Thank You for the Donations to the Birchwood Food Desert Fighters Boxes @ Dinner Church on 7/24!
Thank you again to all who donated food and funds to support the work of Birchwood Food Desert Fighters. We were able to stock the boxes FULL for the end of the month, when many folks need extra help to make their supplies last until a new month begins.
Thank You.
We will collect donations for the food boxes on the 4th Tuesday of the month. Donations needed include shelf stable beans, pasta, rice, noodles, canned vegetables & fruits, ready to eat meals, tuna, spices, snacks and any bounty you have from your garden!
Bring your donations to Dinner Church on 8/28.
Pride Blessings 2023
Celebrating 10 Years @ Bellingham Pride!
THANK YOU to everyone who participated, tabled, walked, prayed and rooted for our time at Bellingham Pride in 2023! We couldn't have done it without you.
We gave out so many zines, tattoos, stickers and candy to our community!
It's always important remind our community that they matter & that God loves them, no exceptions.
And its always important to celebrate when you make it 10 years! Here’s to 10 more!
A Pride Blessing
Beloved, there is only love.
In you, only love.
Around you, only love.
Not a touchy-feely, pop song kind of love.
But a love that knows every secret corner
of your fragile, fabulous being and says, “Yes!”
“Yes!” to your difference.
“Yes!” to your diversity.
“Yes!” to your desire.
Whoever you are,
whatever beautiful spirit
God created you to be,
shine fearlessly and courageously.
We need you
and the divine light within you
to sparkle through the prism of your body
and brighten the world
with a glorious rainbow.
Never forget you are loved.
Fiercely and forever.
-Written by St. John’s Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, CA
Echoes Turns 10 & Makes a Zine!
Echoes turns 10 and makes a zine with the theme 10!
Why would a church make a Zine (handmade magazine)?
Because if liturgy is the work of the people, and zines include the art of the people, then why not combine the two and make a liturgy of the people!
In the Spring of 2023 we set out to make our 6th zine for the community of Bellingham in time for our anniversary at Bellingham Pride in the summer ofJuly! We handed over 80 of them (and over 100 of our Pride zines) while tabling at Pride! We were delighted to share our art, writing, collages from our community specifically at Creative Church. We had a submission from a kiddo and from a neighbor who we have helped keep out of homelessness.
Here is from the Intro:
X
10 years.
A Decade.
We were founded at Bellingham Pride in 2013 and since then, we have been spreading love and fighting christian intolerance as a reminder that hate has no place here in Bellingham, wa or anywhere.
As we reflect on our 10 years we wonder
how do we mark time?
What difference does a decade make?
how can we be encouraged?
what will the world be like in 10 more years?
we hope this zine pondering on the theme of 10, X, A decade etc. will get you thinking about how you are
observing time
passing time
or just
taking it one day at a time...
Special Thank You to Torie for helping to put together the zine!
Filling Food Boxes!
Food Donations Collected 5/22 @ Dinner Church
At our monthly dinner church we collect food donations for the 4 food boxes we fill on the 4th Tuesday of the month in Bellingham. We are grateful for the work of the Birchwood Food Desert Fighters to bring nourishment (and love) to their neighbors in need.
Monetary donations are also welcome to purchase foods that are still needed to round out each box (often ready to serve/eat meals).
If you would like to help with delivery, let us know!
Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far!
Spring Food Box Needs
granola bars | canned / shelf stable milk | nuts | canned/pouch meat/fish | canned beans | canned fruit | soups/stews | jerky | fruits / veggies stable in heat | oats | sauces | spices | tea / juice | parmesan cheese | syrup | sugar | cereal | tortillas | sliced bread | rice
Check out the full list of needed items for Spring here!
Our next collection will be at Dinner Church on June 26th!
Contribute to our ZINE: Theme 10
We're in process of creating a special zine (handmade magazine) to celebrate our 10 year anniversary at Bellingham Pride this summer!
We'd LOVE to have your submissions of art, photography, collage, poetry, mixed media, paintings, writing, songs, you name it!
Submissions are due by May 15, 2023 (Monday)!
So please send a high quality photo of your submission or contact us about getting a physical copy to us at info@echoesbellingham.org
Submit your piece to be a part of this special zine on the theme of 10!
A Prayer for the End of Lent
A Prayer for the End of Lent
By Cole Arthur Riley of Black Liturgies
God of Sorrows,
We cry holy for a God who is moved to tears when met with the conditions of this world.
We are grateful that You are not a God who drags us out of our pain before we are ready— one who is not threatened by our tears but beholds them as holy.
This Lent, help us to make space for a faithful examination of injustice, death, and decay in this world.
We confess that we so often reduce salvation to the personal; let ours be a salvation tethered to the liberation of the world.
And so form us into people who truly see the world, in all of its beauty and depravity.
And when we find ourselves tempted to look away, steady us, that we may see with clarity our most desperate need for a Christ.
As we prepare for the memory of God hung from the cross, let us bear witness to all that requires it.
Oppression, famine, war, neglect, loss, exclusion, loneliness, grief
— all suspended by sin itself—
let us resolve to see and name it all.
That we would daily apprehend the breach between what we were created for and the distortion we see in the systems and powers of this world today.
Let us grieve the chasm.
And as we allow ourselves to weep with you,
let us hope with you in the coming restoration of all things.
Glory to the One who met the cross with tears on his face.
We look to You.
Amen.
Photo by Eyasu Etsub on Unsplash
This week has felt heavy with the news of children's lives lost (again), devastating tornados, challenging evictions, and persistent attacks on LGBTQIA+ & specifically Trans Lives (Again). With the end of Lent near, and Holy Week upon us, we remember that we live in a fractured world. One that has taken lives in the name of empire for generations before us.
Yet we are not left alone to let hate terrorize us.
As we prepare for Easter, may we remember the radical love that transformed the world again through Jesus.
And may we act on the revolutionary, inclusive love that continues to transform our hearts and communities to this day.
Blessings on Your Holy Week,
Emma
A Spring Equinox Blessing
A Spring Equinox Blessing
Dig up, separate, let go, replant and see what grows
Make room for new life
In the fertile ground
Not too quick
May the daffodils and their bright yellow colors bring you joy and remind you of all the good that can come from the darkness of winter and the decomposition of the soil.
Because daffodils usually bloom in the late winter during the lead-up to Easter, the English call them “Lent lilies” or “Lenten lilies.”
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/