News and Updates

Dear Bethesda family, Much of the summer at Bethesda is spent creatively imagining new possibilities for the coming year and beyond. How can we nourish those who are familiar, while drawing in more people to join us? And now I’d like to share my excitement about some...

Dear Friends, Two short years ago, a Harvard study suggested that 36% of all Americans feel “serious loneliness.” Half the lonely young adults surveyed stated that no one in the previous two weeks had even asked how they were doing. And just a few months ago, the...

Dear Friends, We have had some wild storms here lately, each one followed by some of the most beauti-ful skies, including the recent rainbow directly over the church. Seeing this reminded me of a favorite story of mine in the Bible, “Jesus Walking on the Water”, from...

Dear Friends, This Sunday is the Feast of the Transfiguration. Our Scripture lessons tell the story of Jesus taking three disciples up a mountain to pray. That part isn’t unusual – Jesus often withdrew for times of prayer. But things quickly took a surprising turn....

Starting this Fall, you’re going to be seeing a LOT of information about the Bethesda Center for Spirituality. What exactly is that?, you may ask. The answer is simple. It’s a place for people to find their way to God. We believe that God is at work in honest,...

Michael and I planned an exciting study trip for March 2020. We all know what hap-pened instead. But, after placing Continuing Education on hold for four years, the two of us were finally able to revel in the highlights last week. The plan was to play and study organs...

There’s nothing like eating a mango just picked from a tree. Its sweetness soothes the senses and brings a delightful surprise to the tongue accustomed to the supermarket variety picked days before with the sweetness gone - or worse yet, frozen. When not eaten truly...

Dear Friends, When it comes to 1960s fashion, does your mind immediately go to Jackie O or Woodstock? There’s no wrong answer, of course. And if you plan to dress up for our 60s-themed Summer Soirée on Wednesday, July 12, you can take your pick. As you may know, we’ve...

I was never a mission trip kind of kid growing up. I was part of a youth group and we did our fair share of mission experiences, but at the end of the day it was hard to convince my cynical, Gen X, teenage mind that my peers and I weren’t just painting the same wall...