{"id":10674,"date":"2015-08-26T10:23:04","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T17:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=10674"},"modified":"2015-08-26T11:54:42","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T18:54:42","slug":"the-world-is-our-parish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/the-world-is-our-parish\/","title":{"rendered":"The World is OUR Parish"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World is OUR Parish<\/strong>
\nBy the Rev. Ronald Myers | Photos by Jesse N. Love, et. al.<\/em><\/p>\n

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?<\/em>
\n-Micah 6:8 (NRSV)<\/strong><\/p>\n

On August 11, 2015, the Puyallup community became like so many communities across this nation. A troubled young man unleashed indiscriminate harm on a neighborhood with a handgun. The violence that was showered on that quiet neighborhood, and resulted in the tragic murder of Richard \u201cDick\u201d Johnson, ignited passion within Puyallup United Methodist Church to \u201cdo something\u201d which would make a difference, and might help to redeem the tragic loss of innocence that was suffered. <\/p>\n

The naked truth is that Puyallup hasn\u2019t been immune from senseless violence for years. Our community isn\u2019t unlike many communities across this nation where individuals are the victims of senseless violence every day. We live in a communities where abuse is rampant, and where the most vulnerable are victimized continuously by relationships and circumstances that they cannot control. Unfortunately, too often, we allow the injustice of senseless violence to overwhelm us, and we become immobilized as Disciples of Christ to act on behalf of the (Kin)dom of God. <\/p>\n

\"IDEAS_Puyallup_Chaplains\"<\/a>
\n

Pastor Karen Yokota stands with chaplains who serve as first responders after the Prayer for Peace service at Puyallup UMC.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

John Wesley wrote in his diary, \u201cThe World is My Parish.\u201d He understood that God\u2019s desire for salvation (wholeness) for the human being was a gift of grace given and shared with the whole world. Unfortunately, good people of faith allow fear and doubt to limit the scope of their vision, and this powerful Wesleyan sayings become, \u201cThe Parish is My World.\u201d We look inward in an effort to avoid the harsh realities and pains of the world outside the doors of our sanctuary. We are afraid to get involved.<\/p>\n

On the days immediately following the shootings in Puyallup, Puyallup UMC partnered with civic and community groups to offer a witness for peace using our sanctuary as the gathering place for people to pray together. Pastor Karen Yokota called members and friends of Puyallup UMC to create a safe and sacred place of peace. The amazing people of PUMC responded with compassion and grace in opening their doors and hearts to a community rocked by violence and to Richard Johnson\u2019s family. In that moment the world became our parish, and with that one simple act we rose up, and we said that we want to be advocates for justice, kindness and to walk humbly wherever God leads us. <\/p>\n

The \u201cPrayer for Peace Service\u201d was a first response, but with that initial response now comes a tremendous responsibility to discern what next steps we will take to help address issues of violence that diminish the common good which is God\u2019s intent for the community of Puyallup. Whenever a people dare to care and to advocate for the injured, the vulnerable, those who grieve, etc., and engage in acts of care and mercy, we must ask the difficult question regarding what we do next in order to serve justice. As we seek after justice, we value the prayers of our United Methodist brothers and sister throughout PNW, and we lean into God\u2019s grace so that we are faithful. We are engaged in the transformation of the world as disciples of Jesus Christ. <\/p>\n

View more photos:<\/strong>
\nbit.ly\/pumc-peace-service<\/a><\/p>\n

Audio from the Vigil:<\/strong>
\nYouTube: http:\/\/bit.ly\/1PvUM7G<\/a><\/p>\n

Video coverage:<\/strong>
\nKIRO 7: http:\/\/bit.ly\/1HSaJi4<\/a>
\nKING 5: http:\/\/kng5.tv\/1NBcZQ3<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The Rev. Ronald Myers serves as lead pastor at Puyallup UMC.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The World is OUR Parish By the Rev. Ronald Myers | Photos by Jesse N. Love, et. al. He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? -Micah 6:8 (NRSV) On August […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":10678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,15,6,388],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-justice","9":"category-conversation","10":"category-tacoma"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IDEAS_PUMC_Ron.png?fit=700%2C357&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-2Ma","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10674"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10690,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10674\/revisions\/10690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}