Prospect Park United Methodist Church
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Christine Kliesen Wehrman (Pastor Chris)


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[Read this month's "Pastor's Corner"] 

Greetings!

Welcome all who seek the divine! Our hope is that you have found this Web site because you have felt a stirring in your heart to connect with God and are looking for a community of faith that will support you in your journey. 
 
How would we describe what we're all about? You'd probably get as many answers as you would people in this community. Yet at our core, we are a community seeking to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, as taught by Jesus (Luke 10:25-28).
 
Love of God: 
Prospect Park United Methodist Church (PPUMC) is a place of spiritual exploration and growth.  We seek to be a community where all people, whatever their spiritual understanding may be, can come and feel welcomed.  We strive to create a place where authentic relationship with God can be experienced and nurtured.
 
We seek to know and to dwell with that which we love.  Loving God is about finding expressions and practices that authentically lead to interaction with the divine.  Come and explore with us the mystery of the spiritual and find food and rest for your soul.
 
Love of Neighbor:
PPUMC is a place of action and transformation.  We recognize and take seriously the challenges of this world and work actively to overcome injustice wherever it is found.  By participating in local community organizations as well as larger social justice initiatives, PPUMC strives to engage every member to help change the world.
 
We seek to embrace and lift up those around us.  Loving neighbor is about recognizing injustice in the world and working to end it.  We actively engage in overcoming poverty, homelessness and inequality wherever it is found.  Come and help change our community and our world for the better.

Pastor's Corner

"How  was  your  Easter?"  As  if  it  was   over. As if Easter is a holiday packed away like plastic eggs in a box waiting to be filled with jelly beans next April.

Do you know that Easter Day marks the first day of the season of Easter? The next seven Sundays are the Sundays of Easter. Then comes.....drum roll, please.....sound of roaring wind....Pentecost!! The Holy Spirit comes to the disciples huddled in a locked room, like flame to open their mouths, their hearts, their eyes, in wildly life-changing ways.

Jesus, leaving his friends, assures them that he does not leave  them  “orphaned,”  that  as  he  physically  leaves  the   world he promises the arrival of the Holy Spirit, which will be comforter, friend, counselor, helper; the Spirit of Truth, with them. (John 14:15-29) Notice the broader than usual array  of  translated  words  for this “presence,” indicating a non-translatable original word. I wonder about that original, inexpressible word.

We live between Easter morning and Pentecost overwhelmingly aware of the contrast between the promises and the challenges of this world. It is a longer wait than Good Friday to Easter morning, and although the sound of water begins to trickle in the gutters, the trees still offer no hint of leaves. How do we carry hope in these days? Cradled and careful?  Blazing like a banner?  I’m asking.

I recommend to you two passages to ponder, to read, sit with, wonder about; bat around like a badminton bird: the John passage above and 1 Kings 19, an older text about a prophet whose story of lying down and despair and – eventually – rising up gloriously energized, pairs with it, a vintage draught alongside new, living bread.

Wild blessings, Pastor Chris


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Last modified: April 7, 2013 -- JO

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