I don’t know if I express enough how grateful I am to be part of this amazing community! I am blessed to call you my church family. Yesterday, (Thursday, Jan 22nd), within a matter of an hour, we decided that we needed to open our building as a warming center!

We are in the third week of January. Last year for this week, my enews started with these words, “The ongoing wildfires in California, relentless genocide of Palestinian people, continued climate change, upcoming transfer of power in the political makeup of our country, and much more that our world is experiencing; so much is changing around us, some of which causes a lot of anxiety within us…”

Not much seems to have changed since then, and if anything, it has only been exaggerated.

I sit in my front room this morning, finding it very difficult to write this piece. Honestly I am at a loss of words. The world is in a turmoil. Our country is in a turmoil, and it is only the 9th day in this new year!

So, today I share with you 2 statements — one by our UM Bishops against US actions in Venezuela and a pastoral message by Bishop Plambeck of the Dakota-Minnesota Annual Conferences.