Posts

Blessing our Caregivers

Third Sundays in our congregation are healing Sundays. During communion, two healing ministers position themselves behind the altar rail, anointing oil in hand, to offer healing prayers and blessings to anyone who approaches them. Some people come forward to ask prayers for themselves – prayers for upcoming surgeries and for broken relationships and for grieving […]

Christmastide

When candles lifted for Silent Night wax-dripped and wick-burned lie haphazard, dropped in baskets forgotten; When cotton ball sheep masks tinsel halos spray-paint gilded gifts of the wise shepherd staff and wooden trough find storage corners to mark time til next December; When liturgies recited carols sung luminaries extinguished bulletins recycled sanctuaries draped in cloak […]

Sometimes I Really Hate This Time of Year

We are in the thick of Advent. Inside the church, we are quick to turn our focus to Elizabeth, to Mary, to drawing parallels between the waiting time of pregnancy and the waiting time of Advent. Outside the church, Christmas cards show up in our mailboxes each day with pictures of smiling families dressed to […]

Commended to God: A Service for Embryos

A few years ago, a couple came to me, because they had to make the difficult decision of what do with the leftover embryos that were created as part of the process of conceiving their twin children. They were so grateful for these embryos—and the beautiful children that had come from the two used embryos. […]

A Liturgy for Leaving

Like many 21st-century churches, the church I serve is a “nested” congregation: it has no building of its own, and rents space from another congregation. Some churches arrive at this kind of arrangement after selling their existing buildings. Others are new church starts, building a congregation from scratch. Worshiping communities sharing space can be a […]

Finding Words

I have finally found my voice. I found my voice after seven years of often squelching, silencing parish ministry. For some reason beyond me, this new sense of purpose and meaning has come in the form of what used to intimidate me: writing liturgy. After my last call came to an abrupt close, I felt […]

Dribble and Dunk: A Practical Guide to Baptismal Logistics

There’s no way around it: ministry is a career and calling that involves a strange assortment of skills, not the least of which is the logistics of baptism. Whether your tradition baptizes infants, young children, teens, or adults; whether you sprinkle, pour, or immerse; the practical implications are mind boggling. Even if you had a […]

Wo/andering in the Desert…

by Sarah Klaassen (This article was originally published as a blog post at Sarah's blog: Sarah's Seattle Summer on February 23, 2010) I spent twenty years of my life intimately tuned to the liturgy of the academic calendar – the rhythm and rest of lengthy breaks interspersed between semesters that flowed from introductions and syllabus […]

A Potpourri of Holiday Cheer

Last month we invited YCWs to share their favorite traditions, recipes and practices that help make Advent and Christmas special (and in some cases, a little less hectic). When it comes to December, what I call Clergy Superbowl, our very lives are acts of creativity: how will we balance activity and reflection? home stuff with church stuff? […]

(Extra)Ordinary Time

For lectionary-followers, this summer has been an unusually long slog through Ordinary Time. Maybe it’s getting a little too ordinary for you by now. Help is on the way, though. For August 31, the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (year A), the lectionary presents us with several stories of people pulled from the ordinary. Laura […]