The United Methodist Church’s General Conference began Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, and goes through May 4. Many believe this conference will finalize the UMC's final decision on whether to expand or limit LGBTQ+ rights within the whole denomination, not just on a church-by-church basis.
As relaxing as my trip to the Redwoods was, I found myself motivated to fight for justice. No sector of our lives has been untouched by colonization, capitalism, abuse or corruption. From the environment, to education, to healthcare, to safety in our communities, there is work to be done.
I wonder if religion can be replaced. Can just anything “fill the hole in the heart” that religion once did and still does for some of us. While many human activities have value, nothing, in my opinion, can take the place of religion.
The prayer I say most often asks God to help me, “lay all my affairs in Thy hands,” and “not dwell on the unpleasant things of life.” In the Baha’i Faith, we call it “being detached," and it is a lesson we all struggle to learn.
Should someone ask me (a secular atheist) where I got my philosophy of life — what to value, how to behave — and how not to, I can answer simply and directly: from watching Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone” and Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals as I grew up.
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At 6:30 a.m., two members of Westminster UCC climbed to the base of the church's bell tower and rang the historic bell 26 times to remember those killed in the Newtown shooting.
Westminster joined churches across the nation in this memorial.
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of FāVS.News, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.
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pastor andy castrolang
11 years ago
Thank you so much for doing this, Jon and Verne. Thank you so much for being with them and creating this moving tribute, Tracy.
god bless you all.
Tracy Simmons
11 years ago
And thanks to Westminster for for being the only church in Spokane (that we know of) to do this!
Lou McKee & David Verwolf
11 years ago
Thank you Jon & Vern for commemorating this event with the though of connectedness in this fragile & sacred life.
from Kavala, Greece
Thank you so much for doing this, Jon and Verne. Thank you so much for being with them and creating this moving tribute, Tracy.
god bless you all.
And thanks to Westminster for for being the only church in Spokane (that we know of) to do this!
Thank you Jon & Vern for commemorating this event with the though of connectedness in this fragile & sacred life.
from Kavala, Greece