Help Echoes Fill 3 Food Boxes w/ Birchwood Food Desert Fighters

Help Echoes Fill 3 Food Boxes!
Monthly Food Box Adoption w/ Birchwood Food Desert Fighters

We are joining forces with Birchwood Food Desert Fighters to fill 3 BFDF Food Boxes on the fourth Tuesday of the month!
This means, we will collect at Echoes on the 4th Monday of the Month

Here is the Winter Shopping List

Free Food Boxes are placed throughout Bellingham and Whatcom County to provide food to people who need it most. Think Little Free Library but for food! What is needed for the boxes changes seasonally! For the winter, the main thing is to not put anything in the box that will suffer if it freezes. Folks are free to buy things not on the list, but there is a current excess of legumes, so please try to find other tasty items to stock the boxes with (Granola bars, dried fruit, nuts, sugar, powdered milk).

The three boxes that we will fill are located at:
-3315 Northwest Ave.
-2715 Cedarwood Ave.
-3127 Bennett Dr.

We can use your help! Want to assist with: Coordination, & Filling/Cleaning these boxes (monthly) On Monday 2/20 we will have maps and discuss donations and arrange volunteers to fill the boxes. We're grateful to help this program, because food is love and feeding our community is following God.

Thank you for your support of this important program!

Divine deviation: How the landscape of religion is shifting (Cascadia Daily Article)

Divine deviation: How the landscape of religion is shifting
Clearbrook Church in Lynden closes after 120 years
January 29, 2023
By AUDRA ANDERSON

Clearbrook Lutheran Church, pictured in 1953, opened its doors in January 1902.
(Photo by Jack Carver, Whatcom Museum)  

On a gray mid-January Sunday, more than 100 people shuffled into the sanctuary of Clearbrook Lutheran Church. The quaint white building topped with a bell and nestled in farmland between Lynden and Sumas has stood for 120 years, serving generations of Whatcom County families.

That day, Jan. 22, the pews were packed. Church assistants hurried to set up folding metal chairs in the hallway beyond the sanctuary, where an overflow of people watched the service through windows. With too few printed bulletins, parishioners shared. 

The heavy attendance was a rarity — like that of a funeral, churchgoers said. In some ways, it was. Sunday marked the last service at Clearbrook, one of the 10 churches in the county that are part of the Northwest Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Despite the Jan. 22 crowd, Clearbrook was down to just five active members upon closing its doors. Rev. Marjorie Lorant, who served a neighboring Lutheran church in Lynden, delivered the last message since Clearbrook hasn’t had its own full-time pastor in decades. In the coming weeks, the fate of the church building will be determined, whether it is sold or a new ministry moves in. 

“I know some of you are tremendously sad and grieving over the fact the church will no longer be here as you know it,” Lorant preached. “But you know, life changes. It’s not that you have failed. It’s not that there is something you have done wrong.”

Clearbrook could not survive a dwindling congregation, financial troubles, lack of consistent leadership and geographic isolation. 

“Every church has a lifespan,” said Diane Johnson, director for Evangelical Mission of the Northwest Washington Synod. 

While the church’s closure does not indicate poor health or the looming demise of the Lutheran church, it does mirror a trend researchers began observing in the 1960s: a decline in membership of the seven mainline Protestant religions in the U.S. 

A data analysis that looked specifically at the Northwest Washington Synod shows that since 2000, the number of members has more than halved, from 58,322 to 28,488 in 2022. 

Clearbrook Lutheran Church is considered a mainline Protestant congregation.
(Trenton Almgren-Davis/Cascadia Daily News)  

While some surveys indicate a general downward trend of people affiliated with a religion, experts point to nuance. 

Undoubtedly, a shift is occurring. New religions are emerging. A growing number of “nones” — people who don’t identify with a religion — is difficult to quantify through surveys. Schisms within mainline denominations are creating more liberal or conservative offshoots. 

In face of these changes, there is consensus that Christianity isn’t going anywhere, and traditional religions are learning to adapt. 

Clearbrook’s last Sunday service honored the church’s long history by bringing together current and past members, relatives of founding members and former pastors. They shared stories and laughs before a tearful service, followed by a “communion” of ham and turkey sliders and appetizers in the church’s basement gym.

Parishioners cited various reasons for Clearbrook's decline — myriad unfortunate circumstances and changing dynamics. 

When church member Karel Jahns, 80, joined Clearbrook in the 1980s, the church had around 40 members. Its closure was something the congregation “had seen coming since the ’70s,” she said. 

Jahns was the first woman to be president of the church council, picking up responsibilities as members dropped. She even moved closer to Lynden to be near the church as its members diminished. 

Jeff and Kristi Ehlers, two of the remaining members, began attending in 1998, later filling key roles such as liturgist, accompanist, church service assistants and terms as board members.

“As the years went by, people moved away, died,” Jahns said. “Children didn’t stay and went their own ways, and by the ’90s, our Sunday School had ended, so no children to speak of in the membership.” Without Sunday School, area families with children began attending a neighboring church, Immanuel Lutheran in Everson. 

Clearbrook Lutheran Church disbanded its congregation due to low attendance, closing 120 years of Christian ministry. More than 100 former parishioners and the remaining five members attended the final service.
(Trenton Almgren-Davis/Cascadia Daily News)

Migrations of people from rural areas to cities, and smaller churches to larger congregations, also contributed to Clearbrook's demise. 

Sonja Dyer’s relatives were founding members of the church at the turn of the 20th century, when Scandinavian immigrants dominated the area as homesteaders and dairy farmers. Tending to live animals meant farming families had to live full time on their land. When corporations began buying out small dairies and ranches in the county, many of those families moved away, Dyer said. Berry farms, which didn't require residents on the land, replaced them.

“It’s by God’s grace we stayed open as long as we did,” Jahns said. “God’s grace and Rod Perry. He was a lifelong member, and he was everything to Clearbrook.” 

Perry was a lay minister, meaning he preached but was not ordained in his ministry. A lack of funding prevented the church from hiring a full-time pastor, Jeff Ehlers said, and for as long as he had been attending, the church relied on part-time pastors and lay ministers. 

Perry was credited with extending the church’s lifespan by at least 10 years, said Nancy Perry, his widow. When he died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2019 at the age of 62, the church's days were numbered.   

Many parishioners also pointed to the rising popularity of “box churches” — large, broadly defined or non-denominational congregations that often include upbeat music, youth services and peppy sermons that deviate from more traditional practices. 

In that same vein: “The decline was probably due to an older congregation not wanting to change with the times,” Jeff Ehlers said.

The pews, Ehlers said motioning to the one he was sitting on, are representative of that. As other churches adapted to changing desires, like cozier chairs and pop music, Clearbrook maintained its old-school stiff seating and traditional hymns. 

Religion ‘not declining but replacing’

Scholars point to data leaving little doubt that people are leaving mainline Protestant churches. Where they're going is tougher to define. 

The “box-church” worshippers represent a trend since the 1970s of those leaving mainline Protestant groups for nondenominational groups, said Holly Folk, a Western Washington University professor of religious studies.   

“For positive or negative, you could argue that the box churches have been intentionally constructed to meet consumer demand,” Folk said.

They're upbeat, modern, energetic and engaging for all ages. 

More than half of all new denominations in the U.S. were formed after 1970, said J. Gordon Melton, author and American religious scholar. Melton, in partnership with Folk, led a study that looked at the number of congregations within three counties in the U.S., including Whatcom County. 

The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies counted 150 churches in Whatcom County in a 2012 census. Folk’s students found an additional 100 unaccounted-for churches. The other two counties, located in Texas and Virginia, showed similar results. 

“It is these hundreds of newer Christian denominations that constitute the ‘Others’ — a largely invisible religious community hiding in plain sight in America,” according to the study. 

Nondenominational churches and immigrant congregations make up part of those “invisible” churches; they often follow the same developmental pattern of starting in one’s home, then growing in size to rent or buy a building. 

“Ignoring their presence has contributed substantially to a popular misconception that religion life has been on the decline in the United States,” according to the study.

Well-known public surveys like from Pew Research Center and Gallup point to a shrinking population of religious people as a whole in the U.S. In a 2021 survey of nearly 4,000 people, Pew asserted 30% of U.S. adults are non-religiously affiliated, up 6 percentage points from 2016.

“There’s a whole bunch of phenomena pertaining to participation that people in the U.S. and also scholars in Europe have noted that make counting people authentically pretty complicated,” Folk said. 

For instance, those who identify as spiritual, but “not religious,” are difficult to track because religions like Wicca or Tibetan spirituality might not be reportable via a survey. 

Melton said Pew measures religious self-identity as affiliation. Yet, those without a clear religious self-identity — those religious “nones” — may still believe in a higher power. In Pew’s latest survey, out of those who categorized themselves as “no religion,” 29% still said they prayed either daily (13%) or monthly (16%). 

“I see problems in trying to capture people who are less officially tied, who a generation ago, would’ve claimed the identity of their parents, and who are now more loose about that,” Folk said.

Johnson refers to those individuals as religious “umms.” They can be people who may not attend church every Sunday but did as a child, who go to services when they visit home, or who want to involve their own children in a religious group.  

Then there are religious “dones” — people turned off of religion entirely, often after harmful experiences, Johnson said. 

Inviting in those spiritual “nones,” “umms” and “dones,” has been a focus of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) for more than a decade.

 Members of Echoes meet and read scripture together Jan. 23 at the Maple Alley Inn. Echoes is part of the Northwest Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but it is anything but traditional. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News) 

Part of Johnson’s role is to find ways to start new congregations. “Can we reach out to people who aren’t currently involved in a church setting? We have a number of ministries that are focused that way,” Johnson said. 

One of those is Echoes, based in Bellingham. The ministry was born at Bellingham Pride in 2013. Some of the participants are coming out of church trauma and harm, Pastor Emma Donohew said. 

Echoes meets on Mondays in pubs, outdoors, during work parties, craft sessions, and candlelight symposium-style meetings. And, it’s inclusive. Donohew grew up and was ordained in the United Methodist church, but left in part due to the church’s stance on LGBTQ+ ordination. 

“Not every church needs to look the same,” Donohew said. The ELCA is adapting to that mindset.

At a Monday, Jan. 23 Echoes candlelight service, a small group of members gathered in a circle. Donohew led them through a mindfulness practice before diving into a reading. 

Rich and Chris Sanders said they left their church to join Echoes, disaffected by a lack of inclusivity and diversity. 

“The situation has changed in that they’re going to have to become more diverse, or not survive,” Rich Sanders said. “If there’s a future, that’s where it is.”

 Rich Sanders left his church in search of a more progressive ministry. He found Echoes, which began at Bellingham Pride in 2013. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)  

Although they stayed within the ELCA, the Sanders are part of a population who chose to leave their congregation in search of something that better aligned with their values, whether they be radically inclusive or radically conservative. 

The trend often favors the latter, Melton said. 

“When we look one-by-one at the theology of the new churches, they are overwhelmingly conservative in their theological outlook,” he said in an email. 

Folk believes mainline Protestantism is increasingly emulating evangelicalism. 

“They’re trying to do the ‘come as you are’ outreach that has happened, that’s worked well for evangelicals, while still staying within the framework of liberal Protestantism,” Folk said. 

How that will affect declining membership in Protestant religions is unclear, but Folk is confident those religions won’t go extinct. 

“Most [groups] are aware of their numbers. Most large groups have people working on the membership problem because at the end of the day, you need your shareholders,” Folk said.

It’s easy to get lost in data and a swarm of numbers, Folk added. But it's important to remember that within the walls of each congregation is a community, whether it be five people or 500. 

“The churn I can look at dispassionately doesn’t stop the fact that there’s a human cost to this,” Folk said.

Asked what she hoped for in Clearbrook’s last Sunday service, longtime member Jahns put simply and tearfully, “To praise God and thank him for all he has done.” 

As Pastor Lorant read the declaration of leave, sniffles filled the sanctuary and tears streamed. Parishioners sang with heavy voices “How Great Thou Art.” 

“With thanks to God for the work accomplished in this place, I declare this building to be vacated for the purposes of Clearbrook Lutheran Church in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” Lorant said. 

As people filed out of the sanctuary, the church's old bell tolled.

Within Clearbrook’s walls, members celebrated joyous occasions, honored those who died, found their husbands or wives, made lifelong friends.

Karel Jahns, 80, was one of five remaining members of Clearbrook Lutheran Church located on Van Buren Road between Lynden and Sumas. The church had its final service after 120 years on Jan. 22. Low attendance and the lack of a consistent pastor contributed to the closure of the church.
(Trenton Almgren-Davis/Cascadia Daily News)

“It’s just a place where they grew in God’s love and shared the good times and the bad times of life, celebrations, the Christmas seasons — just an extended family,” said Jahns, who had her 25th wedding anniversary, both her children’s confirmations, her grandchildren’s christenings and her husband’s funeral service at Clearbrook. 

In years past, Clearbrook was a place of harmless ruckus and youthful energy. 

“It’s an end of an era,” said Dyer’s brother Eric Leninger, who reminisced about riding his bicycle down the carpeted staircase leading into the gym as a boy. 

“It wasn’t just a spiritual connection, it was a life connection,” said Dyer, a relative of one of the church's founding families.  

Clearbrook’s worn wood, frayed carpet, dated furniture, dog-eared hymnals, smudged stained glass and chipped paint told a 120-year-old love story. 

And more than a century of memories make for a gut-wrenching goodbye. 

“It’s going to be a void,” Jahns said. “Everyone loves our little white church in the country. Hate to see that end.”

-We are grateful to be featured in this article in the Cascadia Daily-

The Honesty of Advent

The honesty of advent invites us deeper into the human story of Christ. We shared these words as part of our Honest Advent weekly worship gatherings in December 2022.


God Meets Us In The Vulnerable Christ

God the Creator becomes creature.

God, the breath of every living thing, becomes embryo.

God, whose hand scoops out oceans, floats in a fetal sac.

God, whose voice splits cedar trees, cries for mother’s milk.

God, who crushes king’s armies, can’t walk.

God, who feeds all living things, is hungry.

God, who is sovereign, cannot defend himself.

God, full of glory, poops and pukes.

-Dan Boone


We are grateful to the words and images of Scott Erickson for his Advent study: Honest Advent
https://www.scottericksonart.com/

Blessing of the Animals 2022

We gathered despite the smoky/hazy day from the continued fires throughout the PNW!

Reading: Job 12:7-9 (The Message)
But ask the animals what they think—let them teach you; let the birds tell you what’s going on.
Put your ear to the earth—learn the basics. Listen—the fish in the ocean will tell you their stories.

A Blessing of the Animals
By Thomas Rhodes

You Birds of the Air, Hawk, Sparrow, and laughing Jay
You embody freedom itself, delight us with your song, astound us with feats of migration
Grant us your perspective, for too often our horizon is limited
and we are blind to the full results of our actions.
You Worms of the Earth, Ants, Beetles, Spiders and Centipedes
You are the essential but oft-forgotten strand in nature’s web.
Through you the cycle is complete; through you new life arises from old.
Remind us of our humility.
For the wheel of live does not turn around us; we are not the axle, but merely spokes
no less than unseen, unknown and shunned companions such as yourselves.
You creatures of the field and wood and field, marsh and desert—
Bear and Bison, Skunk and Squirrel, Weasel and Wolf
Too often we have sacrificed your homes in the name of progress,
clear cutting the forests to fill our desire,
or covering the earth with tarmac, cement, and suburban lawns.
Pray that we may remember that the earth was not given for our needs alone,
and what we do to you, we eventually do to ourselves.
You animals of the farm— Horse and cow, pig and fowl
Willingly or not, you give your very lives for us,
your milk for our nourishment, your flesh for our sustenance,
Yet too often we forget that the meat on our tables was once as alive as we are.
Forgive our willful ignorance, and remind us constantly to give thanks for your sacrifice.
You Dearest Companions in our lives
Dogs and Cats, Hamsters and Goldfish
You who are with us today and you who always be present in our memories
You have enriched our lives in so many ways endured our shortcomings with calm acceptance
taught us something of our humanity
taught us how to love.
May we hold you in our hearts throughout the days of our lives.

Totem Pole Blessing for Clean Energy (Bellingham Stop)

On Wednesday, September 14, from 3-6 pm at the Port of Bellingham property on Granary Ave in Bellingham, Lummi House of Tears Carvers requested a Blessing Ceremony for a Totem Pole that will be traveling to Clean Energy Justice Convergence in Pittsburgh, PA. Members of the Faith Community were asked to help bless the pole.

Here is the Blessing that Pastor Emma gave under a hazy sky:

A Blessing for the Totem Pole during Fire Season

“Tree gives glory to god by being a tree”
-Thomas Merton

This totem pole was once a living tree
This ash and smoke that hangs in the sky
was also once a living tree
From the ash of death
Even today, may we reach to the source of life

The source of life that is known by many names
And so we give thanks for this time together to gather here in this place, with these people, so that those gathered may provide what they have, so that together we can ensure all have what they need.
So we turn to that source to give you thanks for this land we share and the blessings that you pour out upon us
And ask that you attune our eyes, our ears and our hearts to hear the call of all the creatures who are seeking safe streams, safe passageway, safe mountains and safe spaces to call home

And so even on days like this, as the sky is still filled with remnants of trees,
we give thanks for the trees
For their beauty
For their canvas
For their collaboration with the carvers to let delight, and remembrance and joy and warning be infused into this particular tree

And we say thank you.
Thank you to the many hands that made this totem. And the people that brought this totem here and the people who will bless it in each stop along the way until it reaches the other shores of this land.

Land with its own beautiful trees
And its own time for sacred listening.

We need our trees
We need moments to honor the memory of those
who sacrificed so much to lift up the fight for justice for all.

And so we remember 
and we grieve
And we recommit to the work that this totem is a legacy of.

When people gather energy is shared 
Because gathering with a clear intention has the power to transform, to change and to allow minds imagine again.

So we infuse this totem with our energy here so that it may be transferred to another large gathering of people who have power. Power to transform the ways that our world is cared for. So put all the energy you can muster to help those who gather in Pittsburgh to make decisions that empower all, especially the most vulnerable. Because each action that affects our planet, affects us all.

As -Paul Tsongas said “We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching.”

So keep reaching. Keep sending that energy and life force into this pole for the healing of the land, the people and all creation.

Celebrating Pride

Since Echoes was founded at PRIDE in Bellingham in 2013, we try to celebrate all the love, joy and gifts that ALL of God’s people have brought to the church especially queer people and those who identify as a part of the LGBTQIA+ community!

Here are some resources we used at our 2022 PRIDE service!

Invocation

All: Beloved One, your embrace is a refuge from violence and hatred. Those who have been turned away, forgotten, or persecuted find belonging in you. We hope to embody such love in this place. May we be a sanctuary, a shelter, a safe place to turn. May we endeavor to learn from each other and grow together in love that protects and uplifts. Amen.

Song: God Calls You Good by Paul Vasille

God calls you good, beloved child.
You are a treasure deeply prized.
And you can say to every doubting voice,
'God calls you good, beloved child.'

God calls me good, beloved child.
I am a treasure deeply prized.
And I can say to every doubting voice,
'God calls me good, beloved child.'

Christianity for Heathens by Jay Hulme
1.
Love everyone as if everyone is holy,
as if everyone's intrinsically worthy,
as if the streets are strewn with Christ
taking naps in empty doorways.
ii.
Love yourself as if you are loved.
as if you were never an accident,
as if everything you were meant to be
waits for you to claim it.
iii.
Love the world as if it were a gift,
as if you were made as part of it,
as if you were meant to tend to it
every inch of earth is Holy Ground.
iv.
Love justice, and kindness, and truth,
as if everything depends on it,
as if everything depends on it.
Everything depends on it.
V.
You were given a gift, and trusted.
Love it all, love it all,
love it always.
?.
Know this, if you know anything at all:
Life is no challenge, nor test;
life is love.
∞
Reflect it back in abundance.

The Prayer of Jesus paraphrase by J. Manny Santiago
Our Parent, who is among us, blessed be your Creation.
May your reign be a reality here on earth.
May we become more interested in building your kin-dom here and now than in waiting for it to come down from above.
Let us share our bread with those who hunger.
Let us learn to forgive as well as to receive forgiveness.
Help us through the time of temptation, delivering us from all evil.
For ours are the eternal blessings that you pour upon the earth.
Amen.

Closing Blessing
One: Beloveds, let us go with hearts full of courage, that we might practice love that disrupts bigotry. 
All: Let us go with minds open to experiencing God in ways strange and unexpected, in ways ordinary and everyday.
One: Let us go with joy, for the Creator of all life goes with us. 
All: For all our BELOVED. Including ourselves. 
Amen.

Song: The Queer Gospel by Erin McKeown

We love Enfleshed, check them out!

Spirit of the Waters Totem Pole Bellingham Blessing

Bellingham Totem Pole Blessing & Beginning of Spirit of the Waters Journey

On Tuesday 5/3 the Lummi House of Tears Carvers and Totem Pole Journeyers Jewell James, Doug James and Siam'elwit began their Journey through Washington, Oregon and Idaho. This journey is in support of the indigenous-led movement to remove the Snake River dams and restore the salmon runs to health, as well as our relatives, the Southern Resident Killer Whales (Skali’Chelh) that depend on them. A multifaith Blessing of the Pole was a way to signify and give strength to their journey.

“The launch featured songs from Lummi drummers and singers, music from Native flutist Peter Ali and a choir performance. Various local faith leaders blessed the pole’s journey and supported its message, including Echoes Pastor Emma Donohew — whose ancestor was an Oklahoma dam builder. The event concluded with the community surrounding the pole to offer a group prayer.” -Bellingham Herald Article

Echoes was grateful to be included in the speakers. Pastor Emma helped Bless the Totem Pole & collectively Pray for the Salmon, Orca and Rivers. Our relationship to all of creation means we need to spend more time listening to the wisdom of the Elders who remind us that we are made for better than this. Let us pray for their journey and for the learning (and unlearning) that may be done along the way.

Read the Bellingham Herald Article Here!

Follow the Journey: https://www.spiritofthewaters.org/

Blessings For Our Younger Selves Zine!

A Church that makes a Zine (short for handmade magazine)?

OF COURSE ECHOES MAKES ZINES!

In the Spring of 2022 we made our 5th zine for the community of Bellingham and we first handed them out at Wester Washington University’s Queer Con (short for Convention/Gathering)! We were grateful to be present, spread the love and support inclusive spaces for people to express themselves authentically (something we believe strongly in at Echoes!)

Here is from the Intro:

Echoes is an evolving community of faith that promotes wholeness, practices radical welcome, and fosters relationship with each other, our neighbors, and our natural home. We created this zine as an extension of our Creative Church gathering as a way to respond and engage with younger versions of ourselves; Because words (and art) matters.

What words would have made a difference in your life? How can this zine be an opportunity to rewrite the stories that were imposed upon you as you remember that yours is still being written?

We hope that our blessings for our younger selves are also a blessing to you, as you journey through whatever beautifully complicated, life phase, age or season you are in.

You Are Not Alone.

You can look for your own copy of the Echoes Zine volume 5 around Bellingham, or come back to this space for a link to our digital version!

Special Thank You to our Intern Torie for helping to create/coordinate the zine!

Blessing for Good Conversation

Blessing for Good Conversation
Written by Emma Donohew for Pub Church February 2022

As you enter into the conversation
May you make space for openness
Pull up a chair for authenticity
And try not to control the path of the words that will guide you

Allow yourself room
As you push aside distractions for other voices to enter your perspective

When interrupting feels almost inevitable
Breathe Slowly
Encounter your quickness with compassion
And wait
Listen
Wait a little longer

Recall the Sacred is found in the spaces between us
Holding what is said and unsaid

May you find words for your own experience
As your listening is deepened
Encountering every rushed judgment with grace

Let the words
like Blessings
Find you
In Each Holy Conversation
Amen.

Photo by Etienne Boulanger on Unsplash