Kindred in Christ,

I am still running off the high of how good it felt to gather in-person, worship, and host our egg hunt last Easter Sunday! A BIG thank you to all who worked hard to help make these community events happen. We had over 80 folks attend worship and over 20 folks join us on the playground of U Heights for egg hunt, chalking, and photo opportunity with one very special Easter bunny! It was fun to see long time members as well as new folks and new families at all our Easter events!

We hope you will join us in continuing this momentum as we begin gathering for worship once per month, on the first Sunday of the month (sign up / RSVP information below). We will observe closely trends regarding the pandemic and will explore adding more monthly gatherings soon. We also have more intergenerational community events with U Heights in the works.

And to help us continue in the Easter season of regathering and renewal, this Sunday we will start a new worship series titled Made New. Join us on Sundays as we explore Biblical stories of renewal and the ways that God is making us new as individuals and as a collective today.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Join us in celebrating the resurrection and the use of our new name (University Gathering UMC) for the first time! We plan to host two in-person and identical services on Easter Sunday, 4/17, 9am and 10:30am, at the University Mason Lodge (4338 University Way NE). By facilitating two in-person gatherings, we hope to be able to host everyone that would like to attend, while providing socially distant seating. You are welcome to sign up below to attend one of the gatherings in person or plan to join us online at 10:30am.

RSVP for Easter Sunday 9:00am Service

RSVP for Easter Sunday 10:30am Service

Also, we ask that you read our safety protocols before attending. thanks!

Easter Egg Hunt
Join us at 12:30pm on Easter Sunday, 4/17, on the Lawn of U Heights (5031 University Way NE) as we host an Easter Egg Hunt! There will be a group of us that will walk over after the end of our second worship service.

Kindred in Christ,

Last Sunday we began our Lenten sermon series, Unraveling Racism, and I shared the above quote by activist and leading scholar on discriminatory policies in America, Ibram X. Kendi. While not a theologian, Kendi, raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, points us to a logic that is central to the Lenten season: denial of sin leads to further pain and oppression while confession of sin leads to change and our collective liberation.

Join us this week as we continue exploring what it means to follow Jesus in the face of systemic racism and work together to repent and seek change in our city and in ourselves.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

This past Ash Wednesday, a group from our church offered ashes and blessings to morning commuters outside of the U District Light Rail Station. Holding a sign that proclaimed, “Ashes for All,” we waved and wished folks passing by “good morning” and asked, “Would you like to receive a blessing and ashes for Ash Wednesday?” Some people ignored us, some told us they were not Catholic, and some stopped to receive.

One by one, we placed ashes on their foreheads and blessed them saying, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return—in the frailty of life, God loves you!” The first person to receive was so moved that she offered to give a hug and thanked us. And while we assumed that most people that stopped by had some former involvement with or knowledge of Christianity and Lent, there was one person that did not. He asked us many questions, and in the end decided to receive the imposition of ashes for the first time. We handed each person a flyer, inviting them to stay connected to our church.

Offering ashes on the street with teams of lay people is one of my all-time favorite pastoral “tasks” I get to share in each year. I know that there are some fellow clergy – good, super-smart, faithful people, including my former United Methodist Worship professor – who feel that practicing Ash Wednesday in such a fashion is liturgically and/or theologically incomplete, and that’s a fair critique. But in an age when many churches (and, perhaps, particularly “progressive” churches) suffer from an epidemic reluctance to public/verbal discipleship and evangelism, I think it’s worth risking “liturgical incorrectness” for the chance to meet people right where they are to remind them/us that we are all at once bearers of the image of God and frail humans in need of grace. At the U District Light Rail Station, on the sidewalk, across from the Ugly Mug café: that hopeful truth is no less true in that space than it is in a sanctuary. Perhaps it is even more true amid public invitation and bold communal witness.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

You are invited to join us over Zoom for a contemplative time of prayer and visual liturgy, as we begin the Lenten journey together. Click HERE to join.