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

My dreams lately have all been about not measuring up, of being lost, or of having to pack and move. This is the season of clergy appointments and church transitions in the United Methodist world. While I have no intentions of moving this year and have made that clear...

This fall our Parish began work with the Southeast Organizing Cohort. Our leadership has been through trainings like this several times now, most recently with the Parish Collective cultural lab program in late 2019. Our hope in joining this time was to have a chance...

Every year I like to write about how things are going with the Parish.  Right now, nearly 2 years in to the pandemic, I would say we are holding steady.  We have hybrid worship in place and are continuing to refine and improve that practice. Attendance is holding...

On Thursday I was working with Bill, our parish volunteer secretary/project manager/pastoral idea coordinator, to break into a locked cabinet. I wanted to get a different screw driver and told him I'd be right back. The next time Bill saw me was nearly 2 hours later...

Each season a collection of our Parish leaders get together to talk about worship. We evaluate how worship has been going and review the themes we have chosen to see how they have landed in our community. We then think about the upcoming seasons of worship and what...

This week we did Star Words for Epiphany. It's a ritual where we each draw a star out of a basket, each star having a word printed on it. The words are meant to guide us in our faith over the year. Sort of a mystery we have to attend to and figure out as we journey in...

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...