You can access a recording of our Live Stream service for Sunday,  July 5th by following this LINK.

A PDF Service Guide can be downloaded here: Pentecost 9A 2020 7.5.20 livestream bulletin

This Sunday our guest preacher is Deacon Dianne Johnson, Director of Evangelical Mission for the Northwest Washington Synod.

Our host and liturgist is Peace President Heidi Eilers.  Heidi has been authorized by Bishop Shelley Bryan Wee to preside at Holy Communion during worship today while Pastor Erik Kindem is away.

Green Tree of Life by Jordanka Yaretz Used by permission of artist.

Our Season of Creation: TREES series comes to a conclusion this Sunday with our Live Stream service @ 10:30am, and it’s something you won’t want to miss.

You can link to our LIVE STREAM HERE.

You can download the PDF Service Guide here: Creation 3A TREES 2020 6.28.20 Live Stream Bulletin

During this Season we’re paying attention to the trees we encounter each day; we’ve been using the TREE WALKING GUIDES provided by Seattle Park Department to view specific species of trees “in person’ in West Seattle parks and neighborhoods; we’ve been READING about the forest communities that function above and below the ground, and the amazing roles trees play in making our planet home more habitable; we’ve been LISTENING to what Lynda Mapes, author of  Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Cen­tury-Old Oak, has to say about trees and climate change.

On this third and final Sunday of our series we’ll introduce two marvelous hymns by Susan Palo Cherwien and become privy to images and art that embroider the overall message we’ve sought to share.  We’ll learn how an ancient Douglas fir tree inspired Dana Lyons to write a song and how, as a result of process, The Tree, has taken on a life of its own.  Our Service will include a virtual performance of The Tree, arranged and produced by Bronwyn Edwards for choir, flute, and cello. (Look for several familiar faces among the performers.)

Embedded in our liturgy for SEASON OF CREATION: WEEK TWO  June 21, 2020, was a conversation with Lynda Mapes, Seattle Times envi­ronmental reporter and author of Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Century-Old Oak.  You can find the link to the stand alone interview HERE.

As a newspaper reporter, Lynda was looking for a fresh way to understand and tell the climate-change story “beyond dueling politics or science.”  A conversation with Andrew Richardson, associate professor at Harvard University, and a subsequent invitation to come to the Harvard Research Forest for a yearlong Bullard Fellowship, gave Lynda the opportunity she craved.  She writes:

“Here, at one of the world’s premier research forests, in the classic New England village of Petersham, Massachusetts, a new center of my world emerged.  In this forest so like the woods I had loved as a girl, it came to me: you could tell the story of climate change—and more—through a single, beloved living thing: a tree.”

Kirkus Review of Books calls Witness Tree “a textured story of a rap­idly changing natural world and our relationship to it, told through the lens of one tree over four seasons… A meticulously, beautifully layered portrayal of vulnerability and loss, renewal and hope, this extensively researched yet deeply personal book is a timely call to bear witness and to act in an age of climate-change denial.”  

Welcome to Peace.  

To watch the worship service that was Live Streamed 6/21, follow this LINK.

A PDF Worship Guide is available here: Creation 2A TREES 2020 6.21.20 Live Stream Bulletin

From June 14-28 we’re exploring the connection between forest ecology and our Christian faith during a Season of Creation: TREES 

Embedded in today’s liturgy is a conversation with Lynda Mapes, Seattle Times environmental reporter and author of Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Century-Old Oak.

As a newspaper reporter, Lynda was looking for a fresh way to understand and tell the climate-change story “beyond dueling politics or science.”  A conver­sation with Andrew Richardson, associate professor at Harvard University, and a subsequent invitation to come to the Harvard Research Forest for a yearlong Bullard Fellowship, gave Lynda the opportunity she craved.  She writes:

“Here, at one of the world’s premier research forests, in the classic New England village of Petersham, Massachusetts, a new center of my world emerged.  In this forest so like the woods I had loved as a girl, it came to me: you could tell the story of climate change—and more—through a single, beloved living thing: a tree.”

During this Season we’re paying attention to the trees we encounter each day—around our homes, in your neighborhoods and parks—and we invite you to join us!  Let’s learn together more of what trees and for­ests have to teach us about living in community and enhancing the liva­bility of the places where we live.  Let’s get outside and use the Tree Walking Guides provided by the City of Seattle Park Department (availa­ble HERE) to view specific species of trees “in person’ in West Seattle parks and neighbor­hoods; let’s humbly open ourselves to what we might learn!

On the final Sunday, June 28, we’ll learn the story of how one ancient Douglas Fir inspired the writing of a song and how, as a result of that creative process, The Tree, has taken on a life of its own.  Our Live Stream Worship will include a special VIRTUAL performance of The Tree, arranged and produced by Bronwyn Edwards for choir, flute, and cello, in which several Peace folk participate.

In addition, Kjerstyn Lindgren, niece of Kevin and Nicole Klinemeier and gradu­ate of Evergreen State University, will lead a 9:00am forum on tips for moving toward a zero-waste lifestyle. 

We hope you’ll join us!

As we celebrate TREES during this Season of Creation this month, I’ve compiled a short list of recommended books, both non-fiction and fiction, what can whet your appetite for more learning.  The list is available here: BEST BOOKS ON TREES

Joyful reading!

Pastor Erik Kindem

During our SEASON OF CREATION we’re exploring the connection between forest ecology, human ecology, and Christian faith.  We invite you to embark on adventures to get to know some of the tree species in your neighborhood.

Seattle Parks Department has put together a wonderful series of TREE WALKING GUIDES that you can access.  We’ve included several from West Seattle  neighborhoods below.  Enjoy getting to know more about the trees that help make our world a more habitable place.

Below you’ll also find some SCAVENGER HUNT GUIDES.  Have fun!

Duw_HighlandParkTreeWalkSW_

GatewoodTreeWalkSW_

LincolnParkTreeWalkSW_

LowerFauntleroyTreeWalkWS_

AdmiralWayTreeWalkWS_

EndolyneTreeWalkWS_

GeneseeTreeWalkWS_

HiawathaTreeWalkWS_

NorthDelridgeTreeWalkWS_

Roxhill_Fauntley HillsSCL_

TreeWalkMapWS_YoungstownTreeWalk

Scavenger Hunt guides:

Trees for Seattle Scavenger Hunt

Tree_Walk_scavenger_hunt_2

Welcome to Peace.  

To participate in Sunday’s service at 10:30am, follow this LINK.

A PDF Worship Guide is available here: Creation 1A TREES 2020 6.14.20 livestream bulletin

From June 14-28 we’re exploring the connection between forest ecology, human ecology, and our Christian faith during a Season of Creation: TREES 

Ancestors of modern trees began appearing on Earth about 385 million years ago.  Over the millennia complex relationships have evolved within and between various tree species, their root systems, the microscopic fungal and bacterial network that inhabits the humus at their feet—as well with the creatures, great and small, with whom they have slowly built alliances through time. Across millions of generations, trees have contributed significantly to the process by which Earth became a habitable planet—a role they con­tinue to play today.

Research into forest ecology in recent decades has made some startling discoveries: that trees living in community (we call them forests) communicate with one another, tend their young, share resources, respond to the needs of weakened members, enrich the liva­bility of the places where they reside, sequester carbon, provide the oxygen we breathe, time the dispersal of their seed-progeny to maximize distribution, budget their strength and energy economically, and have well developed methods for healing themselves and fending off invaders.[1]

For thousands of years human cultures around the world have recognized the sacred nature of trees and have employed them as symbols of the Divine.  In the Scriptures, the Tree of Life is a metaphor for the mysterious, primordial Garden from which humankind emerged (Genesis 1-2) and toward which God’s mission of whole­ness and healing is leading us (Revelation 22). The Tree of the Cross is the axis through which Earth and Heaven, God and Humankind, are reunited through the outpoured love of the Creator in and through Jesus, whose incarnation opens our eyes once more to the sacred nature of Earth which, like a Mother, nurtures and sustains all living things.

During these three weeks we’re paying attention to the trees we encounter each day—around our homes, in your neighborhoods and parks—and we invite you to join us!  Let’s learn together more of what trees and forests have to teach us about living in community and enhancing the livability of the places where we live.  Let’s get outside and use the Tree Walking Guides provided by the City of Seattle Park Department (available on the Peace website) to view specific species of trees “in person’ in West Seattle parks and neighborhoods; let’s humbly open ourselves to what we might learn.

Our PASS THE HAT MINISTRY this month is Earth Ministry.  A video highlighting Earth Ministry’s role as a “moral compass” is included in the 6/14 Live Stream.

In WEEK TWO we’ll be joined by Lynda Mapes, author of Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Century Old Oak.  Pastor Kindem and Marcia O had a fascinating ZOOM conversation with Lynda that will be part of our service.  Copies of her book, Witness Tree, are available at West Seattle’s PAPER BOAT BOOKSELLERS.  Get your copy while they last!

Then, in WEEK THREE, look for a special performance of The Tree, an original song composed by Dana Lyons arranged and produced by Bronwyn Edwards for virtual choir.  In addition, Kjerstyn Lindgren, niece of Kevin and Nicole Klinemeier and graduate of Evergreen State University, will lead an adult forum on tips for moving toward a zero-waste lifestyle.

We hope you’ll join us!

[1] See Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees. (Vancouver BC: Greystone Books, 2016)

Welcome to Peace.  

A recording of our Live Stream service for Trinity Sunday, June 7 can we found by following this LINK.

In recent days our nation has been shaken.   First by the COVID-19 pandemic, and now by protests in cities throughout the country, including Seattle.

As followers of Christ, we are called to engage rather than ignore what’s happening in the world. And so a special focus of our liturgy this Trinity Sunday is the church’s call to dismantle institutional racism.  

The icon above by 15th century Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev shows the Holy One in the form of Three, eating and drinking, in infinite hospitality and utter enjoyment between themselves. The gaze between the Three shows the deep respect between them as they share from a common bowl.  In the icon, the Three encircle a table and the hand of the Spirit points toward the open and fourth place at the table, perhaps to a place where, in the original icon, a mirror may have been. The message: there is a fourth place; a place for you!

Richard Rohr writes:  “This Table is not reserved exclusively for the Three, nor is the divine circle dance a closed circle: we are all invited in.  All creation is invited in, and this is the liberation God intended from the very beginning.”

Each of us bears the image of God within ourselves.  When that image comes under assault because of racist and white supremacist attitudes, actions, and ideologies, the church is called into solidarity and action.

Our guest preacher is ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton.  Bishop Eaton had a sermon ready to go the week before George Floyd was murdered while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25th.  But when protests erupted, she went back to the drawing board so that she could address this new context in which we find ourselves.

At the end of worship the 2020 Peace Scholarship presentation was made to  Kennedy High School grad Alyssa Bernd.

To read a pastoral reflection by Pastor Erik Kindem in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and the subsequent protests and riots in cities across the nation, follow this LINK.