Included in this Issue:
Update on Mediated Agreement
The United Methodist Church has recently been in the news following the announcement of a mediated agreement entitled the “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation”. This document was created by a group of United Methodist leaders representing the full spectrum of theological, cultural and geographic differences within the church, as we understand LGBTQIA+ inclusion. If adopted at the General Conference in May, the Protocol would pave the way for a new “Traditional” church to be created for those who cannot by conscience stay in a more inclusive United Methodist Church. On Sunday, January 5, Rev. Donna led a “Q & A” Forum with information about the Protocol. The Forum was filmed and a link to it can be found on our Facebook page; also you will find there a link to a KGW News story which ran on the 11:00 news Sunday night. If you would like to read the full text of the Protocol you can find it by clicking here.
From the Director of Children, Families & Community Outreach
One of the many highlights of my job is representing FUMC in our community. I love stepping into the spaces and meeting the staff of the many partner organizations that you support with your time, money, and tangible donations. This holiday season, you all have been very busy! You overflowed our Mainspring donation barrels. You started to stock the soon-to-be installed shelves of the Lift Up pantry. You warmed the hands and hearts of women staying at Rosehaven Shelter. You provided gifts for children and adults at Portland Homeless Family Solutions to unwrap on Christmas morning. You gave generously to all of our Alternative Christmas organizations. You showed financial support to the children and youth of this church in exchange for a pancake or a slice of meatloaf. And among all of this abundant giving, you also showed up! You showed up to sing in the choir, to teach a class, to wash dishes, to be present and active in worship, in committee meetings, in hospitality, and in continuing to dream our next big things. You are the body of Christ and this body is radiating love. So, when I deliver a pillow to Community Warehouse, a gift card to PHFS, or hand a dry pair of socks to a person in need of relief, you are all there with me and I am so grateful.
THANK YOU!
Megan Jones
From the Pastor
Happy New Year! As many of you know, one of my traditions is to spend some time in prayer and meditation on New Year’s Eve each year to see if I can find a “word of the year” for the months ahead. Ideally this is a word that can help to keep me focused, aware of God’s presence and awake to my own deepest self. It is a word that can act as a guide, a companion, a challenge and a comfort as I live into another new year.
This year the word that came to me is “Journey”. When it first arose in my consciousness I tried to push it aside, thinking “how strange” this word might be for 2020. Yet the more I waited in the silence and listened to the whispers of the Spirit, “Journey” began to make great sense. You see, a journey has a goal in mind, a destination to aim toward and an aspiration around which time and attention can focus.
Yet a journey is also more than its end point. It must be experienced in all the movements and moments along the way if the journey is to have energy, integrity and meaning. A journey can demand courage and trust; it can allow for companionship; it can evoke curiosity and wonder. A journey is not a static entity, but something which allows for spontaneity and mystery along the way.
How might my life – or yours – be richer, or fuller, if I enter into 2020 as if embarking on a journey? What might we do together as siblings in Christ, as a community of faith, if we pay attention to the movements and moments along our way? How might we change the world around us if we allow our journey to evoke a sense of curiosity and wonder, spontaneity and mystery?
There is so much we do not know as we stand on the threshold of another new year. But we do know this – God is standing here right alongside us. God will be with us wherever our journey takes us. Let me share with you a particularly poignant poem about the journey, courtesy of Jan Richardson:
“Beloved is Where We Begin”
If you would enter into the wilderness, do not begin without a blessing.
Do not leave without hearing who you are: Beloved, named by the One who has traveled this path before you.
Do not go without letting it echo in your ears, and if you find it hard to let it into your heart, do not despair. That is what this journey is for.
I cannot promise this blessing will free you from danger, from fear, from hunger or thirst, from the scorching of the sun or the fall of the night.
I can tell you that on this way there will be help.
You will know the strange graces that come to our aid, that fly to meet us bearing comfort and strength, that come alongside us to lean toward our ear and with their curious insistence whisper our name:
Beloved, Beloved, Beloved.
Amen! Happy New Year… see you on the Journey!
Rev. Donna
The Ciruit Rider is a printed publication that mails out every second Wednesday of the month. The articles above are only a few selected features from the latest issue. Events printed in the Circuit Rider are posted on the Calendar page. You can download a complete digital copy of the latest circuit Rider by clicking here.
If you would like to receive the Circuit Rider by US Post please contact the front office at office@fumcpdx.org or by calling 503-228-3195.
