be but also the fear of the unknown. As Chodron says, “Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a feeling of poverty.” ‘What are we lacking?’ you may be asking yourself. As we move through these moments of transition, Pastor Paul and I will be preaching and teaching on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral suggests that we are most fully alive when we are equally informed by scripture, tradition, experience, and reason. As congregations and individuals, we may lean more heavily on one or two parts of the quadrilateral and be lacking in other areas. Join us, in person or online, the next four Sundays as we learn how we can use all parts of the quadrilateral to inform our spiritual lives as individuals and a church community. Having a balance in all four areas will help us as we move forward as a church, into the changes God is calling us to.

In Christ,

Molly Collier