A creative collaboration between Trinity United Methodist Church and Sellwood Faith Community

It is the end of the year and we are looking towards the beginning of a new one. At the parish we are working on drafting a 5 year strategic plan. I have a great scheme for us to read the bible in a year starting right after Pentecost. And we are continuing to come...

This week we lit our last advent candle, celebrating love. Love comes in so many forms, all of them an extension or reflection of God's love for us! My love of cheese is a delight in the creativity and wonder of humanity to make something so good. It's a celebration...

We often think of deserts as stark landscapes with little color, yet with just a little bit of water miraculous things happen. Suddenly animals an insects pick up activity and the plants produce flowers and seeds. Life quickens with water. This advent we remember that...

When I was a little girl I learned about Sadako Sasaki, a young Japanese woman who died of radiation poisoning 10 years after the atomic bomb was dropped on her home of Hiroshima. She folded cranes as part of a wish for peace.  I always found it so powerful that she...

Advent is the 4 weeks before Christmas and is a time of waiting. Each week traditionally is associated with a theme and the way I learned those was to begin with hope. I love that advent starts here, in a place of dreaming of something better. Hope for me is an...

Every year in the fall we as a parish make promises about the year ahead.  We reflect upon the vow we make when we join a faith community to support it with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness.  While the pledge idea originated with a...

Sabbath is something I have a hard time with. It's not just a day off where I stay in bed. It's not a day for running errands and catching up on yard work. Sabbath is about turning to God and dwelling in the holy. It's a time to let go and just be. While I take...

On October 9th as we celebrated out 1 year anniversary of joining the Reconciling Ministries Network. We had a beautiful moment in morning worship where we gathered around the prayers station at the back of the sanctuary while Caley played True Colors on the piano and...

A few weeks ago I witnessed a traumatic event. I was fine in the moment, but now when I think back it's like puffs of memory. I can see very clearly specific moments, but other parts are just a blur. Driving home afterwards I was starting to be in shock, it felt like...

The Church of the Resurrection (CoR) just outside Kansas City is one of the largest United Methodist Churches in the world. The pastor there, Adam Hamilton, is committed to the renewal of mainline churches so every year they host a conference for church leaders. I was...