About the Author: New Pilgrims UCC Anacortes

An Open and Affirming Congregation. The Pilgrim community meets at Boyd Hall on the garden level of the United Methodist Church in Anacortes. Please join us for inspiring messages and discussions, plus hymns, prayers, poetry and fellowship! Pilgrim Congregational Church/UCC is a faith community of diverse people seeking wholenesswithin ourselves and the world in which we live. We offer sanctuary to those on a journey of spiritual inquiry and expression. We are an interactive people seeking to live with faith andhope, rejoicing in discoveries and comfortable with doubt. We welcome all people to share in this journey. We value individual conscience and are not bound by any creed. We commit ourselves to discovering God's Spirit as it continues to be known in our lives, in others, and in all creation. We view the Bible as a source of inspiration, compassion, guidance and wisdom, and seek its meaning beyond literal words. We understand Jesus as both teacher and Christ, one who reveals what it means to be a whole human being, embodying God's love and acting with justice and mercy. As we affirm the teachings of Jesus, we welcome and learn from those who move along other paths toward discovering the sacred. We affirm that all life on earth is connected in an ever-unfolding process of creation. Our mission as responsible partners in this process involves a conscious commitment to respect, honor and care for places, people and all life on earth both now and for the future. Rev. Becky Withington

  • Beatitudes for the 21st Century

    By Published On: April 7, 2017

    Marching with thousands of joyful, passionate people at the Women’s March in Seattle last weekend and seeing all the causes their signs supported – health care for all, diversity, respect and equal rights for all people, I realized the ultimate expression of all the things we were marching for would look, to me anyway, very much like the Culture of God; like the “Kingdom of Heaven” described by Jesus in the beatitudes. At the march in Seattle and marches around the world, people were intent on creating what they might call a better world, or a world of peace and justice. And if Jesus is right, if the excluded will be blessed by inclusion in the culture of God; if those who take action to make this world more like the culture of God will be blessed for their efforts, then with all due respect to Jesus and the original recorders of his words, I’d like to offer some beatitudes for the 21st century.