52 churches in 52 weeks: "the other CBF"

[Haruo]

so May 29 was the Ascension and Completorium (Latin for Compline), I guess.

June 19 I was in Emeryville for the Esperanto convention, and attended morning worship at First Baptist Church of Berkeley. A very small, mostly young crowd; 17 or 18 people, I think, myself included, and a couple of the others were also visitors. It was Father's Day, which probably reduced attendance a bit, but still it was obviously one of the smaller congregations I've worshiped with. Very good hymns (five songs in all, I think, most of them new but to existing hymn tunes). The Pastor, Nancy Hall, is a friend from both Evergreen meetings and the Hymn Society (she edits The Hymn), and it was good to see her. They were having a hymn festival of hymns by GLBT hymnists that afternoon at First Congregational (in whose chapel First Baptist meets), but I had to get back to the Esperantists. Sometimes you wish you could be in two places at once, y'know?

June 12 we went to church at the church we attended in high school, Rose Hill Presbyterian in Kirkland. My sister was up from Mexico for a few days, and it was my Aunt Annie's last Sunday there after 50 years; she's moving to an apartment in Walla Walla.

I think June 5th I went to Fremont, but I'm not actually sure now. And June 6th would have been the Bahá'í devotionals. So there you go. Still pretty much on track, I think.

[Haruo]

Here's my reply to Bethany Community Church's glad-you-could-join-us email:

Thank you for your email of welcome.

I am engaged in an intentional year of visiting different worshiping communities. So far this has taken me (not necessarily in precisely this order) to

Japanese Baptist Church's bimonthly bilingual Communion service,
the Seattle Karen Christian Fellowship at Kent First Covenant,
my home church (Fremont Baptist), about five times,
Full Gospel Deliverance Center Church,
Skyway United Methodist,
the Evergreen Region MLK Day service at Seattle First Baptist,
New Birth Ministries COGIC,
the evening Slavic (mostly Ukrainian) service at Church of Grace,
the Spanish evening mass at St. Anthony's Catholic,
the English morning mass at St. Paul's Catholic,
Luther's Table's Monday evening Communion service,
Skyway's Community Bible Fellowship,
Amazing Grace Lutheran Church,
the weekday noon mass (RC) at Plymouth Congregational,
Seattle Buddhist Church aka Betsuin aka Temple (twice, for Vernal Equinox and again for Buddha's Birthday),
the Skyway LDS Ward's Sacrament Meeting,
the Evergreen Easter Sunrise service at St. Ignatius Chapel (Seattle University), &
the Renton Church of Christ, Scientist.
3 Renton Bahá'í gatherings (Declaration of the Báb, Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh, and a devotional meeting on joy and sorrow
First Baptist Church of Berkeley, California,
Wednesday noon Holy Eucharist at St. Mark's Cathedral
Compline (evening chant service) at St. Mark's Cathedral
Rainier Avenue Church (Free Methodist)
First Covenant Church
Rose Hill Presbyterian Church, Kirkland
Bethany Community Church's evening service

It's a good way to spend a few weeks, but no substitute for a church home. (I'm not disaffected with my own church, Fremont Baptist, though my wife doesn't particularly like it, but being busbound in Skyway makes Fremont quite a difficult commute, especially for her.)

Bethany CC (and Bethany Lutheran for that matter) suffers the same geographical disadvantage as Fremont, from my point of view. Also, it is not my cup of communion juice for a few other reasons, most of which have to do with your music. I think it's a cultural/generational thing, for the most part, but the dearth of opportunity for participatory musical worship (and the disinclination to sing) that I felt Sunday evening would be a major reason for my not returning with any frequency.

In any case, I do believe the Spirit of God was there amongst us (but then I felt that about the Buddhist Church, too, even though they are technically atheists and as reticent about congregational song as your folks). I was thrilled that your music leader included the "earth shall soon dissolve" verse in "Amazing Grace" (and, I think, left out the intrusive "10,000 years" verse). The sermon was interesting and well done. Communion appeared to be non-alcoholic, the first time I've been to a communion service where there was no mention of the wine/Welches issue but a distinction between glutinous and gluten-free matzoh!

Sincerely yours,

Leland Bryant Ross aka Ros' Haruo
peripatetic churchgoer of the year

[Blake]

Being in Seattle, do you plan to go to a Mars Hill campus?

[Haruo]

The wind 4151 bloweth 4154 where 3699 it listeth 2309, and 2532 thou hearest 191 the sound 5456 thereof 846, but 235 canst 1492 0 not 3756 tell 1492 whence 4159 it cometh 2064, and 2532 whither 4226 it goeth 5217: so 3779 is 2076 every one 3956 that is born 1080 of 1537 the Spirit 4151.

If it were up to me, yes, but it's up to God. We'll see.

[Haruo]

Being in Seattle, do you plan to go to a Mars Hill campus?

Yes, in fact this very coming Sunday I intend to attend the 10 AM service at the Mars Hill University District location. Ironically, they are in the University Baptist building, which they bought last year. UBC was the church I grew up in (to age 13). I wonder if they had to do any special exorcisms or anything to remove the AWAB aroma.

The Seattle Esperanto Society summer picnic will be at Woodland Park, near the Seattle Peace Concert at Shelter 1, so it's a good time for me to hit another north end church. Mrs H will be there too if she feels like making the trip. Neither of us has been to a Mars Hill service before. I wonder if they have their own preacher in the U District or if they pipe in the big man... Will let you know.

[Haruo]

Here's the email exchange between me and a staff member at Mars Hill's U-District campus. The sermon was indeed Mark Driscoll on the big screen. I was happy to see they had retained the stained glass and the urinals. The chairs were more comfortable than the pews they had replaced.

Hey Leland,

I was the one you gave your connect card to last Sunday. Thanks for dropping that off. I invited you to The City, so you should see that invite in your gmail account as well.

I noticed you didn’t fill out the reverse of the Connect Card. Are you interested in visiting one of our Community Groups? They meet all throughout the week. Let me know a good night that works for you and I can put you in touch with one of the leaders.

You mentioned on the Connect Card being a visitor, was last Sunday your first time to Mars Hill U-District? What brought you to visit? Glad you came, and welcome. Hope we can continue to get to know you!

Let me know if you have any questions about the church or anything like that.

Jason Murray | Mars Hill U-District
jasonm@marshillchurch.org
206 601.7905

Hi Jason, thanks for getting back to me.
Actually, I didn't fill out the reverse of the Connect Card mainly because I am not really in a position to do any of that stuff, nor am I really looking for a church to connect with in the U District. I appreciate being invited to The City, and may on rare occasions be able to show up for something live. I live in Skyway and am bus-bound, which makes the U District an inconvenient place for me to go to church on any regular basis. In a number of ways I'm an unusual visitor case:
As for what brought me to visit, this year, I am attending "52 churches in 52 weeks" (I append below a list of the ones I've been to so far). Since I was planning to attend the Seattle Esperanto Society picnic at Lower Woodland last Sunday afternoon, it seemed like a good time to hit a U District church, and walking by last week I had noticed you had a 10 AM service. I chose Mars Hill mainly because it is the church I grew up in (to age 13). The building, that is, not the church. (At 57 it's not possible for me to have grown up in Mars Hill!) I was raised going to University Baptist three times a month and University Christian once a month. (My dad was the American Baptist campus minister at the UW from 1953 to 1967, with dual accreditation by the Disciples of Christ.) I'm a member of Fremont Baptist Church, but don't get there frequently given the distance.
This was my first visit to any Mars Hill campus. I was pleasantly impressed with your church. The people seemed friendly but not pushy, the sermon had a bit more of the finality of Hell in it than I would include if I were preaching (I incline to universalism), but it was very well done and scripturally focused. And I was particularly favorably impressed with the hymns. I'm a hymnologist and a hymn-nut, and three of the four hymns were among my favorites; the other one ("Before the throne of God above") I had never sung before in worship, and it was my pleasure to do so with you. The accompaniment on all the songs, including (especially?) the trombone, was wonderful. In spite of my theological distance from some soteriological aspects of your kerygma, I may drop back by when I'm in the District just for the singing!
Again, thanks!
Leland Bryant Ross aka Ros' Haruo
Services attended in 2011 (these are not in chronological order):
Japanese Baptist Church's bimonthly bilingual Communion service,
the Seattle Karen Christian Fellowship at Kent First Covenant,
my home church (Fremont Baptist), about five times,
Full Gospel Deliverance Center Church,
Skyway United Methodist,
the Evergreen Region MLK Day service at Seattle First Baptist,
New Birth Ministries COGIC,
the evening Slavic (mostly Ukrainian) service at Church of Grace,
the Spanish evening mass at St. Anthony's Catholic,
the English morning mass at St. Paul's Catholic,
Luther's Table's Monday evening Communion service,
Skyway's Community Bible Fellowship,
Amazing Grace Lutheran Church,
the weekday noon mass (RC) at Plymouth Congregational,
Seattle Buddhist Church aka Betsuin aka Temple (twice, for Vernal Equinox and again for Buddha's Birthday),
the Skyway LDS Ward's Sacrament Meeting,
the Evergreen Easter Sunrise service at St. Ignatius Chapel (Seattle University),
the Renton Church of Christ, Scientist.
3 Renton Bahá'í gatherings (Declaration of the Báb, Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh, and a devotional meeting on joy and sorrow),
First Baptist Church of Berkeley, California,
Wednesday noon Holy Eucharist at St. Mark's Cathedral,
Compline (evening chant service) at St. Mark's Cathedral,
Rainier Avenue Church (Free Methodist),
First Covenant Church,
Rose Hill Presbyterian Church, Kirkland,
Bethany Community Church's evening service,
Mars Hill U District morning service...

[Haruo]

This week will be Soma, it looks like. An Acts 29 church, which I believe means a Mars Hill spinoff, in Renton (our neck of the woods). This will be two Mars Hill-related churches back to back. I'll be interested in seeing how much similarity and how much difference I note. Also, since this one had an African origin (formerly "Harambee Church"), seeing how much evidence of nourishment from the old roots I see, and how it may affect the music.

Other candidates this week included United House of Prayer for All People, the White Center Salvation Army Temple Corps, and Findlay Street Christian (DOC). Also possibly the Tagalog service at the local Kingdom Hall. All of these will figure in my itinerary later this year, I hope.

[Gene Scarborough]

Your reports are most interesting!

In the above you mention Acts 29 churches and Mars Hill churches. Are you sensing some kind of re-grouping over the old and simple denomination connections?

[Haruo]

Before the throne of God above

1 Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea;
a great High Priest, whose name is Love
who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on his hands,
my name is written on his heart;
I know that while in heaven he stands
no tongue can bid me thence depart.

2 When Satan tempts me to despair,
and tells me of the guilt within,
upward I look, and see him there
who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Saviour died,
my sinful soul is counted free;
for God the just is satisfied
to look on him and pardon me.

3 Behold him there! the risen Lamb!
my perfect, spotless righteousness,
the great unchangeable I AM,
the King of glory and of grace!
One with himself, I cannot die;
my soul is purchased by his blood;
my life is hid with Christ on high,
with Christ my Saviour and my God.

I have not figured out yet the degree and kind of relationship that obtains between the "Acts 29" and "Mars Hill" labels. Mark Driscoll is the senior pastor of Mars Hill Church's flagship campus (in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, in a former Ernst Hardware store). Mark Driscoll is also a/the leader of the Acts 29 Network. It's definitely not your old denominational connection, Gene, but I'm not sure it's any more or less "simple" than the old one. I see evidence both of congregational autonomy and of what may be dual alignment in Acts 29. Missions tend to be sent from the local church (Soma Renton recently had a mission trip to Slovakia, and they have members living and planting churches in Turkey and India; in Turkey they are active in interfaith dialogue with Muslims). These are definitely part of the Apostle Paul's Mars Hill game plan.

I quoted the above hymn because it was one I sang last week at Mars Hill U-District and again this week at Soma Renton. I get the impression that it is perhaps of creedal importance to them. (I could be wrong. It could be blind chance, or even Satan.)

So far I haven't heard word one of condemnation against GLBTQ folks, or of overtly discriminatory sexism on gender roles, at either of the last two churches visited. Mark Driscoll's piped-in sermon last week had some gender-role stereotypes in the anecdotes (little boys wanting to dress up as knights or kings, little girls wanting to dress up as princesses), but none of it was prescriptive. This week there was an announcement about a soon-to-visit missionary couple who will be speaking next Sunday (amended to: he will be speaking, she will be supporting him; amended further to: well, maybe she'll get up and share, too)... I think there may be an anti-singlehood bias; one of the Acts 29 Boot Camp brochures says you must bring your wife, which if true would I think let the Apostle Paul off the hook...

The music at Mars Hill U-District was exceptionally well-done, and also unusual in starting after the sermon (no opening songs); four solid "traditional" hymns plus a grand ALLELUIA, all with spot-on trombone accompaniment. This week at Soma Renton the music was much blander; "Before the throne" was the only solid traditional hymn, and aside from a contemporary rewrite of "Come, thou fount" the rest of the stuff was pretty 7-11-y. Participation was stronger than at Bethany, though not as strong as at MHUD.

[Gene Scarborough]

I am observing an over all mistrust of denominational mission sending approaches in favor of the local church sending its teams to do mission work---which usually consists of building something.

What I have observed in many "lay renewal" events is a somewhat convoluted bunch of people who are the lay witnesses and tend to sit together and enjoy their celebrity over against mingling with the congregation members they are trying to inspire.

I sense a change fostered with mistrust of wider denominational relationships.

I am told by a former missionary to Brazil that their culture dictates they be nice and superficially responsive to foreigners who come their way. As soon as the foreigners leave they return to their native ways, whatever they might be. The guests think they have made a great mark in their prospects, but the reality is that nothing has really changed and real change is slow under the influence of the resident missionaries.

Does this resonate with any of your observations?

[Haruo]

Japanese Baptist Church's bimonthly bilingual Communion service,
the Seattle Karen Christian Fellowship at Kent First Covenant,
my home church (Fremont Baptist), about five times,
Full Gospel Deliverance Center Church,
Skyway United Methodist,
the Evergreen Region MLK Day service at Seattle First Baptist,
New Birth Ministries COGIC,
the evening Slavic (mostly Ukrainian) service at Church of Grace,
the Spanish evening mass at St. Anthony's Catholic,
the English morning mass at St. Paul's Catholic,
Luther's Table's Monday evening Communion service,
Skyway's Community Bible Fellowship,
Amazing Grace Lutheran Church,
the weekday noon mass (RC) at Plymouth Congregational,
Seattle Buddhist Church aka Betsuin aka Temple (twice, for Vernal Equinox and again for Buddha's Birthday, or actually three times, since at Vernal Equinox I attended both the English and the Japanese services),
the Skyway LDS Ward's Sacrament Meeting,
the Evergreen Easter Sunrise service at St. Ignatius Chapel (Seattle University),
the Renton Church of Christ, Scientist.
3 Renton Bahá'í gatherings (Declaration of the Báb, Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh, and a devotional meeting on joy and sorrow),
First Baptist Church of Berkeley, California,
Wednesday noon Holy Eucharist at St. Mark's Cathedral,
Compline (evening chant service) at St. Mark's Cathedral,
Rainier Avenue Church (Free Methodist),
First Covenant Church, Seattle
Rose Hill Presbyterian Church, Kirkland,
Bethany Community Church's evening service,
Mars Hill U District morning service,
Soma Renton,
God First Christian Ministries International Sunday afternoon service,
Seattle Mienh Foursquare Church (meeting at God First CMI),
Mount Baker Park Presbyterian Church,
Communion service at the final meeting of the Evergreen Baptist Missional Church group,
Findlay Street Church (DOC, meeting at Mount Baker Park Pres)
...

Unless I'm forgetting one, I'm running one behind at this point. Ah, but if I count the two Buddhist services I attended at the Vernal Equinox, and if I count the nearly non-occurrent Hindu Yoga service I attended in Emeryville before heading off to First Baptist of Berkeley, then maybe I'm actually one ahead of myself...

This morning I went to Mount Baker Park Presbyterian Church, good service, two sermons (one was a "testimony", but it was at least a long, as involved, and as theologically informed as the sermon, as well as being on the same topic (which the preacher had spun off the lectionary's gospel reading, Matt 16:13-20).

And this afternoon I went to Findlay Street Christian Church, which meets in the Mount Baker Park Pres. building. I loved it. If they were just a little more accessible buswise, I'd seriously consider going there regularly once the year is up.

[Gene Scarborough]

This has been a particularly dismal emotional month with the economy sliding further back. I sense that Grief is a main ingredient in the lives of most frustrated Americans these days.

Are you seeing much addressing of such as the churches are visited?

[Haruo]

Not particularly; certainly not yesterday. Both services were quite upbeat, as were all three sermons. Certainly prayers for those looking for work are a ubiquitous petitionary item, but I don't hear a lot of grief about it. Maybe our part of the country isn't grieving as much as yours? Boeing is hiring, Amazon is hiring, Google is looking to double their workforce here, and the County won't have to cut bus service for at least a couple of years... The stock market has not been stellar, but I don't see much of a drop in the value of my 401K.

BTW the high point of my day yesterday was a Lesbian redo of Eddie from Ohio's Great Day, which was the offertory music at Findlay Street Christian. The way it morphed from "Lord and King" to "Lord and Queen" was quite amazing, well done, and spiritually sound. (IMO, I know I'm not unanimously backed up on this sort of thing by you all.)

[Gene Scarborough]

You old liberal Haruo!!!!

My part of the country is being hit hard by the economy. Manufacturing facilities are moved south of the border and to China / drugs and crime are rampant / foreclosures are everywhere. Except for those towns with a large military income. se are pretty much staving and the crops have been destroyed with drought.

Too often I see a surface attempt to bring a cover over the grief, but reality is that we must find ways to help one another and deal with it here. I don't mean to dwell on it. I do mean to acknowledge the hurts and trust God more than a 401K.

[Haruo]

The following week (August 28) I went to Awake Church @ the Aurora Commons (I wrote about the service here). Nice group, very very dedicated to their neighborhood. They're located next door to Fremont Hall, the AA fellowship hall I sobered up at 27 years ago this month. They are Christian Reformed by denominational affiliation (I wrote about the CRC hymnal's end matter here), and in the course of looking at the CRC website, I ran across a reference to SCUM of the Earth Church of Seattle, which I ended up attending this evening (Sept 11). Sept. 4th I ended up after several false starts (including SCUM) not going anywhere.

[Haruo]

On Friday, when I got on the bus to go to work, I sat down opposite a young man (thirties, I'd guess) in a somewhat robelike white garment. I asked him if it was religious garb, and if so, of what religion. He said, yes, it was Muslim. I told him about my 52-in-52 project, and asked if he could suggest a mosque for me to visit. He said that as a matter of fact he was on his way to the mosque right then. I asked him which one, and he told me the address. I hadn't been aware there was one there, it's quite a bit closer to home than the ones I'd been considering, so I'll probably go there one of these Fridays.

Today, to make up for not having gone to church last week, I wanted two services. I had been planning already to attend Ned Parker's ordination service at Seattle First Baptist, and I decided to stay in town for the evening and take in the service at SCUM of the Earth Church of Seattle.

Ned Parker is the Pastor for Children, Families, and Young Adults at SFBC. It was a very good service. The ordinand's old seminary buddy from Andover Newton, Joel Kemp, flew in from the east to preach. Here's the order of worship:

I should mention that one of the hymns, "May This Be What I Do", was new (originally written for the ordinand's 14th birthday by his father, and revised for use at his ordination). I think it is a very good hymn, and I look forward to including it in the songbook I'm working on for Evergreen's 10th birthday. The tune is ST. THOMAS (SM), probably best know as "I love thy kingdom, Lord".

SCUM's gathering was scheduled for 6 pm; I got there at 6:20, but the worship per se didn't start till 7. There were four or five songs, theoretically congregational but the words were not supplied, and most of the congregation didn't appear to know the words by heart any more than I did. (All except the last song, "I Love You, Lord" (... and I lift my voice ...), which I know well and so did most of the others in attendance.) The accompaniment was quiet, folk-style guitar with occasional clarinet interpolations. The preacher was rather distracted and lacking in focus. He allowed as how all the Tweets yesterday about the 9/11 anniversary distracted him from sermon preparation. Most of the talk ended up being a planning session for the church's 6th birthday party, with focus (such as it was) on how to invite the scum of the earth (1 Cor 4:13; Luke 14:13). Nice people, mostly quite young, and not too tightly wrapped. Not as many extravagant piercings as I had anticipated. I had a conversation before worship with a man, Doug, who turned out to be the clarinetist and a woman, Karen, who wanted to recruit me for a book study on Karen Armstrong's A History of God. We talked about AA, and about the Bible, and about Esperanto (since the Bible I was carrying was in that language). Nice people, hardly scum of the earth, no matter what the Apostle Paul said. (I notice NRSV uses "rubbish" and "dregs", not "scum". 1 Cor. 4:13)

[Haruo]

I forgot to mention that the guy in white on the bus turned out to be of Irish Catholic background, a convert to Islam (and I would guess to Sufism, at least he looked Sufi).

[Haruo]

Two more in the bag The venue was Burien Community Church, an Evergreen-ABC congregation in a suburb south of Seattle, but

Yesterday I attended the Installation Service of Rev. Guadalupe Vasquez as Pastor of Confraternidad Cristiana Eben-ezer, the only Hispanophone church in the Evergreen Association region of ABC (as far as I know; there may be others). It was a joyous occasion, pretty much bilingual (translations were provided alternately by Rev. Vasquez himself, by Rev. Manny Santiago (Pastor of University Baptist Church), and by the the visiting minister, Rev. Manuel Yuquín, from Yakima and ABC-NW, who gave the sermon). The service opened with two praise songs sung to rather kitschy PowerPoint on the screen. The accompaniment and a singer were on tape, and both songs were sung almost ad nauseam bilingualem. The first was "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord", which I know well enough in English that I had no difficulty picking up the Spanish version and translating on the fly so that, by the end, I was singing largely in Esperanto. The second song was "No hay nadie como tú", and I wasn't as familiar with it, but it was no problem, either. Then there was a song (or medley, I'd say) all in Spanish, with a large orchestra/mariachi band on screen. This was fun, but the words were unknown to me, so it was a listening rather than a singing experience. It began with "Solamente Cristo" but I soon lost track of the text. The tune(s) involved mariachi adaptations of, I think, a number of old-time tunes hymnic or otherwise (I'm pretty sure I picked out "If you're happy and you know it" and "Macnamara's Band".) Then the new Pastor and his wife sang a duet. Then our Executive Minister, Marcia Patton, introduced all of us visitors and had us each say who we were and where from. She then gave greetings from the Region, words of encouragement and admonition to the congregation to support and augment their Pastor, etc. The Rev. Yuquín spoke, taking John 10:1-4 as his text. Then we all went downstairs for a scrumptious potluck of varied mostly Mexican and Central American dishes. I missed the Salvadorean fried eggplant, but it was a hit with those who tried it.

Then I went upstairs and attended the service of Family of Faith Lutheran Church (not more than a dozen in attendance); I was a bit late for the start but the Gospel text was Matthew 20:1-16, so it counts Nice job of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms", with the second time through the refrain done well in a cappella harmony!

[Haruo]

Two more in the bag!

As described elsewhere, I went to Victoria Seventh Day Adventist Church on Saturday, taking the opportunity of being abroad on vacation since my regular work schedule precludes such most Saturdays. Good service; good singing; good preaching; as noted elsewhere, first time I've heard a sermon preached against crab legs and pepperoni pizza (taking Daniel 1, Deuteronomy 14, Genesis 39 and 1 Samuel 17 as texts). Lots of kids and teenagers in the congregation, and the sermon was largely directed at the latter. Basic theme: when sin (e.g. pepperoni) tempts, don't pray—run! (And then pray.) The people were friendly and welcoming, but not overly pushy about it. Very diverse ethnically, whites, blacks (many of them apparently Africans), Asians. More diverse than the Victoria population at large, I think. Most of the songs were sung from a screen projected text, only one ("I'd Rather Have Jesus") from the (1985 SDA) hymnal.

Walking back to the hotel, I passed quite a few other churches and saw that two were advertising Blessings of the Animals, one on Oct 2, one on Oct 9. Hoping I can find one to go to somewhere nearby, maybe even take Toby. (I'd really been hoping to take Pip, but she didn't live long enough.)

Sunday, after the final closing ceremonies at NOREK, I skipped the postconvention visit to the Provincial Museum in favor of attending morning worship at the James Bay United Church. In Canada UCC describes a denomination somewhat different in origins but rather similar in liturgical and cultural flavor to UCC in the US. They are generally open and affirming ("inviting" seems to be the term) and fairly liberal theologically, lots of listening to the trees and stuff. The opening hymn (a modernized adaptation of "God Is Here Among Us") I sang in Esperanto (vv 1-2) and English (v 3). They sang happy birthday in absentia to a 96-year-old parishioner, using a happy-birthday text and tune I've never heard, and it was specifically Christian (unlike the secular "Happy Birthday to You" we always inject into our sacred moments). A smaller, whiter crowd than the SDAs, and much older. There were only 2 kids and no teenagers, unlike the dozens at the SDA service, and in my late 50s I felt like I was on the young side of the median in the room. They had a new pastor and music minister (both less than a month into their tenure, and both younger than the room average). I had a pleasant time, and enjoyed the singing, including "Hush! Somebody's callin' my name" and "Lord, you have come to the lakeshore". The pew hymnals (Voices United) were words only; after the service I discovered I could have had a copy with music if I'd asked or known where to get one beforehand.

[Haruo]

This noontide it was St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in West Seattle, for their annual St. Francis Sunday Blessing of the Animals, actually held in the parking lot of West Seattle High School, next door to the church. I only took photographs of Pip and the three survivors. There was one live cat and several dozen live dogs, but no other photo pets and no exotics. I asked the priests to give a blessing also to the crows who blinded Pip. The liturgy consisted of walking "the Westminster Walk" once around the parking lot, then heading single file down the middle of the lot to the priests (one in TEC garb with a rainbow stole, the other in a Franciscan-looking brown cassock), who dipped cedar branches in the holy water and aspergated the animals (or their photos) therewith. No full immersions. I sang "All creatures of our God and King" under my breath, and the "no more cold iron shackles" verse of "I'll Fly Away", because I felt the service needed some hymnody to qualify it for the 52-week adventure. Each living pet got a balloon (Toby is thrilled with his) and I came away with four nice St. Francis medallions for their collars (not that they wear collars) that say "PRAY FOR US" on the reverse. I got in some cathartic sobbing while telling people about Pip.

[Haruo]

Saturday morning I'm planning on getting up super-early and going to Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation, one of Seattle's grand old synagogues, for the morning service. Browse their website, it's quite something. I sent them email letting them know of my interest in attending,

Rabbi Simon Benzaquen

Rabbi_Benzaquen_bio.jpg (14.45 KiB) Viewed 904 times

and this afternoon the rabbi called me at work "to hear the voice of this person who wants to visit us" or words to that effect. We had a good talk. He caviled at my use of "אפר" as a translation of "Leland". He said "it means dust", which is true, but I'll have to show him this from Google Translate:

("Leland" is a Scottish term for a protected meadow, i.e. land lying in the lee of the hill)

[Haruo]

Very interesting service at Sephardic Bikur Holim last Saturday. Some of it was in Ladino (including part of one of the songs), most of it in Hebrew, some (including the homily) in English. The lectionary had us read from Noah through Babel. Quite a few Psalms were recited, chanted, or sung, as well as other Bible passages. The service lasted over two and a half hours. It was a bit longer than usual because it was the Sabbath of a new month as well as the week; also, a girl had her bat mitzvah and there were lots of visiting relatives from all over the country, maybe the world, for that. It was interesting that there were girls in the sanctuary, generally sitting with their fathers, but none over 12; the teen and adult women were up in the balcony. Anyhow, I hope to make it back sometime.

This Sunday a new church (actually not new new, but new to our neighborhood), Bible Study Outreach Ministries, will be holding their inaugural service in their new worship space (a former Pizza Hut that was more recently—and still is, to trust the signage—"Payday Loans / Checks Cashed") at 2:30 pm, about 3 blocks from our home. I think we'll go.

[Haruo]

I was about 5 minutes late for the service, and 2 hours and 55 minutes later, when I left, it was still going strong; I missed out on Communion as a result, but I needed to get home.

Nice people, enjoyable (and decibel-wise tolerable) music, with recordings for accompaniment. But not a lot of music (considering it was 3+ hours); a very text-oriented service, with lots of Bible-reading ("Now join me in Matthew 18, Matthew 18 and 16, everybody say Amen when you're there." and he would wait for everybody to find the verse before reading it aloud.)

Doubt it'll ever be "my" church, but it's a valid local representation of Christ's church, and that's the important thing. I'll go back sometime, at least for part of a service, and hopefully Mrs H will accompany me.

Next Sunday I have to go to Fremont (to do special music as a part of the buildup to Evergreen Hymn-Sing #5 on the 20th), so it would behoove me to find some other service to attend this week in addition.