From the Pastors' Desk | May 2025

Theresa Coty O’Neill opens her poem, On Hope : “This is the same planet on which I took/ my first steps….” Of the thirty-three entries into this year’s art festival, hers is my favorite. Her affection for the earth comes through in this opening line and throughout the poem in images and stories. In her final story/ image she writes of the death of her two day old son and closes with these words: “Burial made me think differently/about the way the earth reclaims us,/in all our fledgling guilt, in all our innocence.”

Her poem encapsulated what artists and poets have been trying to communicate to us about the earth: that we have a relationship to it, sometimes characterized by guilt in our treatment of the planet, and sometimes by an “innocent” unconscious awareness of the blessings we receive through it.

This is the thirteenth year of the Westminster Art Festival, thanks to an initial grant from the Beim Foundation. Jim McKim, a member of its board and of this congregation urged us to come up with a project that would bring together children and the arts. It’s gone through a number of changes over the years, but Jim’s encouragement and the hard work of Lindsey South, Joey Burgam and Lynn McFarland built a solid foundation for current members of the team to work with.

I’m humbled by the way in which the art community has come to embrace this festival. For the second straight year, we received over fifty visual art entries in addition to the poems. For the first time, there was more art than we had space to hang. But more important than its success are the countless ways in which artists and poets have challenged and encouraged us to think about our relationship to the planet. They remind us that we have not treated the earth well, that we have sometimes pretended to be its master when we ought to be its steward. They remind us that the earth gives and provides without thought of return: ground to walk on, air to breathe, beauty to inspire. I love that we can put an environmental theme out there that the community beyond the church helps us interpret.

I am so grateful to pastor a church that blesses me, seeks the welfare of the faith community, and wants to be connected to the community beyond the church. The mutual blessing of church and artists and poets is among the beautiful aspects of the festival. But the ultimate hope is that together we will mend our relationship to the earth, that we will awaken to the earth’s “(re)claim” on us.

So I hope you’ll come to some of the events and interact with the artists and poets as we celebrate this “one planet” on which each of us have taken our first steps.

Peace, Pastor Jerry