September 12th, 2025 | Rev. Rachel Williams

Beloved Friends,

               I write this pastor’s note this week knowing that there is much weighing on us all in our community, in our nation and in our world. If you feel anything like I do, it just seems like things are incredibly heavy. Our church family has experienced a series of losses of people we love dearly. We miss them and continue to grieve their absences. Our nation has, once again, been plagued by the evil of gun violence.

As a pastor, I continue to lament the tragic loss of life at the hands of these weapons as a result of hatred and malice. As those who follow the nonviolent teachings of Christ, may we be reminded that violence is not the answer to our disagreements, as it only opens us all up to debilitating cycles of revenge and retribution. I am grieved that this nation is simultaneously gripped by the fear of yet another shooting and numbed to the headlines because of the frequency by which these shootings occur. 

Bishop Tom Berlin wrote a blog post reflecting on the last mass shooting that took place at a Catholic school in Minnesota just two weeks ago. In that blog, he urged us to remember the words that John Lewis popularized, “Pray and move your feet.” So we pray for the families and victims of gun violence this week, but we also move forward, working for a more just and peaceful world. And we don’t do that alone. We have the opportunity to move together.

               And we have the opportunity to offer transformational hope borne from Christ’s love to a dark and hurting world. I preached about this on Sunday; we can offer help. But that requires us to come together, to do the hard work of approaching disagreements with curiosity rather than vitriol, with humility rather than self-assurance.

I was amazed that in the midst of this dark week, over one hundred people showed up for Wednesday and Thursday events, where we joined together in study, worship, and fellowship. You are taking your call to be participants in the Church seriously, and when we do that together we offer the world another way- a better way- to do life. May we make the extraordinary effort to do what must be done to do life together.

With grace and peace,

 Pastor Rachel