Pastor Yuki Appointed as Theology Faculty at Claremont School of Theology

Dear friends, I know that many of you were at church last week when I announced my good (and sad!) news: I have been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Louisville Institute to teach theology at Claremont School of Theology at Willamette University in Salem, Ore. I did not expect nor plan for this award, but it comes as part of a new effort by the Louisville Institute, and the Lilly Foundation, which funds church engagement and transformation in the US, to help scholars such as myself get placements to teach and do scholarly research during this pandemic era, when so many institutions of higher learning have had to cut budgets and faculty because of the decrease in enrollments.

You can read more about my new placement at Claremont School of Theology’s web site.

The sad part of this means that I will have to leave Keystone as one of your pastors, since the appointment to Claremont is a full-time job. I am very sad to have to leave, since I’ve experienced such love and support from this wonderful community in the three years that I’ve been here. You have taught me so much about the different ways to show up in the world to do justice, especially through advocacy whether it’s through text-banking, sending letters, or showing up in Olympia to badger our elected officials to do good! You helped me connect the good news of the gospel to the good news of the work that we do.

My last day at Keystone will be Nov. 30, and I look forward to spending the next several weeks continuing in this journey with you to be good news in the world.

Yours in love and hope,

Pastor Yuki