A Word from the Rector

Beloved,

First, a long overdue thank you to everyone who made Easter a success in trying times. Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Holy Week and Easter observance, either via the live stream on Facebook, or simply through your prayers. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am especially grateful to Chris Donley for his continuing expertise and to J.P. McGlinn for many long hours that have bolstered our IT infrastructure to the point where streaming of our services is very stable. This is important because, I believe, streaming isn’t going to end anytime soon.

I said what seems like many years ago (though in reality it was back in March) that when the stay at home order was lifted, that we would have a great big Easter celebration. As we have learned more in the last couple of weeks that, when we do reopen, it is going to have to be much of a measured approach. We will not simply be throwing the doors open and shouting from the rooftops, real or digital, “Y’all come in!” Rather, there will more than likely be restrictions on who, when, how, etc., can start to gather.

The Vestry and I are in the midst of discerning how Redeemer will come to decisions about when and how we reopen the building. As we go, we are basing our deliberations on directives from the Bishop, the State, County, and principles and habits of Christian disciples. (See more on that topic later in the Font.)

In any iteration I can imagine, live streaming will be a part of worship going forward, and, as Greg-our-own-Bishop pointed out, maybe it should always have been. We have been able to offer connection in prayer in these weeks with people who otherwise would have had no access to this community. How we can continue to offer such connection bears thinking about as we move forward.

Please know that you are all in my prayers and I do look forward to the time when we all can be together before the Lord’s table again, just not as soon as we had earlier suspected.

Fr. Jed Fox
rector@redeemer-kenmore.org

After Fr. Jed wrote the above, the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickle, Bishop of Olympia, sent the following as part of an email update:

As many of you have probably heard by now, Governor Inslee has extended our state’s stay-at-home order until May 31. This means that our church buildings will continue to remain closed, and we will continue to hold remote services through May 31. This also means that the Office of the Bishop will be closed to the public and that diocesan staff will be working remotely on your behalf through May 31 as well.

This information was not added to the diocesan website when this page was published on the Redeemer website. Sign up for email messages from the Diocese of Olympia.

The Rev. Jedediah (Jed) Fox

The Rev. Jedediah (Jed) Fox has been the rector of Church of the Redeemer since January 2015. Prior to being called to Redeemer, Fr. Jed served as curate and assistant at The Church of St. Michael and St. George in St. Louis, Missouri, and was a seminarian at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin while attending the General Theological Seminary. Fr. Jed was raised at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Helena, Montana.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County. We welcome you be with us as we walk the way of Jesus.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

Spiritual and religious, but not contagious: spiritual practices in a pandemic.

Here are a few resources that I’ve compiled to assist people as we navigate the COVID-19-related physical distancing and the Stay Home Order.

Scripture

Bible.oremus.org: A free bible lookup online, with the King James Version and New Revised Standard Version available.

Church Publishing

Book of Common Prayer

For those who are at home and do not have a copy, we have made an easy-to-navigate PDF version of the Book of Common Prayer available.

Adult and Children Spirituality

Barbara Cawthorne Crafton, well-known author and retreat leader, offers Living Lent, meditations on the hymns of the season. Those who have known the hymns forever, as well as those who are new to these verses, will find them and Crafton’s meditations on faith, prayer, forgiveness, healing, and more, an excellent companion for the Lenten season.

For children, Karin Holsinger Sherman offers Candle Walk, a beautiful illustrated picture book that prepares children for sleep by taking them on a candlelit wander through the woods and inviting them to experience Compline, a centuries-old practice of contemplative evening prayer. Appropriate for toddlers through elementary aged children, it is a wonderful way to prepare children for sleep, assured of the nearness of God. The Order of Compline from the Book of Common Prayer is also included at the back of the book.

Episcopal Relief and Development

Lent: subscribe to Lenten Meditations or listen on this page.

Daily prayer resources

Mission Saint Clare is a daily prayer resource put online.

Pray As You Go is a podcast for daily prayer.

Forward Day By Day podcast and Daily Prayer are two resources from Forward Movement. Forward Movement is an independent company that creates many of the pamphlets which can be picked up in the narthex (church entry hall), including Forward Day by Day.

Books

We are in a season where we are encouraged not to seek the exterior world, but invites us into the interior. Here are some suggestions for books that speak to the spiritual interior and the moral interior of ourselves. Most of these are linked to Third Place Books, who is offering free shipping through the end of March 2020.

The revelation of divine love by Julian of Norwich

The Cloud of Unknowing

The Rule of St Benedict

Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers

Practical Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill

St. Augustine’s Prayerbook

Centering Prayer by Basil Pennington

How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

White Fragility: why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism by Robin Diangelo

On the Side of the Poor: The Theology of Liberation by Gustavo Gutierrez (N.B. I have not read this yet, but have read other works by Fr. Gutierrez, who is one of the foundational minds of Liberation Theology.)

The Rev. Jed Fox

The Rev. Jedediah (Jed) Fox has been the rector of Church of the Redeemer since January 2015. Prior to being called to Redeemer, Fr. Jed served as curate and assistant at The Church of St. Michael and St. George in St. Louis, Missouri, and was a seminarian at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin while attending the General Theological Seminary. Fr. Jed was raised at St. Peter’s Cathedral in Helena, Montana.

You may contact Fr. Jed at rector@redeemer-kenmore.org.

Church of the Redeemer

Welcome to Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

God’s family at the Church of the Redeemer,

I am reminded in the last several days of the Beatitude the Gospel-writers forgot:

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape.

As we continue to monitor the situation and plan accordingly, I wanted to update you on what the plan is for Church of the Redeemer. As you no doubt already have heard, the Governor has banned all events of 250 or more people (phew, just missed us) and Public Health—Seattke and King County has banned all events of less than 250 that do not meet the following requirements (New Limits on Large Gatherings, Other Emergency Strategies to Slow the Spread of COVID-19):

• Older and vulnerable individuals have been encouraged not to attend.
• Recommendations for social distancing and limiting close contact are met.
• Employees or volunteers leading an event are screened for symptoms each day.
• Proper hand washing, sanitation, and cleaning is readily available.
• Environmental cleaning guidelines are followed (that is, clean and disinfect high touch surfaces daily or more frequently).

There are several churches throughout the Seattle Metro area which have chosen to close their buildings and move to virtual meetings, including St. Marks Cathedral. It is my intention to continue to open Church of the Redeemer to God’s people unless and until told to close by the Bishop or Public Health. That could be as soon as tomorrow (Insert joke about giving up church for Lent here) or never.

Until then, the policy of attendance at Redeemer is to use your best judgement about whether attendance in person is best for your own health and well being. Do Not Come to Church if You Are Sick!

Additionally, following the instructions of Public Health—Seattle and King County:

• There is no education, adult or children’s, at the church until further notice. We are working diligently to find alternative methods of education.
• Please give thorough and serious consideration as to whether in person attendance is worth it if you are 60+, have an underlying health condition, or are in any way immunocompromised.
• Those who do attend worship in person should practice social distancing, remaining 6 feet from any other person. As luck would have it, the benches that make up our pews are five feet long. So leave a little further than a bench length between you and your neighbor.
• All other precautions, such as no chalice, frequent washing or sanitizing of hands, and so forth, continue.

Blessed are the flexible, the gospel writers forgot to add, yes that seems about right. I feel confident that this will not be the last time that I write to you this week. As I said in a previous email, please continue to pray for each other, for Church of the Redeemer, for the most vulnerable in the greater Seattle area, and especially for healthcare providers who are bearing the brunt of this pandemic. And, remember the words of the Apostle Paul,

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31,35,37-38)

May Christ’s Peace and Love be with each of you,

Fr. Jed

Church of the Redeemer

Welcome to Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.