This Sunday

Church friends and families,

I pray that you are all enjoying the lovely Pacific Northwest weather as we all venture into August together. We continue our sermon series this weekend as we study the teachings of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. If you would like to prepare for this weekend, the Scripture I’ll be preaching on is Matthew 14:13-21. Please remember that we will also be celebrating Holy Communion, for folks joining us online, please remember to have sacred elements ready after the sermon.

Last Sunday

I mentioned during worship Amy-Jill Levine’s book. I’m copying a picture of her book below. It’s well worth a read if you are interested in studying more of Jesus short stories.

Adventure Camp at Fusion

Camp @ the Fusion Family Center - August 14 - 18, 9:30 - 1:30

We have been invited to partner with several churches in Federal Way to put together a week of day camp for the children living at the Fusion Family Center, which is an emergency family shelter in Federal Way. There will be many opportunities to volunteer to donate/ prepare/serve food, lead a small group, donate/prepare craft items or help lead an activity station. More specific information to come but I wanted to get it on your radar and your calendar! It's a mission trip right in our own backyard!!

Please contact Michelle Thompson if you would like to know more or want to volunteer. md.thompson@earthlink.net

To learn more about Fusion, you can visit their website or use this link.

Coming up

A note from Steve Mayer -

It's time for the second annual Federal Way Pride Event.  Federal Way United Methodist Church is once again a sponsor of this event which will be held Saturday, August 5th, 2023 at Wayside United Church of Christ. The hours are noon-9pm and you can come for as long or short as you like.  Whether you are part of the LGBTQIA+ community or are an ally, we'd love to see you there.

Annual Conference report from Ann M.

The 150th Pacific Northwest Annual Conference (PNWAC) session took place in Tacoma and online June13th, 14th, & 15th, 2023. (There were zoom focus sessions, and a live streamed area opening in the weeks

beforehand as well.)

It’s been 4 years since we had an in-person Annual Conference session, so it’s been a while since I’ve given you a report!

First, as you probably know, we have a new bishop. His name is Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth, and he is amazing. The theme he set for the Annual Conference season for the Greater Northwest Area (which includes Washington, Idaho, Oregon, & Alaska) was “Go and Do Likewise,” from the good Samaritan story in Luke 10: 30-37. In a series of messages beginning with his installation service on May 20th and ending with closing session on June 15th, Bishop Bridgeforth laid out a plan for ministry called MILE. He encouraged us to live it out by praying with our feet, healing with our words, and loving with our resources. He suggested our perspective depends on whether we are looking in a mirror or through a window. Looking in a mirror gives us a reflection of ourselves – a view of what’s familiar, and we see ourselves in relation to what is behind us. But a mirror blocks what is in front of us. Bishop Bridgeforth is encouraging us to look beyond the mirror, through the window, to see what is going on around and in front of us. He calls this “window work” versus “mirror talk.” He introduced the theme in the sermon at his installation service and opening of the Greater Northwest Area Annual Conference, and in each subsequent sermon, he stressed one of the letters in MILE. In the opening sermon for the Alaska Annual Conference, he explained that “M” is for Ministry that Matters, particularly in areas of housing and health. At the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference opening, he explained that the “I” stands for Itineration and location. At the PNW conference opening, he told us that the “L” is for lay ministry enhancement. And, at the closing, he talked about the “E”, which is elimination of racism. I would love to tell you more, but instead I strongly suggest you go to these sermons and take a listen. There are some repeats between them, but it’s well worth listening anyway!

Here’s the link: https://pnwumc.org/ac2023/

There were 17 petitions passed, as well as many ministry reports received during the session. 12 of the petitions were administrative, including the closing of two churches in the conference: Pe Ell UMC, and East Wenatchee Trinity UMC.

One petition, titled “Solidarity with the Filipino People,” urges our elected leaders to support the Philippines Human Rights Act, and pledges to “educate our members of our congregations on the existing conditions of the Filipino people, monitor the ongoing human rights crisis” and “advocate for a just and lasting peace” for the Filipino people. If you are interested in finding out more, click on the link to the petitions that I will put in at the end of this report.

We passed 4 petitions related to reducing our carbon footprint. Two of them were split and passed in two parts, so I will tell you about 6. (If you look up the link to the petitions, you will not see the splits!)

1. Directing the conference treasurer’s office to send a letter to the Faith Foundation Northwest

requesting they divest its funds and all funds held in trust from fossil fuels.

2. Inviting local churches to do an internal review of church investments, and invites churches to consider divesting all funds from fossil fuels

3. By the end of 2023, local churches are invited to begin to build relationships outside their local churches to hear stories of new practices of environmental justice, to better understand the expertise developed by those with lived experience of environmental harms. Local churches are

also invited to prioritize partnerships with environmental and climate justice organizations led by Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Women, and Youth, as well as those serving low-income communities.

4. A petition directing the conference to come up with a job description, and begin the hiring process for a full time Creation Justice Liaison was referred to the connectional table for further work, with instructions for them to come back with a report to the next AC session.

5. A petition asking for the conference secretary to write up a petition for the General Conference 2024, asking for “fossil Fuels” to be added to the investment screens in Paragraph 717 of the UMC book of Discipline.

6. Finally, a petition inviting the Conference to pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040, and encourages local churches to pledge to increase their energy efficiency by 50% by 2030.

Here is a link to the original petitions as they were submitted: https://pnwumc.org/ac2023/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023-Recommendations-revised-5-31-23.pdf

Ministry reports included more than I can list! (90 pages worth.) The link for these reports is here:

https://pnwumc.org/ac2023/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023-Reports-6-1-23.pdf

We had several worship opportunities, including a retirement ceremony, a memorial service, ordination, as well as opening and closing worship. There’s so much I didn’t list here, and I’m happy to provide more

information to anyone interested! See a video of our conference secretary Shirley DeLarme giving a summary of the session here: https://pnwumc.org/ac2023/report-of-the-annual-conference-secretary-pnwac23/

Please let me know if you have questions or want more information!

In Christ,

Ann Mayer. Lay Member of Annual Conference