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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