Cathedral Commons—Reflections on the Evensong Pilgrimage

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2025

Join Canon Michael Kleinschmidt, Rebekah Gilmore, and members of the Evensong Choir for reflections and discussion on their summer pilgrimage to serve as choir-in-residence for a week each in Lincoln and Durham Cathedrals, England. The forum will be led by Evensong Choir Members James Wilcox and Molly Porter, and some choir members will share some music that was sung during the pilgrimage.

Special Parish Forum: Affordable Housing Project Updates

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 6:45–8:15 P.M., in person in Bloedel Hall and online via Zoom

Join the Affordable Housing Committee to discuss key project milestones and meet some of the partners in our work. This forum will provide updates and insights from Redwood Housing, Saint Mark’s development partner, community engagement planning, and an opportunity to preview initial visioning for an innovative community-based organization model that will help guide the development of a housing community on campus. More details to come.

Learn about the history of the project up to this point here, and join the forum online using this Zoom link.

Program is free; optional community dinner at 6 p.m. ($8/adult; $25/family max.)

Cathedral Commons – Forum on the Archbishop of Canterbury

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 6:45–8:15 P.M., in person in Bloedel Hall and online via Zoom

WITH THE REV. ADAM CONLEY

The recent election of Sarah Mullaly as the first woman to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury is an historic event. What is the Archbishop of Canterbury all about? How did this clerical role gain such primacy? What does the recent election mean for the Episcopal Church, the Church of England, and the worldwide Anglican Communion? Fr. Adam will guide an exploration and discussion of the role, meaning, and impact of the Archbishop of Canterbury for Anglicans across the globe. He will offer stories of his personal experiences at an enthronement of a past archbishop and share perspectives on the current archbishop from different corners of the Worldwide Anglican Communion.


UPDATE: Download the slides from this presentation here.

The following references and resources were shared at the forum:

  • An NPR interview about the appointment of Bishop Sarah Mullally as the next Archbishop of Canterbury
  • An episode of the Holy Smoke podcast, "What can we expect from the first Female ABC?" (Oct. 3, 2025) [NB: Fr. Conley recommends this single episode, not this podcast as a whole.]
  • This article from The Living Church, which outlines the diversity of responses to Sarah Mullaly’s appointment
  • The Anglican Communion at a Crossroads (2018) by Christopher Craig Brittain and Andrew McKinnon
  • Anglican Theology: Postcolonial Perspectives (2024) by Stephen Burns and James Tengatenga
  • The Anglican Tradition from a Postcolonial Perspective (2023) by Kwok Pui-Lan
  • Christianity and Social Order (1942) by William Temple (Archbishop of Canterbury,1942–1944)
  • Love's Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness (2003), ed. Geoffrey Rowell, Kenneth Stevenson, and Rowan Williams
  • Anglicanism: A Very Short Introduction (2006) by Mark Chapman
  • The Book of Common Prayer [...] According the Use of The Episcopal Church (1979)

Cathedral Commons – Naming Our Thresholds

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Part of the Wisdom School at Saint Mark's 2025-26 season 

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2025, 6:45–8:15 P.M., in person in Bloedel Hall and online via Zoom

Facilitated by the Rev. Canon Emily Griffin

Thresholds are places for entering and leaving­—for moving from one kind of space or time to another. We make these kinds of transitions throughout our lives but often don’t know how to prepare for them, mark them, or discern the shape of our lives in light of them. In this session, we will share tools for narrating our own life stories and explore how our shared story as Christians helps us make meaning of our endings that are also new beginnings.


Download the slides from this presentation here

St. Francis, Honeybees, and Caring for Creation

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2025

Rick Samyn is the Pastoral Assistant for Social Justice at St. Leo Church in Tacoma. A former Capuchin Franciscan Brother, he has been beekeeping for 24 years. In this forum, Rick will invite us to expand our view of what it means to live incarnationally. We'll learn and talk about how to renew our bond with creation, taking St. Francis of Assisi as our guide and honeybees as our model.

Watch a recording of this forum:

Undaunted Joy!—A Cathedral Commons Forum with Shamaiah Gonzalez

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WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 24, 6:45–8:15 P.M., in person in Bloedel Hall and online via Zoom

Does joy just seem too difficult to come by these days? Does it seem irresponsible or naïve? Maybe you don't feel like you can be joyful, don't know how to, or don't deserve to?

Local author Shemaiah Gonzalez shares stories from her new book Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight. In her collection of short essays on defiant joy, Shemaiah reflects on how she gradually learned to see joy not as an indulgence but as a necessity—a way of life and the fruit of faith. Shemaiah will led us in conversation to notice God in the mundane and magnificent.

Once you start looking for joy, you might start finding it everywhere. It's time to live joyously.

UPDATE: A complete video is now available below.

Find links to purchase the book here.

The prayer with which Shemaiah closed the forum can be read here


About the presenter

Shemaiah Gonzalez is a writer with degrees in English Literature (BA), Intercultural Ministry (MAPS) and Creative Non-Fiction Writing (MFA). She thrives in moments where storytelling, art, literature, and faith collide. Her work has appeared in America Magazine, Image Journal’s Good LettersEkstasisThe Curator, and Loyola Press, among others. A Los Angeles native, she now lives in Seattle with her husband, whom she has known since she was 14 years old, and their two teen sons.