09/05/2018 by Shannon Day

Minister’s Musings Among the Mountains Week of 9/3

“So, what’s up with Worship Council?” Several Westsiders have asked me that question in recent days. I had mentioned some changes in my August 19th sermon called “Living in a Liminal Season.” I talked about being in a time of radical and unpredictable change which we all are now. This is what I said in that sermon (paraphrased): “Here’s one example. The Worship Council has had a long history of providing professional and wide-ranging Sunday services here. I mentioned that Chaplain Mark led the group for a decade. Last year Lisa Reitzes facilitated Worship Council during a time of profound

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08/29/2018 by Shannon Day

Let Us Rejoice Together – Margo Rinehart, Ministerial Intern

August 31st marks the end of my twelve-month ministerial internship at Westside. With that life flashing before us, I desperately try to slow down the spinning orb in order to spend more time in grace and gratitude. Time to take inventory of all we have learned together. In this holy work of building a religious community, we have: Come to better know one another’s dreams, sorrows, and longings Celebrated awe, wonder, and what is life-sustaining and true Explored a one-dimensional, distorted story of immigrants and have stood in solidarity with the persecuted Spoken for truth and justice even knowing that

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08/22/2018 by Shannon Day

Minister’s Musings Among the Mountains*

(*if you can see them) We have had to endure the terrible air quality conditions this week in the Seattle area. Smoke from fires north and east and down south in Oregon and California have totally obscured the mountains, the Sound and Seattle itself from here in West Seattle. No one is physically immune from the effects of the smoke. It’s also disconcerting to not see the mountains because they are such an emotional anchor for so many here. I’ve had many times when I might be in a grumpy mood, but I’ll look up at Mt. Rainier or the

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08/06/2018 by Shannon Day

Minister’s Musings Among the Mountains (and Plains) 8.6.18

What a summer it’s been. Heatwaves everywhere, tragic fires in Greece, Siberia, California and many more locations. Climatologists say that we are in a radically unstable and changing time for weather and climate. That’s an example of liminality. Thanks to your generosity with my professional expenses this year, I am able to take a number of classes by the highly regarded Rev. Susan Beaumont. I’m taking one at the end of August on staffing and supervision. However, I want to mention the one I attended last week called, “Leading in a Liminal Season” at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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07/18/2018 by Shannon Day

July Update from Minister Search Team

Greetings Westside! And Happy Seattle Summer! If you’re spending your summer at home, or in the area at least, you already know that Seattle finally hit its summer stride in the past two weeks. The other day Tony said, “How is it already my birthday (July 20th) this week ?!” It has felt like time has flown, but if you haven’t gotten to the beach yet, don’t fret, there are still a couple of juicy summer months left on the Pacific Northwest calendar. In my last and first newsletter to you, I accidentally referred to our Ministerial Search Team as

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06/13/2018 by Shannon Day

Minister Musings Among the Mountains – Rev. Alex Holt

The Truth-telling Age We are living in an era where the marginalized and the oppressed feel more empowered to share their stories and speak their truth. We who don’t experience apparent marginalization or oppression can find ourselves off balance and confused when others speak their truths about painful and tragic circumstances arise in life. What do we do? How do we respond? Do we translate their powerful or painful language into words that are polite ones but that appear to be censoring ones? I am part of another organization that is facing a similar challenge of hearing words of truth-speaking.

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06/06/2018 by Shannon Day

To Be Called – Margo Rinehart, Ministerial Intern

The Poor People’s Campaign This Memorial Day I chose to leave my relaxing, sunny yard and drive for sixty miles to our state capital in Olympia to participate in week three of “The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival” public witness. Each week of the six “moral Mondays” has a theme, and this time it was The War Economy:  Militarism and the Proliferation of Gun Violence. First, after recently reading the biography of Fannie Lou Hamer, which brought me to tears and to my knees, I wanted to participate and be counted. Second, I heard a rumor that Unitarian Universalists were

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05/30/2018 by Shannon Day

July 8 Annual Poetry Service: Resilience

This service will feature several members of the congregation reading poems of their choosing (written by them or another author), related to the overall theme of “Resilience.” RESILIENCE: Latin, resilīre – to spring back, rebound 1)  the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or adversity; toughness; buoyancy 2)  the power or ability to return to an original form or position, after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity. If you are interested in reading a short poem related to the theme of “Resilience,” and also briefly speaking about why that poem is meaningful to you, please contact Lisa Reitzes at lisa.reitzes@seattlechildrens.org  no later than

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05/30/2018 by Shannon Day

Minister’s Musings Among the Mountains – Word Meanings Matter

One of my favorite lines from the Chinese wisdom book The Tao te Ching (ca. 3rd century before common era) by Lao Tzu is “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” (verse 64). It’s very familiar to many people here in the Western world. The words seem straightforward. The journey began with a first step. I don’t know about anyone else, but that suggests to me that whatever journey I am thinking about started some time ago “back when.” Here’s an example. Westside’s journey began many years ago in 1959 when a group of people began to meet here

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