Springing Forward!

Dear Urban Abbey Community

Last week was heartbreaking and life-giving at the same time…this is a hallmark of powerful moments. I am grieved for the folks with hardened hearts and I am grieved for the spiritual violence of General Conference. And yet, our ministry received an outpouring of love and support. People from our community reached out, with phone calls and emails, Steve (our neighbor) made us stickers saying I’m not traditionalist and Rabbi Linder dedicated his sermon to the Urban Abbey’s work. We have friends, we have support and while I might have wept, just a little, when we remembered our baptism and its call to resist evil and oppression, I saw your faces. I feel more resolved than ever at the gift of our community and our call to be inclusive, expansive and loving.

We have been growing. Every year we include more people and connect with new partners. Our work is expanding and our staff will be growing into our work as well. This summer we have two natural transitions. Eithne and Rachel are heading on to new adventures in graduate school and perhaps even Methodist Global Mission Fellowship programs. Knowing this has given the Board and me the opportunity to approach our next steps and our growth with intention. We can re-organize our staff structures to meet our emerging needs. This is a big step and one of many opportunities before us.

This is why I am thrilled to announce in July we will welcome Rev. Rebecca Hjelle (yell-e). She will care for guests at the coffee bar, nurture our staff and select books, cards and fair trade gifts. She will help us include more people. She will help us launch mid-week worship services, including Wesley Pub and Open Mic Worship (where 14-22 year olds can share their voices). Launching new services is our next step in including folks and expanding the ways we build relationships. As our Sunday morning services grow, we must look to include folks in new ways. I am ever grateful for Rebecca’s leadership; she has a background in Theater Education and she will support and nurture our One Room Sunday School House volunteer teachers and our UnVBS (Tweens -Teens) volunteers. Youth and children are our growing edge, and with Rebecca’s leadership I believe we will be in a place to grow a robust ministry that nurtures critical thinking, develops leadership skills, illustrates methods of prayer/meditation, and teaches love. I believe our ministries will become examples for others to learn from, as progressive Christian curriculum is almost impossible to find in the world and we can help lead the way. We can make it easier for other progressive communities to do good work. She will march with us for the Women’s March, as is her tradition - and I invite you to join us to meet her.

We are growing. We are in a good and healthy place financially. I am not worried about the larger church and we are not deterred or afraid to take our next steps. We are moving forward and we can celebrate. Rebecca and I began in ministry together. I am excited to work with her and excited for the gifts she brings. I have witnessed her good work! I am also thrilled that we are doing something so special here that she wants to come be a part of the adventure! She has a world of choices and she chose us. You can read more about Rebecca below.

I invite you to hold her in prayer. I invite you to hold me in prayer. I invite you to hold the Abbey staff. leaders and guests in prayer. I invite you to hold the larger church in prayer. Those prayers may be as simple as speaking the names aloud in a moment when you are in a space of mindfulness.

Here’s to the future! Here’s to inclusion!
Your friendly local Abbot,
Rev. Debra McKnight, Founding Pastor

Rev. Rebecca Hjelle (yell-e) grew up in the Bellevue, Nebraska area and graduated from Omaha North High School in 1999. She then headed up north to Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD. After graduating from Augustana in 2003 with her B.A. in Theater Education, she started working for the Children’s Theater Company of Sioux Falls as an Artist/Educator. She loved traveling and teaching and acting, but in 2005 felt the call to go back to school. After three years of studying, praying, and discerning, she graduated from Sioux Falls Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree and has been serving United Methodist churches in Nebraska ever since. She has served as the Senior Pastor of Elkhorn Hills UMC since 2017. Prior to that she served as the Senior Pastor at Blair First UMC (2011-2017) and Associate Pastor at Kearney First UMC (2008-2011).

At the Conference and District levels, she has served on the Risk-Taking Mission and Justice Team, the Camp Fontanelle Board, the Missouri River District Committee on Ordained Ministry, and the Great Plains Board of Ordained Ministry where she is currently the Chair of the Call Team. She is also finishing her term on the Great Plains Delegation to General Conference this Spring.

Rebecca is also an aunt and a dog mom – and she has all the pictures to prove it!