Your Session sat for its regular monthly meeting this week (by Zoom, of course).

Session meetings begin and end with prayer. This time, the closing prayer was Brian Doyle’s "Prayer in Celebration of Brief Things, for Example, Church Services." It was apropos – our meeting was unusually short.

Your elected Session sat for its first regular monthly meeting of the year on Tuesday (by Zoom, of course). We welcomed two new elders, Jerry Hoganson and Greta Morris.

Like many January meetings, this meeting was mostly organizational. Rebecca Jackson was reelected Clerk of Session and Ray Sendejas reelected church Treasurer.

Dear Western Church,

Your Session sat for its regular meeting – as we have every month during the pandemic – on Zoom earlier this week. Two topics dominated the conversation: our response to the call to anti-racism, and the practical issue of returning to some form of in-person worship.

You received our anti-racism response last week. This report shares our thinking about in-person gatherings.

It probably goes without saying, but when we open our doors again, things will be different. We will faithfully follow the District’s reopening criteria and our own duty of care for your health and well-being.

Dear Western Church,

See below for the text of our Letter from the Session on anti-racism, with new language in the last paragraph to reflect the plans we discussed tonight:

This past Tuesday, your Session met to consider the work and decisions facing Western. Chief among them was: how will we meet the call to dismantle systemic racism? What does it mean as a community of faith to, as Micah requires, do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God? As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” We are now witnessing the bending of that curve. The trajectory is still evolving, but it’s already clear that there’s no going back.