Marysville church's Catholic priest brings along his wife

From Washington State-

When the Rev. Tom McMichael arrived at St. Mary Catholic Church in January, he had already introduced himself in a “Pastor's Page” letter on the parish website. In his note, he wrote of looking forward “with joy and hope” to serving at the church. And he added a surprising detail: “I am a Catholic priest and I am married.”

In his office at the Marysville parish, the 55-year-old McMichael talked Thursday about his journey, from serving 17 years as a Lutheran pastor to a time of deep spiritual discernment. That led him, along with his Lutheran wife, Karin McMichael, to convert to Roman Catholicism. On Jan. 10, 2009, he was ordained as a Catholic priest at St. James Cathedral in Seattle.

“I attribute it to the Holy Spirit,” McMichael said. “I truly felt a call to the priesthood.”

Greg Magnoni is a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Seattle, which oversees all of Western Washington's Catholic parishes. He said it's not unprecedented for married men to serve as priests. In the past, Magnoni said, several widowers have been ordained.

More here-

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20160528/NEWS01/160529159

Gardens help fill shelves at food banks

From Washington-

Three-year-old Laird Bowser was logging community service hours Saturday at the Grace Episcopal Church gardens. He just didn't know it.

Laird spent the sunny morning helping his mother harvest cucumbers, shuffling handfuls of vegetables to a 5-gallon bucket at the end of the row. The Bowsers weren't taking the bucket home at the end of the day. Instead, every potato, bean and squash picked at the Day Road East church is donated to the Helpine House food bank.

Grace Church's plot produced more than 1,300 pounds of vegetables for Helpline this season. It's the largest contributing garden to the island food bank, but there are many more like it.

Helpline volunteer services manager Marilyn Gremse said the food bank has enjoyed a recent surge in donations from island gardeners. Contributions come from small farms, community pea patches and backyard planting boxes.

Read more:

 http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2012/oct/07/community-gardens-help-fill-shelves-at-food/#ixzz28hmtPi49

Retired reverend writes book on 'A New Way to be Human'

From Washington state-

He calls it "polishing the world." And "leaving a footprint of compassion."

With his new book and a lifelong history of working to brighten the world, the Rev. Robert Taylor is spreading a message of inclusion, goodness and spirituality from what was once darkness and despair.

His recommendations aren’t all that different from what parents might advise their children — create and share joy, don’t exclude anyone, listen carefully, discover similarities with others.

Kindness trumps everything, says Taylor, who lives in the Lower Yakima Valley. People don’t have to be divided by politics, race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

An author, nationally known speaker and leader in social justice causes, Taylor, who is 54, was also the first openly gay dean, or head pastor of a cathedral, in the Episcopal Church.

Born in South Africa, he fled to the United States in 1980 because of his outspoken views against apartheid. He then attended Union Theological Seminary in New York, graduating in 1984 with a Master of Divinity degree.

More here-

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2012/09/08/retired-reverend-writes-book-on-a-new-way-to-be-human

St. Luke's church celebrates 152 years by revisiting bygone era

From Washington State-

Members of St. Luke's Episcopal Church turned the clock back 152 years on Sunday.

Their church was consecrated on May 27, 1860.

"They are both Pentecost Sundays," signaling the end of the Easter season, said the Rev. Jaime Case, the church's rector.

The observance included about 30 parishioners who came in period dress.

"We were experiencing the first prayer book (1789) of our denomination," Case said. "It was a wonderful reminder of how much has changed and how little has changed."

For instance, Case said in 1860 women were not allowed to be part of a service and the church was not welcoming to people of color.

The first St. Luke's building was a repurposed schoolhouse bought in 1858, said church archivist Patrick Lawless. It was in downtown and today probably would be under Interstate 5, he said. The current church at 426 E. Fourth Plain Blvd. was built in 1932 and remodeled in 1959.

Lawless said experiencing the same service delivered on May 27, 1860, was "a way for us to understand how we have changed and how we need to grow."

More here-

http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/may/27/st-lukes-episcopal-church-152-years/

A Presbyterian exodus over allowing openly gay to be ordained

From Washington State-

Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in Gig Harbor voted Sunday to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), primarily because the denomination changed its constitution to allow noncelibate gay men and lesbians to be ordained as clergy and lay leaders. With 1,660 members, Chapel Hill Presbyterian is one of the largest mainline Protestant churches in the South Sound region.

The Rev. Mark Toone, senior pastor of Chapel Hill, said his congregation reached a “tipping point” last spring when a majority of regional governing bodies, called presbyteries, voted to change the church’s ordination standards, permitting openly gay people to be ordained.
“For 30 years, we have battled over the same theological turf,” Toone told about 1,200 parishioners before Sunday’s vote. While it’s painful to leave the denomination, Toone said, “it would be more painful to remain.”

Sumner Presbyterian Church also voted Sunday to depart. Two other South Sound Presbyterian congregations, First Presbyterian of Tacoma and Evergreen Presbyterian in Graham, also decided recently to leave the denomination.

Read more:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/11/14/1905662/a-presbyterian-exodus.html#ixzz1dgG1Du1b

Richland church helps raise $13,000 to support food bank

From Washington State-

Thanks to a Richland church, the Tri-City Food Bank's bare shelves will be able to fill up again.

"Food donations are down. Stores are being a lot more conservative in their purchasing, so there's not nearly as many dated items coming in as we've seen in the past," said John Neill, executive director of the Tri-City Food Bank.

That will change after today, when the congregation at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Richland will present him with a check for more than $13,000.

The money was raised as part of a project through the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, which stretches across Eastern Washington and North Idaho. Early this year, Bishop James Waggoner challenged the 41 congregations in the diocese to raise money for a specific charity dedicated to alleviating hunger in their area. The money would be split, half going to the charity of the congregation's choice, the other half going to a Honduran orphanage, El Hogar, an Episcopalian charity.

"El Hogar takes in 200 orphans a year, educates them and teaches them a trade so they have a vocation when they leave at 18," said Sindy Haffner, bookkeeper at All Saints'.

Read more:

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/07/24/1579134/richland-church-helps-raise-13000.html#ixzz1TCx4m2Xm

Church expands to accommodate growing congregation

From Washington State-

For years, the Episcopal Church has been getting older and smaller. The average member is 62 years old. Membership has steadily declined for decades, from its height in the 1950s and 1960s.

But St. Clare’s Episcopal Church in Snoqualmie, along with an increasing number of parishes scattered across the country, is bucking the trend. In six years, the congregation has nearly doubled. In the past two years, it’s grown by about 25 percent.

Four years ago, its future was not clear. The church’s pews were sparsely occupied on Sunday mornings and mostly filled with people with gray hair. Many might have expected the parish to fold when its main building had to be bulldozed after being flooded in January 2006.
Instead, the setback gave the congregation new purpose.

“To a person, we would all love to have that building to worship in, but it’s helped the congregation’s relationship with God,” said the Rev. Patty Baker, St. Clare’s vicar since 2004.
Today, St. Clare’s is expanding. It has outgrown the community hall it converted into a sanctuary, Sunday school and offices. It is adding two modular buildings to house offices and the church’s new — and popular — Sunday school program.

More here-

http://snovalleystar.com/2010/09/29/church-expands-to-accommodate-growing-congregation

Good Stuff In TEC: Seattle

Language, laws a challenge for indigenous migrants

When immigration agents arrested 16 farmworkers in a mass arrest of illegal immigrants early this year, legal advocates raced to find interpreters for some of the men, a few who spoke only a language called Mixtec.

But by the time an interpreter was found, most of the men were on their way out of the country after signing away their rights to contest deportation _ a procedure they might not have understood.

The deportations alarmed immigrant advocates in this agricultural city 60 miles north of Seattle. It also raised questions about the deportation proceedings for people who speak little Spanish or English.

"There is no way they knew what they were signing. No way," said the Rev. Jo Beecher of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Mount Vernon, one of the advocates who tried to help the men.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/18/language-laws-a-challenge-for-indigenous-migran-1/

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