Session Notes: August 2022
Your Session sat, by Zoom, for its regular monthly meeting this week.
It’s been an active summer. Worship attendance online has been stable and, thanks to a steady stream of walk-in visitors, in-person attendance is growing. In fact, there’s enough interest from newcomers that we’ve scheduled new member classes beginning this month.
A Word from Grace: Being Here
In the Gospel of John, when Jesus tells his disciples to “come and see,” he offers not just an invitation to be with Christ, but to live out the Good News. Being with you this summer, I see how “come and see” evolves into a call to live out an active faith. God’s work at Western moves us to take faithful footsteps both inside and beyond the church’s walls, what Pastor Laura calls, “praying with our feet.”
Just this summer, I’ve seen many ways that Western and the D.C area are inseparable and that is a holy gift. Being at Western means being a neighbor to a more expansive community than what might first come to mind when we think of “church.” I am in awe of how being in Foggy Bottom breathes life into this church and how this inherent proximity necessitates a call to live out our faith.
A Word from Laura:
“We’re a destination church.”
It was a new term for me when one of you told me this several years ago. You were describing how Westerners come from all over the region to gather in Foggy Bottom. As I listened, many of you shared how you started coming to Western because of the sermons or the music or the ongoing connection with Miriam’s Kitchen or the progressive Christian spirit. You were drawn, and so you stayed.
When I asked why you stayed, however, your answers were different:
• You got to know someone (for many of you, it was Mark Finks!) while serving together in Miriam’s Kitchen, and he invited you to be part of the community.
• You appreciated the prophetic bent of Western’s ministry and found like minds and hearts on the Mission Ministry Team.
• You admired someone in the choir, and you found yourself a part.
• You joined the Free Inquiry class because you wanted to hear the speaker, and in the process discovered a group of thoughtful friends.
• You found a spiritual home while you were a young adult or student at GW and kept coming back because your children were growing in faith, singing with “Ms. Amy” or learning with any number of you who have volunteered with our children.
A Word from Laura: Call to Prayer
The heat is on here in the DMV! Is the area’s first true heat wave since 2016 turning up the temperature on the stress in our lives? Or are we joining other parts of the world living with more dire effects of heat? Is the heat related to climate change (surely?) or forest fires or drought? Does it somehow affect the political unrest in Sri Lanka or need to dial back energy usage in German or effects of drought in Sudan? I’m not sure about the direct effects, but I imagine the heat doesn’t help.
In the heat of the summer, this letter is an invitation to prayer. We liberal Christians have a healthy reticence to throw prayer around – to pray too publicly or loudly or glibly. I’ve also noticed my reticence can keep me from praying at all. And when we don’t pray, we lose access to God’s best way of communicating with us. We need to hear from God, especially when things are hot.
A Word from Laura: Realignment
Dear Friends,
“Realignment” remains a buzzword these days, in employment as much as politics. While I’m not sure exactly what it means for Western, our session and personnel ministry team understand that we need a process to respond to church shifts over the last two and a half years. As these groups have met, we have committed to a process that emphasizes equity and transparency. We also want a staffing structure that is financially sustainable.
A little more about contextual factors shaping our process
• Shifts in modes of participation. Organizations in downtown DC have all seen a decrease in people showing up in-person – offices, the arts, restaurants and retail. Western has experienced similar changes, affecting our sense of community and how we connect to each other, and our staff needed to respond
• Change happens fast, and plans often change. All of what we do as a culture requires both increased technical knowledge and the ability to be flexible. A positive test result or supply chain issue or laptop failure can mean quick changes and exponentially more work. How do we make sure our staff are filling realistic positions?
• Deeper understanding of equity and justice within our organization. The Personnel Ministry Team has worked with Dr. Marcia Riggs, ethics professor at Columbia Seminary, to learn about the antiracist work of building organizational trust and developing practices leading to organizational justice.
Session Notes: July 2022
Your Session sat, by Zoom, for its regular monthly meeting this week.
As Pastor Laura said in her note last week, “no matter what we do, Sunday mornings of the future will look different from Sunday mornings of the past.” This meeting was devoted to what we need to do to create, in Laura’s words, a new familiar Sunday experience.
In-person attendance is essential to our health as a vital community of faith, so we’re planning a Sunday morning “Come and See WPC” experience this fall. We will focus on several constituencies that might be drawn to Western – neighbors, GWU students, former members – and tailor a worship experience for them over several weeks.