The Episcopal Church in Western Washington
From the Rev. Jonathan Weldon of St. Paul, Bellingham: Light Shines in the Darkness At Morning Prayer today, we again prayed: “Arise, shine, for your light has come,” and affirmed that “in the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.” I set out to write this reflection by revisiting these words shared with me by a member of St. Paul’s
From Alan Wheaton and Phil Hodgins, Street Chaplains at Christ Church, Seattle: A cigarette, a lighter, a pair of socks, a bottle of water, a couple of wet wipes, instant breakfast, granola bars, and vitamin C: These are just a few of the things our community members living without shelter said they could use when we asked them at the outset of Street Chaplaincy back in 2018, and today they form the contents of each of the 40 care packages
From Aemelia Tripp, Member of the Seattle Service Corps: Quarantining in Community: Thoughts from a Seattle Service Corps Member Living with five other people, you might think this quarantine situation would be less of a burden. Or maybe you’re an introvert thinking being stuck with this many people at once is your waking nightmare. For this ambivert, it’s been a time of both solitary reflection and togetherness, searching for grounding in this unusual time. Let me give you a little
From the Rev. Sarah Monroe, Chaplains on the Harbor: Hope Beyond Hope Five years ago, I went to the Holy Land with the Bishop. We visited Bethlehem and we spent some time at the wall dividing Israel and Palestine. I snapped a picture of a spray painted message; in black paint, the scrawled words said “hope beyond hope.” Surrounded by a community, in that moment, that was reckoning with incredibly high poverty and unemployment and unrelenting dehumanization and military occupation,
One month ago, the parish I serve gathered for the first Sunday in Lent. On that day we began to implement social distancing among our parishioners with modifications to the passing of the Peace and how we received the Blessed Sacrament. By the following Sunday, we were praying Morning Prayer and eating prepackaged goodies for coffee hour. Two days later, we embraced a fully virtual format for our common life. Although I could imagine at that time what a pandemic
From the Rev. Hillary B. Kimsey, Deacon and Chaplain at Swedish Hospital, Seattle: A downtown hospital in a major city is a strange and difficult place to be when a global pandemic descends. And my role in that hospital is to be a chaplain—a listener, a companion, a representative of divine presence—to everyone who is suddenly overcome with fear. This is the time, I thought, for me and healthcare chaplains all around the world to step up! Time for us
