THIS SUNDAY: June 17, 4:30 pm, we will be meeting at Chris Dungan’s home for a barbeque. 25140 Rancho Lobo Court, West Linn, OR. RSVP by tomorrow, Friday, June 15, 2018, Chris Dungan, chrisdungan1@msn.com or 503.656.2095. Bring your own beverage. This is not a potluck. This is a “post parade” event!
Questions? Contact Pastor Brett Webb-Mitchell (919) 444-9111; brettwebbmitchell@gmail.com
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Dear Path Makers and Path Finders, Asylum Seekers and their children, Drivers and Passengers, Friends and Family Members,
Greetings from Boise, Idaho, where I am a guest of the Oregon-Idaho United Methodist Church Annual Conference. The sun is out, it is nice and warm outside, and we are all sitting inside convention spaces. Such is life!
The focus Scripture this coming Sunday is Mark 4:26-34, otherwise known as the Mustard Seed Parable. Such wonders and surprises lie within small seeds. The power of the seed parable reminded me of the story of the Nobel Prize winner scientist Barbara McClintock, who studied the way that genes communicate between organisms. She came to understand genetics by studying kernels of corn. She was the first person to create a genetic map of a chromosome for corn and theorized transference. She did this by having a “feel for the organism... learning to lean into the organism." Evelyn Fox Keller, who wrote the biography of Barbara McClintock, reminds us that the relationship that McClintock had with corn is the highest kind of intimacy and love that does not annihilate differences, but embraces them. It is the kind of relationship that God in Christ has with us as God leans in closely and has a feel for us as well.
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Events!
Sunday, June 17, 2018, 11 am (at the latest), we are part of Creating Welcoming Congregations (CWC). We are contingent 74. Line up on Everett between NW 8th & Park. Kathy will have our t-shirts. Feel free to wear any rainbow accessory. Let us remember that the first Pride parade was a “small seed” event in New York City on June 28, 1970. This was the one year anniversary of the Stonewall Riot, in which members of the LGBTQ+ community clashed with the police, who raided Stonewall Inn.
Sunday, June 17, 4:30 pm, we will be meeting at Chris Dungan’s (and collies) home for a barbeque. 25140 Rancho Lobo Court, West Linn, OR. RSVP by tomorrow, Friday, June 15, 2018, Chris Dungan, chrichrisdungan1@msn.com or 503.656.2095. Bring your own beverage. This is not a potluck. This is a “post parade” event!
Sunday, June 24, 2018, Brett will be preaching and sharing stories from Community of Pilgrims at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, OR;
Thursday, June 28, 2018, 7 pm, Steering/Guide Team Meeting; Chris Dungan’s Home;
Friday, June 29, 2018, 1:00 pm, Brett participating in Friday Lunch Speaking Series at Portland City Club, Portland, OR;
Friday, June 29 and Saturday, June 30, 2018, Presbytery of the Cascades, First Presbyterian Church, Salem, OR. Ask Brett or Chris for more information.
TBA: Group Outing to see: “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” documentary on Mr. Roger’s life and ministry. It is opening on June 15, 2018, Cinema 21 on NW 21st Ave., Portland, OR.
Sunday, July 29, 2018, Brett is preaching at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Waldport, OR.
Aug. 5, 2018, 10 am, Brett is preaching at Calvin Presbyterian Church, Tigard, OR.
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Poem
PRIDE
By Dahlia Ravikovitch
Even rocks crack, I'm telling you,
and not on account of age.
For years they lie on their backs
in the heat and the cold,
so many years,
it almost creates the illusion of calm.
They don't move, so the cracks stay hidden.
A kind of pride.
Years pass over them as they wait.
Whoever is going to shatter them
hasn't come yet.
And so the moss flourishes, the seaweed
whips around,
the sea bursts forth and rolls back --
and still they seem motionless.
Till a little seal comes to rub up against the rocks,
comes and goes.
And suddenly the rock has an open wound.
I told you, when rocks crack, it comes as a surprise.
All the more so, people.
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Buen Camino!
Pastors Brett & Chris
Rev. Dr. Brett Webb-Mitchell (919) 444-9111; brettwebbmitchell@gmail.com Rev. Chris Dungan (503) 724-7060; chrisdungan1@msn.com