Stories of Pain and Hope

Lenten Soup Supper Series:
Stories of Pain and Hope
By The Rev. Nancy Ferree-Clark

As the congregation of Federal Way United Methodist Church, we believe that storytelling is one of the best ways we have to build relationships across social and racial barriers. That’s one of the reasons we have invited speakers from diverse backgrounds to tell their stories of pain and hope during this year’s Lenten Soup Supper series.

At last year’s Annual Conference I was reminded of the power of telling stories when Native Americans shared painful memories of boarding schools and other devastating losses in their history. When I returned home, I looked around and wondered how many stories similar to that do friends and neighbors in our own neighborhood have to tell. I took that question to our Adult Education Team and they decided to invite our community to use Lent as a time for listening to stories of both pain and hope from five different perspectives.

The speakers include the following:

February 18
Rev. Roy Wilson
Native American

February 25
Dr. Luther Adams
Assoc. Prof., Univ. of Washington
African American

March 3
Eileen Lamphere and Camp Harmony Group
Japanese American

March 10
Rev. Mark Galang
Pastor of Beacon UMC, Seattle
Filipino American

March 17
Mr. Jose Bonilla
World Relief
Latino

Soup Suppers begin 6 p.m. followed by the speaker’s presentation at 6:45 p.m.

William Faulkner once said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” We hope these stories will shed light not only on our relationships within our community but open our eyes to new ways of interpreting contemporary issues related to race, ethnicity, and immigration. Please join us.