Transition Time - full of celebration!

June is the month of transition at Keystone.

Pastor Rich will have his final Sunday with Keystone on June 30th - in-person/hybrid service. On June 29, there is a celebration and farewell gathering - see the newsletter for more info about that event. After 24 years at Keystone, the community will be sad to see Rich depart - and we are grateful for his many years of ministry with the congregation!

On June 16th, we shared a blessing with Rev. Rachel during her last Sunday at the hybrid service - she will preach and have her final Sunday with the congregation online June 23rd.

On June 9th, we voted to welcome Rev. Adina Meyer as our transitional minister - she will begin her work officially on July 1st and will guide us through a time of change and discernment in the coming months. Her skills as a spiritual director, chaplain and pastor will bless our community as we enter into this transitional time.

Change is always challenging and includes grief and new opportunities. May God’s spirit of love and peace be with our community during this transitional time!

Getting to know Adina!

Letter to the Keystone Congregation

May 21, 2024

Dear Keystone UCC Community,

I first discovered Keystone in January of 2023, when Living Water Inclusive Catholic Community, which had been founded the year before, had outgrown the homes we had been meeting in. Luckily, many of our members had come from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, which had recently closed, and someone said, “You ought to call Kate Speltz’s husband! He has a church!”

Little did I know that I would fall in love with Keystone. From the first time our board members met with the Keystone leadership team, I could see that they were like peas in a pod - seasoned, progressive Christians on fire for social justice and compassionate action in the world. It wasn’t long before I and some Living Water members started attending Keystone and heard Rich’s inspiring preaching and the beautiful music provided by Elliot and Yigit. When I discovered that I could do a ministerial apprenticeship at Keystone as the capstone to my Master of Divinity degree, I was elated. I was able to preach a few times, meet and work with more members of the congregations of both Keystone and the Taiwanese Christian Church, and complete on a couple of small projects around the building.

I am extremely sad that Rich and Rachel are leaving, although I know it is the right move for each of them. I have made myself available to be of service to Keystone as transition pastor in order to support the community during this time of transition. I am excited to get to know everyone better as we discern together about Keystone’s present and future. I will be ordained at Keystone on Saturday, May 25th by the Roman Catholic Womenpriests and I intend to seek “Dual Status” ordination with the UCC if possible.  I am eager to see how Living Water and Keystone can work together even more closely, both on social justice/activism projects and possibly developing combined worship services from time to time as well!

I was most impressed by the sentence in Keystone’s profile that read, “We do not need a pastor to save us. We need leaders to support our leadership.” I have faith in the wisdom and passion of the Keystone members, and I hope to act as a loving witness to your process as I develop my preaching voice, facilitate worship, and keep things running with the help of the wonderful Keystone leadership team. My husband Matthew is a skilled contractor and can fix anything, so the church building won’t fall apart while I’m around, either!

Please let me know how I can be of service to you all.

Blessings,

Adina Meyer

February 2024 - Season of Lent

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 14.

We are invited to join Living Water for their Ash Wednesday service at Keystone in the lower level at 10 am.

Also beginning on Wednesday, February 14th, the 2nd Wednesday book study will be the Bible! Pastor Rich will lead us through a study of Exodus to Jesus and Beyond - Progressive Christianity, Justice and the Bible. Join us on 2nd Wednesdays for our study and conversation.

On Thursday, February 22 at 6:30 pm at Keystone, Pastor Rachel is hosting an Open Sacred Space for our Grieving and Hurting World. All are welcome to enter the sacred space for prayer and meditation - there will be prayer stations or an opportunity to be present with Gregorian Chant sung by Elliot and at 7 pm we will gather for shared spoken prayers.

January 2024 - A Letter from Pastor Rich

To the people of Keystone:
 
I started as your pastor in the year 2000. I started with a one year contract. The congregation was small and dispirited. It was my expectation that at the end of that year we would close the church. I saw it as my job to make that year both easy and meaningful for the good people that had so long labored to keep Keystone going. We stopped being the church we were told we needed to be, and started being the church we were called to be. We stopped worrying so much about how small we were. We celebrated who we were. We carved out an important role for small congregations. We celebrated the fact that we were nimble decision makers willing to take risks. We stopped seeing ourselves as failing to meet the ideal and started seeing ourselves as leaders in the faith community. At the end of that year, the congregation voted to continue rather than close. It was a near-death experience which has informed our identity. We do not live in fear for the future of the congregation. We have an appreciation for who we are and what we can still do to make this world a better place. 
 
I have been your pastor for over 23 years. I have never seen it as my job to make sure that Keystone lives forever. Congregations, like people, die. The point is not to worry about death but to make the most out of life. In those 23 years, we have hosted somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 peace and justice gatherings. We have kept the Festival of Hope going, raising awareness and an average of over $12,000 a year for worthy causes in Seattle and around the world. Meaningful Movies, a justice-based community discussion group was born in our fellowship hall and has gone on to be replicated in numerous other sites. We have started a Direct Service ministry which disperses thousands of dollars of necessities a year to meet direct needs. We have ordained 6 people who have served us as associate pastors. We have welcomed 9 social justice interns to Keystone through the Justice Leadership Program which we created. That program provided a transformational year of exploration of faith and justice to nearly 40 young adults. We have had 3 of our members participate in the Jubilee program for older adults modeled after our young adult program. These graduates have gone on to take on leadership roles in the congregation and wider community. We have provided a home to local community groups and two congregations which share our values. We have updated the sanctuary, maintained and updated the building, and fixed some long term problems. We have installed and paid for solar panels which now provide all of the electrical needs of the church using sustainable energy. We have started the transition away from gas heating to electric heat. We have marched for justice, testified, sent letters, made phone calls and visited our elected officials. 
 
Because you chose to keep Keystone alive and support its mission, much good has been done for this community, and for the cause of Christ. 
 
We have been blessed by having strong support staff. Elliot, Yigit, Iain and Janet have served Keystone with skill and grace for many years. Before them were other dedicated leaders who also helped us worship with vitality and maintain the buildings and the programs. 
 
Keystone has been a gift to this community and the cause of Christ. It has been a gift to me. Your support has allowed me to explore the intersection of justice and faith. It has allowed me to work as part of a team with many talented and dedicated people. At Keystone, ministry became more than a duty for me, it has been a joy. It is for that reason that I am sad to say that my time as your pastor is coming to an end. As you may know, I am an only child and my mother recently turned 90. She will need more help in the coming years and so I need to move to Missouri. My time as your pastorwill end in June of this year. 
 
It is often difficult for a congregation to make the transition of pastoral leadership after a pastor has served a long time. I hope that will not be the case for you. You have good leaders. You have skilled members. You have a long history of providing compassionate support for one another and there have been no significant divisions in the congregation for a very long time. 
 
You have been a supportive congregation for pastors. Your identity as a social justice centered congregation is solid. You are a congregation that exists, not to preserve a history but to promote a more faithful present and a better future. You are willing to try new things and support new leaders. It is difficult to predict the future of the Church in general or Keystone in particular but while Keystone exists, I have no doubt that you will strive to make the world a better place; and so I have great hope for your future. 
 
In the coming months, Rachel and I will be doing what we can to ease the coming transition. We will also be treasuring this time with you. 

Peace,
 
Rich 

-- 

Rev. Richard Gamble (he/him)

Pastor, Keystone United Church of Christ