News

Dear Siblings, 

This Sunday is “Open & Affirming Sunday” in the United Church of Christ. Across our denomination, churches will gather and celebrate the good news of God’s love for us and our belovedness. Central already knows a bit about that, as many of you were here when you took the step of becoming an Open & Affirming congregation of the UCC. 20 years later, I hope that these words still ring true: 

We affirm the diversity within our midst and beyond our doors and welcome persons of any race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, ability, and economic circumstance to full participation in the life and leadership, ministry and fellowship, worship, sacraments, responsibilities and blessings of participation in our congregation.

Central was the 490th congregation to become Open & Affirming. Just this week, the 1913th church in the UCC adopted an Open & Affirming covenant.

Many of those congregations, like Central, adopted a far-reaching statement of inclusion. We should celebrate that! We should also note that the focus of Open & Affirming has always been on inclusion of sexuality and gender. Indeed, that will be much of the conversation on Sunday. 

In a world where the name of Jesus and the love of God are increasingly being invoked in ways that hurt and harm queer people, trans people, and anyone else whose experience of gender or sexuality falls outside of the “norm,” it’s important that we acknowledge the joy of knowing that God made all of creation and called it GOOD… indeed, VERY GOOD! 

Sunday will be a celebration! A joyful service filled with the same spirit that carries the Open & Affirming work of the UCC. So, come. Not because you must, but because you may… and because you want to experience a glitter blessing too!

ALSO: Please don’t forget that our Budget meeting will gather right after the worship service. 

Be well! And, be gentle to yourselves and one another, 

Rev. Thomas

We are excited to present to you “The Monthly” for July 2025.

Check out this month‘s newsletter for:

• A Note from Rev. Liz: the Summer Church – A Season of Exploration.
• “Views from the Pews: New Perspectives Studies Christian Nationalism”.
• “Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation” campaign’s results.
• Faith Formation Opportunities.
• Advocacy and Action Opportunities.
• The “Recipe of the Month”: ”Hamburger-Bean Bake”.

Click here to download “The Monthly”! There are also paper copies in The Commons, in The Sanctuary and in the Church office. Be sure to add events and gatherings that you‘re interested in to your calendar.

Enjoy “The Monthly” and all the events and gatherings you are going to attend!

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

The lectionary text for Sunday is Luke 8:26-29, which I am inclined to give this headline: “Jesus Among the Demoniacs!” How appropriate. Isn’t it wonderful the way the readings in the Revised Common Lectionary—selected randomly about the time I was born—somehow meet us where we are right now, today? It’s spooky, to be honest, and most unsettling.

In Disciplines of the Spirit, Howard Thurman offers a telling that opens this passage for me in a way that makes it unforgettable. Have a look:

In the numerous encounters the Master had with individuals, none is more dramatic than his meeting with a certain madman, who stood staring at Him out of eyes that reflected agonizing turmoil within. From his wrists dangled broken chains. He was regarded by his community as possessed by devils; there were times when he became so violent that, as a measure of collective defense, he was seized and chained to rocks. Even then he could not be restrained when the turbulence within him leaped into muscle, bone, and sinew. The chains burst with the pressure and he would go shrieking through the waste places like a wounded animal. This was the creature who faced Him. He cried out to be let alone. And with gentleness, tenderness, and vast compassion, soft words issued from the mouth of Jesus: “What is your name? Who are you?” And the whole dam broke, and he cried, “My name is Legion!” He might have said: “This is the pit of my agony. There are so many of me, they riot in my street. If only I could know who I am—which one is me—then I would be whole again. I would have a center, a self, a rallying point deep within me for all the chaos, until at last the chaos would become order.”

Fundamental, then, to any experience of commitment is the yielding of the real citadel… Within us all are so many claims and counterclaims that to honor the true self is not easy. (Disciplines of the Spirit, Harper & Row, NY, 1963; pp 26-27)

These feel like times when demon spirits are taking over, running wild. “Jesus, do you notice? The tempest is raging! Don’t you care?” Those words are from Luke 8:22-25, the verses just before our text for Sunday, where Jesus calms the storm on the sea. Now, he has turned to the inner riots where we live. Interesting flow.

This book and this passage are unforgettable to me for more reasons than one. Mr. Clement and I read this book together very early on in our fifty-plus year relationship. (That’s impressive: courting with a soundtrack by Howard Thurman. The copy of the book we shared is so marked and obviously handled that it needs to be put in archival storage before it falls apart.) There were riots in my street back then, too, but I was in good company. The best!

FYI: As I read Howard Thurman these days, I notice that his language is not at all “inclusive.” I have decided that I will not let it bother me. Thurman’s grandmother was born in slavery and knew the most oppressive experience of “the Master” but that fact does not seem to make use of the same name for Jesus hurtful or off-putting for Thurman or his grandmother. I will honor his usage choices and extraordinary gifts as a teacher and pastor. I make no effort to rephrase or “update” it.

We’ll see what all this becomes by way of A Sermon for All Ages in worship on Sunday. Look for us, dear Streamers and Gatherers, online or in the building. Hope you can make it. Until then,

Grace upon grace, love and hugs,

Rev. Liz

Two Sundays each month, we offer an ASL interpreter.

If you know people who are looking for this kind of opportunity, invite them to attend our sign interpreted worship in person or online,  on June 15th and June 29th. 

Dear Siblings, 

All throughout this week, I’ve had the British hymn “I Vow To Thee My Country” stuck in my head. The hymn is based on a poem called “The City of God” and it’s set to a portion of the movement “Jupiter” in Gustav Holst’s The Planets. The first verse is about Britain. The second verse is about heaven. Certainly, in my thinking of the hymn, I think of the US not Britain. I’ll share a few more thoughts on this on Sunday. 

In other news, we’re officially in “Ordinary Time” now. Green is the color for much of the season. This season is the story of us and God. The Holy Spirit plays a big part here! Sometimes, I think “ordinary” is such an interesting way to describe major events. Every part of what we read encountered in our sacred texts and stories seems historic. 

But that is kind of the point. When you step back for a moment it really is ordinary.

The terrible kings that ravaged the Northern and Southern kingdoms? Ordinary. 

The toil and oppression of the people under those kings? Ordinary. 

The small acts of courage and resistance?  A big deal perhaps, but still ordinary in the grand scheme of things. 

Ordinary time is our time. Amid moments that seem historic and simple, how do we respond to the story of Jesus? How do we find a way to make meaning and a bit of good trouble?

I cannot ignore the events of the world. As I’m writing this note, there are federalized National Guard members on the ground in Los Angeles. Israel and Iran appear to be at war. The final touches are being made for a massive parade in Washington DC to celebrate the 250th birthday of what is now the US Armed Forces. And in cities all across this country, there are predictions that millions of people will participate in what is being called “No Kings” Day in an effort to challenge the president. 

Amid all of that, there will be picnics and BBQS. Summer trips will start and end. People will live, laugh, love, cry, and more. 

Moments historic and simple all happening side by side. Yes, this is  ordinary time… the time for the story of God and us… the story of how we respond to the story of Jesus. 

Whatever you might do this weekend, I hope that you carry the courage and confidence of your convictions. I pray that you might reflect upon where and how the Holy Spirit is guiding you. 

Regardless of how you spend your weekend, be good to yourselves and one another.

Rev. Thomas

P.S. We are very close to our goal of donating 700 cans of black beans. Can you bring 1 can with you on Sunday? We’ll pass our goal by the start of our service. 🙂

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

We learned yesterday that Walter Brueggemann has died. Thomas was kind enough to alert me to the news, he knowing in what high esteem I hold the man. I have loved Walter Brueggemann and been thrilled out of my shoes by his mind, his imagination, his friendship, and his prolific writing. My children named him “the WB,” so often did they hear his name. Many of you knew and loved him, too, as a member of Central Church, as a colleague, as a prophetic voice and teacher. We must say farewell, even as we celebrate his life and witness to the Christian faith in its most alternative form.

In fact, it is Brueggemann who gave me the exact words to articulate my own call to ministry. In an article on 2 Kings 5, he notes: “Belated readers, if they noticed her at all, might have recognized in her a model for how to initiate a new narrative of well-being in a circumstance palpably marked by suffering and despair.” This he says about “the little maid” (unnamed) in the narrative we most often refer to as “the healing of Naaman.”

To initiate new narratives of well-being is my work. This is what I am called to do and to offer in congregations and everywhere. This young woman speaks up in her moment of possibility out of her hard-headed faith and God’s generosity while the circumstances she finds herself in would suggest otherwise. I am trying to be like her. You should tell me if I’m not.

While we knew this day of sadness would surely come, we go on celebrating the gifts, the blessings Walter Brueggeman leaves with us. May he rest in God’s peace, even as his words still “stir us from placidness” for eternity.

Many of you know that Pentecost is my favorite season of the Christian calendar, and not just because it’s the only Sunday we get to wear all the red we want to wear. Pentecost begins that half of the Christian year where we retell and relive the story of the followers of Jesus, the People of God. This is our story, the story of the lived faith of Jesus Christ with all its pain, struggles, challenges, and “summons” (as Walter might say) in the current moment and toward the future of God’s own dreams.

 And, speaking of Hope (as we have been recently)…

Hope is a human act of commitment to and investment in the future. Hope is an act of human courage that refuses to cherish the present too much or be reduced to despair by present circumstance. Hope is the capacity to relinquish the present for the sake of what is imagined to be a reachable future…Sureness about God’s large resolve…is a summons…Now is the time for yielding justice, for foolish forgiveness, for outrageous generosity, for elaborate hospitality. None of these acts can come from fear, anxiety, or despair. But they are all acts that evoke new futures that the fearful think are impossible. Hope in the end is a contradiction of the dominant version of reality…it is at the root of human well-being, for ourselves as for all our would-be neighbors.

Walter Brueggemann on Hope

Come worship with us. We need that face-to-faceness with you, streaming faces and gathered faces. And I need the hugs, and not ashamed to say it.

Rev. Liz

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

As you will remember, our guest preacher on Sunday will be Rev. Dr. Luther E. Smith, husband of our own Rev. Helen Pearson Smith, gentle and loving spirit, distinguished theologian and educator, and dear friend. Dr. Smith’s latest book is Hope is Here: Spiritual Practices for Pursuing Justice and Beloved Community (Westminster John Knox, 2023). After worship, he will join us for a Community Conversation in the Fireplace Room. The book will be available for purchase.

I trust you are making plans to be with us on Sunday and to stay for our time with Dr. Smith. This is an opportunity I very much look forward to and you don’t want to miss.

In The Monthly magazine that was issued earlier this week, you read about the “Summer of Exploration: A Journey Inward Together” that begins in June. With journeying inward fresh in my mind, I happened upon the following excerpt in Hope is Here and wanted to share it with you here. Under the subheading “Questions for the Quest,” Luther writes:

“Journey” is frequently used to describe how one is living the spiritual life. It evokes images of movement, seeking, engaging new realities and new meanings, the risk. The journey is a quest. A quest inspired by hope. A quest to feed the spirit’s hunger for fulfillment. A quest, whether or not we are aware of it, to give ourselves to God’s dream of beloved community.

 A journey’s realities and our feelings about those realities are known and not known. Reliable maps? Maybe. Trustworthy testimony from previous travelers? Maybe. Support from others? Maybe. A strong desire to have a successful journey? Yes. Certainty that it will match our desire? No. Will I be safe? Maybe. Will I be the same at journey’s end. No. Is there an end to the journey? Begin and see.

 The questions evoke more questions. Even answers evoke more questions. Questions are not our nemesis. Certainty may be our downfall, but not questions. With questions we quest with a searching heart and humility that are crucial to being alive to wisdom and confusion. The work of hope is accomplished with our embrace of the questions that inform and form us.

We will look to see you on Sunday for worship or Streamers, you can look for us. It will be a great day to be together around the Table of Communion (Streamers, have your elements ready) and to visit with Dr. Luther Smith for questions and conversation. We’ll do our best to stream that, too.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz

PS Please don’t forget the 700 cans of black beans for the Toco Hills Community Alliance until June 15^th. THCA reminds us that “Hunger doesn’t take a vacation.” We can help keep the shelves full.

Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Anna Dorn is a writer and contributor to The Medium Newsletter. I don’t know her but the headline to her entry this week caught my eye: “Joy is the radical belief that the world is worthy of love.” (Oh, ho! There’s a thought.) She goes on to write:

For a long time, I saw my reluctance to participate in politics as a personal flaw. But German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt might have seen it differently… [P]hilosophy professor Roger Berkowitz draws from Arendt’s work to argue that joy — not outrage, not vigilance — might be the most radical response to political collapse. By “joy” he doesn’t mean cheerful activism or mindful news consumption. He means the kind of joy that shows up in music, in raising children, in watching a lover’s face. He explains that joy is “not naïve optimism,” but “rooted in the radical belief that the world, even as it is, is worthy of love.” And in dark times, that belief can be a way of staying human.

Joy as radical belief, accessed in music, in laughter, in loving eyes–knowing (certainty?) that originates in what Henry James called “the verges of the mind”–not really thought or reason and certainly not proof. Oh, my.

In John 14:27a, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Is that peace like joy? Does the peace Jesus offers reside in that kind of radical belief, evidence notwithstanding, in some sense beyond belief? The sort of thing that only the Holy Spirit can teach? (John 14:26) What does this ask of us, followers of Jesus?

They say questions are better than answers because they last longer. I’ll be with these for a while and perhaps you will, too. Sometimes we read the Bible and sometimes it reads us. And sometimes it chases us around the room.

Join us for church on Sunday, Streamers and Gatherers, where we will continue the conversation. And sing and pray and worship together–where we work these kinds of questions out in community. Rev. Thomas is taking time away but I look forward to seeing and being seen with you.

Grace upon grace,

Rev. Liz

PS Anna Dorn says important things about speaking up, too. Find her post here.