Letter from Katie: June 11, 2025

While Amy is on sabbatical this summer, we'll have occasional posts from staff, guest preachers, and other members of the IAC community.

Dear Incarnation,

Si ya hamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos!

We are marching in the light of God!

(from Siyahamba, a South African song in the Zulu language)

It was a delight to sing this childhood favorite of mine with you on a Pentecost filled with joy! We shared delicious food, were led in multilingual worship by our children, celebrated the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst, and released Amy and her family for a summer of sabbatical refreshment.

And now with the wind of the Spirit at our backs, we are marching into a summer of Wild Wonder (beginning on Sunday, June 15), of continuing to settle into worshiping at Beverley Hills UMC, and the staff learning new summer rhythms.

This coming Sunday, Trinity Sunday, marks the beginning of Ordinary Time, but guided by the Spirit, I anticipate that this summer will be anything but ordinary for our community.

I'm praying that some of us will experience the gentle work of the Spirit coaxing life from our fragile seeds of faith and offering comfort and strength. This is the Spirit's life-giving work among us.

I'm praying that others will experience more exuberant expressions of the Spirit's guidance and presence such as dreams, visions, and revival. This is the Spirit's empowering work among us.

But above all, I'm praying that God would use this summer, which will inevitably be filled with learning, adapting, tweaking, and processing our move to a new worship space, to form us into a people of prayer and praise "united by the mind of Christ and by the same purpose". (1 Cor 1:10).

Later this month, we'll shore up our sense of unity and purpose by preaching about the identity markers that unify us as a community, as followers of Christ:

We are Worshipers

We are Generous.

We are Peacemakers.

We are Citizens of God's Kingdom.

But before then, I encourage you to continue asking for the Spirit of God to be at work in our midst. Perhaps pray the following Collect for St. Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement, whose humility, generosity, and encouragement the Church celebrates today.

Grant, O God, that we may follow the example of your faithful servant, Barnabas, who seeking not his own renown but the well-being of your Church, gave generously of his life and substance for the relief of the poor and the spread of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Much love,

Katie