Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

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

Tag: Lent 2024

Prophetic Voices podcast available for Maundy Thursday
In this episode of Prophetic Voices, we’ll be discussing the lectionary for Palm Sunday. The texts covered in this episode are Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14 and John 13:1-7, 31b-35.

Our amazing guests this week are:
- The Rev. Canon Anna E. Rossi, canon precentor and director of interfaith engagement at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. In this role, she stewards the community’s liturgical and sacramental life, diocesan festivals, and occasions that gather community across confessional lines.
- The thoughtful Melinda Garza Moran, vicar for St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls, S.D., and a Master of Divinity student at Luther Seminary. She is seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) for Word and Sacrament. She is a mom, a nani, and a passionate Latina. She enjoys working with diverse communities and is committed to social justice and racial reconciliation.
- The Rev. Dr. Hillary Raining, rector of St. Christopher’s Church in Gladwyne, Penn., and creator of The Hive online spirituality and wellness digital community. Hillary is a beekeeper, yoga and meditation instructor, and a forest therapist.
Prophetic Voices is hosted by the Rev. Isaiah “Shaneequa” Brokenleg, The Episcopal Church’s staff officer for Racial Reconciliation. For more information on Becoming Beloved Community, visit iam.ec/becomingbelovedcommunity.

Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community

Across our church and our society, we are having profound dialogues about race, truth, justice, and healing. Coming this Advent, Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community explores where that dialogue intersects with our faith. Join us and our invited guests as we share prophetic voices and explore the readings for each week of Advent and Christmas Day through the lens of social justice.

You’ll hear ancient texts interpreted in new ways, find fodder for preaching and teaching, and make present day connections to the prophetic voices of the Bible. This podcast will help us rethink how we hear, see, and interact with the lectionary readings.

Find other podcasts available from the Episcopal Church.

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.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
February 15, 2024
Lent 2024: A Message from Bishop Skelton

Greetings, people of the Diocese of Olympia.

From John’s Gospel:

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
John 12:24-26

You may notice that the visual we’re using for Lent is a picture of the Northwest woods with a large, really a huge fallen tree across whatever might be seen as a path, a fallen tree already in the process of becoming new life. For me, Lent is a lot like this image.

We ended Epiphany with the story of Jesus’s Transfiguration on the mountaintop, the Transfiguration in which the disciples for a moment glimpse Jesus’s full beauty and glory rising before them, like some magnificent cedar, if you will, complete with all the attendant awe and wonder we hear about from the disciples. But on Ash Wednesday and throughout Lent, we get to gaze at something else, the fallen tree becoming a new thing, the mystery of Jesus, and the mystery of our own lives that we call the Paschal mystery.

Roman Catholic writer Ron Rolheiser has described the Paschal mystery in this way. He says, “We must let go of current life and spirit to receive new life and spirit.” This is my way of describing it. Living out of the Paschal mystery is learning over and over again that God’s favorite way of creating a new thing is through things falling apart and our expectations being shattered.

And so I want to invite you into a holy Lent. By this, I mean into a Lent in which you reflect on and consider embracing the parts of your life that are falling apart, are falling down into the earth, or need to fall to the earth, all in order to wait for God’s own renewal, for new life in God.

From John’s Gospel:

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

My blessings to you for a holy Lent.

—The Most Rev. Mellissa Skelton
Bishop Provisional of the Diocese of Olympia

The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton

The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton is the Bishop Provisional in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. The diocese voted to place itself under the authority of Bishop Skelton at the Diocese of Olympia’s 2022 Diocesan Convention.

Bishop Skelton has deep ties to the Diocese of Olympia, previously serving as the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Seattle and as the Canon for Congregational Development and Leadership for the Diocese of Olympia. During this time, she developed and launched the College for Congregational Development, which continues to this day and is currently hosted by eight dioceses across the Episcopal Church.

In 2013, Bishop Skelton was elected 9th Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster [Vancouver], The Anglican Church of Canada. In 2018, she was elected Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon, making her the first woman in the Anglican Church of Canada to hold the position of Archbishop.

Before her time in the Diocese of Olympia, Bishop Skelton served as rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Castine, Maine, while also serving as the Executive Director of a land trust. Prior to this, she was Vice President for Consumer Products and Community Engagement at Tom’s of Maine, Vice President for Administration at The General Theological Seminary, and Brand Manager at The Proctor & Gamble Company. While at General Seminary, she served as the Director of the College for Bishops.

Bishop Skelton holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of South Carolina, a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, and a Master if Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary. Additionally, she completed a certificate in Organization Development at the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science. After retiring from the Anglican Church of Canada, Bishop Skelton returned to the Diocese of Olympia to serve as a Bishop Assisting. She is married to the Rev. Eric Stroo, a mental health counselor and a deacon in the Episcopal Church. Between them they have three children and five grandchildren.

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 14, 2024
Ash Wednesday at Redeemer in 2024
Join us at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Kenmore, Washington, to mark the start of Lent. This is on Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024. We invite those with questions to ask them. All events are free. You do not need reservations.

All are welcome at Redeemer:
- All races.
- All religions.
- All countries of origin.
- All sexual orientations.
- All genders.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington.

Shrove Tuesday

Before we start Lent, we need Fat Tuesday!

The Shrove Tuesday Community Dinner in 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm on February 13, 2024. The dinner is free for everyone. Anyone reading this can come, whether you’ve ever been to Church of the Redeemer or not.

Meet others in the community by gathering around a meal of pancakes, breakfast meats, fruit salad, and syrup in the Parish Hall. This is the lower floor of the building.

Volunteer to help with the Shrove Tuesday Community Dinner

For more information, contact Susan Switzer, sswitzer@redeemer-kenmore.org.

What is Shrove Tuesday?

Celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday, Shrove Tuesday (also called “Pancake Tuesday” or “Pancake Day”) is the final day before the 40-day period of Lent begins.

Its name comes from the Germanic-Old English word “shrive,” meaning absolve. Because it comes directly before Lent, a season of fasting and penitence, this was the day that Christians would go to be “shriven” by their confessor.

Shrove Tuesday also became a day for pre-fasting indulgence. In particular, the need to use up rich ingredients such as butter, milk, sugar and eggs before Lent gave rise to the tradition of eating pancakes on this day.

Ash Wednesday

Church of the Redeemer will observe Ash Wednesday in these ways:
- 12:00 noon to 12:30 pm. Church of the Redeemer offers the Holy Eucharist with the optional imposition of Ashes. This is in the church building at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington.
- 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. If you can’t make it to a full service at Redeemer, maybe you can stop by the Hangar at Kenmore Town Center for Ashes to Go? This is at 6728 NE 181st Street, about a half mile east of the church building in Kenmore, Washington. Stop by anytime during the two-hour period.
- 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Church of the Redeemer offers the Holy Eucharist with the optional imposition of Ashes. This is in the church building at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington.
I am new to all this

Here are some definitions to explain some things you may not be familiar with.

Ash Wednesday

The first of the forty days of Lent, named for the custom of placing blessed ashes on the foreheads of worshipers at Ash Wednesday services. The ashes are a sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality, and may be imposed with the sign of the cross. Ash Wednesday is observed as a fast in the church year of the Episcopal Church. The Ash Wednesday service is one of the Proper Liturgies for Special Days in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 264). Imposition of ashes at the Ash Wednesday service is optional.

(Content taken from Ash Wednesday.)

Blessed Ashes

Ashes blessed for use on Ash Wednesday as a sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality. The Hebrew Scriptures frequently mentions the use of ashes as an expression of humiliation and sorrow. Ashes are imposed on the penitent’s forehead with the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265). The imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday is optional.

(Content edited from Ashes, Blessed.)

Lent

Early Christians observed “a season of penitence and fasting” in preparation for the Paschal feast, or Pascha (Book of Common Prayer, pp. 264-265). The season now known as Lent (from an Old English word meaning “spring,” the time of lengthening days) has a long history.

Originally, in places where Pascha was celebrated on a Sunday, the Paschal feast followed a fast of up to two days. In the third century this fast was lengthened to six days. Eventually this fast became attached to, or overlapped, another fast of forty days, in imitation of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness. The forty-day fast was especially important for converts to the faith who were preparing for baptism, and for those guilty of notorious sins who were being restored to the Christian assembly.

In the western church the forty days of Lent extend from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, omitting Sundays. The last three days of Lent are the sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

Today Lent has reacquired its significance as the final preparation of adult candidates for baptism. Joining with them, all Christians are invited “to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265).

(Content taken from Lent.)

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 9, 2024
Prophetic Voices podcast available for Palm Sunday
In this episode of Prophetic Voices, we’ll be discussing the lectionary for Palm Sunday. The texts covered in this episode are Mark 11:1-11 and Mark 14:1-15:47.

Our amazing guests this week are:
- The amazing Christina M. Pacheco JD, MPH, an assistant professor and community-based participatory researcher in the Family Medicine and Community Health Department at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She enjoys quality time with her dog, Frida (named after Frida Kahlo) and fighting for social justice.
- The Rev. Phil Hooper, SMMS, rector of Saint Anne Episcopal Church in West Chester, Ohio, and a board member of the Center for Deep Green Faith. Phil has interests in writing, contemplative spirituality, and Creation Care.
Prophetic Voices is hosted by the Rev. Isaiah “Shaneequa” Brokenleg, The Episcopal Church’s staff officer for Racial Reconciliation. For more information on Becoming Beloved Community, visit iam.ec/becomingbelovedcommunity.

Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community

Across our church and our society, we are having profound dialogues about race, truth, justice, and healing. Coming this Advent, Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community explores where that dialogue intersects with our faith. Join us and our invited guests as we share prophetic voices and explore the readings for each week of Advent and Christmas Day through the lens of social justice.

You’ll hear ancient texts interpreted in new ways, find fodder for preaching and teaching, and make present day connections to the prophetic voices of the Bible. This podcast will help us rethink how we hear, see, and interact with the lectionary readings.

Find other podcasts available from the Episcopal Church.

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.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
February 7, 2024
Prophetic Voices podcast available for Ash Wednesday
In this episode of Prophetic Voices, we’ll be discussing the lectionary for Ash Wednesday. The texts covered in this episode are Isaiah 58:1-12 and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.

Our amazing guests this week are:
- The Rev. Dr. Greg Kimura, vice dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. He holds an MDiv from Harvard and a PhD in philosophy of religion from Cambridge University. He is the immediate past president/CEO of the Japanese American National Museum in LA and author of fiction and non-fiction published in the UK and US, including the forthcoming LIVING SANCTUARY, which describes his sanctuary work with immigrant communities in Southern California.
- The esteemed Dr. Sandra Montes, a singer, speaker and writer who loves exploring her Indigenous and Latina roots. She is the dean of chapel at Union Theological Seminary and serves as a member of the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church. She lives in Texas and New York.
Prophetic Voices is hosted by the Rev. Isaiah “Shaneequa” Brokenleg, The Episcopal Church’s staff officer for Racial Reconciliation. For more information on Becoming Beloved Community, visit iam.ec/becomingbelovedcommunity.

Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community

Across our church and our society, we are having profound dialogues about race, truth, justice, and healing. Coming this Advent, Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community explores where that dialogue intersects with our faith. Join us and our invited guests as we share prophetic voices and explore the readings for each week of Advent and Christmas Day through the lens of social justice.

You’ll hear ancient texts interpreted in new ways, find fodder for preaching and teaching, and make present day connections to the prophetic voices of the Bible. This podcast will help us rethink how we hear, see, and interact with the lectionary readings.

Find other podcasts available from the Episcopal Church.

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.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
January 26, 2024
Lent resources from The Episcopal Church
The journey through Lent into Easter is a journey with Jesus. We are baptized into his life, self-giving, and death. Then, we rise in hope to life transformed.

This Lent, you are invited to walk with Jesus in his Way of Love and into the experience of transformed life.

Racial Reconciliation

Prophetic Voices

Across our church and our society, we are having profound dialogues about race, truth, justice, and healing. “Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community” explores where that dialogue intersects with our faith. Join us and our invited guests as we share prophetic voices and explore the lectionary through the lens of social justice. Available in English. This season launches in early 2024.

Prophetic Voices: Preaching and Teaching Beloved Community

Prepare to become the Beloved Community

Organized around the four sections of the Becoming Beloved Community labyrinth (telling the truth, repairing the breach, practicing the way, proclaiming the dream), this Lent curriculum can help your small group to engage in racial reconciliation and reflect on Jesus’ coming among us.

Prepare to Become the Beloved Community

Formation

d365

These devotions are written by ministers, professors, students, teachers, missionaries, denominational leaders, and others who work with and care for students. Typically, an author writes on a single theme for one week. In these devotions, you will read honest struggles and questions, all in the context of real faith. As you read the thoughts of the writers, think about your own response to the Scripture for the day. Let the writer’s words serve as background for your own conversation with God.

d365

From Episcopal Church Partners

Church Publishing

From Church Publishing, Living the Way of Love offers forty brief reflections about the seven Jesus-centered practices identified by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry in ‘The Way of Love’ initiative. Mary Bea Sullivan tells stories from her own and others’ experiences as a starting point for discussion about how to seek and find a deeper connection to God. Rotating through each practice so that each is covered once a week, going deeper into the practice throughout the forty days, each reflection ends with questions designed to spur further discussion and assist readers in making the practices their own. Perfect for using as a Lenten devotional or at any time of the year, the book includes a guide for creating a personal rule of life, and a downloadable Facilitator’s Guide.

Living the Way of Love: a 40-day devotional

Forward Movement

From our friends at Forward Movement, join Tim, Scott, and celebrity bloggers for 2024’s Lent Madness. Fill out your bracket on the Saintly Scorecard and get ready to vote in the Round of 32, the Saintly 16, the Elate 8, the Faithful 4, and ultimately, the grand prize, the Golden Halo itself.

Lent Madness

Episcopal Relief & Development

From Episcopal Relief & Development: “This Lenten Season, Episcopal Relief & Development invites you to join us as we meditate on the commandment to love our neighbor and consider the meaning of this fundamental instruction in our daily lives.”

2024 Episcopal Relief & Development Lenten Meditations

Lent

The word “Lent” comes from an Old English word meaning “spring,” the time of lengthening days.

Early Christians observed “a season of penitence and fasting” in preparation for the Paschal [Easter] feast, or Pascha (Book of Common Prayer, pp. 264-265). The season now known as Lent has a long history.

Originally, in places where Pascha was celebrated on a Sunday, the Paschal feast followed a fast of up to two days. In the third century this fast was lengthened to six days. Eventually this fast became attached to, or overlapped, another fast of forty days, in imitation of Christ’s fasting in the wilderness.

The forty-day fast was especially important for the following people:
- Converts to the faith who were preparing for baptism.
- Those guilty of notorious sins who were being restored to the Christian assembly.
In the western church (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran churches, and so forth, wherever they are located on a map), the forty days of Lent extend from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, omitting Sundays. The last three days of Lent are the sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

In the eastern church (various Orthodox bodies, wherever they are located on a map), the 40 days of Lent are the 40 days previous to Palm Sunday, which is the Sunday before Easter. The Orthodox churches counts Sundays in their 40 days, so our Lenten seasons end up being about the same number of days.

Today Lent has reacquired its significance as the final preparation of adult candidates for baptism. Joining with them, all Christians are invited “to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265).

(With some modification, this comes from Lent.)

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.
January 15, 2024

Maundy Thursday, April 2, 2026. Services at 12:00 noon and 7:00 pm. Gethsemane Watch Vigil from about 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

Good Friday, April 3, 2026: Services at 12:00 noon and 7:00 pm.

Holy Saturday worship at 9:30 am.

The Great Vigil of Easter, Saturday, April 4, 2025. Service at 8:00 pm. This is the night....

The 4th Sunday of Easter (Year A), April 26, 2026. Services at 8:00 am (no music) and 10:30 (music). Education classes for adults (9:15 am) and children (9:30 am).