As I type this, we will throw open the doors to welcome you to in person worship at both the Bridge and traditional services on February 28. After so many months of reaching across our safe isolation through YouTube, we will once again be able to see one another and worship together.
Equally as vital, we will continue to livestream the services and post recordings for you to worship safely and conveniently. To remain connected to one another, through all the means possible, only strengthens our ability to proclaim the gospel and live as followers
of Jesus.

In my short time here, I hear a drumbeat in our conversations of the life-giving connections you experience with one another through Westminster. In Zoom meetings and outdoor walks, phone calls or brief meetings, you tell me repeatedly of how precious it is to be able to worship, enjoy a ‘cuppa, study scripture, raise your kids, advocate for justice, and hold one another in prayer. Those of you who joined the church last year in a pandemic speak of this with the same passion as those who became connected in the John Galbreath era.

As high as this gorgeous steeple soars to praise God, Westminster’s breadth is greater in the ways it connects people to one another through God.
In this liminal time, as we continue to wait for vaccines and immunities, we must continue to nurture and cultivate relationships in all the safe ways established over the past year. Yes, we have Zoom fatigue, and yet we thrive on any form of connecting safely. Yes, we don’t want to wear masks or make reservations, and yet our community flourishes when we hold the health of others with tender care.

Jo Boaler, a Stanford professor of mathematics, observes, “The thing that people who overcome hardship and do not become defeated by it have in common is that in times of need they all reached out to someone – a friend, a family member, or a colleague – and those connections helped them survive and develop strength.”

My prayer for everyone is that we will continue to persevere in connecting with one another.

In faith,

Jo