This is an update on the Stephen Ministry from the Stephen Ministry Discernment Group. With the feedback received from former Stephen Ministers & Leaders, our discernment group discussions, and in connection with PMC staff and the Table, we've come to a decision. 

The basics are that the group recommends closing the Stephen Ministry program.
We affirmed that the program has been wonderful in many ways and a gift to the congregation, but that we are unable to continue it. The main reason for closing is that we do not have the volunteer capacity to meet the high time and administrative demands of this program.

To be clear, PMC will still have many types of congregational & pastoral care available for those who need it. We have worked to build up some of our other care options and will continue to find ways to fill any gaps that we find.

This recommendation has been affirmed by the Table. In the future, we hope to do some more assessment of needs in the congregation and work at finding ways to meet those needs that fit our volunteer capacity –  hopefully this can begin during our pastoral transition process and then with the help of our new Lead Pastor.

​If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Pastor Kristen or anyone in the SM Discernment Group (Joleen Jensen-Classen, Harold Nussbaum, Karen Hartmann, LaVonne Blowers, and Susan Lanford).

​A SENDING BOX is my title for this art object. I was commissioned to create the interior of a kind of small treasure chest to be a farewell gift for Rod, the dearly beloved retiring pastor of my faith community. Over the past 25 years Rod has finished innumerable services with a "SENDING": a benediction that ends the gathering and sends us forth reflective, grateful, inspired. Today was our chance to return the favor and send him off into the next chapter of his life. Jonathan (Jonathan A. Nussbaum - Furniture Maker) milled the wood and Bruce Kuhns (all around great guy) built the box. Everyone else was invited to bring cards to fill the box. The three of us creators then presented it to Rod, a special occasion for which I'm honored to have played a part.

It's very close to the five-year mark since I retired from TriMet. And it's two years since the commission of the "!00 Year Collage", so I felt echoes of these as I worked on the box. Like the big collage two years ago, I recycled old bulletins and stamps, adding other material and lots of colored pencil. The title for that art update was "Fresh Fruit Imagery". For the Sending Box I imagined the "fruits of the spirit" given a physicality of maybe mango, peach and Oregon strawberry (with a hint of milk and honey). Sometimes it helps me to take the word of God/Rod from "pie in the sky" down to a pie with a flakey crust I can actually taste and savor. Or if it's art, let it be something that whets the appetite, stirs a longing and begins to quench an inner thirst. 

Thanks & Cheers to Rod, 
And may the rest of you also be sent forth with all goodness,
Love - Always,
Tim TK Klassen

On June 13th PMC sponsored an evening at Nightstrike under the Burnside Bridge. Night Strike is a community gathering that mobilizes volunteers/services, meets felt needs, and develops relationships that transform lives. It is an opportunity for members of Portland’s homeless community to hang out, enjoy a hot meal, receive a free haircut or shave, have their feet washed and have their old shoes/clothes/sleeping bags replaced. Contact info for future Nightstrike events can be found HERE.

This spring at Portland Mennonite Church, we have been learning from Sarah Augustine and the new book she co-wrote with Sheri Hostetler – So We and Our Children May Live: Following Jesus in Confronting the Climate Crisis.
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Our Racial Justice and Climate Justice committees hosted an adult Sunday School class that read and discussed this book in February and March. And, then we invited Sarah to join us on February 25 to preach for our Sunday Service, which was followed by a forum where we could learn more from Sarah and ask questions. We also engaged with Sarah’s work through her organization, the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery (CDDD). One piece of the work of the CDDD is the Maya-Mennonite Solidarity Working Group, a group that is working at building relationships with Maya seed savers in southern Mexico and their Mennonite Colony neighbors (read more in the March issue of Anabaptist World). To support this project, PMC hosted a “Seed(ling) Exchange Party & Fundraiser” to raise money for CDDD members to make a trip to visit these groups they are working with in Mexico.

People in the church brought seeds, seedlings, and all kinds of beautiful plants they were willing to donate, and others took them for a suggested donation. Together we celebrated seeds and planting, giving thanks to God for the miracle of growing things.

​PMC folks at the Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage