June 2026

Welcome to June!

I love those calendars that tell us what celebration each day of the month is for. The non-national holidays like “Clean Your Kitchen Vents Day,” “Dare Day,” “Flip a Coin Day,” and “National Hazelnut Cake Day” are fun to be sure!

This month at Bethany we are highlighting Pride Month by lifting up our More Light status, and celebrating the stories and gifts of our LGBTQIA+ siblings. We will highlight the history of our particular congregation and its journey toward full inclusion for any and all who come to us. We are very proud of our welcoming nature here at Bethany, and invite you always to be a part of our community. Our Welcoming Statement reads, “We don’t yet know who you are, but we do know that you are a dearly beloved child of God and you are already welcome here. We invite you on your unique spiritual journey, to join us in the life and ministry of Bethany Presbyterian Church.”

June has much to offer us when we consider Father’s Day, the summer solstice, and Juneteenth, along with nature’s beauty and my favorite staple of the summer, ice cream! We hope you feel invited to any and all of our Sunday worship services at 10:00am.

Paul says, in Philippians 4, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6,7) We are not naïve about the world, and understand that anxiety is a tremendous weight that so many of us carry as we are

enveloped by the world crises. Nevertheless, Paul’s words to the Philippians are still powerful for us. We hope that you feel welcomed at Bethany, and find for yourself a place to land, feel grounded, and a place to find the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.

Blessings, Pastor Deb

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May 2026

Can you match the date to each photo?  May 9   May 10   May 24

Enjoy the articles in our May newsletter, where you will read about the upcoming Spring Tea, Mother's Day and our celebration of the day of Pentecost.  Spring time can be such an uplifting time, with all the flowers budding, longer daylight, and mostly, beautiful weather.  Despite those hopeful signs, many around us and in the larger world are suffering.  In John 14:18 Jesus tells us that he will never leave us orphaned.  During this month when we celebrate Mothers, we are mindful that “motherhood” does not bring the best memories and is not a life that is available to all who want it.  Being sensitive does not preclude celebrating the loving mother's out there that we have experienced, sometimes in the form of a great teacher, a nurturing coach, an aunt, or even a special nurturing mothering man in our lives.  Regardless of our earthly parents, we celebrate that God, the great Parent, will never leave us orphaned.

Thanks be to God, for the life of this Bethany community!

Blessings, Pastor Deb

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January 2026

Happy New Year everyone!

Welcome to another turn of the page into a new year.  Calendar moments like these mark the times of changes of seasons, rotations of the earth, location of the moon, and remind us that change is a normal part of life.

What a huge change happens in a family and a community when a baby is born.  A new life, great wonder, new expectations, new delights, new baby clothes and toys! Ta-Da! But also a new sleep cycle, new expenses, new home safety plans, new grocery shopping.  Oh no! When the gospel of John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we remember that love and the mundane comes with caring for a living breathing creature that needs to be sustained and kept safe!  Never mind the added burden of being Divine!  Being Mary and Joseph must have been an otherworldly experience.   The birth of a child puts thoughts of the future before us like no other experience.

With the start of a new year we are offered the chance to look at the world with different eyes, with expectation in our hearts, through new lenses, much like the colors of these windows.  

As we enter 2026, my wish for us is that we look at others through lenses of kindness, caring, abundant joy, justice, and peace.  I wish for us to come to new definitions of what really matters.  Slow down. Offer gentleness.  Breathe. Follow God's path and delight in God's wonderful plans.

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Blessings, Pastor Deb

February 2026

Welcome to February!

Did you know that the month of February “began life as an afterthought? For two whole months each year, time didn’t officially exist in ancient Rome.

The earliest Roman calendar, created around 753 BCE only counted ten months. It began in March and ended in December, leaving nearly sixty winter days floating unrecorded. This early system was more agricultural than astronomical, designed to track the growing season rather than the full solar year. Decades later January and February were added (to the end of the year) creating the twelve-month structure we still use today. Eventually Julius Caesar moved the beginning of the year to January, placing February in its current place as our second month.

God gave us the sun and the moon and sent them spinning and set our lives into rhythm. Since the beginning of time, literally, humans have been trying to control it – corral it, stop it, extend it, pause it, understand it. Using land and sky, looking for patterns to live by, patterns to hunt and gather by, patterns for waking and sleeping, patterns for work and play, etc.

The Church is no different. We set ourselves into patterns for worship by day, by week and by year. The cycles bring us comfort and assurances of God’s presence through repetition, warmth, consistency and promise. We find ourselves in February, moving toward the time of wondering exactly what it means for Christ himself, and for us, to be together. Why did God come? Who is Christ? What might it have been like to live as Christ lived, knowing that he will die to his humanity but rise to his divinity for our sakes. We have a great deal on our calendar this month, so I hope you take note and feel welcome!

Blessings, Pastor Deb

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March 2026

Welcome to March, my friends.

Easter is best done in any way that helps us feel closer to God.  Often that means finding a practice that leads to awareness of the love of Christ, the challenge of discipleship, the gratefulness we have for God's grace, the call on us by Christ to love our neighbors.  For some that means adding a practice – daily prayer, volunteer activity, expressions of thankfulness, reduction in behaviors that are not conducive to the Imago Dei, the image of God in each of us.  Penitence does not need to be punishment.  Perhaps we can care for our neighbors more if we listen to less news, or limit our intake of anxiety producing media.  Perhaps we can make it a practice to notice one good thing in real time, each day.  Lent is not a time of suffering.  Lent is a time of preparation, a time to look forward to the Good News that we experience every day – the love and grace of God is ours.  Thanks be to God.

May we experience a fulfilling Lenten season.

Blessings, Pastor Deb

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Every year I look for it.  Do you see it?  The one, the first, the lonely but hopeful little yellow daffodil that bursts through the dirt on the hill of our upper parking lot.

There it stands, trying to stand tall and hold all of the hope of the coming spring in its one solitary beautiful flower.  The last protest against winter, rising above the surface.

As a symbol of renewal and rebirth and hope, daffodils are a perfect symbol for this season of Lent which invites us to look forward to the coming of our Risen Christ.  Another reason for their perfect Lenten symbolism is their connection to inward reflection and humility.  This balance of looking forward/outward while simultaneously looking inward is the way through the season of Lent.

There are many rules that have come to be associated with Lent, however none of those rules exists beyond the traditions and direction of one's heart.  Our denomination does not forbid or expect any one behavior over another.  Preparing for

April 2026

Welcome to April!

excitement and anticipation to what it is we are about to do. I think that works for many things. If we can develop a sense of joy, whether simple or overt, we can affect the outcome of anything we do. I think that works for many things. If we can develop a sense of joy, whether simple or overt, we can affect the outcome of anything we do. As someone who understands what I call “graduate level” depression, I cringe at the idea of false joy, made up pleasantness, untrue happiness. I think there is a kind of joy that lives even underneath the worst rubble of our lives that helps us to be resilient and hopeful.

Easter day may be over, but Christ is Risen, always! The very reason for our faith. As we deepen our faith we continue to invite the risen Christ into our hearts and minds as we live every day. We do that by spending time in prayer, study, and worship. There are formal ways to pray and study and worship and there are informal ways. I hope that whatever means you use to deepen your faith, there is a God given joy leading the way.

May the joy of Easter go with you.

Blessings, Pastor Deb

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While Easter Sunday may be over for this year, the Easter Season continues through May. The Easter feeling though, is year round! (Does that mean I can eat chocolate every day all year?)

I was recently listening to a music instructor offer words of advice for the best way to practice. She said that joy doesn’t happen when you find the perfect tone quality, or when you can finally play a difficult passage, or when you perfect some exercise or another. She said joy happens before you start practice, inside us, so that we then bring that joy to our practice. In other words, joy is not attached to the outcome, but exists before we begin. I don’t think she was referring only to the kind of joy that comes from being happy or in a good mood, but also bringing a sense of

July 2026

Welcome to July!

At the end of July I will visit Chicago to meet the newest member of my

extended family. The first “great” or “grand” of my own small crew. My

letter for the August newsletter will be written before I meet the babe, but

I’m looking forward to sharing sometime, some of the insights and joy that

witnessing the newness of life is sure to bring! As July begins, I am looking

forward to feeling that joy and hope, that can’t come soon enough.

Nadia Bolz-Weber has been finding all kinds of reasons to “freak out”, so she is starting a live video stream on her Substack channel called “Keeping it all together.” This will air live at noon on Wednesdays and is a 15-minute long conversation with someone she trusts to ask: What is helping them keep it together? What have they experienced in the world recently that is beautiful and good and yet would never show up in a newsfeed? What wisdom have they earned this past year? Let me know if you would like to know how to receive that conversation. For those who can’t join live on Wednesdays, each Friday she will send out a post for everyone with a video of the conversation. She has great guests lined up for her 15-minute sessions, such as Kelly Corrigan, Kate Bowler, Padraig O Tuama, Father James Martin and others.

During the prayer time at church on Sunday someone offered a prayer of thanks for the moments of joy and feeling of hope she received that week, from watching the World Cup festivities, and watching clips of the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

There is a Cognitive Behavior Therapy exercise that asks one to name a fact that brings you great stress, and then put a number to what percentage of confidence one has in the truth of that fact. After some further questions the exercise asks you to revisit your first named fact, and put a number to what percentage of confidence you now have in the original fact, given your answers to the questions for reflection. There’s meant to be a difference between how you felt at first and how you felt after reflection. That difference, is something we can call hope. The fact that you can feel open to other options relieves some of that earlier stress, because of the hope that those other options bring to the situation.

As we celebrate the 250th birthday of this fragile beautiful nation of ours, let us remember to find the places of hope that we thirst for in whatever way we can. Not just the joy of something that brings you happiness, but hope. Hope that the stressors of today are not what will last. That change always happens, because God is always creating a new thing.

Blessings, Pastor Deb

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Welcome to August!

This year I feel as if I haven’t quite caught up with my own calendar. Finally, a bit late, I feel as if I’m just now getting started on summer. But then I passed a school sign this week that reminded parents that school starts on August 13th. How can that be?! Most school teachers probably feel the same way. Summer break is always too short.

It seems as though so much of our lives when we are younger, revolves around an academic schedule. When events occur in our lives or the world, such as celebrations, the birth of a child or the death of a loved one, an illness, world events, a new job – time revolves around before and after that event.

Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us of God’s timing:

“For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up;

a time to weep and a time to laugh,a time to mourn and a time to dance;

a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek and a time to lose;

a time to keep and a time to throw away;

a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to keep silent and a time to speak;

a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.”

August is often the time when we get one last glimpse of summer before our thoughts turn to autumn – a season of change. What season are you experiencing at the moment? What season is on the horizon for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Blessings, Pastor Deb

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September 2026

Welcome to September!

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The month of September is often when churches celebrate what some call “Homecoming Sunday” when the church and families return to school and other regular routines.  For many, home is represented by a feeling more than a place; or a certain group of people.  In college I often had the feeling that my flute was home.  For many of us at Bethany, our church is our home.  Matthew 18 tells us “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”  Our home is wherever God is!

What kinds of places do you call home?  Places where you have grown up?  For me, that would be Chicago and the Chicago area.

Or maybe it's the place where you live now?  For me, that's the San Francisco Bay Area.

Or maybe it's an ancestral home.  For me, that's Sweden.  

Or maybe it's just a box.  

Blessings, Pastor Deb