Ready, Steady, Go?

Dear Friends,

This Sunday, we get to officially welcome Rev. Dr. J. Terry Todd to our pastoral team. He’s not at all new to us.  Terry has been a part of our extended community for quite some time. Terry, his partner, Andrew, and their son, Eli, are fellow Upper West Siders. Terry is a beloved Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Drew Theological School. He is also an Associate Pastor at Rivers of Living Waters United Church of Christ, and in that role, he’s become a respected colleague and favorite collaborator of ours. Together, we’ve shaped several years of collaborative worship services, most often during Lent. You’ll recall he was a guest preacher in the Spring of 2021. And this year, you’ll remember seeing him help guide our worship for Lessons & Carols and on Ash Wednesday. We were also fortunate to have his written contribution for our Lenten Devotional Guide. (Go back and read his entry, you won’t be sorry you did!)

But now, we are richly blessed to have Terry join the team while Pastor K is on renewal leave. Terry’s primary focus will be worship and preaching, but he will support and participate in programming, join in our fellowship opportunities, and be present and available at the church on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Terry joined our staff meeting for the first time this week and we had a ball, imagining what this time together can be. We can’t wait for you to get to know him better, too.

Join us this Sunday so that you can do exactly that! We’ll kick off a Summer of Revival as we enter the second week of Pentecost. In worship, we’ll mark Trinity Sunday, renewing our baptismal vows. After worship, we’ll have a time of fellowship and with each other and Terry, when you can introduce yourself and welcome him to St. Paul & St. Andrew. There will also special rainbow-colored treats to start Pride month off right. And right afterwards, Rev. Dr. Julie Faith Parker will lead a Bible Study on “Beyond the Binary,” centering Genesis 1.

So much wonderful stuff is happening.  Don’t miss out on any of it!

See you Sunday, Friends.

Pastor Lea

P.S. June 4 is Peace with Justice Sunday United Methodists relate to this Special Sunday by seeking peaceful solutions, creating and supporting peace-related ministries in their conference and learning about peaceful, just efforts around the world. Our Social Principles call us to love our enemies, seek justice, and serve as reconcilers of conflict. We insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to work together to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises between or among them.

Donations for this special Sunday support programs and ministries to educate, equip and mobilize actions in support of identified Economic, Health, and Gender Justice Priorities.