As we continue to evolve with the health landscape 2-½ years into the pandemic, Church of the Redeemer has modified its mask policy, effective November 7, 2022. These guidelines reflect a balance between the widespread access to vaccinations and a sensitivity to those who continue to take a more cautious approach to COVID-19, flu, and RSV infection this winter.
The Sunday 8:00 am Holy Eucharist continues to be mask required.
The Sunday 10:30 am Holy Eucharist is mask optional but recommended. This service continues to be streamed at redeemer-kenmore.org.
All meetings in the church are mask optional but recommended.
All unvaccinated people should mask in all instances.
All meetings of the church should make plans to be hybrid.
Church of the Redeemer continues to provide high quality surgical masks and KN95 respirators to those who need or want them. The box containing masks and respirators is in the narthex (the main entryway to the church).
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.
[Episcopal News Service] A week after the close of the 80th General Convention, it’s now safe to say the gathering of more than a thousand Episcopalians in Baltimore, Maryland, was not a super-spreader event, though some attendees have continued to test positive for COVID-19 after leaving the city.
The convention had been shortened from eight to four days, July 8-11, 2022, as a precaution intended to prevent cycles of illness, transmission and infection while the church’s governing body was conducting its business. Dr. Rodney Coldren, hired to advise church leaders on the public health precautions, told Episcopal News Service on July 18 that he has only received reports of four attendees testing positive for COVID-19 since the 80th General Convention’s last day. That brings the total known cases to 32.
“I suspect there were many more,” Coldren said. Attendees were asked to self-report their infections during the four-day meeting, but “we were not asking individuals to continue reporting after the close of General Convention.”
Among the positive cases were 28 deputies. Coldren also said two bishops, two staff members and two spouses reported infections during their time in Baltimore or in the five days after returning home. After those five days, it is unlikely that someone testing positive was infected at General Convention.
Planning to prevent COVID-19 cases
Coldren, whose contract runs through the end of July, is preparing a final report on the health outcomes of the 80th General Convention, with lessons learned from the precautions implemented and his recommendations for best practices going forward when the church’s governing and interim bodies meet in person.
This General Convention once was expected to draw as many as 10,000 people to Baltimore for some or all of its nearly two-week span, when it was originally scheduled for July 2021. The pandemic forced postponement to 2022, and in May, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, then the outgoing president of the House of Deputies, endorsed a shorter, smaller in-person gathering in response to widespread concerns about the continued spread of the coronavirus.
In addition to mandating face masks in the convention halls and requiring proof of vaccinations, church leaders asked all attendees to commit to daily self-tests for infections. They canceled plans to allow visitors and exhibitors, and they kept bishops and deputies separated for nearly all of the legislative sessions. Church-affiliated organizations were asked not to schedule parallel meetings in Baltimore during General Convention.
Coldren had warned that a meeting with few precautions and masks optional could have produced a 10% infection rate among the 1,200 or so bishops, deputies, staff members and volunteers who traveled to Baltimore. Instead, he estimates the precautions kept the known infection rate below 3%.
Some attendees shared their experiences on social media, including whether they tested positive or negative for COVID-19. Many were thankful for the extra steps taken to minimize the risks of infection, even though it meant a scaled-down General Convention.
— Rev Leslie Scoopmire (@Scoopexplainsit) July 12, 2022
The Rev. Miranda Hassett, a deputy from the Diocese of Milwaukee, posted a prompt on Twitter on July 17 asking for updates since the meeting in Baltimore. Most of the people responding said they had tested negative.
Grateful for all the precautions—I’ve tested negative a couple times since coming home and believe the rest of my deputation (AL) is also healthy—Thanks be to God (and the planning committee)!
“Grateful for all the precautions,” said the Rev. Seth Olson, a deputy from the Diocese of Alabama. “I’ve tested negative a couple times since coming home and believe the rest of my deputation is also healthy.”
Some tested positive for COVID-19
One of those who tested positive in Baltimore was Sophie Kitch-Peck, who had been producing General Convention-themed videos for the House of Deputies TikTok account.
“I feel fine, and am asymptomatic,” Kitch-Peck said in on Twitter early July 10. “If I have interviewed you in the past couple of days, please be sure to be extremely careful and absolutely test tomorrow morning as it will have been two days since you’ve seen me.”
A deputy, Randall Curtis of the Diocese of Arkansas, posted an update to Facebook on July 11 reporting a positive COVID-19 test. “They say I should be fine to be around other people by Friday,” Curtis said. “Until then, I think the turtles and the dogs are hanging out with me after my two-day road trip back home.”
Coldren was upbeat about the final infection numbers, and he said he thinks the experience of the scaled-down General Convention will be helpful in planning safe meetings in the future. It is too early to say whether The Episcopal Church in 2024 will be able to return to a full-scale meeting for its 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, Coldren said, but he added, “I’m hopeful.”
—David Paulsen is an editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
What happens at General Convention?
The legislative process of General Convention is an expression of The Episcopal Church’s belief that, under God, the Church is ordered and governed by its people: laity, deacons, priests, and bishops.
The General Convention is the Church’s highest temporal authority. As such, it has the following power:
Amend the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church
Amend the Book of Common Prayer and to authorize other liturgical texts
Adopt the budget for the Church
Create covenants and official relationships with other branches of the Church
Determine requirements for its clergy and other leaders
Elect its officers, members of the Executive Council, and certain other groups
Delegate responsibilities to the Interim Bodies of The Episcopal Church
Carry out various other responsibilities and authority
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. We are 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.
Church of the Redeemer recently conducted a survey about how topics related to the on-going pandemic, as we experience it, including masking. The survey received 25 responses.
Those who responded attended virtually, in-person, and, in several cases, a mix of both.
All respondents continue to mask at least sometimes. Several indicated that they always mask.
The vast majority of respondents indicated that they are in favor of continuing to mask.
Sentiments ranged as to a metric for when masking in the congregation should end was between 0-150 cases per day in a 7-day average. For context, these are the current measured transmission rates in our area (May 6, 2022):
King County is 900 per day average (40 per day per 100,000 people).
Snohomish County is 434 per day average (53 per day per 100,000 people).
There were also questions about the re-adoption of the common cup in the Eucharist. That topic will be discussed in a future article.
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. We are 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.
Holy Week approaches, and in years past, that would mean that it’s almost time for us to gather not only at the altar, but also at table for meals. But not this year. This year we will be able to gather at the altar, but we will not at the table.
In the recent masking survey, the vast majority of the respondents indicated that their comfort level includes remaining masked for the time being while indoors. Eating a meal would be in indirect conflict with wearing a mask. I tried drinking coffee without removing my mask on Sunday morning. It went poorly. So, we won’t be gathering for a simple supper in the parish hall on Maundy Thursday. Or eating together in celebration after the Vigil. Or sharing a potluck breakfast between Easter Sunday services—at least not this year.
Eating together is one of the fundamental practices of the Christian faith. One of the things I love about Redeemer is the gusto with which we enjoy eating meals together. It is one of the things that I have missed most in the past two years.
One of the things I have been talking about often with my kid recently is doing the thing that we know is right even when we don’t want to. It is not an easy lesson of a kid, but then again, it’s not an easy lesson for me either.
Choosing what is the right thing to do is an essential act of discernment for us as stewards of God’s love. How we choose to interact with, to make space for each other in the presence of the God who created us and loves us, is the measure of how close we are coming to the heart of God. Choosing to continue to wear masks, to postpone the moment when we sit down to a meal together is hard, but I believe it is the right thing right now; the thing that looks like being a steward of what God has given us in the Church of Redeemer—each other.
I am looking forward to celebrating our journey through the Passion of Jesus on the way to resurrection with you this Holy Week, whether you are joining in-person, virtually, or in prayer. And I hope that soon we can celebrate the resurrection around altar and table.
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. We are 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.
As of March 12, 2022, the State of Washington and King County masking mandates will end for houses of worship, in accordance with the recommendations of the CDC. Individual businesses and can continue choose to require mask wearing.
At Church of the Redeemer, we will continue to wear masks for the time being. At the beginning of the pandemic, we committed to following science, and to do everything in our power to keep each other safe. Choosing in the near term to continue to mask is in keeping with this continuing policy.
The Vestry and Fr. Jed continue to monitor case numbers to help determine when we will finally put the masks away.
A Guide to Gathering in Person from the Diocese of Olympia
Businesses and workplaces have an important role to play in helping slow the of COVID-19. Below are resources and current guidance to help keep your workers and customers safe.
Please note that while many industry sectors such as restaurants, bars, gyms, retails stores and other businesses have returned to normal capacity and operations, individual businesses may choose to maintain restrictions as they deem appropriate for the health and safety of their workers and customers.
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. We are 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.
This is Fr. Jed Fox’s announcement regarding a temporary cancellation of in-person worship services at Church of the Redeemer.
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Hi, I’m Father Jed, the Rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, Washington.
I’m coming to you today with some news that I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do again. But if you’ve looked at the news and at the COVID numbers in King County, you’d probably guess what it might be.
Because of the Omnicom variant, and its very high transmissibility and the damage it can do to communities in a very short amount of time, we are going to suspend in-person worship at the Church of the Redeemer for the next three Sundays. So that is January 9th, January 16th, and January 23rd.
Now there is a hidden silver lining in that January 23rd is our annual meeting. And if you were planning on attending the Church of the Redeemer in-person on the 23rd and worrying how you’re going to get home by 11:30 for the virtual annual meeting, you don’t have to worry about that anymore!
But joking aside, this is something that I was hoping we would not have to do, but this is where we’re at and this is the right thing to do to keep our community safe and to do our part to keep the greater community as safe and healthy as possible.
I hope that it will only be for three weeks. My prayer is that it will only be for three weeks, and if and when it ends, I will look forward to putting out another video saying that, “Hey, we’re returning to in-person worship,” at that point.
I hope also that in the very near future, I’ll have some other good news to share, and that will be coming to you again very soon with that good news.
But until then, please know that you all are in my prayers. And I hope that I, and everyone at the Church of the Redeemer is in yours as well. God willing, this will come to an end, and we will be able to see each other again.
And until then, may God’s blessing me with you. Christ’s peace be with you and the Spirit’s out-pouring be with you. Amen.
Jed, along with his family, enjoy being outdoors, reading, and travel. He has also tried his hand at woodworking, various musical instruments, and triathlon.
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. We are 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.
Below the video is an automatically generated speech-to-text transcript, with very slight editing.
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Fr. Jed Fox: Hi, I’m Father Jed [Fox] , Rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, Washington. And I have a second furnace update. As of this morning [October 1, 2021], we have a signed contract with our vendor to get our furnace put in.
We’re on our way. I’m really grateful to JP McGlinn, our Junior Warden, for all the effort he’s put in this year and getting us to this point. It’s been a lot of work and he’s done it very well. I’m also grateful to everyone else on the Vestry for helping support JP in getting this done. For… and to all of you who prayed for this outcome, who prayed for us to be able to get this furnace back in so that we can begin worshiping in our space again.
Now the timeline works like this. We have about eight weeks for the furnace unit itself to be built and then install time. So we’re still in a period of waiting, but now it’s expected waiting, knowing that we’re on our way.
I’ll have more updates as the work progresses, and I have more things to share with you.
And until then, may God’s blessing me with you, Christ’s peace be with you, and the Spirit’s outpouring be with you. Amen.
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.
Below the video is an automatically generated speech-to-text transcript, with very slight editing.
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
The Rev. Jed Fox: Hi, I’m Father Jed. I’m the Rector of the Church of the Redeemer here in Kenmore, Washington. And I’m coming today from the furnace room. This is where the furnace usually makes the hot air that sends it to the rest of the church up above us. But as many of you, this thing hasn’t been working for about 18 months.
And so I wanted to give you an update on where we are, because it’s been a long 18 months.
Where we are is really close to being able to sign a contract with a company who will replace this furnace right here. We’re not there yet, but we’re really close. And I could use all of your prayers, to make sure that we can replace this furnace quickly and smoothly. I truly believe that your prayers will make it much easier than it could ever be without them.
We’re not in a place where we can worship in this building yet because this thing isn’t working. And so we’re trying as hard as we can to get this done as quickly as we can. And I’ll have more updates as we sign a contract, as the unit that we’re going to replace this with is made, and as it’s installed. I’ll be able to hopefully be able to show you some videos of the progress that we’re making, the way things look.
So until then, I hope that you will stay tuned wherever you’re seeing this video and see what the progress is going to be. And you will continue to pray for the church, for the furnace, and particularly for the people that make up the church that we can continue to be God’s heart and hands in Kenmore and the area around it, that we can all be little part of making God’s kingdom here on earth.
Now until I see you again, may God’s blessing be with you. Amen.
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.
[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, in his September 21, 2021, sermon during the opening day of the fall House of Bishops meeting, recalled a recent conversation with a fellow bishop about planning for The Episcopal Church’s future. Such conversations typically look to the coming years, Curry said, “but in pandemic time, we can barely think a month ahead of time.”
This House of Bishops meeting is a prime example. The bishops’ twice-a-year meetings have been held online since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, but with vaccines against COVID-19 now widely available, the bishops had planned to gather Sept. 21-23 in St. Louis, Missouri, for their first in-person meeting in two years. Instead, the delta variant and the national surge in COVID-19 cases since July forced the bishops to cancel their face-to-face meeting and return to Zoom.
“So now we are here, not in St. Louis,” Curry told the bishops. “The miracle of vaccination has arrived, even with some boosters, and yet some refuse and the pandemic goes on.”
Curry wondered if diocesan conventions would be held in person this fall, and whether the delta variant could force further changes next year to the church’s General Convention and the Anglican Communion’s Lambeth Conference. “I don’t have any answers yet,” Curry said.
Curry spent much of his 25-minute sermon invoking the term “narthex,” the area of a church that people pass through to enter and exit, using it as a metaphor for this period of uncertainty and transition. “We are living in a narthex moment, between the world we knew and whatever is being born,” he said.
That moment was to be the focus of the bishops’ discussions with each other in the “table time” portion of the meeting’s first day. The opening worship service was livestreamed on YouTube, but the rest of the meeting was closed to the public.
Before the bishops broke into smaller groups, Utah Bishop Scott Hayashi posed three questions for them to discuss: What five words describe your experience with the pandemic? Where has God been present in this time? Have your goals as a bishop changed because of this time of pandemic, racial unrest and political division?
“I’ve had to take it into my heart to consider what has been lost and what has been gained,” said Hayashi, as he lamented that the bishops still could not have such conversations in person.
During his sermon, Curry described watching the 1953 movie “The Robe,” set in biblical times, and hearing echoes of today’s call for the church to reject the trappings of empire. He presented a vision of reformation in the church, away from the establishment and closer to Christianity’s origins in small gatherings.
This, he said, is a “church before collusion with the empire, the church that looks something like Jesus, the church that lived into ‘narthex,’ to let go of the ways things were, to behold the way things could be.”
Curry continued that such a church would be “not formed in the way of the world but formed in the way of Jesus and his love.”
“A community of small gatherings and congregations of all stripes and types, a human tapestry, God’s wondrous variety, the Kingdom, the reign of God, the beloved community, no longer centered on empire or establishment, no longer fixated on the preservation of institution, no longer propping up white supremacy or in collusion with anything that hurts or harms any child of God or God’s creation – by God’s grace, a church that looks and acts and lives like Jesus.
“Welcome to narthex, and welcome to behold a new heaven, a new Earth, a new you, a new me, a new we.”
—David Paulsen is an editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service.
He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
To embrace Presiding Bishop Curry’s invitation to become a church that looks and sounds like Jesus, and to download related resources, visit A Church That Looks and Acts Like Jesus.
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry
“Being a Christian is not essentially about joining a church or being a nice person, but about following in the footsteps of Jesus, taking his teachings seriously, letting his Spirit take the lead in our lives, and in so doing helping to change the world from our nightmare into God’s dream.” ―Michael Curry, Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus
The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry is Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church. He is the Chief Pastor and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer, and as Chair of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.
Presiding Bishop Curry was installed as the 27th Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church on November 1, 2015. He was elected to a nine-year term and confirmed at the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 27, 2015.
This second house, along with the House of Deputies, of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. This house is composed of all bishops, active and retired, of the church. It meets concurrently with the House of Deputies during General Convention. The House of Bishops also holds yearly meetings between conventions.
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.
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The following is an automatically generated speech-to-text transcript of the video, with slight editing.
The Rev. Jed Fox: Hi, I’m the Reverend Jed Fox, Rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, Washington. As we come into summer, I want to give you a little bit of an update on where we are in terms of reopening. We’re hoping to reopen soon, but we’re waiting on a few different things.
First we’re waiting on the furnace.
Yes, the furnace is still broken and yes, we’re very, very hopeful. We’ve been working very, very diligently on getting it fixed, and we’re very hopeful that that’s going to happen this summer. So that is step one. And being able to meet in this space in-person getting the furnace fixed.
Step two is waiting to see what the governor decides to do.
The governor is changing things. He’s said that he’s hoping to reopen the state June 30th and that’s going to come with some differences in restrictions. So that is another variable that we’re having to take into account.
All that being said, we do have a plan for reopening and it goes like this.
We’re going to start having some outdoor worship services at the end of this month, at the end of June. And those outdoor worship services are going to be away for us to get together physically in a much safer space with some restrictions. And there’ll be more about that. More information about how that’s going to look and what you’ll need to do and bring in order to participate in an outdoor worship service very soon on our website.
In July and August, there might, depending on the furnace and the governor, as I said before, be some indoor worship services in this space, again, on a very limited basis. Here’s how I want you to think about it. When someone opens a restaurant, they have what’s called a soft opening. And this is when the cooks and the waiters and everybody in the restaurant sort of gets a feel for what works and how things need to be tweaked, a little bit here and there, either in the menu or in table placement, or how servers are apportioned to different tables and all those other variables that a restaurant has to take into account.
They have the soft opening and they get all the kinks worked out and then they have their big grand opening. We’re going to do basically the same thing.
So, if we can, based on all those other variables I talked about, have people in the building for worship in July and August probably way more towards August, probably towards the end.
We’re going to treat that like a soft opening and these are going to be people who are going to be helping us get ready to reopen the space. And, to work out the kinks of what we need to do to, to be in this space and to do it safely. Because as our number one goal, whether it’s outside worship, whether it’s inside worship, in everything we’re doing, our goal is to make this a safe worshipful experience.
That’s incredibly important. First rule of liturgy is no one gets hurt.
So once we’ve worked out all those kinks, hopefully in July and August, our goal and hope is that on the third Sunday in September, Holy Cross Sunday, the Sunday that we’ve traditionally here at Redeemer opened the program year, we’re going to have a grand reopening of the space. All things being equal, based on a whole bunch of variables, especially those I named at the beginning of this video.
The best we know now we’re going to aim for that third Sunday in September, full reopening of this worship space.
Now hearing this, I know that people might be in one of a few, but three particular places, either one. I’m sure some of you may, maybe even many of you, are very ready to get back to Redeemer. So ready to throw open the doors, get everybody back and be together in worship.
There are probably others of you who are maybe not ready. Not sure you’re ready yet. I don’t know if I’m ready. I don’t know if I’m not ready. I need more information.
And maybe there are others of you who are just very confident in the fact that you’re not really ready to be here yet.
And I have something to say to each of those groups.
First to those who are really ready to get back. I understand I’m really ready to get back, too. Please be patient with us as we make sure that we can do this safely. And, if there’s anything you want to offer, anything that you think you could help add to, to getting us ready to do this in a safe and healthy way and intentional way, please let me know. You know, how to get in touch with me I hope by now.
For those people who were in that middle group, that you’re not sure whether you’re ready or you’re not ready and you need more information, please reach out. I want to make sure that you have all the information that, we can give you, that I can give you about what our plan is and how we intend to do this in an intentional and safe way. And then you can, use that information to figure out where you might want to be, whether hearing everything that we’re doing, you’re ready to come back or you’re still not ready. Even, getting all the information that you were wanting.
And for those who are not ready to come back, that’s okay. We’re not going to stop streaming. So if that is useful to you in that interim time to see, to be a part of worship at distance via these virtual means that we’ve been using for the last almost 16 months, don’t worry. That’s not going away. It probably is never going to go away. The church will be here for you and we’re going to work very hard to make sure that you still feel a part of it. You are no less a part of this church. If you can’t be here physically, either because your body won’t allow you or because you just don’t feel ready yet, you are still a part of this church and we’re going to work very hard to ensure that you feel that way.
And we interact with you that way. And when you get to that point where you might feel ready to come back, we want to make sure that we welcome you back with open arms.
Now you may be feeling a whole bunch of other different ways, and you might feel like you need to talk it out with me. Please. Let me know what questions you have. Come and talk to me: my door, my phone, my email are open for you to chat with me about this.
This is not the last time I’m going to be making a video like this, this summer. You know, things are going to change. That’s the one rule I’ve learned throughout this pandemic is that I make a suggestion, particularly if I put it on video, things change.
And so as things change, I hope that I’ll be able to work with you and you can work with me to be able to go forward intentionally in reopening Redeemer when it’s safe, in a way that is good for all the people, whether they’re ready to come back and need more information or are waiting for just a little bit longer to come back.
So be watching this space, wherever you’re viewing this video for more information about more of the details about what reopening is going to look like as we move forward. And until we see you again, may God’s blessing be with you, Christ’s peace be with you, and the Spirit’s outpouring be with you. Amen.
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.
Spring forward this Sunday, March 8, 2026. Daylight saving time starts.
Stop by The Hangar at Kenmore Town Square anytime between 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm for Ashes to Go on Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025.
3rd Sunday in Lent (Year A), March 8, 2026. Services at 8:00 am (no music) and 10:30 (music). Christian education for children and adults at 9:15 am. Spring forward one hour for the start of Daylight Saving Time.
