Dedication Liturgy of Memorial Benches

by on July 30, 2020 with No Comments

SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 5:30 P.M.

On the first Sunday in August, at 5:30 p.m., you are invited to attend (via livestream or in person) a brief service of dedication and blessing of four benches that have been placed around the perimeter of the labyrinth on the front lawn of Saint Mark’s Cathedral.

These benches are given in loving memory of four long-time members of the cathedral who have recently died—The Rev. Canon Mike Jackson, Randy Revelle, Kathie Moen, and The Rev. Canon Timothy Nakayama. Their families will be on hand for the occasion, and we hope that many in the parish community will gather around them, masked and socially distanced of course, as we remember these beloved people and give thanks for their lives, and place into service these four benches designed to be seats of urban rest around the mystical beauty of the labyrinth. This is one more way we intend to say to the world: wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here…

Following the brief rite of dedication of the benches, The Pacific Brass Quintet—a professional ensemble with which parishioner and resident trumpeter, Bob Gale, has performed for over twenty years—will gather on the cathedral front terrace and offer a festive musical offering for those present and those joining via livestream.

Video of this service may be seen below:

Cathedral Bees Updates—Summer 2020

by on July 16, 2020 with No Comments

Cathedral Bees Update

The cathedral building has two beehives on the roof of Bloedel Hall. Thanks to beekeeper Rob Reid, our bees are thriving! Scroll down to view pictures.

Your prayers for the health of our hives are welcome. For more information about protecting pollinators, visit this link.

If you are interested in helping out with the bees, contact the cathedral and we will put you in touch with Rob.

Sundays & Beyond Update August 30, 2020

The bees and beekeepers have been hard at work. In July, one of the hives lost its queen. However, wild bees are able to create a new queen with remaining larvae, so apiarists Rob and Jaime moved eggs from the healthy hive to the queenless one. Once the queen was established, she then started laying fertile eggs. We're happy to report the success of Rob and Jaime's work - both beehives are now thriving!

Sundays & Beyond Update July 19, 2020

The active honeybee hives on the roof of Bloedel Hall have been busy. And, apparently, they have a sense of humor: Q: Why do virgin bees mate in the air? A: They can’t get any privacy in the hive. Consider planting pollinator-friendly plants in your own garden or window box. And reduce or eliminate pesticides on your plants.

Sundays & Beyond Update July 12, 2020

Did you know St. Mark’s has two active honeybee hives on the roof of Bloedel Hall? Installed on May 10, they include thousands of residents. Recently, our apiarist Rob Reid suspected one of our hives had lost its queen because, when inspecting the frames, he was unable to find eggs. But wild bees are able to create a new queen with remaining larvae. To assist our bees, Rob and Jaime Rubio moved eggs from the healthy hive to the queenless one. Now the bees can create queen cells and feed them “royal jelly.” If all goes well, in less than a month, the new queen will mate in mid air with drone bees and start laying fertile eggs. There’s lots of miraculous science involved. You can see where the expression “the birds and the bees” comes from.

Sundays & Beyond Update July 5, 2020

This week’s thought: The world is facing a mass extinction of species, including pollinators. Bees are critically important to our global food production and nutritional security. Estimates suggest that pollinators directly contribute US$235–$577 billion to global food production each year. Without pollinators, many of the foods we depend on would become scarce, putting life on our planet at risk. When planting your flower garden this summer, consider planting pollinator-friendly plants. Take Earth Day Network’s Pesticide Pledge, and learn about additional actions you can take to help protect pollinators.

 

June Update from Beekeeper Rob

The bee population in our hives is increasing rapidly. We have added a second deep hive box to both hives. I may try to split an existing hive and create a third hive. Providing another queen can be tricky though.

Some of you have joined me in caring for the bees already. Thank you for your company, Jaime, Keiko, Yoshi, Barbara and Steve, and Nancy.

May Update from Beekeeper Rob

Penny and I picked up bees from the Snohomish Bee Company at the Monroe Fairgrounds last Sunday afternoon. Then, we “installed” two “nucs” of bees into two of the existing hives on the roof of Bloedel Hall. I ordered them several months ago and they were shipped here from Northern California a week ago. Each nuc comes with 5 frames and a working queen and thousands of worker bees. It was quick and easy to move the 5 frames, one at a time, into our hives. In fact, miraculously, I saw the queen on one of the frames as I was moving it from nuc box to hive.

 

 

Bees update June 2020

Bees update August 2020

Flentrop Organ Workshop Open House

by on July 15, 2020 with No Comments

The Flentrop Orgelbouw, founded in Zaandam in the Netherlands in 1903, created the organ for Saint Mark’s Seattle in 1965, and is still producing world-class instruments in 2020. On Saturday, July 18, 2020, the firm presented a virtual open house via YouTube livestream, during which they presented a tour of their workshop, presented videos and sound recordings illustrating their work, answered live questions from viewers, and revealed their current project, a large instrument for the Royal Birmingham (U.K.) Conservatoire.

View the video below to go step by step through the making of the organ.

A New Liturgical Pattern for Summer

by on July 15, 2020 with 1 Comment

UPDATE 8/18: With the return of a Sunday Morning service of Holy Eucharist on August 23, the cathedral's experiment with Morning Prayer has concluded. Eucharist will be continue to be offered every Sunday as we enter the fall season. Please reach out to the cathedral or to Dean Thomason directly and let us know what your experience of this liturgy was like.

For a period of time this summer, Saint Mark's Cathedral will adapt the rhythms of its Sunday Morning livestreamed liturgy. On July 19 and 26, the cathedral will offer a service of Morning Prayer instead of Holy Eucharist, harking back to the standard practices of the Church until the last generation. A service of Holy Eucharist will return August 2, followed by Morning Prayer again on August 9 and 16.

This pattern or services, with Eucharist only once a month, and morning prayer at other times, was the normal practice at churches of the Anglican tradition until the liturgical reforms of the mid-to-late 20th century. Morning Prayer, or Matins, is part of the cycle of prayer services contained in the Book of Common Prayer collectively known as "The Daily Office," which in the current prayer book includes Noonday Prayer, Evening Prayer (called "Evensong" when sung), and Compline.

Writing at the dawn of the current global pandemic, The Most Rev Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal church, wrote:

Many factors contributed to a general decline in the celebration of the Eucharist well into the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and Morning Prayer became the common service of worship on the Lord’s Day. And while it is good and right that the situation has changed dramatically, that the Holy Eucharist has again become the principal act of worship on Sunday across our church, few would suggest that the experience of Morning Prayer somehow limited God’s presence and love to generations of Anglican Christians. [...]

 

While not exclusively the case, online worship may be better suited to ways of praying represented by the forms of the Daily Office than by the physical and material dimensions required by the Eucharist. And under our present circumstances, in making greater use of the Office there may be an opportunity to recover aspects of our tradition that point to the sacramentality of the scriptures, the efficacy of prayer itself, the holiness of the household as the “domestic church,” and the reassurance that the baptized are already and forever marked as Christ’s own.

For a few weeks this summer, Saint Mark's will be taking up the Presiding Bishop's invitation. Please write to info@saintmarks.org or contact any of the clergy and let us know what you think of this experiment.

 

Taking Up Our Responsibility for Racial Justice

by on July 15, 2020 with 2 Comments
Photo by Tim Pierce via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

THIS SERIES MET IN JULY AND AUGUST, 2020

Although this offering is now concluded, you are invited to view the video of the plenary presentation, and explore course materials below. 

At this critical moment in our nation’s and community’s history, we are confronted again with fresh knowledge of longstanding racial injustice – in policing, the justice system, health care, housing, education, the Church, and many other sectors of our common life. Our faith community is grappling with important questions – what do I need to learn? How should I and our church respond?

This four-week study and discussion series in summer 2020 brought the Saint Mark’s community together to confront racism—its theology, history, and presence in our lives today—and ways to move forward toward justice. The in-depth series open to all recognized the responsibility for change falls on white people. We met on four Wednesday nights, with a required advance registration and commitment to attend all sessions and read/watch articles and videos in advance, and began with encouraging participants to read ahead of time Ijeoma Oluo’s book, So You Want to Talk About Race.

Saint Mark’s has ongoing programming each season to continue the work to take up our responsibility for racial justice, and encourages each of us to continue doing our own inner work, and learning, and action. As programs at the cathedral are scheduled, details will be available on the Racial Justice resources page, here.

The syllabus for the four-session series, including required reading and viewing, may be downloaded here.

Additional resources contributed by participants in the series may be downloaded here.

PDFs of the power point slides of the opening plenary may be downloaded here..

The Women’s Compline Choir Returns

by on July 15, 2020 with 2 Comments
TWO SUNDAYS, JULY 19 & 26, 9:30 P.M., broadcast live on KING-FM, and livestreamed 
After the historic and moving all-women Compline services offered last summer, plans were made for a repeat offering in the summer of 2020. The 21 women who participated last year cannot gather now, but a choir consisting only of Rebekah Gilmore and three other singers will offer Women's Compline once again on two Sundays in July. These services will be livestreamed on the cathedral website and on Facebook Live. Like last year, a new work has been commissioned and will receive its world premiere — Kevin Siegfried, a composer with Seattle roots and longstanding connections with the Compline Choir, has composed “Sisters, we have met to worship,” based on the early American Hymn tune Holy Manna. If you wish, you may RSVP on the Facebook event page.

UPDATE 7/22: Video of the service of July 19 may be seen below: 

UPDATE 7/28: Video of the service of July 26 may be seen below: 

Sandra Smith: A Reflection on Mask Worry

by on July 8, 2020 with 2 Comments

Back in March, Sandra Smith submitted the very first reflection posted on the cathedral website on the events that were then rapidly unfolding, from her perspective as an immune-compromised person. Now, three months later, she has submitted the following thoughts about the current situation.

I believe all people in our human community do matter, especially the vulnerable and oppressed. We must keep ourselves safe. For people who don’t chose to mask, I have felt righteous indignation with my inner bully/tyrant rising up with anger because my health is threatened. I don’t want to be a bully nor a tyrant nor do I want to hate others whose values and behaviors are different than my own. I want to disarm myself, and ask God’s grace to diminish threats, save all of us, God’s people, and help me to truly walk in love, literally.

So, I walked for exercise with my neighbor. We were masked and maintained 6 feet social distancing from each other. As the months continued, I noticed people on my walk who didn’t wear their masks and it worried me; I felt threatened by their choice as they approached on the street. It surprised me how much woeful energy I felt as I encountered the unmasked. I wondered, why such a threat?

Having walked along a busy street for my daily walk, I felt a slow crescendo of anxiety, both my own and others’. After stepping aside from my frustration and fear, I took time to reflect and realized that I want others to behave in a way that protects me. After all, I wear a mask to protect them. Didn’t they have the desire to protect others, like me?

Then I looked deeper and realized that I had a part in this. Perhaps my need to control the masking behavior of others only increased my frustration. Stepping back from my worldview of what compassionate life may look like, it had now become time for me to admit again, that I only have power over my own behavior and actions. I began to consider the question a very wise woman said, “what can I do differently?”

So, my walking buddy and I chose after Easter Monday to walk a new less busy route while reflecting on a scripture passage each of us brings to the walk, maintaining our six-foot distance between ourselves and the fewer unmasked anxious others we encountered. I avoided the nearby unmasked contractor who was consistently not adhering to the Governor’s directive for him to be masked. As he continued in his illegal neglect, I calmly and firmly wrote to my condo neighbors that the behavior of this unmasked contractor was unacceptable. I asked what does he not understand and why? He is now abiding and masked. I also acknowledge the passing joggers’ rights as equal to my right to be outside and avoid or face away from them as they pass quickly to protect myself.

I try to let go of what is not mine to do responsibly. I don’t want to act in a tyrannical way to any of my neighbors. I fervently want to express my needs in a firm and loving way. I ask God to help me walk in love which is hard to do. I pray that I can continue to choose to do the best I can. God bless you in your journey with the unmasked. Be Safe. Let us pray for one another. Amen.

The Wisdom of Children: An Audio Project from Saint Mark’s

by on June 23, 2020 with 2 Comments
The Wisdom of Children is an audio project recorded in June, 2020, featuring the voices of the children of the Saint Mark's Cathedral community. Listen now using the embedded player below, or read on for other ways to listen.
LISTEN NOW:
A MESSAGE FROM DEAN THOMASON

Dear friends,

Several weeks ago, in the throes of feeling the acute loss of human interaction, it washed over me how much I missed hearing the voices of children in my life—the murmurs of little ones on the carpet in the nave during worship, the screams of playful delight on the Lowell Elementary School playground across the street from my home, the infectious giggles of toddlers swept up in a moment of joy, even the wailsome cries of a child who intuitively knows all is not right with their world. Children bring a spiritual wisdom to the mix, unhindered by worldly ways that tilt toward cynicism. I have learned much from these little ones through the years, when I take time to listen, really listen.

The idea of asking children questions and capturing their words in audio files matured under the leadership of Kelly Moody, our Associate for Spiritual Formation, and Canon Cristi Chapman, and we are delighted to share the voices of several children of Saint Mark’s here, in this time of pandemic. Entitled The Wisdom of Children, the invitation is simply to have your heart lifted, and perhaps opened a bit more to the spiritual connection we all share, as beloved children of God. There is wisdom here, and nourishment for the soul. Enjoy!

Blessings and Peace,

The Very Reverend Steven L. Thomason
Dean and Rector
OTHER WAYS TO LISTEN
Please note that, for convenience, "The Wisdom of Children" will also be made available as a special episode of the Saint Mark's Prayer Podcast for Children and Families—search for the podcast title on your app of choice, and select the episode "The Wisdom of Children."
You may also listen on SoundCloud here.
THE COMPLETE UNEDITED INTERVIEWS
Below are the full interviews of all the children. Thanks to all the participants!

Seattle Multifaith Clergy Lament & Prayer for Racial Justice

by on June 3, 2020 with No Comments

FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 12 NOON

This Friday, June 5, at noon, a group of Seattle clergy from many faith traditions will gather on the terrace and steps of St. James Cathedral to pray and observe eight minutes, 46 seconds of silence while the Cathedral’s funeral bell tolls. Rev. Dr. Kelle Brown, Lead Pastor, Plymouth Church, will speak and invite all to the time of silence. Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral will be represented at the event by Dean Steve Thomason. Learn more in Dean Thomason's message here. Participating clergy will wear face coverings and observe appropriate physical distancing. The brief service will be livestreamed at https://vimeo.com/425970811 and on St James Cathedral’s Facebook page: facebook.com/stjamesseattle/

NOTE: To comply with the recent directive regarding outdoor religious services, in-person attendance at this event must be strictly limited. Please DO NOT plan to attend this event in person.

UPDATE: A full video of the event may be seen below:

Moment of Prayer and Lament from St. James Cathedral, Seattle on Vimeo.

Confronting Racism—Working for Change

by on June 3, 2020 with 8 Comments

Anti-Racism Learning Resources

What can I do? There are articles galore, lists galore, books galore – no dearth of resources and actions online and in publications. It’s not about you doing everything; it’s about all of us doing something.

You are encouraged to be willing to be uncomfortable, to read challenging works from sources you may not ordinarily seek out, and to be intentional in doing both the inner work and the active work in the world that we are called to as Christians: to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.

This list is not meant to be comprehensive, but provides examples of ways to get more involved in addressing racism and working for change.

Where to start?

  • Educate yourself.
  • Do your inner work.
  • Listen – and speak up.
  • Participate in and financially support organizations run by people of color.
  • Show up and volunteer. 

 

Do the ongoing work

  • Call legislators and police departments, and write letters and emails. They do get counted!
  • Work for voting rights and voter registration in communities of color.
  • Speak up when you hear racist talk.
  • Listen when people of color speak, even if their message makes you uncomfortable.
  • Remember S.A.S. – STOP. ASK. STAY.  When you see a person of color being questioned or hassled: Stop — Ask "Are you okay?" — Stay and be a witness.
  • Show up in solidarity – not violence.
  • Do the inner work to face the cultural and inherited racism in yourself: read, listen, participate in workshops and programs on dismantling racism.
  • Follow the lead of people of color; join an organization run by people of color.
  • Support black-owned businesses. Here is one list: http://seattlerefined.com/lifestyle/support-black-owned-businesses-in-seattle
  • Here is another list of black-owned businesses: https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/support-black-owned-businesses/
  • Pepperdine University provides this resource to help understand the roots and consequences of prejudice: https://onlinegrad.pepperdine.edu/blog/prejudice-discrimination-coping-skills/

 

Books

  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
  • I’m still here by Austin Channing Brown
  • Disunity in Christ by Christena Cleveland
  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta Nehisi Coates
  • White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo
  • The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton
  • Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
  • How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
  • Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America's Heartland by Jonathan Metzl
  • So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
  • Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad
  • Just Mercy by Bryan Stephenson
  • A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ron Takaki
  • The Burning House: Jim Crow and the Making of Modern America by Anders Walker
  • A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

News

 

Local Organizations

 

National Organizations

 

Other lists of resources

Black Lives Matter: A Guide to Resistance Events, Black-Owned Restaurants, and Other Ways to Stand Against Racism in Seattle
The Stranger has published this excellent list of resources, references, and recommendations.

The Bureau of Fearless Ideas [pdf]
The Seattle branch of the Dave Eggers-founded writing nonprofit suggests accounts to follow, books by black authors, donation sites, direct action literature, and podcasts about race.

Seattle Rep’s Racial Justice Resources
Seattle Repertory Theatre has compiled links to local and national donation sites, memorial funds, petitions, and education material, plus numbers to call to demand justice for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade.

Responding to Racist Violence

Resources from The Episcopal Church, including Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's recent Pentecost sermon, scriptures and liturgies for prayer and healing, and ways to participate in justice initiatives.

Anti-Racism Resources [google doc]
This list compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein includes tons of articles, videos, podcasts, books, films and TV, and other links “intended to serve as a resource to white people and parents to deepen our anti-racism work.”

Additional Resources for Taking Up Our Responsibility for Racial Justice [pdf] During Saint Mark’s summer 2020 series of readings, videos, podcasts, and discussions, many resources were offered by participants in addition to the syllabus, examining racism and white privilege and how we as individuals, and as community, are both complicit and can learn more and be forces for change. Find this extended list here.

 

Resources for children and teens

Summer Reading List [pdf]

A collective network of Episcopal formation leaders has put together a wonderful anti-racist reading list for students (bracketed by age) and parents. We love God by loving one another, and it's never too soon to talk to our children about the differences they see, and to practice love by dismantling racism. Let us know if you read them, and send us a quick review to share with other families

Talking Race With Young Children [podcast episode with links to additional resources]

Even babies notice differences like skin color, eye shape and hair texture. Here's how to handle conversations about race, racism, diversity and inclusion, even with very young children.


Raising Race-conscious children

A list of 100(!) race-conscious things you can say to your child to advance racial justice.


Nikole Hannah-Jones' work on school choice and segregation
Scroll through the list of Hannah-Jones' publications and interviews to read her provocative work on inequalities in education

 

Kids4Peace

Explore the many offerings for high school and junior-high students from this interfaith organization with longstanding ties to Saint Mark's.

 

What does Love Do? [pdf]

A printable document for families from The Episcopal Church. Put it on your fridge, and be reminded throughout the day that love is the way!

Dean Thomason: Racial Violence and God’s Call to a “New Normal”

by on May 30, 2020 with 4 Comments

Dear friends,

Our hearts singe once more with the excruciating pain of seeing a police officer in Minnesota use an established torture technique to subdue a black man under suspicion of an alleged crime. Other police officers were complicit in their participation. George Floyd died at their hands.

There has been much talk in recent weeks of constitutional rights, but Mr. Floyd was not afforded his in this moment which has catalyzed outrage and terror. Yes, terror, for there are fellow citizens of this nation who must live in fear of such heinous and deadly acts being perpetrated on them, too, and their sons and brothers. They live in terror because this is not an isolated event. This nation’s deep roots of racism have given rise to more than four centuries of such terror. It is no wonder that terror intermingled with grief from a pandemic has stirred the masses into a riotous furor.

“A riot is the language of the unheard.” So said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who used his prophetic voice to call this nation to repent of its sin of racism, in 1968. That quote has become a soundbite in recent days, as it did four years ago in Baltimore, and eight years ago in Ferguson, and… and… and…

But in that same speech Dr. King went on to ask America — which is to say, he went on to ask you and me: “What is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor [sic] has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.”

The prophet’s voice singes our ears and our hearts a half century later, and his words are sadly as true now as they were then. Dr. King rejected violence as a means for societal change, and yet he understood the violent protests of the oppressed in relation to the violence and terror that racism has inflicted on a people for centuries.

Let’s be honest: we all want justice… for ourselves at least, but maybe not so much when it disturbs the status quo to which we have become accustomed. That is human nature, I suppose, but it comes with a heavy price for some as we organize our common life by a deeper logic that insists on inequity: insider/outsider; rich/poor; powerful/oppressed. Barak Obama reflected this week in the wake of George Floyd’s death that “it's natural to wish for life ‘to just get back to normal’ as a pandemic and economic crisis upend everything around us. But we have to remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal’ — whether it's while dealing with the health care system, or interacting with the criminal justice system, or jogging down the street, or just watching birds in a park.”

My friends, God is calling us to create a new normal in which justice will take a shape that extends well beyond a neighborhood in Minneapolis, and well beyond cries for retributive justice to be meted out. Yes, a police officer has been charged with murder; other police officers have been fired. We pray this day for the riots to revert to non-violent protest. And we pray that those voices may be heard, by us, by our leaders, and by all in this nation as we struggle to find a new way, a different way of being part of that “inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

God’s relentless call to us is about working for a new creation in which the even deeper logic is abundant life for all. A “new normal,” if you will. As we renew our Baptismal Covenant tomorrow on the occasion of Pentecost, may we form the words on our lips and on our hearts: “I will, with God’s help.”

Your Brother in Christ,

The Very Reverend Steven L. Thomason

Dean and Rector

Women Clergy at Saint Mark’s Panel Discussion Video

by on May 26, 2020 with No Comments

On Sunday, May 24, The Rev. Canon Jennifer King Daugherty moderated a panel discussion with three women priests who served at Saint Mark's, Seattle, in three different decades: The Rev. Carla Berkedal Pryne, the first woman priest at Saint Mark's, who served in the 1980s, The Rev. Kate Kinney, who served in the 1990s, and The Rev. Sue Reid, who served in the 2000s.

Heritage Sunday Slide Show

by on May 24, 2020 with No Comments

Thank you to everyone who submitted photographs for the Heritage Sunday Slideshow, shown immediately before the livestreamed liturgy on May 24, 2020.

Please note: The photograph at 5:50 depicting the Saint Mark's Habitat for Humanity Team was not, as the caption says, taken in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. It was taken several years earlier at a work site in South Seattle.

Heritage Sunday at Saint Mark’s Cathedral

by on May 2, 2020 with No Comments

SUNDAY, MAY 24

  • DEAN'S FORUM AT 10 A.M., via Zoom

  • SPECIAL LITURGY AT 11 A.M.

  • FESTIVE COFFEE HOUR AT NOON, via Zoom

In 2019 Saint Mark's began what was intended to be an annual tradition: Heritage Sunday, an opportunity to celebrate and give thanks for all the generations who have come before us in the community of Saint Mark's, Seattle—from the founders of the parish in the nineteenth century, to those longtime members of the community who still bless us with their experience and wisdom today.

The event will begin with a special Zoom forum in the 10 a.m. hour. Dean Thomason will present a brief slide show of historical details about the cathedral, then a panel of The Reverends Carla Berkedal Pryne, Kate Kinney, and Sue Reid, who served at Saint Mark’s as priests in three different decades, will reflect on their experiences. This forum will be presented simultaneously over Zoom and on Facebook Live—watch your email for more details, or contact info@saintmarks.org.

From 10:45 until the start of the 11 a.m. liturgy, the livestream will present a special slideshow of historical images from the 1940s through the 2000s, shared by many members of the community. (Note: If you want to share a photo to be included, please send a copy, with your names on the back, to Erik Donner at edonner@saintmarks.org no later than Monday May 18)

Like last year, the 11 a.m. service will again employ elements of the liturgy that would be familiar to generations past, including music, prayers, vestments, and the order of service itself. Drawing on prayers spanning nearly 500 years of Anglican worship, we will pull out the stops for a special celebration. Former senior wardens serving in three different decades will read the scriptures. Former Dean The Rev. Fred Northup will be guest preacher. Dean Thomason will officiate. Special music will frame the joyful occasion, including a rousing postlude of Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” with organ and percussion.

Following the service, there will be a Zoom gathering to which all are invited as we share stories about our common life at Saint Mark’s through the years. Special guests have been invited—including Pro Christo Award recipients, former senior wardens, and all the living clergy who have served at Saint Mark’s through the years. Join the fête to share some Saint Mark’s time together! Watch your email for the links to participate, and contact info@saintmarks.org with any questions.

The Home Altars of Saint Mark’s

by on April 1, 2020 with No Comments

Earlier this week, the people of Saint Mark's were invited to create home altars to serve as a focal point for their Holy Week observances. Visit this post for details. Below are some of the photographs that members of the community have sent in to the cathedral or shared in the Facebook Group. Click to enlarge!

Making your Home Altar

by on March 30, 2020 with No Comments
We are about to enter a Holy Week like none other any of us have ever experienced. We are all anxious to feel the joy of the Feast of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, but it is a core part of our tradition that we must, with intention, walk through the Holy Week observances of Passion and death in order to reach our Easter celebration.
As has been announced, Saint Mark's Cathedral will be livestreaming services from the cathedral nave throughout Holy Week. In addition, in order that we might all more fully engage with the Holy Week journey, we will all be invited into various activities and practices in our own homes that will integrate with the liturgies offered through the livestream. You may participate in these activities whether you are home alone, with a partner, or with your family.
The first of these is the home altar. In the video below, Dean Steve Thomason, Choir School Director Rebekah Gilmore, and Associate for Spiritual Formation Kelly Moody of Saint Mark's Children's and Families Ministries introduce the idea of a home altar, and show what their families have created.
You will be invited to engage with your home altar in specific ways during the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday observances in particular. As it says in the video, please send in images or other reports on what you have created for yourself.

A Special Video for Choir Members

by on March 26, 2020 with 2 Comments

The music program at Saint Mark's Seattle, somewhat famously, involves seven different choirs (Saint Mark's Singers, Cathedral Choir, Evensong Choir, Compline Choir, Junior Choristers, Senior Choristers, and Schola). During this time when choirs are neither singing for liturgies nor meeting weekly to rehearse, choir members are feeling separation and absence acutely.

Canon Kleinschmidt and Choir School Director Rebekah Gilmore made the following video to recreate the warm-ups which begin all choir rehearsals, when singers prepare our voices and our bodies for the work to come. At Saint Mark's, the children and adult choirs share many of the same warm-up exercises! The exercises included in the video are beloved by 5-year-old junior choristers and 50-year veterans of the Cathedral Choir alike.

Share your Dinner Wednesday night!

by on March 24, 2020 with No Comments
Let’s gather virtually and have fun staying connected! This Wednesday, March 25, on our usual Cathedral Commons night, visit the Saint Mark's Seattle Community Life during the Closure group and post a photo of your dinner table or what you're eating. Some members of the group tried this last Wednesday, and it was so lovely to see everyone! (A few examples are pictured at below.) This Facebook group is "private"—to join in, just follow the link above, or visit our our regular Facebook page and click the blue "Visit Group" button below the main image.
For an extra reminder of Wednesday nights at the cathedral, begin by singing our usual Table Grace, accompanied by this video, featuring Canon Musician Michael Kleinschmidt on the Bloedel Hall piano.
And if you don't use Facebook, email a photo or even just a few words to Communications Director Greg Bloch, and he'll post it here on the Online Community Life page along with a sampling of the reports from the facebook group.

Jo Ann Bailey: Help Medical Workers by Making Fabric Masks

by on March 24, 2020 with No Comments

Community member Jo Ann Bailey, a professional seamstress and teacher of sewing, submitted this report below about making fabric masks for healthcare workers. (Last week on the cathedral's Facebook Group, there was a call from Providence Hospitals for help sewing masks, but they have subsequently engaged manufacturers, including a Mukilteo furniture factory, to produce masks in quantity and are no longer soliciting volunteers. The opportunity described below is a better option!)

A shortage of protective clothing for medical professionals is yet another complication of this current COVID-19 crisis. Fabric face masks from the community are now welcome as hospitals and clinics prepare for an increase in patients. While fabric masks are not to be used in the care of COVID-19 patients, according to the CDC, fabric masks are a crisis response option when other supplies have been exhausted. Fabric masks can also be helpful in other areas of patient care as supplies of PPE are depleted. Prior to disposable masks, fabric masks were standard use for hospitals. These masks can be washed and sterilized repeatedly as needed. They provide needed protection to health care workers as well as patients.

Seattle area JoAnn Fabrics locations [editor's note: no relation!] are receiving and distributing donated, community-made, masks. For store locations visit  www.joann.com. Patterns and clear, easy to follow, instructions are also available here: https://www.joann.com/make-to-give-response/

A few helpful hints:

  1. Narrow elastic has recently followed toilet paper off the store shelves. The tie-on style of mask will probably be the best for now unless you have ¼” elastic in your stash.
  2. Use 100% cotton, tight weave, fabric. Use on both sides, or line the inside with cotton flannel.
  3. From the patterns and styles available, choose the one that best suits your supplies and skills.

 

Please email or call if you have questions. I would love to hear from you! Email at this link.

—Jo Ann Bailey

Dean’s Letter: One Body, Many Parts

by on March 24, 2020 with 1 Comment

As we approach two weeks since the first public health directives upended our normal routines, with many in the interim faced with job loss, school closures, and the threat of illness coming too close, I am keenly aware that the stress of this disruption and the weight of the burgeoning health care crisis are bearing down on us, collectively and individually. It is difficult in the moment to find an unimpeded path to resolution and a return to normalcy (whatever that may look like). None of us are certain how long this will last, and that naturally enough prompts anxiety. And there is a deep sense of grieving intermingled in it all.

I name all of this, having had personal conversations or email exchanges with literally hundreds of you in recent days—I name all of this as we prepare for a very unusual Holy Week, and I am acutely aware of the fact that we are making our journey to the cross of Good Friday this year like no other year in living memory. But we do so ever-enlightened by the hope of resurrection. We are resurrection people, and we are called to live in a way that does not gloss the harsh realities of life, but rather holds those struggles in the context of resurrected life, trusting that something new is in the works, even if we can’t quite make it out just yet....

Please click here to read the remainder of the Dean's message.

Morning Prayer, 7 a.m. Thursdays

by on March 17, 2020 with No Comments

Note: this post form March 2020 is kept up for historical reasons, and may not still be accurate. Please check the Worship Schedule page for the most updated information. 

For many years, a devoted congregation has gathered each Thursday morning for a weekday service of Holy Eucharist. Similar to daily Evening Prayer, the Thursday Morning Eucharist will likewise be replaced at this time by a service of Morning Prayer offered each week using the Zoom online teleconferencing platform.

The begins Thursday, March 19, 2020, at 7 a.m., and then every Thursday morning after that until the cathedral reopens. The Sunday morning Eucharist is normally followed by a community breakfast, so this online service will also be followed immediately by a period of time to talk and be together. You can even enjoy your breakfast at that time if you'd like! This is a way of maintaining something like the typical weekly routine for those who have attended this service regularly, something very important for all of us at this time. All are welcome.

You will need a copy of the Book of Common Prayer in order to follow the service. The BCP is available online here. Like Evening Prayer, the flow of the liturgy may be unfamiliar at first, but will quickly become routine after a few weeks.

All you need to join in is a special link. (If you’ve never used Zoom, the instructions here will walk you through how to do this.) UPDATE: The link to participate is now posted publicly. Join using this link:

Evening Prayer Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/825763851?pwd=MVJpRWhvenU0bHg1V1Q5dGdzRUNMZz09
Meeting ID: 825 763 851; Passcode: 3230300

If you have any questions, email Sarah Elwood at selwood@uw.edu.

A big thank you to Sarah and the entire faithful 7 a.m. Thursday congregation, as well as Cathedral Sacristan Michael Seewer, for making this online offering available to the whole community.

Daily Evening Prayer Online

by on March 16, 2020 with 3 Comments

Daily Evening Prayer is offered each weekday, Monday through Friday, at 6:30 p.m.

UPDATE: Beginning Tuesday, August 3, 2021, the service will be offered in person in Thomsen Chapel on Tuesdays only.

Monday and Wednesday–Friday the service will remain online-only via Zoom. Join the online service using this Zoom link.

For many years, Saint Mark's has offered a spoken service of Daily Evening Prayer in Thomsen Chapel most weekdays at 6:30 p.m. (Read more about the history of this service here.)  While the cathedral building is closed, the leaders of this ministry are continuing to offer the service online, using the Zoom teleconferencing platform.

To join, all you is a computer or phone with a camera, and a special link. UPDATE: The link to participate is now posted publicly. Join using this link:

Evening Prayer Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/825763851?pwd=MVJpRWhvenU0bHg1V1Q5dGdzRUNMZz09
Meeting ID: 825 763 851; Passcode: 3230300

To participate in the liturgy, it will be helpful to have a copy of the Book of Common Prayer 1979, and an NRSV Bible. However, both are available online, and the leaders of the service will put the text on the screen to help you follow along.  If you've never attended this liturgy before, the flow of the service can take a little getting used to, but don't let that deter you! After attending a few services it will become routine.

Contact Cathedral Sacristan Michael Seewer at mseewer@saintmarks.org with any additional questions you may have. And heartfelt thanks to the lay leaders of this service, especially Sue Tait, for keeping this important offering alive.

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