Dear friends, Our diocesan Canon to the Ordinary, the Rev. Cn. Arienne Davison, has awarded us a COVID-Relief grant in the amount of $13,333. In her letter informing us of the grant she wrote: Dear people of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, On behalf of the people of the Diocese of Olympia, I want to thank…
On Sunday afternoon, my wife, mother-in-law and I attended an Eritrean wedding at Westminster Community Church with our new friends, the Peace Gospel Mission. There were traditional Eritrean dresses, ululation at each “amen”, and children escaping from parents to run down the aisle. All the service was given in Tigrinya. I recognized “Christ”, “amen” and “alleluia”, but little else, and yet the…
Dear friends, I enjoy reading the Science Fiction genre, and one of the motifs I often encounter there is religion, or faith, as contemptuous or anti-intellectual or authoritarian. We see this in the popular series, Handmaids’ Tale, and in the children’s books like The Golden Compass. I think we all encounter anti-religious sentiments these days…
Dear friends, “Social distanced”, “masked”, “sanitized”: these are not the words we would normally associate with communion. Communion is shoulder to shoulder, kneeling at the altar rail, filling in each open spot, receiving bread, drinking from a shared cup, and praying quietly. On Sunday we had 34 people in church. That’s the largest congregation since…
Dear friends, With the continued good news about vaccination rates and loosening of restrictions from the Governor, our vestry has decided to open worship to 50% of our capacity and eliminate the need for reservations. That means you don’t have to make a reservation to come to church, just come! We will now allow up…
Dear friends, We have been allowing up to 25 people to attend Sunday worship ever since Easter Day, and it has been wonderful. This has been a very difficult time since the pandemic restrictions closed down our in-person worship, and it has been life-giving to begin even this limited return. Reopening is a balance between…
Dear friends, I remember that when my children were teenagers it could be hard to have a conversation. There were two times when good conversations tended to happen. The first was when we could go for a longer drive with just the two of us. I would leave the radio off and wait for a…
We start our confession by saying, Some of the things we have “left undone” are built into the fabric of our society. In the Sacred Ground discussion series, we are learning about the history of racism in our country. The readings and videos have shown us laws and practices that intentionally create a low-wage underclass.…
Dear friends, The first time my mother took communion after the pandemic shutdown she burst into tears. She called me to tell me that she had no idea how much she had missed that simple ritual of love and connection. On Easter Sunday, when we had people in the church in-person for the first time…
Dear friends, This coming Sunday, April 18th, will be the first time we have a (limited) congregation attending worship in-person with the Ortloff Organ in working order! So, while it is not the first time we have used our new organ in worship, it is the first time a live congregation will be able to…