Keystone Pastoral Letter Lent 2026

“Loving God, give us courage, creativity, and conviction to make a meaningful impact in fighting injustice and cruelty. Equip each of us to do something huge or something little. Allow our hearts to never stop breaking over the suffering of others and remind us of the promises you’ve made to us for a future filled with hope. Thank you Jesus.”

– Anonymous UCC prayer for peace

Beloved Keystone Community:

I’ve been under the weather for the past few weeks, first with a lousy cold and then with some kind of stomach virus which knocked me out all weekend. I know I’m not alone – I’ve spoken with a number of Keystone members who have had colds, flu, bronchitis, and other ailments. On top of our shaky physical health, the health of the country and of the world at large seems worse than ever: every day shocking reports from the Epstein files detail the depravity of the rich and powerful with seemingly no accountability; federal agents continue to terrorize vulnerable communities; and now Israel and the US are bombing Iran.

When I am feeling awful physically and mentally, I enjoy lying in bed and watching horror movies on my tablet. My favorites are, of course, supernatural spiritual horror movies about demonic possession and exorcism, but I also enjoy the zombie apocalypse genre, so while I was recovering from my latest virus, I decided to watch “28 Years Later.”

Now, while I would not recommend any of these zombie movies to the faint of heart, I thought “28 Years Later” was a magnificent film. It was set on Lindisfarne Island, off the northeast coast of England, a holy island whose medieval monastery produced an incredibly beautiful set of illuminated Gospel manuscripts. The cinematography was gorgeous. Like “The Last of Us,” a TV show I have featured in sermons, this zombie apocalypse story is about folks trying to hang onto community, to family, to love, to peace, while the outside world has become a life-threatening place and most people have become flesh-eating creatures who still look human but who seek only to devour one another. The virus which has infected humanity is called “the rage virus.” Sound familiar?

I think this is why I – and lots of people, apparently – find these zombie shows so compelling. The ‘uninfected’ characters display courage, loyalty, and resourcefulness in the face of absolute mayhem. Loving bonds develop between children who have lost parents and parents who have lost children; in a world where survival is crucial, everyone suddenly becomes family; people share their limited resources and manage to cobble together not just existence, but resilience, hope, and even music and dancing. They are able to retain their humanity while so many around them are losing theirs.

This is our vision of God’s Realm, God’s dream for us: a loving community of compassion and empathy and shared resources, in which the dignity of each human being is upheld. Lent is a time to draw closer to this dream by asking Jesus, the Human One, to show us how to become more human ourselves. Walter Wink writes in his autobiography: “And this is the revelation: God is HUMAN … It is the great error of humanity to believe that it is human. We are only fragmentarily human, fleetingly human, brokenly human. We see glimpses of our humanness, we can only dream of what a more human existence and political order would be like, but we have not yet arrived at true humanness. Only God is human, and we are made in God’s image and likeness — which is to say, we are capable of becoming human.”

May we cling to Christ this Lent – in Scripture, in Prayer, in one another, and most especially in the most vulnerable among us. May we enflesh God’s Realm every day as we stand together against the powers of domination, chaos, and rage. May we not fear to hope that we can, day by day, become more truly human.

Love and Blessings

Pastor Adina

Pastoral Letter February 2026

Dear Beloved Keystone Community,

Last month I was telling you about all our building expenses. This month, I’m going to tell you why those expenses are absolutely worth it. We have had an explosion of folks asking to use the building, and to connect with the Keystone community, for various justice-centered activities. In this difficult time of fear and division, in which forces of domination seek to isolate, stalwart individuals have been working to foster community connections.

Two weeks ago, a pair of young neighbors named Ana and Charlotte stopped by to ask if they could post flyers about neighborhood meetings. After showing them around the building and getting to know them a bit, I offered our building as a resource – they wanted to host a neighborhood potluck and, after consulting with the leaders, I heartily agreed. We have been wanting to reach out to our neighbors for some time, but have not had the bandwidth; these two young people seemed like an answer to our prayers!

Over the past week, I have been contacted by other organizers: the immigrant rights group that works with the Indivisible movement, asking if they could use Keystone for a resistance training; Standing Together, an Israel/Palestine peace organization, looking for a new space for meetings; and Jim Page and John O’Connor, two Seattle folk singers, who want to hold a concert at the end of the month. In each case, I was grateful to be able to offer the building as a resource for community, connection, safety, and peace – as Rich used to say, an embassy for the Realm of God.

I am reminded of the bell hooks quote hanging on my office wall: “Dominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid, to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, reveling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community.” 

I would invite you all to come and see what these events offer. I’m planning to hand out a few flyers about Keystone as well, because maybe some folks from these gatherings might even want to come to church – what a concept, eh?  And for those of you who prefer to connect online, we will have a new offering on the third Wednesday of the month after lectio divina: an opportunity to contemplate the spiritual meaning of nonviolence. Please look at the newsletter for more details about all community events happening at Keystone, and bring your friends!

Be well, and don’t forget to sign in PRO on all the bills recommended by Take Five, the Green Team, and Yours Truly!

With love

Pastor Adina

Pastoral letter January 2026 - Epiphany

Happy New Year, Beloved Keystone Community!

I just returned from a relaxing week in Mexico where I was able to do my own translation of the beginning of John’s Gospel, which you heard on Sunday. I spent my mornings on the patio of my casita - looking at the ocean, watching the whales leaping and the little quails running around in the bushes. Every morning the birds would be singing – and I felt those words from our new hymn “It’s a Song of Praise to the Maker” leap into my head.

It’s hard to believe a year has passed since our last annual congregational meeting, but here we are again this week, looking at the budget for next year as well as the disbursements for the special Christmas Eve collection, which yielded 3,500 dollars – pretty amazing for our small congregation.

The budget looks good, although we had quite a few large expenses for the building in 2025, including a drain pipe that needed to be cleaned out and repaired, gutters that needed replacing and repairing, the heating system in Battson hall which needed some adjustment and repair, an electrical outage during the windstorm, and the roof on the Learning Center which needed to be bolted down around the edges. Hopefully, 2026 will not require so many expenditures on the building, but you never know!

In addition to the budget items, we will of course be electing our leadership team. As you probably know, Rita is a de facto member of the leadership team – she is a deacon as well as the leader of our direct service ministries. We would like to amend the bylaws so that the deacons are officially part of the leadership team. The good news is that our Keystone bylaws don’t need many other amendments. I have been attending meetings with other pastors who want to amend their bylaws and ours are so streamlined that we are the envy of all!

I will be praying for all of you as we head into 2026 – that your days will be full of joy and purpose, and that you will always know how deeply you are loved.

Blessings

Pastor Adina

Pastoral Letter for November 2025

"The foreigner who resides among you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love the foreigner as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” 

-Leviticus 19:34

Dear Keystone Beloved Community,

I am still “walking on air” after our wonderful Day of Discernment on November 2nd. I was particularly struck by the fact that each and every one of your stories reflected the same theme: coming together as a community to work to enflesh the realm of God’s justice. Whether it was Barbara reminiscing about John running the carpet sweeper, Marilyn remembering the way everyone built the wheelchair ramp in the back, numerous stories of working together at the Sacred Heart Shelter, putting together the Festival of Hope, or marching together at dozens of protests and demonstrations over the years, it was clear to me that every member of Keystone knows and cherishes our collective “why.”

The holiday season is nearly upon us, and our collective Why is more pertinent than ever as we witness the cruelty of our federal government. Last Monday, I attended the multi-faith convening on migrant solidarity, where leaders from the Church Council, Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice, WAISN, CAIR-WA, Faith Action Network, and Intercommunity Peace & Justice Center made clear that this is a moment to be firm on the values our religious traditions share – to welcome the stranger, to care for our neighbor, and to treat others with dignity. 

I know that Keystone will do everything we can as a small but mighty community to support our neighbors who are threatened with violence and imprisonment, and who live in fear during this season. Keystone is now a partner with the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, and our members will be attending accompaniment and rapid response trainings over the next few months. We hope as many people as possible will participate in the next rapid response training over Zoom on December 10th – details to follow. Book Club will move to the 17th to accommodate the training. We will also partner with Living Water, our sister community in the building, to offer support to families at Casa Latina over the holidays. These families are in need of groceries and household items, and will be sending their “wish lists” to us. 

Thank you for everything you have done, and everything you continue to do, to live as ambassadors for God’s realm of peace, justice, and kindness for all people.  Thank you for supporting me at my wonderful ordination last month. I am proud to be your pastor.

With love 

Rev. Adina

Pastoral Letter for October 2025

We plant the seeds of the Kingdom here,

And we trust that God will bring them to fruition,

That God will bring about a new heaven and a new earth,

A world where justice and peace will reign forever.

-Bishop Ken Untener

Dear Siblings in Christ,

First of all, I must apologize for not starting our Bible study last month – we will start it after my ordination/installation on October 19th, and after the Day of Discernment November 2nd, which are both just around the corner. Time is flying by this fall, as we approach one of my favorite days, which used to be called Christ the King, and now is sometimes called Reign of Christ. This holiday, celebrated on November 23rd, marks the end of the liturgical year – it is the Sunday before Advent, which comes on November 30th this year. (On a side note, please do join us for that Fifth Sunday joint service, when the cantor choir will sing Advent songs both old and new.)

The Gospel readings from Luke, as we move towards the end of the liturgical year, focus on this concept of the “Kingdom of God,” as Jesus calls it. This coming Sunday, we will hear Jesus speak the famous words reminding his disciples that the Kingdom of God is “in your midst,” or “within you,”  or “among you,” depending on which translation you read. We may find the word “Kingdom” as outdated and distasteful as we find the phrase “Jesus is Lord.” Especially nowadays, when we hear most American Christians using dominator language to describe Jesus, we tend to cringe and want to change the language to something like “Kin-dom” or “Realm of God” and change the word “Lord” to “Love.”  These are wonderful and appropriate sentiments, but we should not forget, as we witness the hegemony of the white supremacist, misogynistic, militaristic cult known as Christian Nationalism in our country, that during the time of the Romans, saying “Jesus is Lord” would have gotten you killed by the imperial government. It is a radical statement of resistance to empire.

This past summer, Pastor Alfredo Lopez of Downey Memorial Christian Church in Los Angeles confronted ICE agents in his church parking lot as they were arresting a man there. He asked for their identity and if they had a warrant. Not only did they refuse, but they pointed their rifles at the pastor. When Pastor Lopez told them they were on church property, the masked agent responded, “This whole country is our property.”

My siblings, this is why the authors of the 1934 Barmen Declaration in Germany proclaimed Jesus Christ as their “One Lord.” In response to the rise of the so-called “German Christians,” who “took the union of Christianity, nationalism and militarism for granted,” these pastors, theologians, and other church members resisted by writing a confession of faith which rejected the false doctrine of the German Christians. I encourage you to read the document in its entirety; here is just one passage:

“As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so in the same way and with the same seriousness is he also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.”

The concepts of “joyful deliverance” and “free, grateful service” lie at the heart of the celebration of the Reign of Christ. As we prayerfully approach the end of the liturgical year which proclaims that Jesus Christ as the head of our church, we call out the lie—and the sin—of Christian Nationalism. We proclaim the peaceful realm of God, in which all people are welcomed and protected, where all have food and shelter and safety—a realm of justice, of love, and of deep community and communion with each other, with the earth, and with our loving Creator. May we continue to work together for collective liberation, to bring about the freedom and joy which enfleshes the Kingdom of God among us. 

With Love and Blessings,

Pastor Adina