Glow with the Spirit at Christmas

We don’t have much time to fawn over how cute Jesus was when he was born in Bethlehem. In a few short paragraphs he’s in Jerusalem as a twelve year old (Luke 2:7, 41–51). Why so fast? Because what Jesus will do matters most. Matthew 1:21 says he’s come to save us from our sins. Much later 1 Timothy 1:15 says the same.      In a late sermon of Luther’s, he has God explain this to us. “This child was not given only to the mother so that she might supply Him with milk, but for you, so that He might die and deliver you from my wrath” (Luther’s Works 58:194). This is what we need the most – deliverance from God’s wrath (Romans 5:9, John 3:36). Without that salvation we are separated from the blessings of God forever (Isaiah 59:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:9). So when you wish one another a Merry Christmas during the twelve days of Christmas, have that salvation in mind, and “glow with the Spirit” (Romans 12:11). It’s that important.   —Pastor Marshall

PRESIDENT'S REPORT....by Cary Natiello

Hello dear friends in Christ,

GOOD RIDDANCE to 2020

What a year to never forget or repeat.  Let’s pray that 2021 will be a great year, one that we can look forward to resuming in-person worship services and getting back to some sense of normal.  But for now, we must stay the course and remain diligent in our precautions to maintain our health and safety.  Sadly, for now, the church doors remain closed.

OUR GIVING

Our giving through November was $225,200 against a budgeted $217,000.  Thank-you for your continued financial support of our staff and buildings.

Unfortunately, we were informed in December that Tilden School will permanently close as of June 17, 2021 due to four tenured teachers deciding to retire at the end of the school year, as well as the director, Whitney Tjerandsen.  Tilden has paid over $30,000 a year to FLCWS in rent and other financial support of many of our church projects.  While it will be hard to find tenants as great as them, it is critical for us financially that we do.  We will be pursuing other potential renters for the space early next year.  The space will be available August 1, 2021.

TILDEN SCHOOL

Tilden school was started by Whitney Tjerandsen, who, in 1985 began looking for an appropriate place for her kindergarten aged son to attend school.  She visited over 25 schools and came to the conclusion that the only way to get both the strong academics that she loved, and the kindness she felt was crucial, was to start her own school.  Tilden has been serving students in the area for the last 35 years.  Today, Tilden School serves about 100 West Seattle kindergarten through 5th grade students with academic and individualized education.  They have been great tenants in the church Parish House since 2002.

Some good news is that 10 members of our congregation pledged that they will increase their giving in 2021 and 15 members pledged their giving will remain the same as this year.  We also had six congregation members pledge for 2021 that did not pledge in 2020.  There are a number of our congregation that generously give to the church but do not pledge.  Overall, pledges for 2021 look very good.

2021 BUDGET

The council is preparing our 2021 budget for review at our annual meeting which will be held on Sunday, January 31, 2021 at 10:30 via ZOOM invite.  If you need help using ZOOM please contact the church office or go to the ZOOM website for user information. 

COVID-19 SAFETY PLAN

In addition, the council has been working on its COVID-19 Safety Plan – Return to Indoor Worship Services Notebook to use as a detailed guide for resuming indoor worship.  The guide is primarily for office use covering such things as responsibilities of the pastor, staff and volunteers, what to do in the case of a COVID-19 exposure, and cleaning and disinfecting the church.  The Notebook is 17 pages and is not intended to be distributed to the congregation because it is written in the form of a legal document to meet the various Health Service requirements.  The complete document is available to review upon request but it will continue to be modified as new information becomes available.  If you would like to review the document please contact the church office.

VACCINES

Based on recent survey data, it appears that more Americans (it varies but some reports are over 60%), are willing to get the vaccine when it is available.  Hopefully that number will continue to grow.  According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, vaccines are not expected to be widely available to the general public until March or April.  He also said that it won’t be until the end of summer or early fall before we could start approaching some degree of normality.  Based on everything we know today, it is expected that we will need to continue to follow all safety guidelines (masks, social distancing, etc.) well into 2021.

I hope you had a joyous Christmas, even without indoor services.  I am grateful to Pastor Marshall for his diligent work on providing us with the online abbreviated liturgies, many of which include music videos and sound of choirs singing church hymns.  Please plan to attend the Annual Meeting at the end of January.

God’s peace be with you.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

FOOD BANK COLLECTION suggested donation for January is pasta, noodles and sauces, but any non-perishable foods are acceptable.  Pastor Marshall will take these much needed donated items of food into the WS Food Bank if left at the church.  Please call or email the office to arrange for the items to be brought in if left at the front door of the offices. 

ANNUAL REPORT for 2020:  Staff, officer and committee reports are due.  If you have not already sent your report in to the office please do so as soon as possible.  The Annual Meeting is Sunday, January 31st, at 10:30 am via ZOOM online.  Email invitations to join the meeting will be sent out closer to the date. 

PASTOR MARSHALL continues to provide Home Communion upon request.

PASTOR MARSHALL’s next Koran Class starts on Monday, January 4th and continues through Monday the 25th.  Call the office if you would like to be sent the ZOOM online instructions. 

PASTOR MARSHALL meets with six members of the ELCA Cluster group monthly via ZOOM online.

2021 FLOWER CHART will be made available when the buildings are reopened.

OFFERING ENVELOPES for 2021 will be delivered or mailed this year. 

OUR THANKS for the donations – we were able to deliver six sweatshirts to Compass Housing Alliance. 

Philippians

The Apostle Saint Paul

“I count everything as loss because of

the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus.”

(3:8)

by Pastor Marshall

This is a startling verse both for its costs and benefits. Martin Luther thought the cost – counting everything as loss – was rooted in self-denial. For him that meant bringing “your will, your understanding – that is, your righteousness, wisdom, and works – into subjugation, or [to] cast them away…. [and] deny one’s entire self, not just some part…. You, yourself in your entirety, need to be put to death and become nothing and hold on to nothing in which you might place your confidence before God. This does not happen unless you deny what is highest and best in you, namely, your righteousness and wisdom, and [admit you’re] a sinner and a fool…. For to a man who despairs of himself, God through Christ cannot fail to be gracious…. And [then be sure to prepare] for temptation,… for there is nothing the world can tolerate hearing less than that the works of its own righteousness are condemned” (Luther’s Works 67:292–93).

     For Luther, this call to self-denial slams us against a wall. “Consider now,” he writes, “whether you will readily forsake your presumptuousness, holiness, and self-righteousness, and let yourself be shattered and say: ‘Dear Lord, I am a useless, worthless vessel. I will gladly let myself be broken to pieces’…. [If not] you will [have to] wait for Him to come on the Last Day and smash you to pieces in the abyss of hell, where you will be utterly shattered. Either be broken to pieces here voluntarily or be smashed there with hostility, for no one will be able to flee from God’s wrath” (LW 68:130)! So only “simple and hungry people… receive the Word of God and are nourished by it” (LW 76:403). Being broken into pieces is how “God humbles us amply” (LW 22:133). And it’s worth it because it brings the surpassing worth of Christ who is “sure and eternal and better than all worldly processions” (LW 12:161). Therefore we “can render God no other satisfaction than that procured by the death of Jesus Christ” (LW 22:147). “Then all wrath stops… and God appears as nothing but the merciful One who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all” (LW 26:42).

     In this verse then we see how “Christ is the turning point” in Christianity, since by believing in him what we “once treasured turns out to be” worthless (John Reumann, Philippians, 2008, p. 519). Even so we cling to our past treasures – keeping them from being “confused values, wasted opportunities, inner turmoil, and social wreckage” (Fred Craddock, Philippians, 1985, p. 59). And that’s because devaluing family, friends, teachers, property, “status, material benefits, honor [and] comforts” is tough on us (George Hunsinger, Philippians, 2020, p. 98). Even so, Christ remains the one of surpassing worth – “a complete gift [which surpasses] in great measure the cheapness of the efforts that are made through our striving” for worldly possessions (John Chrysostom, Homilies on Philppians, trans. Pauline Allen, 2013, pp. 238–39). Therefore the joy rooted in faith in Christ and his cross is the only “genuine and complete joy,… for it is not worldly or outward, but rather a secret and hidden joy” Luther says. “Indeed,” he continues, “bearing all manner of suffering for the love of Christ becomes sweet and easy…. For… all the joys of the world… would not help you stand against temptation or misfortune. For worldly joys rest solely on unstable [pleasures]… and can last only so long as such things are present and fades away… if some minor adversity has to be endured. But [Christian joy lasts] forever (since its foundation, too, is eternal)…. Thus we are able with a joyful heart to forsake and little esteem all the world’s joys” (LW 69:83–84).

 1 Peter 1:12

Monthly Home Bible Study, January 2021, Number 335

The Reverend Ronald F. Marshall

Along with our other regular study of Scripture, let us join as a congregation in this home study. We will study alone then talk informally about the assigned verses together as we have opportunity. In this way we can “gather together around the Word” even though physically we will not be getting together (Acts 13.44). (This study uses the RSV translation.)

     We need to support each other in this difficult project. In 1851 Kierkegaard wrote that the Bible is “an extremely dangerous book.... [because] it is an imperious book... – it takes the whole man and may suddenly and radically change... life on a prodigious scale” (For Self-Examination). And in 1967 Thomas Merton wrote that “we all instinctively know that it is dangerous to become involved in the Bible” (Opening the Bible). Indeed this word “kills” us (Hosea 6.5) because we are “a rebellious people” (Isaiah 30.9)! As Lutherans, however, we are still to “abide in the womb of the Word” (Luther's Works 17.93) by constantly “ruminating on the Word” (LW 30.219) so that we may “become like the Word” (LW 29.155) by thinking “in the way Scripture does” (LW 25.261). Before you study then, pray: “Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in Our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen” (quoted in R. F. Marshall, Making A New World: How Lutherans Read the Bible, 2003, p. 12). And don’t give up, for as Luther said, we “have in Scripture enough to study for all eternity” (LW 75:422)!

Week I. Read 1 Peter 1.12 noting the phrase serving not themselves. What’s wrong with serving yourself? On this read Luke 9.23 noting the words deny, self, daily and follow. In order to follow Jesus, why do we have to deny ourselves? On this read John 3.30 noting the play between the two words decrease and increase. Why is this asymmetrical relationship between Jesus and his followers necessary? Check out Matthew 6.24 noting the word pairs love and devoted, in contrast to hate and despise. Why this forced exclusion? Read Exodus 34.14 about God’s name being Jealous. Why does God force this narrowness on us – refusing to share any of us with another ultimate purpose? On this read John 3.3 noting the phrase born anew. Why isn’t our ordinary, first physical birth enough? Go to Psalm 51.5 where it says we are all born in sin. What does that do to us? Note in Mark 7.21–22 the list of what comes out of us – evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness, Are we really born with all of this inside of us? Or does it come from bad influences? On this read 2 Corinthians 7.5 noting the contrast between fighting without and fear within. The problems within take priority over those from outside because grieved into repenting is highlighted next in 2 Corinthians 7.9. So the corrupt heart described in Jeremiah 17.9 takes precedence – it’s our worst problem. Do you agree? If so, why?

Week II. Read again 1 Peter 1.12 noting this time the word revealed. Why does this negative view of ourselves have to be revealed to us? On this read 2 Corinthians 4.4 noting the word blinded. Why does that require revelation to overcome? On this note the word exertion in Romans 9.16. So is there nothing we can do to help ourselves? On this check out the words wretched and deliver in Romans 7.24. So are we just plain sick sinners – as in Mark 2.17? What does that illness do to us? Read 2 Corinthians 3.4–6 noting how confidence and competence are not of our own making. Does that explain our need for revelation?

Week III. Reread 1 Peter 1.12 noting this time the words serving and you. How is that done? On this read Galatians 1.10 noting the words favor, men, pleasing, servant and Christ. Why shouldn’t serving others please them? Check out Isaiah 53.6 noting the words all, sheep and astray. Because of this we cannot serve others by giving them what they want. Are we really that clueless? On this read Matthew 9.36 noting the words helpless and shepherd. Deep down, then, we don’t know what’s good for us. On why this is so, check out Isaiah 5.20 on mixing up good and evil. Where does that leave us? On this read Luke 12.20 noting the word fool. How does that happen? Check out John 6.27 on laboring for the bread which perishes. Does that then leave us only with the transient as 2 Corinthians 4.18 says? How bad is that?

Week IV. Read 1 Peter 1.12 one last time noting the same words serving and you. What’s the best way to do that? Read John 6.68 noting the line words of eternal life. What do they include? On this go to Colossians 3.2 noting the line things that are above. This involves Christ. What’s he about? 1 Corinthians 15.3 say that Christ died for our sins. Why was that? Read Isaiah59.2 noting the separation that sin causes. How is that bridged? Check out Colossians 2.14 where sin – the bond with its legal demands – is canceled on the cross. How does the cross do that? Read Romans 5.9 about saving us from the wrath of God. How does the death of Jesus do that? Note the just requirements of the law in Romans 8.3. Note also the word peace in Colossians 1.20 – which eliminates God’s wrath. And note bearing our sin in his body in 1 Peter 2.24. Does it then all come down to his sacrifice in Hebrews 9.26? Yes – see that sacrifice in the exchange in 2 Corinthians 8.9 – rich for poor, and the poor becomes rich. Do you agree?

Punishments: A Wake-Up Call

by Pastor Marshall

DOES GOD PUINISH US? Many Christians today say that he doesn’t. Why would a loving God do that? But the Bible is pretty clear that God’s love doesn’t preclude punishments. Ezekiel 14:21 says he sends wars, diseases, wild beasts and famines to punish us for the sins that we don’t confess. Jesus picks this up. He says physical problems are also punishments for the sins that we slough off (John 5:14). The same for accidents – like the tower falling on those 18 people and crushing then to death in Siloam (Luke 13:4). The Lutheran Confessions (1580) affirm all of this by stating quite forthrightly that “as a rule,… troubles are punishments for sins” (The Book of Concord, ed. T. Tappert, 1959, p. 206). Isaiah 9:19 is haunting – “Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is burned, and the people are like fuel for the fire.”

       That brings us to our current pandemic. Is it a punishment too? And if so, for what? In as much as the COVID-19 virus is a disease, then it comes under Ezekiel 14:21 and is a divine punishment. But what is it for? That isn’t spelled out anywhere. In those cases Martin Luther says to measure yourself against the Ten Commandments and see if you have any infractions that you’ve been careless about (BC p. 350). If so, you’ve found the culprit. While that may be lying for you, it could be stealing for the next person, and so on. Each person does the examining alone (2 Corinthians 13:5). Others can help out but only if first asked. Witch hunts are not part of this examination. But a national time of repenting could be orchestrated from the highest echelons of government (in a way similar to the Thanksgiving holiday).

       The benefit in repenting is that it cancels punishments – “repent or you too will perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). Indeed, God “will destroy us… if we do not forestall Him through repentance” (Luther’s Works 2:223). So punishments are a wake-up call. “What have we done to deserve this?’ we cry out. “How can we stop this punishment?” we groan. Repentance is the answer (1 John 1:9). So is amendment of life (Romans 6:1–2). Punishments get our attention to do both – that is their primary function. Here are the words Luther provides in his Small Catechism for repenting: “I, a poor sinner, confess before God that I am guilty of all sins. In particular I confess _______. For all of this I am sorry and pray for grace. I mean to do better” (BC p. 350).

       But what happens if the punishments pass before we repent (Amos 4:6–12)? Are we off the hook? Or does that mean that the correlation between sin and punishment was wrong to begin with? Luther thought God sometimes delays his punishments or ends them early to make them worse later on (LW 28:159–60). So you better watch out and not count your chickens before they hatch. It also could mean, of all things, that the devil has interfered with God’s spiritual formation of us – by using a good, like medicine or a vaccine, to stop the punishment too early and thwart our repentance and renewal of faith and life (Stanley Hauerwas, God, Medicine, and Suffering, 1990). Now that’s a chilling prospect!

       So where are you in all of this? Are you excited about the new vaccines coming out? Are you ready to get back to normal – living out in society again before you take advantage of this pandemic to intensify your self-examination and repent? If you, like many, are putting the cart before the horse, maybe a moment of reflection would be in order. Here is something to contemplate from Luther – whom Lutherans regard as their “most eminent teacher” (BC p. 576):

     Consider your own life… and know that even though you have been… placed into the kingdom of grace,… yet if you always remain as before, it cannot be beneficial to you…. While you might be called a Christian, you have let go of Christ, sin is your lord, you are serving the devil, and you have no more than the name… of Christianity…. Christ wishes… to purge every day whatever sin still remains, and blot it out completely, so that we become quite a different kind and manner of people, inclined and equipped for every good work. Where [glorious grace] has been rightly received, sin will surely be found to decease and diminish daily. Where it is not, the opposite appears (LW 57:188).

BAD CHURCH

Pastor Marshall

Martin Luther said nothing looks more unlike the church than the church – and that it even could be called the devil’s whore (Luther’s Works 27:397, 56:255, 34:74). He also thought pastors were part of the devil’s army (LW 44:70). Such biting criticism is uncommon from Christians who stay in the church. So why was Luther so negative? Note also the Lutheran Confessions (1580) – that “there is an infinite number of ungodly within the church who oppress it” (The Book of Concord, ed. T. Tappert, 1959, p. 169). So was Luther wrong – or one of the last honest Christians on earth?

Pervasiveness

Most of the time when people complain about the church we think it’s their fault – they caused the trouble and now they’re crying in their beer. But studies on the bad church tell another story. It’s not just a few bad apples. Church trouble is rampant – from corrupt teachings to arson, personal attacks, embezzlement, contract violations and sexual abuse. The Alban Institute (Washington D. C.) has covered much of this over the last fifty years. So has the Leadership magazine, affiliated with Christianity Today. There is also the shocking report published in Psychology Today (Jan/Feb 2008) on atheist ministers. So Luther wasn’t having a bad hair day. Those who reject his diatribes are actually the ones in the wrong – and naïve as well. Going with this corruption is a long standing national decline in churches. See D. Olson, The American Church in Crisis (2009) and the more recent report that 6,000 to 10,000 churches close each year in America (J. Merritt, “America’s Epidemic of Empty Churches,” The Atlantic, November 2018).

Survivability

But if the church is so bad why are churches still open? Doesn’t that mean that they’re actually doing something right – otherwise why are people supporting them? Not so. Open churches don’t mean they’re actually churches – they could be phony. So staying open doesn’t automatically mean anything good. Some have argued that the church ended a long time ago when attendance was made mandatory (Robert Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity, 1991). So open churches could be counterfeits. See also the studies that show the difference between true churches and religious enterprises (Daniel V. Biles, Pursuing Excellence in Ministry, 1988).

Distractions

But isn’t dwelling on our problems counter-productive? Why waste time crying over spilt milk? Shouldn’t we pick up ourselves and move on? People are hurting and they need our help. But wait a minute – God rules among his enemies (Psalm 110:2). So there’s no distraction here. We must never forget that clarity comes through squabbles and calamities (1 Corinthians 11:19, LW 45:347, D. Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 1939, DBW 5, Chapter 1).

Motivation

But why not bail out if the church is in such bad shape? Why try to help if the downward curve has steadily been declining for the last sixty years, with the end of all American churches projected for 2050? What’s the point – especially if you’re a new pastor? There are two reasons not to give up. First, we are called to stay and expose the darkness (Ephesians 5:11). And secondly, we are called to stay and try to resolve differences and disputes (Matthew 18:15–20). So even though in the long term, a good outcome is unlikely, that shouldn’t stop any Christian from working for the good in the short term – by exposing the darkness and working toward resolutions. It also doesn’t mean that when the curve bottoms out in 2050, that there won’t be a smattering of small churches here and there, that will be worth keeping open – which is in keeping with the promise in Matthew 16:18.

Luther on Ruth

By Pastor Marshall

The first thing we learn about Ruth is that she was a “Moabite wife” to a son of Naomi and Elimelech, his Jewish parents (Ruth 1:4). Jews despised Moabites (Deuteronomy 23:3) – no doubt because Moab of old was born of an incestuous relationship (Genesis 19:30–37). So God derisively calls the land of Moab “my washbasin” (Psalm 60:8). Martin Luther thought this made Ruth an important example of what he called “accidental grace.” This was favor from God – that “there was also room” for the Moabites – not based on the “promise of Christ” which the Jews had (Luther’s Works 1:302). Moabites had no covenant with God, but still received grace, just like the Gentiles in the time of Jesus (Romans 11:11). This is central to Christianity – that God’s grace is available without Judaism, and so for Luther it “was pleasing to God… that Judaism should die” (LW 19:94, 104). For Christ makes it “obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13) even in the case of Ruth.

The Body

“I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

(Psalm 139:14)

“You don’t know how the body is formed in the mother’s womb.”

(Ecclesiastes 11:5)

The Heart

“The heart is the most misperceived of our organs. For starters, it looks nothing like the… Valentine day [heart]…. Nor is the heart where we place our right hand during patriotic moments; it is more centrally located… [Finally] it is not invested even slightly in our emotional well-being. That’s a good thing. The heart has no time for distractions. It is the most single-minded thing within you…. [It beats] as many as 3.5 billion times in a lifetime… They are jolts powerful enough to send blood spurting up to three meters if the aorta is severed… Every hour your heart dispenses around 70 gallons of blood…. During the course of a lifetime the heart does an amount of work sufficient to lift a one-ton object 150 miles into the air… It just doesn’t care about your love life…. The heart is not really one pump but two: one that sends blood to the lungs and one that sends it around the body. The output of the two must be in balance…. The journey of blood around your body takes about fifty seconds to complete…. The oxygen that nourishes [the heart] arrives via the coronary arteries, in exactly the way oxygen reaches other organs… Any heart muscle we lose in [a heart attack] is gone forever, which is a bit galling when you consider that other creatures much simpler than we are – zebra fish, for instance – can regrow damage heart tissue…. Living a virtuous life doesn’t guarantee that you will escape heart problems; it just improves your chances…. Some people who are about to experience catastrophic heart failure suffer a sudden, terrifying premonition of impending death. The condition… has a medical name: angor animi, or ‘anguish of the soul’…. Remarkably, even with all the improvements in care, you are 70 percent more likely to die from heart disease today than you were in 1900.”

[Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide to Occupants (2019) pp. 112, 113, 116–17, 123.]

  PARISH PRAYERS 

Remember in prayer before God those whom He has made your

brothers and sisters through baptism.

Leah Baker, Dorothy Ryder, Melanie Johnson, Sam & Nancy Lawson, Marlis Ormiston, Connor Bisticas, Eileen & Dave Nestoss, Kyra Stromberg, Bob Schorn, Angel Lynn, Tabitha Anderson, Marie Magenta, The Rev. Albin Fogelquist, The Rev. Howard Fosser, The Rev. Kari Reiten, The Rev. Dave Monson, The Rev. Dan Peterson, The Rev Alan Gardner, Eric Baxter, Sheila Feichtner, Yuriko Nishimura, Leslie Hicks, Lesa Christensen, Evelyn, Emily & Gordon Wilhelm, Garrison Radcliffe, Antonio Ortez, Garrett Metzler, Marv Morris, Noel Curtis, Richard Patishnock, Jeff Hancock, Yao Chu Chang, Will Forrester, Wayne & Chris Korsmo, Holly & Terrance Finan, Heather Tutuska, Anthony Brisbane, Lori Aarstad, Ty Wick, Randy Lonborg, Dona Brost, Geri Zerr, Susan Curry, Karin Weyer, Robert Shull family, Alan Morgan family, Eva, Jay and Alea Jones, Wayne Ducheneaux, Israel McNearney, Julie Godinez, Joey DiJulio and family.

     Pray for our professional Health Care Providers:  Gina Allen, Janine Douglass, David Juhl, Dana Kahn, Dean Riskedahl, Jane Collins and all those suffering from the coronavirus pandemic.

     Pray for unbelievers, the addicted, the sexually abused and harassed, the homeless, the hungry and the unemployed.

     Pray for the shut-ins that the light of Christ may give them joy:  Bob & Mona Ayer, Joan Olson, Bob Schorn, Doris Prescott, C.J. Christian, Dorothy Ryder, Crystal Tudor, Gregg & Jeannine Lingle, Nora Vanhala, Martin Nygaard, Anelma Meeks.

     Pray for our bishops Elizabeth Eaton and Shelley Bryan Wee, our pastor Ronald Marshall, our choirmaster Dean Hard and our cantor Andrew King, that they may be strengthened in faith, love and the holy office to which they have been called. 

     Pray that God would give us hearts which find joy in service and in celebration of Stewardship.  Pray that God would work within you to become a good steward of your time, your talents and finances. 

     Pray for the hungry, ignored, abused, and homeless this Christmas & New Year. 

     Pray for our sister congregation:  El Camino de Emmaus in the Skagit Valley that God may bless and strengthen their ministry.  Also, pray for our parish and it's ministry.

     Pray that God will bless you through the lives of the saints: Saint Peter; Saint Paul; and Martin Luther King, Jr., martyr, 1968.