Stories Are Better When Shared

Photo by Emma Donohew of Molly the Hound

In May, 2018, Boldly Went hosted their first-ever Bellingham-based storytelling event. It turned out to be an important occasion for Emma, as she would meet another storyteller, Charis, the person who started Echoes (the funky, experimental church that hosts the blog you’re reading right now) and whom she would eventually get to share in leadership with!

Emma’s Side of Things (You can read Charis’ side here!)

One of the reasons I moved back to Bellingham, was to be closer to my home mountains, the Cascades.

I missed the proximity to this land, these trees and the paths that wind their way through them. Returning back to Bellingham 10 years later was not without its joys and challenges. Reconnecting with old friends, making new and finding your way, always takes some time. So I was grateful to find out that someone who I had been connected with in Seattle, had also moved to Bellingham and invited me to the Boldly Went Podcast when it came through town! 

I love storytelling podcasts, so to get to hear stories, particularly ones about adventure from diverse backgrounds and experiences seemed like the perfect way to spend an evening.

I wasn’t sure if I was really ready to tell a personal adventure story. Particularly this story that had not been told to anyone yet. A story about hiking up in the Cascades with my hound dog Molly, and finding a couple in need of very particular skills, ones that I just happened to have. 

So I sat with my notes in hand, and little slip of paper, trying to figure out if now was the time and place to unleash this story onto the world. I love telling stories, but the first time you tell anything, a little bit of fear creeps in. You wonder will people even want to hear this story? 

Then I recalled the words of Adventure writer, Cheryl Strayed. 

“Hello, fear. Thank you for being here. You’re my indication that I’m doing what I need to do.”

So I said hello to fear, and wrote my name down and put it into the proverbial hat. 

Well, fear once greeted, isn’t easily dismissed, so once my name was called, I had to summon the courage once again to walk up and put that storytelling microphone around my neck.

But stories, like life, are better when shared. So as I looked out on these faces of people who also had unique stories to tell, the words came (along with a few jokes too). Telling a story to a Boldly Went audience felt not only comfortable, but also truly authentic. 

While, I didn’t climb a really tall mountain, or encounter a bear (at least on this hike), my story was full of adventure too. An adventure of encountering my authentic self, and being reminded once more that you can never escape your calling. I hope you’ll take a listen here.

I loved getting to hear the other stories told that evening, So when i had to leave early to attend the finals for my Bowling League, I was sorry to miss the last few. I specifically recall a wonderful person making a point to tell me that she appreciated my story on the way out. That person happened to be Charis, someone whose story also appears on the Boldly Went podcast and is the faithful founder and leader of Echoes. I am deeply grateful that I was able to hear her story on the podcast and appreciate her awesomeness too!
i hope you’ll listen to her story here!

When you gather to tell & hear stories you never know who you might meet or what connections might be forged! Boldly Went helped connect me to Charis and ultimately to Echoes, this funky community seeking to REdefine church. When Charis asked me months later to meet for coffee because she had heard me share a story on an adventure podcast, I was overwhelmed with gratitude that I had shared my story. So when Charis asked me if I was interested in helping to pastor a funky Church that appreciates people, community, the outdoors & stories, I immediately said yes! By sharing a story, I was able to find a community where stories are being shared week in and week out.

So do come and hear some stories, but better yet say hello to fear and share a story! Maybe one you’ve told before, but maybe one that is just waiting for an authentic place to be shared. 

THIS WEEK, on Thursday, Nov. 14th, from 7-9pm, Boldly Went is hosting their second storytelling event in Bellingham! Tickets are $5-$15, and the sales go toward producing the podcast. Any additional contributions during their tour will go toward the Youth Experiential Training Institute, the recipient of the Great Outdoors Youth Advocacy Award from Bellingham’s own Recreation Northwest! Location is the ever-popular Boundary Bay Brewery, specifically in the Mountain Room. Get your tickets and either work on a story to tell, or support others who will share boldly.

Tickets can be purchased here! https://www.boldlywentadventures.com/buy-tickets.html

The power of storytelling....even adventure stories!

Photo by Charis Weathers

Boldy Went is a storytelling organization that has been traveling the PNW for the past few years, hosting events where locals can tell their adventure stories. Ordinary people get to share their stories, whether they are life-or-death, or life-changing, or memorable for a mishap or a new courage. Stories are a max of ten minutes, and some are incorporated into Boldly Went’s podcast. They are seriously fun events!! Stories can connect people in powerful ways, which is why organizations like Boldly Went do what they do, and why we focus on stories so much at Echoes.

THIS WEEK, on Thursday, Nov. 14th, from 7-9pm, Boldly Went is hosting their second storytelling event in Bellingham! Tickets are $5-$15, and the sales go toward producing the podcast. Any additional contributions during their tour will go toward the Youth Experiential Training Institute, the recipient of the Great Outdoors Youth Advocacy Award from Bellingham’s own Recreation Northwest! Location is the ever-popular Boundary Bay Brewery, specifically in the Mountain Room. Get your tickets and either work on a story to tell, or support others who will share boldly.

In May, 2018, Boldly Went hosted their first-ever Bellingham-based storytelling event. It turned out to be a monumental occasion for Charis, the person who started Echoes (the funky, experimental church that hosts the blog you’re reading right now).

Charis’ side of things: (You can read Emma’s perspective here)

I’ve been an avid follower of the Moth and of other storytelling podcasts, so I was super pumped to come across the Facebook post for the Boldly Went event. Maybe I’d get to tell a story! Although I’m fairly reserved by nature, I do actually like to tell stories and observe the reactions of people listening. But would my name get chosen? I didn’t know, but I put it on my calendar, and prepared a story anyway.

The venue was the Honey Moon Cider House. A sizeable group had shown up for this inaugural event, which was super encouraging in terms of supporting storytelling, but also reduced the chances of one’s name being selected to tell a story. All of the storytellers names are put into a bag and drawn randomly. Because names are drawn on a rolling basis – a new name is drawn right after a story is told – if your name is drawn there isn’t much time to collect your nerves before you’re on.

It already takes a bit of hutzpah to add one’s name to the bag, but to be the first name drawn? That’s always more than a bit intimidating as that person will be the one to set the stage for the whole evening.

I missed the name of the first speaker. She walked to the microphone with quite a lot of poise, I thought, for someone who was just super surprised to have her name called first from of a pile of paper slips. Bellingham had never witnessed a Boldly Went event, and this person was the first-ever to share a story!

She told of a solo hike to a beautiful lake. I can’t recall many of the details, but I do remember my head snapping back when she mentioned that she was a pastor, and during this hike she was wondering about her future as a pastor. I won’t ruin the remarkable, beautiful story with spoilers (here’s the link to listen), but I will say that I sat there, supremely impressed by her storytelling skills, her courage to share her vocation with a non-churchy crowd, and dumbfounded that I didn’t know her! Who was this female pastor? Bellingham is not that big, and there aren’t that many women pastors, especially younger women pastors, so Who? Was? She? I needed to know. Meeting her became my biggest priority.

First, though, was waiting through the rest of the event to see if my name was called. It came down to the last story. I so, so wanted to share the misadventure of my friend Karyn and I canoeing on the Chattooga River, and my heart almost stopped as the LAST…name…was drawn...and…it…was….me! This particular story (listen with this link) is ridiculously funny, and it was satisfying to watch and hear the enjoyment of the crowd as they paddled along with me in this story of poor decisions, inadequate skill, and awkward professions of love from a smitten canoe seller.

The crowd was generous with their laughs, and I sat down, jittery with post-story excitement, but also aware that the event was ending, and I HAD to find that first story-teller! But where was she? I couldn’t see her, and the venue is not that big. All of a sudden it felt a little Cinderella-like – where could she have gone? I didn’t even have her name!

It turned out that someone I knew at the event was good friends with her, who I now knew was named Emma. Emma. I had to meet Emma. I wasn’t exactly sure why it felt so important other than she seemed super cool and I wanted to be friends. And then, a few months later, Echoes had a new vision of creating a collaborative structure and we needed three other pastors to help lead this church plant. Emma was the first one I thought about, and she was the first one to say yes.

So I can say without reservation that Boldly Went increases and deepens community. This is what storytelling does, and it’s why we major in stories at Echoes. From the incredibly meaningful stories we hear each month at ‘Hamster Church, to stories shared at Pub Church, to story exploration at Creative Church, to indwelling the stories of our spiritual connection with God, the created world, and each other at Indoor and Wild Church, there can’t be enough emphasis placed on the value of telling stories.

Echoes has been imminently blessed with Emma’s presence, as have I. Who would’ve known that a storytelling event could do so much? Boldly Went is hosting another one in a few weeks. Echoes even gets to be a co-host! I wonder might happen at that one? Want to put your name in the hat to share a story and see what unfolds?

 Emma’s: https://www.boldlywentadventures.com/93-on-love-and-landscape.html

Charis’: https://www.boldlywentadventures.com/86-canoe-stories.html

Gender & Sexuality Definitions To Know

We had a FABULOUS ‘Hamster Church conversation with Adrien Converse at Echoes. They provided us with some helpful definitions, which we printed and passed around to folx. Since not everyone could attend, we’re posting for the benefit of all!

Resource prepared by Adrian Converse. You can find more amazing work on their blog, deconforming.com

Definitions to know

Agender: a person who has no sense of gender. Also sometimes called genderblank or gendervoid.

Binary genders: Genders that are either man or woman. (A binary person may or may not be transgender.)

Cisgender: A person whose gender aligns with the gender they were assigned at birth; not transgender. Sometimes shortened to “cis.”

Gender dysphoria: A profound sense of unease coming from the fact that the person you are is being distorted beyond recognition.

Genderqueer: an umbrella term for a person whose gender is not strictly male nor strictly female (sometimes used synonymously with nonbinary)

Gender questioning: a person who is questioning whether or not they really are cisgender, but is not certain about their gender identity.

Gender identity: a person’s gender identity is who they are.

Intersex: a person who has a combination of male and female sex characteristics. It’s the “I” in LGBTQIA+.

Medical transition: Various medical procedures that help align a person’s physical body with the person they know themselves to be.

Misgendering: When a person is referred to as a gender that is not accurate to who they really are.

Neopronouns: a word that literally means “new pronouns.” These pronouns are used to reference people of different genders with a higher degree of nuance.

Nonbinary: a person whose gender is outside the gender binary; not strictly male nor strictly female

Social transition: The act of shifting a person’s life to align more with their gender. Includes things like changing your name, changing the gender on your birth certificate, adjusting how you dress, asking people to use different pronouns in reference to you.

Transgender: A person who was assigned a gender at birth that doesn’t match who they are.

Transgender man: a person who was assigned the female gender at birth, but who is actually male.

Transgender woman: a person who was assigned male at birth, but who is actually female.

Blessing Our Kin, the Animals, Who Bless Us

reKINdling through the Blessing of the Animals

by Victoria Loorz

This month, we at Echoes are focusing on another RE word…rekindle, as in rekindling your love for your spouse after the kids move away.  That kind of rekindle.  But I’m intrigued by another use of rekindle.  As in re-KIN.  Become kin again.  It is a call to remember that we are already kin with all created beings, with all creatures and more-than-human-others.  But, because of centuries of (what I think is intentional) perceived separation, it is urgently important to remember that we belong in a larger family than a couple of parents and siblings.  We are intimately connected with All That Is.  

Saint Francis, whose feast happened this week and in whose name the lovely Blessing of the Animals service is dedicated, was consistent in calling all Others kin:  Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wolf, Sister Starling.  Emma told a story this morning during Wild Church about how Francis went to talk to his brother, the Wolf when his human kinsmen wanted to go hunt down the wolf out of fear. Francis had a chat with his brother and the wolf didn’t bother the village again.  I want to talk to wolves like that.  Gathered among us this morning were a handful of humans, including Joanna Schmidt, our Bellinghamster guest for Monday night’s Hamster Church.  Among other gifts, she has developed a similar ability to talk to animals, and to listen to them.  6:30 pm Monday, Oct 7 at the Old Parish Hall.  Just a quick plug.  

Joanna and her husband brought two amazing friends whom they are foster parenting until someone comes and offers these two cuddly ladies a permanent home.  Charis offered kind and holy blessings for all the wolf descendants in attendance, and a few whose photos were shared to proffer proper blessings.  Oh, it was so lovely.  The pups also were the privileged recipients of Communion Jerky that Emma got permission from Molly to share.  The body and the blood of Christ offered to all beings.  

We began Wild Church this morning with a reminder from the Old Testament, from the Book of Job, that animals and the earth herself has wisdom to share with us…if only we’d listen:

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,

or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,

or let the fish of the sea inform you.

Which of all these does not know

that the hand of the LORD has done this?

In God's hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all humankind.”

(Job 12:7-10)

And an invocation I adapted from my friend, Gary Nabham, an eco-theologian, a Franciscan oblate, and a farmer who launches his Wild Church in southern Arizona this weekend:

Invocation for the Blessing of the Wild Animals

Our Creator is the Elder on the trail blessing the herds and flocks.  

Let us also bless the herds and the flocks!

Our Creator is the Shepard seeking out the lost, the rare and those at risk, 

Bringing them back to safety. 

Let us also care for the lost, the rare and those at risk!

Our Creator cares for the migrants facing perils and walls along their way.

Let us also pray for safe passage for all kinds of migrants.

Our Creator listens for the ones who have taken flight.

Let us also listen & support those in flight.

Let us now, each in our own turn, offers blessings and prayers for the wild animals

Who move through the lands and waters around us, enriching our own lives.

Let us bless the wild among us.

Let us bless the wild among us.

Bless the bald eagles and the swans and other migrating birds who move cryptically among us, crossing borders and facing perils that threaten their survival. Let our prayers travel with them.

Bless the Great Blue Heron who have been displaced from their nests by construction and extraction. Let our prayers travel with them.

Bless the chum, chinook, pink, sockeye and coho who swim through our streams, whose life journeys have been interrupted by human obstruction. Let our prayers travel with them.

Bless the deer and squirrels and raccoons, the crows, ducks, rabbits and bats, and all the creatures who adapt to human-adjusted habitat and co-exist easily with us.  Protect them from cars and poisons and may they find food and safety.  Let our prayers travel with them.

Bless the orca whose hunting grounds have been decimated by overfishing and climate changes affecting the sea.  In their struggle to survive, Let our prayers travel with them.

Bless the tree frogs who swim through our streams, whose life journeys have been interrupted by human obstruction. Let our prayers travel with them.

Bless the cougars and owls, the coyotes and bears and other predators who need to be stealth and stay hidden to survive. Let our prayers travel with them.

Bless the domestic animals on farms and in our homes.  May we be compassionate friends and care for them, as they companion with us. Let our prayers be with them.

And, as our Benediction, we heard from Father Zossima, the great priest from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s brilliant novel, The Brothers Karamazov:

“Every blade of grass, every insect, ant, and golden bee, all so marvelously know their path; though they have not intelligence, they bear witness to the mystery of God and continually accomplish it them-selves.”

“Love all of God’s creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light! Love the animals. Love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will soon perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.”

Thank you.  What a blessing and honor to share these sacred moments with friends, human, dog, bluejay, black squirrel, and all.  

Amen.

A Few More Thoughts on Gathering

Image from UnSplash!

The Gospel text in the Lutheran Lectionary (cycle of Bible readings) this past Sunday was Luke 15: 1-10 or the parable about the shepherd who has 99 sheep that flock as they should and one sheep that wanders off into the night. The shephard abandon’s the good sheep in search for the one that has gone it’s own way. Jesus was using this story to talk to the self-righteous people of his time about why he was hanging out with sinners, the wrong sort, or the undesirables.

This text has been used by others to also stress that we are all sinners. That if you really really repent, then there will be happiness in heaven. Sometimes it has also been used to tell the people in the congregation that they need to go out and save sinners, even if it might be against their will, because well, the shepherd always knows better. Both of these readings of Luke can be off putting. Especially for many of us who have suffered at the hands of religious people who either always told us we were only sinners, or that we weren’t working hard enough to convert other people.

It is with this human-centered perspective that we often come to the text as well. We focus on either being one of the 99 well behaved sheep or maybe the one rebel sheep. Maybe you are the sheep who was inspired by Fleetwood Mac and decided to “Go Your Own Way.” And these are often the only two roles we see: good and bad. Well-behaved and troublesome. Normal and weird.

We are so focused on the sheep in this parable that we forget all about what Jesus is doing in the story. Jesus as the shepherd is gathering all of the sheep in one place. Gathering. Gathering up. Collecting. Rounding up. Congregating. Now that last word, is also related to congregation, which comes from the Latin “congregare” or ‘collect into a flock.’ A fold. The body of Christ.

Let’s focus our attention on becoming like Jesus in the coming weeks. Not to correct. Not to reprimand. Not to scold others for going astray, but simply embracing them. Gathering them into our arms. Making a larger space in our lives for other people we encounter. By doing this, we will be adding them into the worship we have here and now among one another. Adding them into the body of the Living God who continues to be among us at all times.

By Jory Mickelson

September is for RE/membering

Image from UnSplash

Most of us, when we see the word remember, will look back into our past for memories. But re-membering can have many other meanings as well. My favorite among these, is the idea of re-gathering, or bringing together again. Where member means to make whole. For it is in community, that we are truly made whole.

At Echoes gathering together each week in often its own unique experience. I would go so far as to say that at Echoes gathering is a special grace or spiritual gift that we offer to people.

Echoes is about welcome. No matter where you are coming from, no matter where you have been, we welcome you. We hold out our hand to embrace you. I know in my own discovering of Echoes, I had undergone some trauma in another religious congregation. I was not feeling welcomed.

And Echoes took me just as I was in the moment. No need to apologize for coming in emotionally messy. No need to put on anything other than street clothes. Echoes was there as something between a place of worship and a spiritual refuge.

I could worship with all of you and authentically be myself. I was seen. I was held. I was gathered together with everyone else into the embrace of the Loving One.

Lots of organizations use community as a buzzword. Even the ELCA Lutheran denomination, of which Echoes is a part, recognizes that one of the four parts of every worship service is Gathering.

But what does that look like in practice? For Echoes, it takes many forms.

-We gather outdoors for worship and deep gratitude once a month in Wild Church.

-We gather together at the pub for discussion and fellowship with Pub Theology.

-We gather together to get messy with art supplies during Creative Church.

-We gather together to meet new people in the Bellingham community through our Hamster Church.

No matter what gathering together may look like, we welcome you. Having experienced the unique spiritual gift of gathering that Echoes offers, I make it my mission to continue to offer it to you. It is my hope and my job as a member of Echoes to continue to offer this gift to others as it was so freely offered to me.

If you are feeling alone this week, if you are feeling a bit down, if you are feeling a bit off or out of place, we invite you to our next Echoes gathering. But even more importantly we encourage you to reach out. We would love to hear from you.

We would love the opportunity to embrace you, wherever you may be at in the present moment.

By Jory Mickelson

Repair Blessing

Repair Blessing
written by Emma Donohew for Wild Church, August 2019

May this blessing come in waves
waves of wonder
waves of astonishment
then waves of despair

It’s so much easier sometimes to tear it down
But then begins the long slow work of REpair

So before we begin to feel the crushing weight, that we are in this all alone,
This Blessing comes again once more 
In not one but in twos

The first wave is to remind you of the companioning that happens
and is necessary in the delicate art of healing and making things new
The sacred pairing that we hope to have
as we work towards reconciliation between all beings.

It can be overwhelming all the work that needs to be done.

We need not look hard for the cracks to appear
For in those things & relationships worth renewing 
REpair
Will always follow wear

The second wave comes swiftly and forcefully 
to remind you that all things worth saving come out of a deep relationship of love

This blessing is begging you to reconsider your role as someone who can mend

Is it ok to want to go back to when something was new?
Or at least not throw it away without trying to mend, fix or repair it?

This blessing is for a repair that goes beyond hammers and nails
Goes beyond gauze and bandages 
Goes beyond sorry and forgiveness

This blessing
Requires vulnerability to know our place in the cycle of life and death
The earth knows how to repair
To renew
To refill empty space with life

Open yourself to this blessing and it’s final wave of courage
For repairing ourselves, community and world
For you have been made holy and whole.

Amen.

August is for RE-PAIR

We are on the cusp of high summer. Our upcoming word for the month, or theme at Echoes, is re-pair. Repair. As you all know by now, I love words. Their various meanings feed me intellectually and also spiritually.

 Repair has several meanings, which means there are several ways we can interpret this word in our own lives. Perhaps if you are a pessimist like me, you immediately ask yourself: “What in my life is in need of repair?” or aka “How broken am I?”

 Most negative christian theology is focused on how broken we are as human beings. How far we have fallen from the light of God. How unworthy we are of love, how undeserving of God’s grace. But thankfully, this isn’t the only meaning of repair. This isn’t the only way we can experience our humanness in the light of the Holy One.

 One definition of repair is: A STATE OF BEING or FITNESS. Repair can ask us what state we are in. How is our spiritual, emotional, physical, financial and mental health? What kind of estate or form do we find ourselves in in the present moment? Where are we in good order in our lives? Where do we feel most together? Where do we find our deepest tenderness? Our most intimate places with the Divine?

 Another definition for repair is TO RESTORE TO A PREVIOUS STATE OR VIGOR. Instead of thinking we must be entirely destroyed or remade (calling to mind our culture’s obsession to makeover nearly everything), we can begin to think about nurturing life and greenness into areas that use to have more vigor. Instead of demolition think freshen, refresh, rejuvenate, refill, replenish. Our God is a gentle and tender-hearted one. In our upcoming indoor worship, we pray recalling the Psalms:

 When hard pressed, we cry out to You our God, and You bring us into a spacious place. Holy One, you are with us, we will not be afraid.

In the month to come, as all things are ripening and bearing fruit—as we take in the warmth of the sun—as we remember the abundance of the natural world—let us recall the gentle abundance of the Holy One. Let us find what is ripening within ourselves and see what God is bringing into fruition in our lives.

By Jory Mickelson

reWilding Blessing

reWilding Blessing
written by Emma Donohew for Wild Church, June 2019

This Blessing is impatient
Unable to wait any longer 
here it is already with us
Unfolding
Creeping
Taking over
This moment
This place
This earth
Inviting you into a state of awe

Arch your neck
Cradle your ear
Attune your auditory channel 
for this blessing is
Silently whispering to
Your hearts
& Our spirits

Pleading with you & us to listen
Groaning at you & us to care
Crying at you & us to do something

This blessing burst forth into existence awakening us to the glorious wild gift all around you
And under the layers of human overuse, misuse & abuse
Is a land transformed 
But is not a land without hope

This blessing invokes a compassionate song from the layers, from the earth & from the land
That is older
And wiser
And more wild
Than we will ever know

Pleading with us to step aside and let nature do her work
With us as collaborators & caretakers
Letting what wildly roamed this place
Work it’s way back into the ground, the hills, the waterways & reservoirs once more
And maybe even calling forth a little wildness in us, for us, to free us

May this blessing invite you into reWilding as an expression of love for all creation 
Respecting all beings and landscapes as they are authentically

[not only as we wish them to be]

This impatient blessing has found you
It can wait no longer
For that which is reWilding in you.

A Blessing for reSURGEence

A Blessing for reSURGEence
Written by Emma Donohew for Wild Church, May 2019

Upon which ground do you find yourself today?
A ground
fertile with things just becoming aware of their purpose?
A ground
drying out things up becoming awakened to their living?
A ground
teeming with invisible & visible water ways connecting with their origin places?
This ground
Greening with cycles of life & death, a rush & a trickle, a gush & a stream, withering & lushness, closeness & openness

This ground is closer than we think.
Further than we know and always
Ever present modeling the way of life & death.

Of less & more

May this Blessing wriggle its way to you.
Inviting, 
No, Encouraging you
To rise up
From your low places
Knowing this ground can hold you

Allow this Blessing,
Like the water,
Even if just the sound

To lift you.
Knowing this water can carry you.

Attune Yourself to Living Things.
Already Around You.

Attune Yourself to Living Things
As this Blessing Frees You,
To participate in the Resurgence around you.

The Resurgence in You.
The Resurgence of You.
Amen.