Greetings to All of You,

As of March of this year, I have been your Lay Leader. What does that mean and what are my responsibilities? Within our United Methodist Church system, each local church is asked to elect a lay leader that represents the laity or lay people of that church. My responsibilities are: to communicate to you the importance of the laity here at PUMC; to encourage you to learn and seek to grow in your spiritual journey; to be an ear for you and a voice then to the leadership of PUMC; to be in contact and discussion with our pastors and the various committees; to inform you of training opportunities within our Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) and help you understand our UM connectional system.

June 18th through 22nd there will be the Annual Conference gathering in Pueblo, CO where clergy and laity from Utah, Wyoming and Colorado will join together to make decisions for the coming year, participate in tremendous worship experiences and enjoy fellowship with new and old friends. Going from PUMC will be Randy, Pat, Kelsey Hill, Sue Jessen, Katie Karp, Pat Chase and myself. This year our RMC bishop, Elaine Stanovsky, who has been working on establishing a relationship with the Arapaho and Cheyenne descendants of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, will include our UMC in a journey of healing. The massacre was led by a Methodist minister, John Chivington, who left the ministry to fight in the Civil War. We will spend the entire day of June 20th visiting the massacre site and listening and hearing the lingering grief and pain of our Native American sisters and brothers. It is the hope of our UMC that there will begin a healing in the memory of these descendants. Bishop Elaine’s posts of her journey will be in our church office to read at your convenience.

Have you noticed all the cleanup and improvements around our building and grounds? Even the Ruth Chapel replica is getting a new landscape and look. A big Thanks to our Trustees!

God’s blessings to each of you!

Ruth Wills