“La muerte ha sido devorada por la victoria. ¿Dónde está, oh muerte, tu victoria? ¿Dónde está, oh muerte, tu aguijón?” 1 Corintios 15:54b-55
Amados en Dios,
Este es un pasaje bíblico muy fuerte. Hemos estado en la sombra de la muerte.
Sentimos el aguijón. En la sala de urgencias hospitalarias En las calles devastadas por la guerra Mientras vemos a nuestros vecinos como acechan a los que están corriendo En la estación del metro donde muchos son afectados por el humo Y también al ver como la tormenta, las inundaciones y los incendios forestales arrebatan todo a los inocentes.
Las sombras de la muerte (tristeza, miedo, ira, desesperación) oscurecen nuestros días. ¿Cómo podemos cantar “Aleluya” cuando la muerte está tan cerca para nosotros como en tu teléfono y la televisión?
En la mañana de Pascua, miraré hacia el este. El sol saldrá, hará retroceder las sombras y derramará su cálida luz sobre la tierra. Pero, ¿qué pasa con las sombras en nuestros corazones que acechan nuestro espíritu? El sol no las ahuyenta simplemente.
En la Biblia, caminamos con Jesús de Nazaret, vemos cuando El se encuentra con todo tipo de personas. Escuchamos mientras habla de la realidad de sus vidas, y aprendemos que Jesús también nos conoce, nos reconoce, comparte nuestras luchas, pecados y tristezas. Y como conociéndonos por dentro y por fuera, Jesús nos ama. ¡Eso es como el amanecer!
Pero es fácil vagar en las sombras y olvidarnos de que Jesús nos ama. Pero, en la fe, nos amamos unos a otros, de diferentes maneras, que nos recuerdan el amor de Jesús. Y nos esforzamos por amar a las personas que no conocen el amor de Dios, como Jesús nos ama y como nosotros nos amamos unos a otros. El amor es cómo la esperanza, se eleva como el sol. El amor alivia el aguijón de la muerte. El amor es la luz espiritual que no se puede apagar, que tiene el poder de salvarnos al final de nuestro caminar.
Por lo tanto, mis amados amigos, “estén firmes y constantes, sobresaliendo siempre en la obra del Señor, porque ustedes saben que en el Señor su trabajo no es en vano”.
¡Cristo ha resucitado! El amor nunca termina, en Semana Santa y en las noches más largas y oscuras.
Aleluya!
Obispa Elaine JW Stanovsky
Translated and adapted by: Rev. Cruz Edwin Santos, Director of Hispanic/Latinx Ministry
Bishop Elaine shares her Easter message of hope in the midst of the shadow of death. "Love is how hope raises like the sun. Love soothes the sting of death."
During February when the US celebrates Black History Month, Bishop Elaine Stanovsky encourages United Methodists to continue to work for racial justice and equity so we might move closer to "God’s good vision of human community." In her post, she also shares a personal reflection on the hymn 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' and encourages us to use and study the song's history during the month.
In a pastoral letter to the GNW, Bishop Elaine Stanovsky invites United Methodists to join her in praying for the Tongan people and to act in giving financially to support recovery efforts that will emerge as the best partners for this work are identified.
Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky offers this Advent message to United Methodists across the Greater Northwest Area. Acknowledging the many societal challenges we continue to face, she encourages us to hold onto hope, saying: "Don't be consumed by what you see on television or on social media. Watch for help in trouble. Notice where our world, our city, our neighborhoods are being made glad.
A letter from Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky to local church leaders in the Greater Northwest Episcopal Area regarding Boy Scout units chartered by local United Methodist Churches.
“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”John 8: 31-32
June 19, known as Juneteenth, celebrates the freedom of enslaved Black Americans, by recalling the day in 1865 when the news of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was finally proclaimed in Texas, three years after it was issued.
On Saturday, June 19th at 10 a.m., the Coos Bay Museum in Coos Bay, Oregon, will dedicate a memorial to the only confirmed lynching of a Black man in the state of Oregon. Alonzo Tucker was lynched in Coos Bay in 1902 as a crowd of 300 people watched. Sponsors of Saturday’s memorial event hope at least 300 people will attend the online dedication of a memorial to Alonzo Tucker.
The memorial to Alonzo Tucker’s lynching is part of a movement of the National Memorial of Peace and Justice to remember and mark the sites where more than 4,400 Black people died by lynching between 1877 and 1950. Taylor Stewart began the Oregon Remembrance Project after visiting the National Memorial as part of a Civil Rights tour of southern states.
Much of our nation’s violent racial history has been forgotten or suppressed by white Americans or assumed to have occurred only in slave states. This event, on Juneteenth, 2021, is an opportunity for citizens of the Northwest to remember and realize that this region has its own violent past that is ours to reckon with and heal.
Greater Northwest Area clergy and lay members of Alaska, Oregon-Idaho and Pacific Northwest Conferences,
Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith…
After deep reflection, conversation with my family and consultation with trusted colleagues, I am withdrawing my request for retirement, effective January 2022, to continue my assignment to the Greater Northwest Area. I hope and pray that postponing retirement will relieve anxiety and contribute to an orderly transition of leadership for all the conferences in the Western Jurisdiction during this extended pandemic interruption of normalcy. I am not naming a new retirement date at this time but hope that it might follow in-person general and jurisdictional conferences in 2022, with the election and assignments of new bishops, for a new quadrennium, beginning January 1, 2023.
Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky
I never intended my retirement to add to the uncertainty of this wilderness passage. I originally named January 1, 2022 as my retirement date so that my retirement would coincide with that of Bishop Hoshibata and possibly, Bishop Hagiya. At the time, we anticipated regular in-person general and jurisdictional conferences in the fall of 2021, when new bishops might be elected to begin serving as the new quadrennium began with the new year.
Since that request, general and jurisdictional conferences have been put off again, further postponing the election and assignment of new bishops. In light of these delays, the timing of my requested retirement is no longer helpful.
I have a renewed sense of focused mission for this extension of my active service and look forward to continuing to work with lay and clergy leadership of the Alaska, Oregon-Idaho and Pacific Northwest Conferences.
Jesus is nudging and tugging the church to engage people and communities with the faith, hope and love of Jesus Christ in ways that bind up wounds, transform lives and overturn systems of exclusion and inequity. We can’t stop now.
I’m still running the race with Jesus. Won’t you pull up your socks, tie your shoelaces, strengthen your weak knees, and join me for the next leg of the race?
Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!–Hebrews 12:12, The Message
Friends, we have been running to care, serve and survive COVID-19 for more than 14 months and the end is not yet in sight. You have been our essential workers in ministry for many months as our buildings have been largely closed and activities severely restricted.
We have not crossed the finished line, though we have learned a lot, adapted incredibly, and experienced the presence of God in ways we never expected. From my heart, thank you for your endurance, your courage and fortitude, your vulnerability, your compassion, your faithfulness in the valley of the shadow of death.
Attached is new guidance for churches as they Stepping forward safely in love and trust, that builds upon, but replaces Reimagining Life Together.& It acknowledges the continuing risk of disease, advances in science, and the increasing capacity of our local church leaders to manage the risk in their contexts. New responsibility falls to local leaders to understand and guide their ministry settings wisely and safely with fewer mandated guidelines.
Some of you will welcome the shift of responsibility to local leaders. Others may dread managing intense differences of opinion within your congregation as you make difficult decisions locally. I want to call your attention to two provisions from the document that may help you lead with strength.
1. “…please remember Saint Paul’s admonition that what is “permissible” is not always “beneficial” to the common good. (I Corinthians 10:23). While some churches may act quickly to adopt new, less restrictive practices, it is always OK for a church or ministry to choose to remain more cautious for any reason.”
2. “A local church is not permitted to hold in-person worship without the approval of the pastor. For local churches, decisions about the use of church property for worship or other gatherings belong to the pastor without interference from the Board of Trustees (Book of Discipline, ¶ 2533).”
Your trusted lay leaders and clergy colleagues, district superintendents and directors of connectional ministry are your partners in ministry as you lead one more challenge in the fight against this deadly disease.
And most of all, GOD IS WITH US.
May God bless and keep you all in your circles of care — members, friends, family, neighbors, strangers — so no one will trip and fall!
Elaine JW Stanovsky Bishop, Greater Northwest Area The United Methodist Church
We are making progress, but we are not quite there yet. It has been over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted life as we knew it. We continue to persevere, exhausted at times, yet anticipating the day when we can gather, greet each other, share communion and other precious rhythms of life and spiritual practice in person without risking harm to one another. Hopeful also that we now carry with us new learnings and practices, hard lessons of necessity that will continue to connect us in new ways in life and ministry.
The rapid vaccine rollout gives us hope that we can enjoy more freedom to gather as families and faith communities soon. Vaccinations coupled with continuous strict adherence to safety protocols are expected to lower infection rates, hospitalizations and COVID-19 related deaths. Overall, we have seen the number of cases decline since the winter peak in many places, but progress has been stalled by premature re-openings, the easing of restrictions in some places, resistance by some to being vaccinated and observing simple safety practices: washing hands, social distancing, wearing a mask. I hope that each of us is continuing to follow these practices, as well as being vaccinated, consistent with medical advice, as soon as we are eligible.
I was surprised by the deep joy that welled up in me when those shots went in my arm, protecting not only me but also everyone I encounter from the dangers of this virus. I’m grateful to every person who is able and willing to join this movement toward health and safety.
As Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reminded us in a briefing earlier this year,
“We may be done with the virus, but clearly the virus is not done with us. We cannot get comfortable or give in to a false sense of security that the worst of the pandemic is behind us – not now; not when mass vaccination is so very close.”
“Our social lives can resume, but only when the whole community is ready. The turning point does not arrive for individuals, one by one, as soon as they’ve been vaccinated; it comes for all of us at once, when a population becomes immune.”
With this understanding, we are advised that the number of coronavirus cases needs to decrease further before we resume regular activities, especially in light of the arrival of new fast-spreading variants of the virus. A premature reopening, even if allowed by the state, may run the risk of not just stalling but even reversing the recent progress we have already achieved.
I am reminded of Saint Paul’s admonition that things that are “permissible” are not necessarily things that are “beneficial” to the common good. (I Corinthians 10:23).
While we should celebrate the good news of vaccines providing a layer of protection already for a significant number of members in some of our congregations, the church does not belong solely to those who are vaccinated. Especially as we have just now reached a time when all adults are eligible to receive a vaccine, we must continue to be patient to allow them the privilege of receiving this gift of security before we consider letting our guard down. At the same time, we will need to find ways to protect and include children in church life while continuing to wait for vaccination eligibility to be extended to them.
As the church, God calls us always to do things that are beneficial because we bear responsibility towards the well-being of others, especially the most vulnerable among us.
A Posture of Hopeful Caution
The progress we see in vaccinations, tempered by the potential threat of variants we race, leads me toward a posture of hopeful caution; we are almost there but not quite there yet. Even as our hope is renewed with the increasing percentage of those vaccinated, our decisions and actions must continue to manifest the utmost concern for one another as an act of love in response to Jesus’ command for us to love one another as he had loved us (John 13:34).
Accordingly, I am asking churches to remain vigilant in their planning and decision-making processes. The COVID-19 Response Team, made up of lay and clergy members from across the area, is continuing to review and amend its guidance to local churches. By May 5th, we will release updated guidelines for Phase 3, shifting more responsibility to local leaders to guide their congregation’s, camp’s or other ministry setting’s COVID-19 response.
I am grateful for each of you and your faithfulness and commitment, especially during this long time of physical separation due to this pandemic. May the hard lessons learned as we have persevered, and new skills developed as you have adapted, empower our work together and witness to God’s love which never fails us.
“Those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:31)
With love and grace,
Elaine JW Stanovsky Bishop, Greater Northwest Episcopal Area
Offered in consultation with the COVID-19 Response Team, as currently composed:
Rev. Alyssa Baker, pastor, Open Door Churches of Salem-Keizer, OR-ID Conference
Laurie Day, OR-ID Conference Director of Connectional Ministries
Rev. Jim Doepken, pastor, Moose Pass & Seward Memorial UMCs, Alaska Conference
Rev. Mark Galang, Puget Sound District Superintendent, PNW Conference
Rhondalei Gabuat, Executive Assistant for Bishop Stanovsky Greater Northwest Episcopal Area
Rev. Karen Hernandez, Sage District Superintendent, OR-ID Conference
Rev. Pat Longstroth, pastor, Bremerton UMC, PNW Conference
