Sacrament by Anna Strickland

Kindred in Christ,

This Sunday is a special one—and I hope you’ll be there to help us celebrate it in all its Spirit-filled, rainbow-splashed glory.

Pentecost is the day the Church was born—not through force or conformity, but through a surprising, multilingual, boundary-breaking outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-39). It’s a story that reminds us that God doesn’t flatten our differences—God fills them with holy fire. It’s about understanding one another across lines of language, culture, and identity. It’s about the miracle that happens when we listen deeply, speak boldly, and let love lead the way.

We’ll be continuing our worship series, Unbounded Love: A series on Pentecost and LGBTQIA+ Celebration, and I’ll be preaching a sermon about what happens when the Spirit breaks binaries—linguistic, cultural, theological, even personal. I’ll share a bit of my own story growing up in a bilingual Cuban immigrant home, and how that experience has shaped my understanding of the Spirit’s work in bringing people together not by making us the same, but by helping us truly hear one another.

This Sunday is also special because we’ll be welcoming Green Lake UMC to join us for worship at our regular service time. And as we continue in the discernment of two congregations coming together, this Pentecost moment offers a beautiful invitation: to resist the urge to dominate or assimilate, and instead to open ourselves to the possibility of something new being born in community.

So come.
Come ready to celebrate.
Come wearing red, rainbow, or whatever helps you sparkle as your authentic, Spirit-filled self.
Come ready to sing, to pray, to listen, and to imagine the church being reborn again.

I can’t wait to see you there.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz