<Begin Segment 29>

PW: What does it mean to you -- this is my closing question -- what does it mean to you to pastor? Not just to be a pastor, but to pastor or maybe both?

MY: What does it mean to pastor?

PW: Yeah. Well, maybe it should be, what does it mean to be a pastor? What does it mean to you?

MY: It's a privilege and an honor to be in people's lives, I mean, I really mean that. It's a privilege and an honor because you're invited into people's lives for, the breadth of people's lives, from births to deaths, and there are so many things that go in the lifespan of individuals and as families. And to accompany people through different things spiritually, to provide spiritual guidance and spiritual support is just... it's going to bring me to tears now. Because you can't really explain it, it's just, being with people and trying to be, as best you can, a presence of God's love and hope and transformation, particularly in times where there are struggles that go on in people's lives. And I've done the best I can to be a good pastor, and I don't know what I can say, I can only say that it's a privilege and an honor to be in people's lives. And there's no, I don't know, there's no words I can really, adequate words I can give to it.

And it's an interesting thing, because we're talking about justice work in the community, I should say that I want to thank my mentors, Lloyd Wake, who has passed away, and Mike Murazone who has passed away, and Mike was a really extraordinary pastor, Lloyd was an extraordinary justice maker, he served at GLIDE church for many years, and was involved with many different issues. But both of them really gave me good guidance about what it means to be a good pastor, and that you may do justice work, but it's in the context of being a pastor. And so it goes hand in hand, and you need to have an appreciation of what goes on in the fullness of a life of a congregation. Because the congregational life is so multilayered, and so many blessings you have of the fullness of congregational life. And so that's the other part, too, it's not just about justice making, it's not just about being with the family, but being with a community for a breadth of time. And I was very privileged, and I should say in my final word, a special thank you to all the members of Buena Vista from the time I was there for the support I receive in my personhood and in my spiritual journey, and for us to be able to work together to bring to fruition things that we were able to do as a congregation. So there's people I haven't mentioned here because there's not enough time, but every person is so important in the life of the community and congregation. So everybody counts, everybody matters.

PW: Thank you so much for your time.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.