Below you can find a message from the Very Rev. Pamela. These are sent out most Fridays in our newsletter and updated here.

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Message from the Very Rev. Pamela from February 21, 2025:

Dear Ones,

In these turbulent times, with polarization and conflict seemingly on the rise wherever we look, I am finding hope in local cooperative efforts. Some of the events I’ve been involved in include hosting last night’s conversation with Sarah Augustine and Sheri Hostetler, authors of So We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis, as well as participating in monthly meetings aimed at creating a new interfaith umbrella organization in Davis. 

A name for this emerging group is still in the works, but one thing it clearly is not is a clergy gathering! While our friend the Rev. Dr. Portia Hopkins is one of the co-facilitators, most of the organizers are lay people. If you are interested in representing St. Martin’s in a coalition that will help us build deeper relationships with our neighbors from different faiths and respond more effectively to issues we’re all facing, please let me know and I’d be happy to talk with you about what’s involved. So far the conversations have been substantive, respectful, and even enlightening.

You’ll also note that this Lent is offering us more and richer opportunities for ecumenical collaboration than we’ve seen in many years. I’ve been in conversation since early January with the leaders of our local Lutheran and Methodist congregations, as well as Portia Hopkins, and we all agreed that we should do more to share our resources and support one another. So, in addition to the joint Wednesday night services, we’re finding ways to collaborate on Ash Wednesday as well. 

The goal is to be as flexible and creative as possible, without losing those particular gifts that our different traditions have to offer. So, for example, our 7am and 7pm services at St. Martin’s will be straight from the Book of Common Prayer (with small changes for more inclusive language), just as it has been in years past. But instead of offering our own noonday service, we’re invited to the United Methodist Church to receive ashes and walk their labyrinth. Later in the day, I’ll be joining some of my colleagues to offer Ashes to Go at the Farmer’s Market. As parishioners, you can choose to participate in one or more of these offerings, and I hope you will!

These might seem like small things in the face of the huge challenges that our world faces right now. But trying to meet any of those challenges alone is not just daunting but impossible. Every effort to build relationship and share resources makes us a stronger, more resilient community and gets us closer to the dream of becoming Beloved Community, God’s kin(g)dom here on earth.

Blessings,

Pamela+