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

It has been a long, frustrating 18 months. One of the things I have missed the most is singing with my people. As we headed in to Christmas Eve this year I was trying to figure out how to do lessons & carols without the carols. I couldn’t imagine closing our...

This year feels like it has been a roller coaster. I was so hopeful back when 2021 started. Then we had the insurrection on January 6th. I was so grateful when I got vaccinated. Then began the anti-vac movement.  I was so excited that we were going to begin...

It is the week of Christmas and snow is on the way! Something that would have filled my 8 year old heart with joy fills me 44 year old head with worry. I’m thinking about our houseless neighbors, our friends who are traveling, and our own home as we once again face...

I’m beginning to see a new link between love and anger.  So often love is seen as all the soft emotions, unless we’re talking about tough love, a special kind of love that get’s it’s own adjective. Love is tough and tender. It’s angry and hopeful. Love is...

Crisis after crisis seems to be erupting around us. Gas in the building means we have to cancel worship. Local high school in lockdown with reports of an armed student. Spending hours hunting down a booster shot to protect against Omicron. I find myself addicted to...

Peace seems so hard sometimes. Especially when we make it about a perfect, serene state, free from conflict.  Peace is actually the transcendent, that which we encounter not when we avoid conflict or sorrow or difficulty, but rather what we find when we embrace...

I am somewhat of a traditionalist when it comes to the church season of advent. Hope, peace, joy, and love are the four Sundays, period. I think because at my core this is what Christmas means to me. Christ is our hope, his is the way of peace. Joy is all about...

One of the things I miss most in worship is singing together. We have been singing in our homes, or humming along to the hymns in the sanctuary for months and months. I miss the sound of all our voices combining. I miss the feel of giving full voice to powerful words...

Every year our community asks folks to make promises. We base these promises on our membership vows to support the church by our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. This is both a practical act and one of spiritual formation. Our parish is funded by the...

This Sunday we will be celebrating All Saints Day.  It’s a Sunday where we remember those who have died in the past year, but what I have found is that so often people long to also name others, some who have been gone for years.  It is important that we honor the...