Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

Worshiping God, living in community, reaching out to the world.

Category: Bishop Philip LaBelle

Lent: A Message from Bishop LaBelle
Bishop LaBelle shares his reflections for Lent this year and encourages us to join him in fasting this Lenten season.

Hello, dear friends in the Diocese of Olympia.

We’re about to embark on the holy season of Lent, and on Ash Wednesday, clergy will invite us to the observance of a holy Lent in the name of the church, calling us to self-examination and repentance, prayer, fasting, and self-denial, then by reading and meditating on God’s holy word.

One of the things that’s always been interesting to me is how people talk about fasting. We often give up something like chocolate or maybe meat, and yet when I started going deeper into interreligious relationships with Muslim and Jewish neighbors, I’ve realized that we were the only of the Abrahamic faiths that didn’t really engage in a fast during our holy season like they did. This year, Ramadan will begin actually on Ash Wednesday, and our Muslim neighbors will be fasting from sunrise to sunset each day throughout that season, that 28 days, including giving up water.

I often wonder why it is that we don’t fast as much together as Christians, and so this year I’m especially calling us to do that fast. Not because it’s an opportunity for us to say how great we are, but rather to engage in this practice that was seen throughout holy scripture, especially at times of political turmoil, for needing to make lament and for prayer. Jesus himself reminds us again and again that we are to fast, especially during those times that are difficult.

So this year for Lent, I’m gonna be giving up a lunch every day through those 40 days, and then when instead of gathering together for that meal, I’m gonna be going and taking some time to pray the Jesus prayer, using this prayer bracelet, just going through and praying again and again, “Jesus, son of God have mercy on me, a sinner.” Because we all know that that’s where we begin, right? That it’s the self-reflection and our need to make amends with God and with each other. Well, that’s the work of Lent in order that we might be prepared for Easter.

I encourage you to join me in this fast of engaging in that work together. There are some carve-outs, of course, those who might be needing to eat because of medical reasons or they’re elderly or maybe a past experience with an eating disorder, and so fasting in this way is not helpful. But together we can engage in this spiritual practice. We can do it in a way that brings us and draws us closer to God.

So I hope you’ll join me on the Lenten fast, that whatever you choose to do, it will be reflective of your desire to draw closer to God so that when we do get to Easter, we may celebrate with one another of Christ’s overcoming of the grave.

The Rt. Rev. Philip LaBelle

Bishop Philip LaBelle

The Rt. Rev. Philip N. LaBelle is the Ninth Bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. The Diocese elected Bishop LaBelle on May 18, 2024. His Consecration and Ordination as bishop was on September 14, 2024.

Bishop LaBelle previously served as rector of St. Mark’s Church in Southborough, Massachusetts. During his time in the Diocese of Massachusetts, Bishop LaBelle did the following:
- Co-led the Mission Strategy Committee.
- Served on Executive Committee and Diocesan Council
- Directed the Fresh Start program.
He co-founded Southborough Neighbors for Peace with Dr. Safdar Medina in their small town. The organization did the following:
- Hosted peace vigils.
- Began a community-wide Iftar dinner during Ramadan.
- Established an interfaith Thanksgiving service.
- Sponsored other bridge-building events.
Additionally, Bishop LaBelle served on the core team of Central Mass. Connections in Faith, an organization centered on fostering relationships and learning about other religious faiths through quarterly gatherings.

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, 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.
February 18, 2026
The Rt. Rev. Cabell “Cabby” Tennis
Dear Friends,

I have recently learned of the death of The Rt. Rev. Cabell “Cabby” Tennis, Esq. A service for +Cabby will be held at 10:30 am on Saturday, February 28, 2026, at Saint Mark’s Cathedral. Clergy are invited to vest, process, and take part in the Commendation. If you plan to vest, please be ready no later than 10:10 am that morning. Please find +Cabby’s obituary below.

Cabell “Cabby” Tennis was born on October 24, 1932, in Hampton, VA. His parents were Calvin and Sylvia Tennis. His family was active in the Episcopal Church and attended St. John Church in Hampton, Virginia. Cabby attended the College of William & Mary, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1954 and with a Juris Doctor in 1956. After graduation, he worked as a night watchman in a housing project and as an usher at Constitution Hall. In 1954, he married Hyde Southall Jones, and they have four children. He was admitted to the Virginia Bar on June 11, 1956, and worked in tax and litigation for the Judge Advocate General. While practicing law, he “came to appreciate the deeper realities that go on in people’s lives.” Cabby felt the call and attended the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, where he graduated with an MDiv in 1964.

He was ordained as a deacon on June 1, 1964, and to the priesthood on December 19, 1964, by Bishop George P. Gunn, the bishop of Southern Virginia. Cabby was called to serve as a curate at St. John’s Church in Portsmouth, Virginia, where he served from 1965 to 1969. Cabby was then called to serve as rector at Trinity Church in Buffalo, New York, from 1969 to 1972. As rector, he worked with other clergy on civil rights, remedial programs for the poor, open housing, a high-rise for the elderly, and transitional services for the mentally ill. He participated in a three-hour Good Friday service at Trinity Church with the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. In addition, he served on the Executive Council of the Diocese of Western New York.

In 1972, Cabby was called to serve as dean and rector of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle from 1972 to 1986. During his time as dean, he added counseling services and a variety of social services and spoke out on the issue of nuclear war. He expanded St. Mark’s community outreach by offering Bloedel Hall for meetings, seminars, workshops, and celebrations. In addition, he served on the Board of Directors for the Diocese of Olympia and as a deputy to the 1982 General Convention. Cabby also traveled and served as a consultant to the Diocese of Sierra Leone and the Diocese of Zambia. He traveled to South Africa and the Soviet Union, in part, because he saw “the church as a global reality. The diocese is part of a global human family, a family that transcends cultures and national identities.”

Cabby was elected as the ninth Bishop for the Diocese of Delaware on June 14, 1986, at Grace Church in Brandywine Hundred, and was consecrated on November 8, 1986, at St. Helena’s Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware. As a bishop, he served the Episcopal Church as a member of the Committee on Sexual Exploitation, the Joint Commission on Program Budget and Finance, and the House of Bishops. He was a member of multiple bar associations, the Academy of Family Mediators, and the Association for Conflict Resolution. He was also active in social justice programs. Cabby was one of the bishops involved in the heresy trial instigated against Bishop Walter C. Righter after ordaining a gay person as a deacon. Cabby retired as bishop on December 31, 1997.

After retiring, he and Hyde moved back to Western Washington, where he served as an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Olympia for twenty years. During retirement, he was active with Bishop’s United Against Gun Violence, a member of the Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commission, the Committee on Public Legal Education, and a mediator with the Dispute Resolution Center of King County. Bishop Tennis presided from time to time at worship and provided pastoral care at the request of the St. Mark’s Dean. Cabby remained active in justice programs at Saint Mark’s and in the greater Seattle community. In 2018, Cabby was part of an Amicus Curiae Brief with other Episcopal Bishops when Hawaii sued the President over banning people from various countries.

He is survived by his four children, Anne, Cabby III, Whiting, and Molly, his son-in-law, Olivier Seguin, daughter-in-law, Madeleine Hewitt, and the seven grandchildren who adored their Nana to the moon and back: Liza, Whiting, and Clay Tennis, and Henri, Samuel, Theodore, and Nicolas Seguin.

Please join me in prayer for +Cabby and all those who loved and cared for him. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

Blessings,

The Rt. Rev. Philip LaBelle

Bishop Philip LaBelle

The Rt. Rev. Philip N. LaBelle is the Ninth Bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. The Diocese elected Bishop LaBelle on May 18, 2024. His Consecration and Ordination as bishop was on September 14, 2024.

Bishop LaBelle previously served as rector of St. Mark’s Church in Southborough, Massachusetts. During his time in the Diocese of Massachusetts, Bishop LaBelle did the following:
- Co-led the Mission Strategy Committee.
- Served on Executive Committee and Diocesan Council
- Directed the Fresh Start program.
He co-founded Southborough Neighbors for Peace with Dr. Safdar Medina in their small town. The organization did the following:
- Hosted peace vigils.
- Began a community-wide Iftar dinner during Ramadan.
- Established an interfaith Thanksgiving service.
- Sponsored other bridge-building events.
Additionally, Bishop LaBelle served on the core team of Central Mass. Connections in Faith, an organization centered on fostering relationships and learning about other religious faiths through quarterly gatherings.

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, 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.
February 13, 2026
Need to turn around

Dear Beloved Friends in Christ,

No matter how you slice it, things in our country are pretty dire. News headlines focus on the revelations of men in power who were connected with a known pedophile, on American citizens being killed on the streets by federal agents, on the continued rise of costs for basic necessities, on the arrests of people with brown skin—citizens, immigrants, or refugees—by agents wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves. It’s a lot. But it’s not the first time in history when similar events have taken place. Sadly, we humans have a tendency to repeat the past unable to learn the painful lessons when those in power do anything they can to feed their insatiable desire for more.

During one such time, Dietrich Bonhoeffer expressed in a letter to Mahatma Gandhi that the issues of the day were neither political nor economic, they were spiritual. And he lamented that churches as a whole were not responding in a spiritual way. He wanted to find a community living into the values found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and he didn’t see that in Christian communities in Europe or the US. He believed that the best community living it was the one Gandhi had established in India, and Bonhoeffer wanted to see it in real life.

Friends, the issues of our day is neither political nor economic but spiritual. And spiritual matters need spiritual responses.

In less than two weeks, we’ll begin the holy season of Lent. On that day, our clergy will call us to a season of penitence and fasting. A time of reflection, repentance, prayer, and abstaining from food in order to be prepared for the Great 50 Days of Easter.

It seems that fasting has become disconnected from the call for contrition, almsgiving, and prayer. We give up things like chocolate or alcohol or pizza or meat—all well intentioned—but don’t connect it to spending more time with God or meeting the needs of the poor or in lament. The point of fasting isn’t to show our willpower or how spiritual we are. Rather, we fast to respond to God’s cry for justice and to grieve the ways in which we—and our country—have ignored the ills of our day which are spiritual.

I therefore invite each of us to observe with great devotion a time of fasting this Lent. Of giving up food or a meal daily throughout this holy season. There are caveats, of course, best described by our Muslim friends who fast throughout their holy month of Ramadan. Those who are pregnant or who have medical issues—including a history of eating disorders—or the elderly or young are all discouraged from this fast. We are not to do harm to ourselves in this. It is to draw us closer to God.

Additionally, I want to note that we are the only Abrahamic faith who does not practice their fast in community. Our Jewish neighbors gather with each other for a 25-hour fast from all food on Yom Kippur, and a traditional greeting is “May your fast be easy.” Muslims during Ramadan when they go without food or water during daylight hours will often gather each night with family and friends for an Iftar meal to break the fast together, including inviting non-Muslims to join with them. I wonder what that might look like in our congregations, of perhaps gathering for a simple supper and reflection each week so our fast is done in connection with others.

For those who wish to join with me, I will be forgoing lunch and snacks between a simple breakfast and dinner each of the 40 days. (And a reminder, Sundays are always feast days and aren’t included in the count for Lent.) During the noon hour, I’ll be praying the Jesus prayer—“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”—using a simple knotted prayer bracelet to focus my attention. Conversion always begins in our own lives.

Because the truth is that both we and our nation need to repent, to turn around. To experience deep transformation through the love and grace of Jesus Christ. For the issues of our day are not political or economic. They are most certainly spiritual.

Faithfully,

The Rt. Rev. Phillip LaBelle
Bishop of Olympia

The Rt. Rev. Phillip LaBelle

The Rt. Rev. Philip N. LaBelle is the Ninth Bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. The Diocese elected Bishop LaBelle on May 18, 2024, and he was Consecrated and Ordained on September 14, 2024.

Bishop LaBelle previously served as rector of St. Mark’s Church in Southborough, Massachusetts. During his time in the Diocese of Massachusetts, Bishop LaBelle co-led the Mission Strategy Committee, served on Executive Committee and Diocesan Council, and directed the Fresh Start program. He co-founded Southborough Neighbors for Peace with Dr. Safdar Medina in their small town. The organization hosted peace vigils, began a community-wide Iftar dinner during Ramadan, established an interfaith Thanksgiving service, and sponsored other bridge-building events. Additionally, Bishop LaBelle served on the core team of Central Mass. Connections in Faith, an organization centered on fostering relationships and learning about other religious faiths through quarterly gatherings.

In June of 2024, Bishop LaBelle received his Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Seminary focused on Christian Spirituality. His thesis work explored the theology and practice of zimzum and how to make space in our overly busy lives for God, others, and the natural world. He received his MDiv from Yale University in 2004, along with a diploma in Anglican Studies from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. He holds a Master’s degree in composition and rhetoric from Northeastern University and a Bachelor’s degree in English with an additional concentration in theological studies from Gordon College. He has also received certificates in congregational development and religious fundraising.

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, 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.

February 5, 2026
Christmas 2024: A Message from Bishop LaBelle

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Greetings, Diocese of Olympia.

I’m here in what will become our chapel space in Diocesan House. It’s the old library here in the mansion and something that has been under construction. When I first imagined doing a Christmas video for you, I was hoping to have a nice tree set up nearby and looking all perfect in this space and yet here we are, under construction.

Often we hear from our culture about how perfect Christmases can be. We get this in ads and in magazines and watching commercials. There’s those folks who are given Lexuses with car bows all wrapped up, and it feels as if everything has to be perfect. And yet, at least my own experience has been that Christmas sometimes is less than perfect.

Like the one from my childhood, which included the Milky, the Marvelous Milking Cow incident, or the time when I had bought a train table for my son Noah when he was little, and I hadn’t even set it up prior to Christmas Eve services and was wondering if I would get it all done. There was the Christmas that we ended up moving two days after Christmas on the 27th and thinking that we would have Chinese food for Christmas dinner, taking a page out of “A Christmas Story,” only to find that all of the Chinese restaurants near us were closed because they were Christian. And then there was one, even just two years ago, when I got COVID on the 22nd, as did two other members of my family, and I sat there on Christmas Eve in the study of the rectory watching people walk by going to services.

Christmas is often imperfect. But for me, that’s the real truth of this season because Jesus comes into the places of our lives which are unfinished. Jesus enters in not to a palace, but that stable. Coming to Bethlehem and lying there among the sheep and the cows and the donkey and being placed in a manger. Far too often, we think about the coming of Christmas as all the stuff that is perfect. And yet, Jesus meets us right where we are. And friends, that is the good news.

So as we celebrate these 12 days and as we gather with friends and loved ones, I hope that you remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect, that you don’t have to be perfect, but rather to allow Christ to enter into you again in a new way, in all of the messiness of life, so that you might truly experience hope and peace.

Wishing you and all those that you love, a very Merry Christmas. May God bless you during this time.

The Rt. Rev. Philip N. LaBelle

The Rt. Rev. Philip N. LaBelle is the Ninth Bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. The Diocese elected Bishop LaBelle on May 18, 2024, and he was Consecrated and Ordained on September 14, 2024.

Bishop LaBelle previously served as rector of St. Mark’s Church in Southborough, Massachusetts. During his time in the Diocese of Massachusetts, Bishop LaBelle co-led the Mission Strategy Committee, served on Executive Committee and Diocesan Council, and directed the Fresh Start program. He co-founded Southborough Neighbors for Peace with Dr. Safdar Medina in their small town. The organization hosted peace vigils, began a community-wide Iftar dinner during Ramadan, established an interfaith Thanksgiving service, and sponsored other bridge-building events. Additionally, Bishop LaBelle served on the core team of Central Mass. Connections in Faith, an organization centered on fostering relationships and learning about other religious faiths through quarterly gatherings.

Read more about Bishop LaBelle.

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, 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.

December 24, 2024

Funeral for the Rev. Canon John Fergueson, Saturday, March 2, 2026, at 10:00 am in Church of the Redeemer. Additional parking available at The Vine Church across 181st Street from Redeemer.

The 6th Sunday of Easter (Year A), May 10, 2026. Services at 8:00 am (no music) and 10:30 (music). Xristos Kuxwoo-digoot! Xegaa-kux Kuxwoo-digoot!