At the 107th Convention of the Diocese of Olympia, attendees were asked to reflect on the following two questions:
What is alive at your place that reflections this vision?
What do the vision and stories inspire you to explore?
We’ve collected their responses below.
- Messy church is bringing in families with children
- Radical love is a ministry of cooking/serving the homeless
St. Stephen, Longview
- Traveling Day Society
- Babies in Need
- Growing our children’s ministry
- Getting people in [and] telling our story
All Saints, Vancouver
- Formation of outreach committee to meet the greater needs in the community
- Load of Love – laundromat ministry
- As a result of our parish retreat – we have been using the feedback to work toward the vision-great energy
Unnamed
- Alive:
- Strong spiritual formation commitment: EFM, spiritual formation group, multiple retreats. Lot of outreach efforts, Latino ministry, homeless shelter, food bank, community dinner, immigrant rights. Strong [illegible] participation & sense of ownership
- Inspired to:
- Need more networking with other Episcopal churches
Unnamed
- Alive:
- Leadership [and] working with others in the community for service
- Inspired to:
- Increase outreach
St. John, Snohomish
- Alive
- We have dispersed leadership that helps us to live a “top-down” model
- Inspired to:
- We can share our faith stories with each other
- Find a way to share our faith with those in our community
- Have a community organization come to us each quarter and tell us the needs and how we can help
St. Anthony
- Alive:
- Lesson and carols
- Mass in the grass
- Sanctuary Movement
- Inspired to:
- Native American
Unnamed
- Forming leaders
- TCM
- EFM
- Godly Play
- Incorporating Navy personnel early on TCM as church leaders
- Locally Centered
- TCM
- Networked Committee
- Map in [illegible]
- Foundation for academic endeavor
- Anacortes community health council
- Trinity Institution
- Sacrament & Service
- Chandler So. Ministry
- Ashes to go
- Christmas concert
- Blessing gardens & blessing animals
Christ Church, Anacortes
- Leaders and others reading through the whole scripture and discussing in a year (RE: forming leaders)
Holy Spirit, Battle Ground
- Alive:
- Joy Luncheon
- Just Over Youth – luncheon for seniors (free) and anyone interested for lunch and fellowship
- Deacons’ ministry in delivering Eucharist to seniors in nursing homes. Several parishioners are recruited to assist
- Inspired to:
- Intercultural competency- exploring it in our church [and] community. Talk to our new rector about this program
St. Barnabas, Bainbridge Island
- Our congregation passes out “life packs” filled with a list of local resources to provide help. Many of us also ask if the recipient will share a name so we can pray for him/her well-being. Sometimes a person will share a story about his/her life.
St. Bede, Port Orchard
- Continue outreach to homeless (& all individual ministries)
All Saints, Bellevue
- Small groups
- Integration of church on Sunday into the rest of the week
- Help each parishioner explore their commission
- Help make this evident
St. Andrew, Seattle
- Rejoice in our diversity
St. Clement, Seattle
- Alive:
- Sacrament and Service
- Food bank, Vine Maple Place
- Youth group
- Inspired to:
- Networking better with other Episcopal churches; connections with St. Mark’s (Cathedral Day)
- Sacrament and Service
St. George, Maple Valley
- We plan to continue listening to our community and each other
St. Columba, Kent
- Network communities all local outreach gather
- Connect action with Forks through Gail of Port Angeles
St. Luke, Sequim
- Alive:
- Note from rector to visitors
- Outreach programs including food and [money] to YFS to help any and all members of [illegible] community
- Inspired to:
- Effort to connect with new people; help them feel welcome and keep track of them
- Networking with Auburn, Skagit, Guadalupe, Jubilee Center, [and] Resurrección
- Have office at Emmanuel that can operate all 5
Emmanuel, Mercer Island
- Alive:
- Peace and Justice fair participants in the wider community
- bilingual congregations/bilingual services
- Outreach to homeless
- Women’s shelter
- 3 Hispanic members on vestry
- 2 Hispanic to Kanguaga
- Expansion of Worship Services (bilingual)
- All Souls, Epiphany, Ascension
- Expanded Eucharistic minister [visitations?].
- Inspired to:
- Networking: monthly meetings to allow story sharing, smaller groups
St. Luke ~ San Lucas, Vancouver
- Alive:
- Teaching food preservation, hold classes open to the congregation and neighbors
- Inspired to:
- Share cultural and family recipes, prepare for disasters
St. Matthew/San Mateo, Auburn
- Alive:
- We have many cultures that work together to be the hand of Christ in our world, church, and community
- Inspired to:
- Continue to work to be inclusive of all people, no matter what their culture or background is
Good Shepherd, Federal Way
- Alive:
- We are rooted in our prayer and go forth into the neighborhood and serve
- Inspired to:
- Recovery Ministries
St. John the Baptist, West Seattle
- We of the St. Paul’s Bellingham delegation are excited about the spirit of service and community enrichment that animated our church, yet we recognize that frontline service must be better backed with stewardship, in the form of evangelism, ministry, and pledges also.
St. Paul, Bellingham
- Pride Parade participation
- Feeding programs
- Congregations for the homeless with society
- Crossroads feeding
- Bridge ministry
- Backpack meals for kids
- Eastside baby ministry
- Kairos-prison ministry
- Trying to go deeper [rather] than broad and shallow
- Variety of music
- Traditional, contemporary, jazz compellation, no music, bag pipes
- Small group ministry
- Similarities and connection
- Wanting small groups to improve on [illegible]
St. Margaret, Bellevue
- Alive:
- Annual international dinners
- “Loaves & Fishes” small groups
- Thriftstore
- Inspired to:
- Joint services
- Burmese church, Traveling Day, gathering of regional churches
- Joint services
St. James, Kent
- Alive:
- Order of St. Luke healing weekend
- Share house-supporting
- Healing service-weekly
- Shared understanding that there is more to do, the work is not done
- Liturgical community
- Inspired to:
- To continue developing the shared diocesan vision with the congregation in the Columbia Region through shared ministry
St. Luke
- Alive:
- We take care of each other through support and listening to others’ problems. We try to be non-judgmental
St. Peter, Seaview
- Alive:
- Sense of our community [and] relationship with our church, “self-sufficient”
- Inspired to:
- Engage more with other Episcopal churches, “co-dependency”
- But church politely has a top down structure which needs to invite deeper engagement of lay leadership and involvement
St. Thomas, Medina
- Alive:
- Continue with our Wednesday Dinner
- Inspired to:
- Renew [license?] and invite others of the congregation to participate and opportunity for a different role in the church.
St. Joseph-St. John, Lakewood
- Alive:
- Reflected in our music programs, welcoming and opening [illegible] and outreach [and] involvement in community programs related to social justice
- Inspired to:
- We could make stronger connections with other parishes and network together toward common social justice issues and outreach
Christ Church, Tacoma
- I believe we must continue to be a very loving and accepting congregation. It makes no difference your life choices.
Resurrection, Bellevue
- Networking with Lutheran congregations in mobile ministry feeding homeless and needy families
- Fostering ecumenical fellowship
- Began serving 15 – has grown to 50 people
St. Timothy, Chehalis
- Alive:
- Community dinners
- Inspired to:
- Connect with ecumenical parish and interfaith network in our city
Unnamed
- How we can help to inspire the lives of people in our community
Christ Episcopal Church Street Chaplaincy
- Alive:
- A warm, caring, and welcoming people that draws people in from all walks of life.
- Inspired to:
- To be open to new direction and inspirations to expand our ministries into new ways of carrying out Jesus words.
- Our church does well at participating in the community. We also have opened our new facilities for use by the community.
St. Luke, Renton
- Use our existing connections to find other communities with need that are underserved
St. Hilda St. Patrick, Edmonds
- The one thing we plan to do [that?] is reflective of the vision is finding new and more supportive ways of forming leaders.
Good Samaritan, Sammamish
- We plan to do more to implement the vision of a horizontal power structure within the structure of the diocese
St. Augustine’s in the Woods, Freeland
- Summer Festival
- Begin discussion with other faith groups and agencies about an evening shelter
Unnamed
- Alive:
- Spiritual formation/everybody hour
- All Threads Together: Sea Fares
- Small groups
- Diocesan volunteers
- Independent music program
- Share space with Ukrainians
- Outreach
- Hosted Safe Guards
- Sent Kate to W. Seattle (community network)
- Neighborhood events
- Francis dog wash, Easter eggs, summer outdoor music concerts, Christmas caroling, meditation, vacation bible camps
- Inspired to:
- Could do more global outreach
- Longer time for out loud prayer
- Outreach to children
Epiphany, Seattle
- Strengthening our tribe connections
- Make a connection with other parishes in our area
Grace Church, Bainbridge Island
- Alive:
- Outreach program, especially to support children
- Inspired to:
- More witnessing in community
- Facilitating small groups
- Pray and knit groups
- St Hugh, Allyn
Grace Church, Bainbridge Island
- We have and celebrate diversity in our community and are incisive
- Strong interest in ministries which is new
- Poised to move into small groups
- We already meet and share with local congregations
Unnamed
- Pastoral Care Team
- Visits, healing, sacramental
- How to feed this group-deepen spirituality
- Talk again with Joe Scheeler about tribal connections locally
Unnamed
- Alive
- We feed the homeless and low income and invite anyone to come eat at our pancake day
- Inspired to:
- Have (an) event(s) not on Sunday; invite people to come and hear, to eat, to enjoy fellowship, to play board games
St. Mark, Montesano
- Alive:
- The Wall Project; food banks service
- Inspired to:
- Small group leadings, storytelling, networked communities, their commitment of the diocese to develop parishes and individuals
Unnamed
- Equipping and empowering discipleship
- Is to encourage other to step up to the service and support them in any way we can. To ensure that their service to the Lord is very importance and we stand side by side with them
Holy Family of Jesus
- Continue partnering in our local community
Christ Church, Puyallup
- Mission statement renewal: Working with CCO; faith formation
- Sharing individuals sacrament in our serve and professional lives
- CCO training and implementation of projects. Meditative silence before service
- How to expand our “local base”
- With health services- “parish nurse”
- Art and Soul
- Water and Soul programs
St. Paul, Port Townsend
- We are partnering with another parish to share a children and youth minister!
- We are exploring being open to new ministries – new ways of serving
St. Stephen, Seattle
- Alive:
- Luke’s is a great example of the change in vision!
- Leaders are formed at the congregation in a way authentic to the identity
- A more inclusive approach to community
- We are centered in the community. We reflect our people’s experience and identity
- We operate from a perspective of humility
- All the ministries come from lay people
- Inspired to:
- We at St. Luke, Seattle want to tell the story of our partnerships and collaboration with
- Businesses
- The city
- Other churches
- Service groups
- High school
- Universities
- We are known in our community
- We want people to hear the good news in our sermons and on social media.
- We are active in our community
- We are trying to engage people in our neighborhood
- We want to be a third space
- A growing congregation with more children coming
- More, more, more.
- We at St. Luke, Seattle want to tell the story of our partnerships and collaboration with
St. Luke, Seattle
- Locally centered and responsive to needs of local community
- Example: summer school for Hispanic community that allows younger siblings to come so older siblings can come as their parents are working in fields
- In conjunction with Skagit Valley College
St. James, Sedro-Woolley
- Explore our connection to the families that we serve
St. James Center
- Thank you, our parish is already doing all of this.
Unnamed
- Alive:
- Collaboration with Christ Church youth program
- Keep in touch with former members
- End of life resources that are available to take to our congregation
- “journey of life” type of authentic music
- Fierce Conversation forum
- Green Team-bldg.
- Bring awareness
- Bee keeping
- Nursing ministry
- Walking groups
St. Stephen
- Alive:
- Music programs
- Preschool program
- Sunday school
- Inspired to:
- Look at next steps for children as they move out of the above programs
St. Luke, Tacoma
- Revisit an annual scholarship for H.S. graduates
- Find ways of sharing our personal stories of faith
Faith, Poulsbo
- The Cathedral Foundation
- The Life Planning ministry and Life planning workshops going regional as a counseling model
- The Wisdom School – draws from regions of the diocese
- Alive:
- Our 9-point justice ministries and statement of action on our doors
- Inspired to:
- Explore ways to connect our liturgical and musical traditions into our justice ministries
- g. Eucharist, choral singing, ect.
- Participate in the Champlain on the Harbor
- Explore ways to connect our liturgical and musical traditions into our justice ministries
Saint Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle
- Alive:
- Our inclusive and invites welcome to those who visit for Sunday and Wednesday worship, and through our Food Bank, Celtic Fair and other community ministries reflect this vision
- Inspired to:
- We seek to reach our further, even more actively and creatively, as our engaged this vision into the future
St. Andrew, Tacoma
- Alive:
- Community dinner
- Food Bank
- Social Justice Group
- Seafarers
- Trail Ministry
- Inspired to:
- Encourage the sharing of things called to explore
- Dream big – the [money] will follow
- Encourage the sharing of things called to explore
St. Andrew, Tacoma
- Expand outreach beyond our immediate community
- (no lay, so this is top down)
Transfiguration, Darrington
- Interdenominational exchange of scriptural interpretations through our new bible study program
St. David of Wales, Shelton
- Exploring hiring a full-time youth pastor between our two parishes
- John’s is also in contract with association Ministries, Tacoma, with initiatives in homeless ministry
- John’s is in partnership with Agnus Dei Lutheran, Gig Harbor in a shared ministry with/for senior citizens
St. John, Gig Harbor | St. Luke, Tacoma
- Food Bank
- Feeding, shelter those in need
- Youth Ministry Planning
- Presenting concerts to the community
- Hands of Hope
- Bible study
- Small groups
- Grace groups
St. David
- We are networked [and] are networking locally
- I will go home and say “we are on target with our people! We are together! Keep going! Keep the faith! Let us bless the Lord!”
St. Christopher, Olympia
- To explore our whiteness through exploring lessons about ourselves using the IDI
St. Paul, Seattle
- Alive:
- Our feeding ministry involves dozens of volunteers and feed 400-500 people every week
- Inspired to:
- We are inspired to go beyond welcoming and become an inviting congregation
St. Dunstan, Shoreline
- Alive:
- Senior affordable housing project in development
- Inspired to:
- Explore developing small groups
All Saints, Tacoma
- Alive:
- We share EFM with other congregations…
- Connections with other service organizations in town
- Inspired to:
- Serve the children of our neighborhood more specifically with activities, food
St. Paul, Mount Vernon
- Outreach
- Ecumenical relations with Lutherans
- Community us being fed and feeding others
- CCD
- Priest visit rotation 3
[Illegible, Renton?]
- NWH 4X
- Chicken soup 4X
- M Seal hat 1X
- Suppers Plymouth & wheel
- Thanksgiving Dinner for Wheel
- Small Groups!
Trinity, Seattle
- Celebrating in practice the words of Jesus
- Creating safe place for all to express views
St. Anne, Washougal
Exploring the New Vision of the Diocese of Olympia
