Beloved members and friends of the Southern California Nevada Conference,

It’s a gift to be writing to you from Kaua’i, where I’m currently joining our Hawai’i Conference siblings for their 203rd ‘Aha Pae‘āina. The theme of this year’s gathering—Built on a Firm Foundation—echoes deeply as I reflect on these first weeks in ministry with you. In SCNC, I’ve already glimpsed the foundations that hold us: courageous faith, collective memory, shared struggle, and an unrelenting hope rooted in the Gospel.

Since beginning this role, I’ve participated in our Annual Gathering, preached in and worshiped with two congregations in San Marino and Escondido, been introduced to a clergy partnership doing amazing work in San Diego, and met with several leadership and staff members. Each encounter has been a reminder that this work of equipping leaders is always relational, always unfolding, and always grounded in something deeper than strategy alone.

This summer is full of invitations to listen more deeply, lead more boldly, and live more fully into who we’re called to be. The Open and Affirming National Gathering will remind us what it means to be Sacred Seen and Called, to recognize the image of God in one another and ourselves. Immediately after, the UCC’s General Synod 35 will invite us to go Into the Deep, echoing Jesus’ call to cast our nets beyond the familiar, to trust abundance even in uncertainty, and to follow the Spirit wherever it leads.

These themes are not separate. Together they form a sacred pattern. Foundations. Identity. Depth. They offer a faithful map for how we nurture leadership in a time such as this. As your Associate Conference Minister for Equipping Leaders, my work is to support what is already rooted among you and to help create the conditions where bold, Spirit-led growth can take hold.

To equip leaders is to tend foundations while also preparing the ground ahead. It means holding space for risk and rest, for innovation and integrity. It means honoring the incredible diversity of this Conference not only in culture, race, and language, but in theology, geography, ability, age, personal identities, and lived experiences. It means staying connected across congregations and communities, trusting that we are stronger, wiser, and more faithful because of the breadth and breath of who we are.

In this season of invitation and reflection, I wonder with you: What does it mean to be truly seen and called in this moment? What are the foundations that have held and formed you? Where might the Spirit be drawing you next, toward new depth, untried direction, or possibility just beneath the surface?

Wherever you are, whether anchored or adrift, energized or uncertain, I’m abundantly grateful to journey with you. Together, we will go into the deep, remembering who and whose we are.

With you toward greater depth,

Rev. Dr. Phiwa Langeni

Associate Conference Minister for Equipping Leaders