01/23/2020 by Shannon Day

Music Ministry Update

Music Ministry Update: Please Welcome Scott Farrell as our Permanent Music Director! Jade Lowry, Board President We have been in transition in many ways in the past four years. This year’s board was confronted with navigating our bridge and music ministries and how to contract with our bridge minister and our acting music director when our called minister isn’t coming until so late in the year, which was not what this community had initially planned for. In an effort to be inclusive, transparent and collaborative, the board engaged in an open and unstructured process – for better or worse –

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12/20/2019 by Shannon Day

Board Update from Jade Lowry, President

Dear Beloved Westside Community, In this month of long hours of darkness, as I feel pulled to go inward with introspection and also outward to participate in holiday ceremonies and festivities, I’ve noticed how grateful I feel to be living in community. Our community has an incredible generosity of spirit, and we have seen that through the past month as we received input from over 70 of you, sharing your experiences with our bridge and music ministries. We are committed to opening pathways for all voices in our community to be heard and honored, and for all voices to have

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12/11/2019 by Shannon Day

Letter from the Treasurer – Shelley Webb

Dear Westside Congregation, This year, I am serving in the role(s) of Past President and Treasurer. Since many of you primarily know me from RE or from Board President work, you might not know that my secret super power is spreadsheets, and that one of my happy places is crunching away at numbers on my computer in my basement. By profession, I am a health insurance actuary. The German word for Actuary is Versicherungsmathematiker, which literally means “Insurance Mathematician”. During my board presidency last year, I often found myself jotting down notes of stories I thought were relevant to the

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11/06/2019 by Shannon Day

Reflections from Board Secretary – Aimee Schiefelbein

Hello Loving Community, I’ve been reflecting about being a Board member in our time without a settled minister, how it changes the dynamic of the work and how it strengthens and allows us opportunities to care for each other in ways we might not otherwise have access to if we had a full-time settled minister. For me this summer blew by quickly while caring for my mother at the end of her life and her eventual passing in August. I had many mystical and beautiful experiences with her that I’m still making sense of. Life doesn’t stop while taking on

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10/02/2019 by Shannon Day

Reflections from Board Trustee-at-Large- Tony Ricardi

Happy Fall, Beloved Community! Even though I absolutely love Seattle summers and think we were unjustly cut off too early this year, fall is my favorite season. I love the vibrant gold and ruby trees lining the streets on my commute to work, the earthy and familiar city-kid smell of fresh rain on asphalt, and the little blue jackets I fasten around my dogs to keep them warm on our crisp morning walks. I love flannel and coffee and horror movies and sad poetry and every other reason there is to be cozy in these next few months. If you

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09/25/2019 by Shannon Day

News from the Racial Justice Change Team

Summary Notes About the “WSUU Equity Workshop: Strategies to Promote and Sustain a Culture of Inclusivity and Equity” By Kerrie Schurr and Tony Ricardi, Board Liaison to the RJCT Below are some observations the two of us put together, and therefore it is limited to two individual white people’s perspectives. For a more complete understanding of the workshop and the momentum of this work at Westside, we encourage more conversation and sharing with other participants of the workshop. Richard Kim, our Cultures Connecting presenter, began the workshop with storytelling and a photo slideshow of his childhood, sharing from the heart

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09/18/2019 by Shannon Day

Board Update – Jade Lowry, President

We have a new renter!! A wonderful nonprofit serving a great need for preschoolers will be sharing our building and replacing Sweet Pea preschool as of October 1st! We are thrilled to welcome Leaps and Bounds of Washington and Jamie Huizinga, Executive Director (https://www.leapsandboundswa.org/). They offer pediatric therapy services to preschoolers, including occupational and physical therapy and sensory social groups. They are adding this space as an expansion to their existing office, to accommodate the waiting list they have for families seeking this kind of support for their children. Jamie and her therapists will rent the same first-floor space that

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08/28/2019 by Shannon Day

Update from the Board 8.30.19

Hello, Beloved Community, We have another great update in our progress to bring our called minister, Rev. Christopher Wulff, to us from Canada! Our R-1 Immigration Visa application has been assigned a case number through USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services)! Also, our 2019-2020 Board has met for one trust-building and planning retreat, and two regular monthly meetings. R-1 Visa Update   With our R-1 Visa case number assigned, we are now in a holding period waiting for a site visit from our USCIS case manager. This pre-adjudication visit will not be announced. The purpose will be to affirm

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08/21/2019 by Shannon Day

Update from the Board of Trustees – Jade Lowry, President

What is the board focusing on this August, you ask? Transparency – One focus is how to be more transparent with our work, and as collaborative as possible with the broader congregation! We’ve talked about how to be present; how to communicate and keep those channels open; how to document and present what needs to be available for public record; and how to best listen and understand the needs and desires of the congregation. Hopefully you will see evidence of this; and we will share our ideas as we go. Listening – We want to hear from you! We are

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07/17/2019 by Shannon Day

Update from the Board 7.19.19

Greetings, and happy mid-summer to all! I realized it’s been three weeks since our last update, and I want to let you know of the ongoing effort and activity going in to this transition time, and preparing for our gap time between ministers. The Transition Working Group has all their members identified, and they are already diving in to important background research related to the R-1 visa process, meetings with our district support people, and possibilities for hiring a contract minister during our gap period. They will share an update soon in the Westside Week with more information. In this

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