Caring for All Creation

Photo cutline: Sonja and Sunday school student Daniel Athitakis embrace on a day she is scheduled to give a sermon.

Nurturing care and compassion for God’s creation

·      I have made pastoral care a priority since seeking ordination in 2000.

·      I answered youth crisis or concern calls, including one where I mediated a high-tension situation with a family and teenager.

·      I assist with the annual Blessing of the Pets services.

·      I eat red meat only once a week since meat production contributes to climate change, and eating less red meat may reduce emissions of methane and nitrous oxide.

Maintaining a basic understanding of mental health and wellness.

·      I represented Desert Palm at a local (Chandler) school board meeting on the subject of youth mental health crisis.

·      I Became certified as a Youth Mental Health First Aid guide (2023).

·      I completed all four UCC SW Conference Boundary Trainings.

Practicing self-care and life balance

·      I work with a spiritual director. This relationship has helped me to reflect most importantly on where I feel and see God working in my life. The most important distinction I acquired was to feel the life-giving work of chaplaincy.

·      I have friends not connected to the church and interests outside the church including movies and books in the science fiction fantasy realm and I love to journal.

·      I start my day with 30 minutes of meditation and prayer.

Providing hope and healing to a hurting world

·      Using a Southwest Conference grant, I Helped organize a youth storytelling workshop at Desert Palm, to address the youth mental health crisis. This, and a follow-up workshop, gave youth a safe space to express their emotions. For me, the workshops drove home the power of storytelling and the need to connect with kids about what’s going on in a world turned upside down by Covid isolation, which continues to have emotional ripple impacts.

Attending to one’s own spiritual and pastoral care including engagement in supervision as appropriate

·      I organize two youth outings a month.

·      I choose and design Sunday school curriculum for younger kids every Sunday, teach the younger children one Sunday a month, and instruct the older youth twice a month. Through this I have deepened relationships with every single one of the youths and their parents at Desert Palm. Among the youth are several in the LGBTQ community and I have deepened my understanding of the challenges that they face, and the need for church to be a safe place for them to land, whether that be at Sunday school or planned activities.

·  I designed and taught a three-part radical inclusion curriculum for Desert Palm's youth. The curriculum included a faith-based perspective, Biblical and theological reasons for LGBTQ+ inclusion, current events related to LGBTQ+ inclusion or exclusion and the UCC response and ideas to foster radical inclusion in our community.

· I designed and taught a three-part meditation curriculum for Desert Palm's youth. The curriculum invited teens to discover the sacred power of stillness through the ancient Christian practices of meditation, contemplative prayer, and mindful awareness. Just in time for back-to-school, this curriculum was rooted in scripture and shaped by spiritual tradition. 

Stewarding the Resources of the Church

·      Establishing and monitoring the budget and resource material for Sunday school and youth activities.

·      I paid my way to the 2023 United Church of Christ General Synod in Indianapolis, Ind.

·      To maintain continuity, and to be mindful of church finances, I filled in for Rev. Dr. Tom Martinez while he was on sabbatical.