Upcoming U Gathering Printmaking Pop-ups

Join us on Sat. Aug 5th, 11a-1p, on the campus of University Heights Center (University Heights Center, 5031 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105, USA) for our next Printmaking Pop-up! This is a free family event where you can print a free custom tote bag. We will be right next to the U District Farmers Market, so plan to grab a snack and join us for some art making fun!!

This event is free, and all materials will be supplied!

Kindred in Christ,

Of all our innermost human desires, perhaps the most significant is being seen. Our faith tradition insists that we are created for community and togetherness. There is something very fundamental about being noticed, of being seen, as a unique person. Yet this past year of social distancing and wearing masks has left many of us feeling disconnected and unseen.

Recently, I joined our Reopen Team in-person for the first time at the Masonic Lodge to do a test run of our upcoming live broadcasting and in-person worship gatherings (date to be announced soon). And for the first time, I found myself with a group of congregants inside a building without masks. Even while remaining six feet apart, I was fully seeing other people’s faces and they were fully seeing mine. It felt vulnerable and beautiful. It was an event that was both ordinary and extraordinary.

This Sunday, as we continue our Anything but Ordinary worship series, Pastor Karen Yakota Love will guest preach and help us reflect on God as El Roi, which means “The God who sees me.” Hagar, an outcast to her own family, is empowered by being seen by the Divine in the midst of one of the most uncertain times of her life (Genesis 21). Join us as we explore further what it means to be seen by God and how we can help empower others to be fully seen and celebrated, too. See you on Facebook Live!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

Last week was the one-year anniversary of serving as your Lead Pastor. After a year of pandemic, virtual church, and building demolition, it is safe to say that this year has been anything but ordinary. In the midst of it all, I am grateful that God has continued to be faithful. Despite social-distancing limitations, I’m thankful that I have been able to connect and to get to know many of you personally. We have had meaningful encounters, memorials, worship, and celebrations. And now we anticipate opening for in-person worship in September 2021; the exact date is still to be announced.

To assist pastors with focusing on reopening the churches they serve, our district has put together a sermon series in collaboration with several United Methodist Churches in our area. Each week during the “Anything But Ordinary” series, we will have a different guest preacher offering us a fresh take on the Abrahamic family in the book of Genesis. We will reflect upon the ways that God joins us in our everyday lives and reveals them to be extraordinary. You can still expect to see me every Sunday, as I lead our community in prayer and other parts of the worship service. I also look forward to seeing you in the comments and in fellowship hour.

Along with using the time off from preaching to re-open our church’s physical Sunday gatherings, I look forward to focusing on launching a new outreach project in collaboration with our friends at U Heights and solidifying the job search for our new children and families’ minister. More info on both these endeavors coming soon!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Kindred in Christ,

Inspired by his faith, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” He talked of how we encounter half the world by the time we put on clothes, brushed our teeth, drunk our coffee and eaten our breakfast, as there are people near and far that make our lives possible every single day.

As our country celebrates the secular holiday of Independence Day, it is important to remember God has created us to live interdependently with one another. No one is self-made or independent. Indeed, the more we reject the myth of independence, the greater awareness we can have regarding how our lives affect others. Moreover, we can pray and discern how to use our agency towards lifting others up as we receive from them in the midst of our network of mutuality (or interdependence)!

This week we wrap up our God is Proud of You worship series. We will reflect upon the many ways that our human identities can be affirmed in the context of Christian community. We will consider the life of a man that was made a social outcast and forced to remain outside the temple gates. Yet, God utilizes Peter and the connections of the early church to empower him to “rise up and go” make a difference to the religious status quo (Acts 3:1-10).

Looking forward to worshiping with you on Facebook Live!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz

Marsha P. Johnson by Kelly Latimore

Kindred in Christ,

Happy Pride! This week we celebrate Pride Sunday as part of our God is Proud of You worship series! Pride Sunday is the Sunday nearest the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. This is the historic event that gave birth to various gay rights organizations, Pride marches, and ignited the queer liberation movement in our country.

On June 28, 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in NYC. It was common for police to raid and arrest queer people at that time, as homosexuality and cross-dressing were considered illegal. Yet, this time the queer community had had enough. They did not submissively bow their heads and quietly go into the police wagons. But nor did they run away either. They fought back and stood their ground. That night and the nights to follow the people pushed the police out in what historians refer to as the Stonewall Uprising or the Stonewall Riots. One of the central figures in this uprising was a Black trans woman named Marsha P. Johnson (see icon above).

Marsha was nicked named the “Saint of Christopher Street” because of her compassionate presence in the streets of Greenwich Village over the many rejected and often-homeless members of the LGBTQIA+ community at that time. Marsha is quoted saying, “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us!”

On the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, thousands of people participated in the first Gay Pride march in NYC. Historians say that the participants were so nervous that they practically ran the route. They were justifiably afraid of being attacked. Yet mostly smiles and cheers from the crowds met them instead.

Join us this Sunday as we explore what it means to stand in holy Pride and the movement toward greater liberation. I hope to see you on Facebook Live!

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz