West Hills Friends

Faith Marsalli shared a message about how God has been with West Hills Friends from the beginning and is already doing something new. She encouraged us to be open to change, to let go of old ways that no longer work, and to trust that we already have what we need to move forward as a healing and welcoming community. Queries were: What new thing has God already begun at WHF that you need to see and name? What are some ways of “doing church” that need to be laid down so something new can rise? What makes change difficult for you whether in your personal life or as you discern the next steps for WHF?

Gíl George shares a message about how when we start looking at the world through the lens of self-importance rather than through the lens of self-compassion we lose the script like so many before us.

Mica Coffin shares a message about seeing a little girl reach out to a houseless man on the boardwalk after Mica offered a prayer to him. “Doesn't seeing the God in each other make us angels to one another.”

Stephen Deatherage shares a message on how, in the midst of life's hardships and uncertainties, we can choose to find sweetness, meaning, and resilience. He used the symbols of apples to speak about how we turn our experiences into nourishment for ourselves and others.

Kay Ellison shares a message about how small acts of love toward her mother, her neighbor, and strangers brought unexpected joy and connection, showing that loving others also nurtures ourselves.

On Mark's final Sunday at West Hills Friends, we took time to reflect on the impact of his ministry among us. Gíl George, Peg Edera, Mike Huber, and Mark Pratt-Russum each prepared messages to share, and many others offered spontaneous ministry throughout the gathering. Below are the prepared messages from that day.

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about forming community around being fully human together from March 9, 2025.

April Vanderwal and Mark Pratt-Russum created a special Easter Radio Drama called “The Case of the Missing Miracle Man.” Voice actors with Mark and April included Jayne Calkins, Craig Strong, Lynsley Rollins, Lucia Pratt-Russum, and Katherine Spinner, and Joel Rubicam as foley artist.

Mark Pratt-Russum shares his last message at WHF. He recalled his first message in May 2010 when he was interviewing for the position, and he read Mary Oliver's poem, “5 A.M. in the Pine Woods.” Here are the queries Mark offered: You are sitting at the base of a tree early in the morning in a forest. After an hour or so, you notice a wild, yet gentle animal making its way through the trees. In the hopes of catching a glimpse of it, you notice your breathing and movements become slower. - What if this was the posture you carried when entering into time with Spirit, your neighbor, each stranger you meet? You are deeply loved. It is true. - What if you believed it was true?

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about alternative imagination and attention practiced by communities like ours. Queries: What kind of presence am I bringing to this circle? What are my real hopes for this community? Where might I still be holding back-or holding on to something that keeps me from deeper connection?

Bethany reads poems from her book of poetry, Etude for Belonging, and spoke about learning to live at the end of the world, like so many others before, here at the edge of the shore. Hope reminds us that it matters how we navigate those endings, and make beauty on the way.

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about our hearts orientation towards change. How are you trying to form and foster new ways of being in community with people? How does a community like West Hills Friends contribute to that experimentation? What does your internal resistance about new expressions of community reveal about what you care about? Are there ways to transform that resistance by using what you care about in new ways?

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about looking at your life as if it's a book you couldn't put down. What if we trusted that the next chapter will be as riveting as the last? How does such a perspective shift reorient your thinking about the future? How does nostalgia reveal what you care about? What skills have you learned from these passions? How can those skills be used in crafting the future. Photo by: Matias North

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about our disenchantment with religious rituals since the Enlightenment and offered the queries: Considering the growing disconnect of the sacred/spiritual from everyday life, how are you engaging in ritual to keep yourself connected and grounded? In this time of turmoil, what do you need to tend to your heart/mind/body/soul? How might crafting daily rituals assist in that tending?

Mark Pratt-Russum shared a message about holding hands with a girl in youth group and the prodigal son. Mark offered these queries: How has it been carrying around the narrative that you are lost? How much longer must you carry it? What would happen if you were freed from it? Has anyone ever called you lost for something you knew was guiding you home to yourself? How are you reclaiming what another once thought was lost about you?

Mark Pratt-Russum shared a message about painter and minister Edward Hicks and the Hicksite/Orthodox split in Quaker history. When asked about your vision for the Kin-dom, what do you say? What do you paint? What do you write? What do you imagine? How do our "Kin-dom" visions sustain us in times when we feel furthest from it's potential? Friends calling us into movements of liberation may be encouraging us to add to, or expand our imaginations of the Kin-dom. if so, what does faithful listening look/feel like for us?

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about speaking truth to power and offered these queries: In what areas of your life could you use more plain, clear, and honest communication? How might God be moving us to speak Truth to power?

Mark Pratt-Russum shared about surviving the mesocosm, the chaotic middle of the universe called Earth. How does the microcosm inform your spiritual practice? How about the macrocosm? If we are children of the chaotic middle, what emotional and spiritual strategies are you practicing to survive and thrive in the mesocosm?

Mark Pratt-Russum shared about maintaining holy wonder about your place in the natural world. How does a return of spiritual reverence for the forces that surround us lead us into a more wholesome relationship with them?

Gil George shares a message about the time between the departure of the shepherds and the arrival of the wisemen, and being fully present during the in between times. What does it feel like in my body, mind, and spirit when I am fully present to myself, others, and/or the Divine? What tends to get in the way of being fully present to myself, others, or the Divine? What helps me be fully present to myself, others, or the Divine?

Kaleen Deatherage shares the story of Virginia O'Hanlon and Francis Church. The famous line, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," comes from an editorial written by Church in response to a letter from eight-year-old Virginia, who asked if Santa Claus was real. This editorial was first published in The Sun, a New York newspaper, on September 21, 1897. How do you reconcile your hopes and your fears in this skeptical age? How might you experience 2025 differently if you can abandon yourself to God, and let Spirit do its work within you? No matter what is happening externally, how can you respond to Merton's challenge to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy?

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about the themes of joy, hope, subversion, worry, wondering and prophecy in the story of the birth of Jesus. Where are you in the story? How are those themes merging with your life?

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a time in his childhood when he felt heart-sick for a magical place. How do you tend to childlike wonder and imagination about the future?

Mark Pratt-Russum speaks about watching some old home videos and being captivated by a story in the news. How many times have you pulled up the sprouts of change in your life for fear that you wouldn't be welcomed within the group? How much love and beauty are we missing out on when groups we are a part of appear unable to embrace the unfolding narratives of individuals?

Stephen Deatherage read the Song Of The Swordsmith by Coleman Barks. How do we tap into that other world within? What is the song that makes you remember essence?

Mark Pratt-Russum spoke about it being a simultaneously confusing and clarifying time for many of us. How can we have more compassion for ourselves when it feels like time to yell or wail in the direction of God? When our hearts are ablaze, what is it telling us about what we care about?

Mark Pratt-Russum speaks about aromas, the limbic system, and how we might find connection with the Spirit of Love, Light, and Creativity this coming week. As you sit in the silence and pay attention to the thoughts and feelings that visit you, what are they revealing about your heart, mind, and spirit? How does reconnecting with God in the silence help you view those visiting thoughts and feelings?

Mark Pratt-Russum speaks about expressing your fears and longings in prayer. What opportunities do you have for expressing your fears, longings, concerns, gratitudes and complaints ? How does being intentional about expression help clear the way for your heart and mind to be more fully present during times of turmoil? How does trusting that God is already present in the future you are fearing help you navigate the fear now?

Mark Pratt-Russum spoke about who we give our attention too, and the biblical story of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment. How are you paying attention to the cultural pressure for more attention and availability as it relates to your ability to be centered and ready for compassionate action? How have you ordered your social systems so that you can be more loving to yourself and others?

Mark Pratt-Russum gives a message about climate despair. Queries: When experiencing tumultuous times, what does it sound/feel like inside you? How have you experienced connection with an inner-guide during such times? Do you find yourself preparing your heart, mind, soul, and body for upcoming storms? What does that look like for you?

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about temple obsession and read a passage from a book by James Allison. Do you carry a hope for a more just, liberated, and joyful future that is sustained beyond the soul-sucking influence of institutions of power? How do you do this? How can communities become places of mutual inspiration, rest and joy in the face of political/cultural/social realties that make us uninspired, bred, and hopeless?

Mark Pratt-Russum shares about a photo taken in 2006 with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, recalling the profound sense of liberation he experienced in that moment.

Mark Pratt-Russum reads the story in Exodus about Moses approaching the burning bush. Mark offered a different perspective about Moses removing his sandals. Perhaps it was recognizing the need to shed something for this transformative moment. When you consider the growing moments of your life, how did shedding play a part in becoming who you are now? Do you remember what it was like to be in that process, how did it feel in the moment? How do you look back on those times now? Have you experienced "shedding your sandals" as you approached the Divine, not necessarily as a sign of honor or respect, but as an acknowledgement of stepping into the Holy ground of creativity and change?

Mark Pratt-Russum offers a message about what areas in your life could benefit from being grounded in play (the playground). A query from one of our youth, "do you just pick one of the voices in your head and call it God?" How do you recognize and interact with the various voices within you? How might they be interplaying with one another to become the voice of your inner guide?

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about Covid and the Eucharist. Here are the queries Mark offered: - Is assessing who/what has your attention a part of your spiritual practice?  - How is your internal narrative shaped by the things that have your attention? - How has tending a God/Kingdom/Spirit-led perspective of time and energy changed the way you've thought about yourself and others?

Mark Pratt-Russum makes parallels to Octavia Butler's writing and shares a message about orienting one's self towards loving, compassionate presence in the world.

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about reclaiming our imaginations. How is visioning a better future guiding your daily life in relationship with the Divine?

Mark Pratt-Russum reads from Mark 4 and shares a message with about change and the natural world being of equal importance in creation. What is your current relationship with change? What tools are you using to measure it? What do mustard seeds, migrating forests, and relocated mountains tell you about what is possible in your life?

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about Quaker Lewis Fry Richardson and his findings that ever closer observation reveals more and more detail and complexity. This is later described as fractals. In what ways are you embracing or resisting the interplay of Spirit at the boundaries of your life? How are we allowing or resisting the prophetic witness of the LBGTQIA+ community to deepen your capacity to engage with the mystery of God?

How can we become more attentive to Divine leading, trusting that we may find our way out and forward by a reorientation towards Spirit's presence in the natural structures and systems surrounding us?

"Communion with God" by Gil George by West Hills Friends

Mark Pratt-Russum offers a message about paying attention to your heart and preparing for the situations of life. How has heart/mind/spirit attention prepared you to enter into situations differently? What possibilities emerge, in your imagination, if the process of heart/mind/spirit re-orientation were more widely practiced?

Jill Townley shares a First Word about an encounter with a young woman on a recent bus trip on her morning commute.

Mark Pratt-Russum offers a message about feeling comfortable with being completely you. How have you become aware of the "normative" narratives that have influenced the way you interact with others? How does your spirituality challenge you to deepen the grace and understanding you extend to others?

Mark Pratt-Russum offers a message about eclipses and epiphanies and shares the poem “Spellbound” by Bethany Lee. What are the epiphanies you've had in your life? When have things come together, or connected in such a way to bring you Into a profound sense of a world filled with light? Are you hoping for an epiphany? What remains disconnected, or unsettled in your life? How are you actively inviting wonder into your spiritual life?

Leanne Benner shares a First Word about asking the question what difference does Jesus' resurrection mean for us?

Mica Coffin shares a message about how metaphors help us understand God. At the end of the message Mica speaks about a song called "God is a River," copyright Peter Mayer, that can be downloaded at petermayer.net.

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a short story about George Fox. Later we were invited to weave a message on a canvas.

Stephen Deatherage shares an original short story with Latin dialogue about how the cross has given way to life.

Mark Pratt-Russum shared a message about sourdough starters and leavened bread. What metaphors describe what it feels like to be present in the world right now? Whether it be a stone crying out, mustard seeds, or hidden leaven, how does carrying the Light of the Divine disrupt the darkness for you right now?

Mark Pratt-Russum shares a message about the story behind the song, "We Are The World." Queries were: 1. How does holding the unknowns of another's story and experience give you more capacity for grace in your relationship? 2. When have you experienced another holding the knowledge of your past challenges in a way that created more space for you to be yourself? 3. How do we create a community where we hold the challenge of learning more about one another with grace?