Submit Your Creations to the Echoes quaranZINE by 4/13!

Echoes is once again creating a zine….only this time its a digital quaran-ZINE (as we all focus on sheltering in place and keeping our communities safe during these COVID-19 times!)

We gladly accept your quaran-ZINE submissions-ONLINE!

Please capture your drawings, poem, scribbles, painting, writing, collage, photos or general musings in a high quality digital format and send it our way! We'd love to get more art in the world during these chaotic times.

Send your submissions to info@echoesbellingham.org to be featured in this all digital quaranZINE BY 4/13!

Isolation Blues

Image From Unsplash by Priscilla Du Preez

BLUES /blooz/

1. melancholic folk music, originating with African Americans in the rural South at the end of the 1800s.

I got the blues, can't be satisfied today.
I got them bad, want to lay down and die. (Seal Baby Blues)

We get the idea. In the Pacific Northwest, I usually reserve my blues for the long gray winters, when me might not have a truly sunny day for over a month. The doldrums. The dumps. Doom and gloom.

We get them. Even the words we use for the blues, for melancholy, for depression use heavy, sluggish, sounds often blunt d’s and b’s. The soft hissing s’s in depression. The seemingly endless sighing oohs in moodiness and gloom.

Mystics can call this a dark night of the soul, when it appears all consolation has vanished.

Many of us may be facing our own set of blues in our new world of virus and illness. The new age of worry and isolation. I have been amazed at how new phrases suddenly become common speech, almost overnight: “shelter in place,” “social distancing,” and “flatten the curve.”

Three weeks ago, these words did not seem to exist.

And just as suddenly, in our efforts to flatten the curve, in our socially conscious for-the-common-good efforts at self-isolation, the blues can come crashing down upon us. For all of us. Single or partnered. Childless or at home with our children. Younger or older. The physically fit and those with pre-existing health conditions.

“I hate platitudes.
They suck.”

Depression and melancholy, loneliness and the longing are no respecter of persons. They come like an unwanted house guest and can turn into the worst of roommates.Distraction doesn’t always work. A dance party on social media may only be a momentary solution.

We are faced with new ways of living as COVID-19 continues to spread. It can get us down. It is normal and it is natural. Some of us may be depressed. Some of us may be experiencing anxiety. Some of us may suffer both, and often. This is natural. It’s okay.

The secret my depression and anxiety try to use once they have me down is to try and convince me that RIGHT NOW has always been like this. The past was always like I fee right now. And worse, the future will never feel better.

This is always the lie. The one I often miss. The one I need reminding against.

I hate platitudes. They suck. And most often when people say them to me, especially when I am suffering, I want to punch them in the throat before they can finish telling me, “God works in mys—-urggggh!!!”

The truth is, no matter where we are at today, we are still in the middle of a new way of doing things.

It takes time to adjust. It takes time. It will take you time.

Be gentle. Remember you are adjusting.

It is often easier for us to be gentle with others. To forgive them their shortness or flipping out because we know they are under stress. They are worried. They are doing the best they can.

But how often do we remember that WE TOO are stressed, worried, and coping?

How often do we forget to forgive ourselves for not being perfect at every moment?

I know, I am often the hardest with myself. Harder with myself even if I am snapping at others. More angry at myself for not “getting it together” than I am when I complain about who is responsible for a lack of test kits or masks at hospitals.

This week, give yourself permission to be exactly where you are at. No polish. No making things pretty for your social media feeds.

Tell yourself, it is OK to not be OK.

In your prayers, ask the Compassionate One, to allow yourself to be compassionate toward yourself.

If you are falling apart, reach out to someone via phone or text or Zoom or Skype.

Reach out to me if you need to. We can fall apart together. We can let the blues in and maybe, just maybe tomorrow, we can show them the door out.

Stuck in Ash Wednesday: Anxiety in the face of COVID-19. What do we do?

by Charis Weathers

Some parts of the world have been hit HARD by epidemics in my lifetime. But not here, not in the North America. Most of my generation and younger have never faced anything like the coronavirus. Nothing that would cause mass isolation for weeks at a time, possibly months at a time, with everyone needing to play their part in order for this virus to be subdued and decrease the hospital crush that we know is coming.

“That we know is coming.” As of today, here in Washington state we’ve had fifty deaths, half of the total for US casualties. Many families already know the grief and loss. Almost a 1000 people in Washington are already in the midst of a desperate war in their body to fight off this cure-less invasion - and these are only the confirmed cases.

Anxiety has settled in, to varying degrees. It’s remarkable that this is happening during Lent, a season that starts with Ash Wednesday during which we remind ourselves that “we are dust and to dust we shall return.” This is typically a very wise annual ritual in that we have the opportunity to reflect on our lives, how we’re living, and the fact that it’ll all end one day. We give this one day in the church. But in COVID-19 it’s like we are stuck in Ash Wednesday.

Every day we are faced with the uncertainty of disease - will we get it, or possibly worse, will we pass it on to others who can’t survive it? How bad will it get? Will the possible worst case scenario of over a million deaths in the US alone come true? Will our economy collapse entirely? Is there anything we can hold on to as a surety right now?

With this rise in anxiety comes a rise in collective stress. This increase in stress for everyone means, for me, that I have a shorter fuse, have a hard time moving on things, and just don’t feel like I’m okay.

Because it helps me to feel like I have some sort of control when I know more facts, and because it seems vital to talk about how we’re all feeling, yesterday Echoes hosted an online panel discussion with two experts - one a medical doctor, and one a behavioral health consultant. We needed to postpone our regularly scheduled ‘hamster church guest because he was going to play the harp, and we really want to experience that in person. So in the midst of trying to offer something helpful into the world we hosted this panel. We couldn’t meet together, but we could bring some wisdom to a group larger than our own. That felt good.

Some of the content, though, certainly didn’t feel good. The reiteration that there is no cure, that we’ve gone beyond the point of being able to stop this thing, that we’re all in a constant state of worry - these weren’t fun to hear, but they are also super important to hear right now as we all need to do our parts to suppress the spread of COVID-19.

“we all need to do our parts”

What was also good to hear, however, is the reminder that we need to remind ourselves that because we are in a state of stress we need to take extra measures to be compassionate - with others and with ourselves. This can be hard in normal times, and these times are certainly not normal. There is also the potential that we could see more clearly that we are all actually connected to one another. Can we use this time to re-learn how to work together instead of against each other? It’ll take a lot of us practicing this to make it stick on a larger scale, and frankly, not many individuals are good at it to begin with. So there’s work to do, even in the midst of social distancing.

Below is a video of last night’s zoom call. Dr Jennie McLaurin and Josh Whaley demonstrated a generosity of time that I hope we can all practice in some form or fashion. This conversation contains helpful tips and important medical facts about COVID-19. Feel free to give it a watch when you’re in social distancing mode. Maybe it can actually help bring us together.

Even though we are stuck in Ash Wednesday, the hope that rises from death, Easter, is coming. Let’s hasten that hope and new life, shall we?

Ash Wednesday Blessing

written by Emma Donohew for Ash Wednesday Wild Church - February 2020

Don’t wash away the mark on your forehead just yet
Let it linger there a little longer
Allow this solid residue to sink into you

We bear ashes that often mark an end
To mark something new
Embrace this cyclical blessing
This threshold in time

Welcoming the earthly ashes to sit with you

Solid Residue
Leftover from our ancestors 
who kept fires lit before
and for us

Maybe everything is reusable 

Even us

For every part of us comes from
Something
Not just from somewhere

Ash Wednesday
Just another day to embrace the humility of our 
Residual nature

Not running from our known future
But welcoming our deep connectedness

Our shared origins
Invisibly interchanging between the generations

So embrace this residual blessing
These ashes from a fire
As a mark of memory
Of remembering
That you come from dust

And through dust, earth and water
You shall return

Amen

Day 7 - SERVICE CHURCH

“Moving as a group, planting trees, cleaning up the environment…these things allow us to talk to each other, and other people while we work. This puts meaning to our lives and the lives of people with whom we share conversation.” --Rich

Service Church is a monthly activity at Echoes. We look for ways to give back to our local community, often by helping other groups with environmental stewardship. Caring for the land or “our natural home” as our mission statement names it, is one of the crucial ways that Echoes continues to build and maintain connection to the place in which we live.

Service puts the emphasis of the church and its congregation back into the world. Service allows us to share our gifts and talents with the whole community. Service is God’s call to us to “love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

On this last day of giving, consider how you have been of service to others in your own life: in your daily work, the people with which you interact, the way you care and greet the animals (domestic and wild) around you. You probably serve in more ways than you realize.

Please help Echoes continue the important work of giving back in the new year. Your donation is tax-deductible. With your gifts, we continue to serve our community well beyond our own front door.

Give to Echoes today!

Day 6 - 'HAMSTER CHURCH

Each month Echoes hosts a monthly gathering where we invite members from the larger Bellingham area to share about their lives.  Why are they here? What are they doing to make life better here in the ‘ham? How can we learn from them?

These conversations allow us to meet people living alongside us in the community that we may never otherwise get to know. ‘Hamster Church extends Echoes’ reach into Bellingham and also practices the value of neighborliness. There is no “other” in God.

“Sometimes the topics are uncomfortable, like when we heard from the homeless people and the trans person at different ‘Hamster Churches. People often face hardships and difficulties in their lives and that can be hard to listen to. But I always come away with more insight and compassion for people.” –John

Contributing to Echoes today, helps us to keep having these important conversations with our neighbors. It creates connections across perceived barriers and divides. Your gifts grow kindness and community.

Give to Echoes today!

Day 5 - CREATIVE CHURCH

What is the connection between spirituality and the arts? Each month Creative Church explores this important question, and offers an opportunity to engage our own creativity in a mindful setting.

“The story we share of the interaction of humanity with God begins with the story of creation…I like to think of that piece of the creator in me as some of the source of my creativity. In Creative Church…we acknowledge and explore what that means. We don’t do it as an intellectual exercise. We do it by actually exercising that creativity…for me often not one I would do on my own.” –Tim

People who know they aren’t creative, come out the other side of Creative Church with tangible evidence that they indeed have the capacity and ability to be a creator themselves.

“To experience what that link to the creative God within us might be. It is another of the ways that Echoes approaches the full range of ways to connect more closely with God, especially that piece of God within us.”--Tim

Your giving to Echoes helps us continue to link spirituality with the creative arts. Help us to dream new and wonderful ways of express the deepest parts of ourselves and that small spark of the Sacred within.

Give to Echoes today!

Day 4 - PUB CHURCH

We believe that Church has never been confined to a building, so why not meet in a brewery, pub, tap house or bar? Pub Church brings church into the wider world, and brings the wider world back into church.

Each month, Echoes shares conversations that engage both the head and heart in a relaxed, informal setting. We know solid answers are hard to come by, but good questions can be just as enlightening. When we gather, when we congregate together, we believe that God is with us, among us, and in-between us in the conversations we hold.

“I enjoy Pub Church; it reminds me of the centuries when folks gathered at a warm inn during the evening.  Pub Church takes us to a comfortable place to share and discuss our lives, faith, joys and concerns—together.  This is safe space for us to listen and to be heard.” –Shari

Please support us in all the ways that we worship. Your contributions help us to bring God into the lives of people, no matter where we gather. Join us in our work, from near or far. We raise our glasses to you!

Give to Echoes today!

Day 3 - WILD CHURCH

“Engaging with nature has been a spiritual practice for me and a pathway to experience holy mystery in all seasons and types of creation. I love that Echoes provides a regular rhythm of setting aside time together to be quiet, listen, and notice what is humming in the natural world around us, within ourselves, and how we’re interconnected.” --Danielle

We know that we are part of God’s wonderful, diverse and complex creation. We are interwoven into this precious and fragile planet we call home. Echoes seeks to repair the disconnect between humans and the natural world, God’s first book of revelation.

Wild Church is a practice, a worshipful posture, and a way of re-connecting and re-membering ourselves and our place in Christ’s kin-dom.

“Being able to share insights, collective wisdom and this practice with the Echoes community has been a tremendous gift and I’m grateful for the ways it has helped cultivate awe and wonder and deepened my faith.” –Danielle

Your gifts to Echoes help us to reconnect with our natural home, God’s marvelous creation. All gifts are tax deductible. Return. Restore. Renew.

Give to Echoes today!

Day 2 - PRIDE

“I discovered Echoes through the Bellingham Pride Festival, it had a booth set up there, along with a sign that said, ‘Seeking Wholeness, Not Harm.’…As a former churchgoer, I felt the need to step away when I came out as a lesbian and seriously began to reconcile my faith and sexuality. Finding Echoes when I did, felt like coming home. Six years later, and I am still a part of Echoes. What keeps me coming back is continually experiencing the radical welcome, acceptance and knowing that my presence matters…” --Callie

Pride matters. It really does. Echoes was founded at Bellingham’s Pride Festival and has continued to have a presence there ever since. We believe in the promise of radical welcome. We accept and honor you just as you were created. Just as you are.

Deep wounding from previous religious experiences are most often the norm for LGBTQ+ people. The traditional church has failed queer people forever.

This is why Echoes practices radical welcome. You are loved. You are beloved. Just as you are. No exceptions.

Help us to continue to practice being a place of wholeness for the LGBTQ+ community instead of a place of harm. Your gifts continue to help us be a community of welcome, of healing and of hope.

Give to Echoes Today!

Learn more about Echoe’s committment to Pride in our video!