I hope that all of you are not going stir crazy and are finding the power of love in your lives. As you know I plan to make my sermons available in “video” and “written” format each week. To add a little Southminster fun, I will always “preach” from a different location of the church building. But where? That is for you and your family to guess and write it down on a list. When we finally are able to physically gather as a congregation (our Easter Sunday), there will be a “prize” given for the individual or family that guesses the most correct Sermon locations. How well do you really know the church? Hmmmm. I will give you a hint on how to start:

1. Sermon Location COVID-19 Week-One (March 15): Written Sermon only
2. Sermon Location COVID-19 Week-Two (March 22): _______________
3. Sermon Location COVID-19 Week-Two (March 29): _______________

As always, email or text or call me if you have any questions or need anything from me or the community. My hope is that as you worship and take time to care for your spirit, the Great Spirit and Southminster will fill you with hope and comfort and resilience – WE GOT THIS!

This is week two of our online “virtual” worship. I hope and pray that you are taking care of yourselves and know that you are not alone. I have changed our spiritual theme for the coming weeks to focus on how to respond to wilderness experiences: Resilience in the Wilderness. Some of us who are older have been through similar times as these – some of us are bewildered by fear and anxiety in experiencing a social disaster for the first time. All of us have experienced moments and periods where we have felt isolated and as if Spirit was far away.

I encourage you to read, watch and listen to the “virtual worship service” as individuals and/or families. There are two video links that have relevant hymns for you to join along or simply listen to and one “must-see” theme reading video link of Maya Angelou’s remarkable reading of her poem “I Rise.” Don’s sermon is available in video and written format (click on the preferred links).

At the end of the service is a special edition of Sunday Starter: A Focus on Climate Change. At some point during the week, the Adult Education Committee would love for you to watch the Bill Moyers interview, read the brief overview, and consider the Question Prompts.

As always, email or text or call me if you have any questions or need anything from me or the community. My hope is that as you worship and take time to care for your spirit, the Spirit of God and Southminster will fill you with hope and comfort and resilience – WE GOT THIS!

Welcome to Southminster’s Virtual Worship Service. While we are not together physically, we can connect spiritually online. My hope is that by setting aside an hour of quiet time (perhaps on Sunday mornings) for yourself to read the attached sermon, watch the video by clicking on the embedded link, listening to the music suggested, and using the prompts for reflection and prayer will provide a way to nurture your soul.

Today I want to simply focus on one blessing of Jesus’: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”. In our COVID-19 reality and with a wavering economy as a result, in a nation where the poverty rate is the highest since the Great Depression, where homelessness among children and youth in Oregon is considerably rising, when we have a President that is fickle at best, we are finding a trend that sociologists and futurists note as a time when “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” more sharply than ever before.