Clergy Transitions in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia
The Rev. McKenzi Roberson, who has been called to serve as curate at St. Peter’s, Seattle. McKenzi will begin that call on August 1, 2025.
St. John the Baptist in West Seattle Announces Solar Initiative to Celebrate Earth Day
St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, located adjacent to West Seattle High School, will be joining the ranks of other local, recently installed solar projects, such as South Seattle College and Highline High School, with an installation to go live later this year. Once complete, the solar panels will provide a 100 percent offset of…
Easter 2025: A Message from Bishop LaBelle
Hello, beloved friends of the Diocese of Olympia. A number of years ago now I attended a conference that included a talk from Peter Rollins, a progressive philosopher and theologian who grew up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. He recounted a time when he was invited to a conservative Christian college to be a…
Updates from the Bishop’s Task Force to the Unhoused
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash From Lizbeth Adams, Co-Chair, Bishop’s Task Force to the Unhoused: Come, Creator Spirit Master and Creator of heaven, earth, and sea, and all that is in them! Stretch out your hand to heal. Refresh our weak frame with new strength, fortitude and grace to endure. (Acts 4: 24,30 and…
Give to a Church
Donations can now be made to individual churches through the main Diocese of Olympia giving account. The diocese will manage sending each church whatever funds are donated to them along with a report of giver, amount, designation information and date of transaction. Below are the list of churches and their links. Copy the particular giving…
Celebrating God’s Love for All Creation
As we look ahead to Holy Week, the Triduum, and Eastertide, God’s promise of New Creation for us and indeed the whole cosmos is an invitation into transformative discipleship in these times. And, as April is Earth Month, we know our vocation to tend and keep the garden is really a lifelong call. Please find…
Preparing for Easter
Here are two helpful documents to support preparation for the Easter liturgies and the Easter season. The first document – The Baptismal Covenant – can be distributed to parishioners prior to Holy Week or prior to the Easter Vigil. It focuses on preparing to renew the Baptismal Covenant at the Vigil and then again on…
Zimzum Discipleship: Practices for a Christ-Centered Life – Introduction
Hi, I’m Phil LaBelle, Bishop of the Diocese of Olympia, the Episcopal Church in Western Washington. The opening words of the Torah from the Book of Genesis tell us that in the beginning, when God created, the Earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. For generations, these words weren’t…
Zimzum Discipleship: Introduction – Additional Resources, April 2025
Books A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society by Eugene Patterson. IVP, 2024 (Commemorative Edition). Being Disciples: Essentials of the Christian Life by Rowan Williams. WB Eerdmans Publishing, 2016. Zimzum: God and the Origin of the World by Cristoph Schulte, translated by Corey Twitchell. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023….
Zimzum Discipleship: Introduction – Small Group Gathering, April 2025
Gathering Opening Prayer: Most loving God, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide…