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

This month has been one of the most difficult of my life. In the course of 30 days I was home 7 nights as we accompanied my mom into death. And now I'm back. In a season of light and darkness, of celebration I come with my joy of family celebration and sorrow. My...

Our Episcopal Area (the geographic area our Bishop oversees) is starting something really exciting.  61 institutional leaders from across Alaska, Oregon, Washington, & Idaho are meeting over the next 6 months to learn and practice. Our goal is to change our...

One of my favorite tv shows (Brooklyn 911) and one of my favorite scripture passages (The Magnificat Luke 1:46-55) come together in this meme.  I wonder what Mary would think as we celebrate advent and reflect on her words.  Yes she did know who Jesus was and what his...

How can you help someone who is spending their days in the icu waiting room, or keeping vigil at a bedside?  How do you support someone who is grieving?  Here are things that were helpful to us over the past 10 days: Practical items: Chapstick (hospitals are...

This weekend my mom experienced a super rare complication from a cardiac procedure she had last month.  In fact her medical team could only find one other patient who has a similar case and it was a 40something man from South Korea a couple of years ago! My sister and...

Last week we had 20 children running around the sanctuary, child actors in the basement, older people improving their balance, several groups supporting each other as they deal with addictions of various kinds, dancers expressing their nordic heritage, a Vietnamese...

How do you store your clothes?  Do you have a designated drawer for different categories of clothes such as a specific drawer for socks and another for t-shirts or do you jut put the clean clothes in the drawer with space each time you do laundry?  Whichever way you...

This  week I am grieving. This morning I officiated at the funeral of a family friend. I spent the afternoon discussing grief as part of our clergy study group’s reading of See No Stranger. And my heart is full with the images and  news out of Gaza & Israel. I’m...

This week I got to have coffee with a retired colleague. It was so fun talking about all the people we had worked with and learned from throughout the years. Names of people who mentored me as a child, who I sat with at annual conference, who I remember from district...

As part of our work as clergy in our area we are reading the amazing book See No Stranger: a Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valerie Kaur.  Twice a month I will be gathering with a small group of other area United Methodist Pastors to explore and discuss the book...