submergence

Gaudete: Rejoice!

Advent is my favorite season of the church year, and the 3rd Sunday in Advent is traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday where the text of the Magnificat is read. Gaudete is Latin for rejoice. We are all invited to become like Mary and be theotokoi (God-bearers). We are invited each Advent to allow God to be born in us anew ... which is the most amazing reason in the world to rejoice.

To properly celebrate Gaudete, Advent and Xmas, as Abbess of Church of the Apostles and the Fremont Abbey, I have used my 'Abbess powers' (which I define as the calling to bless and release things) to bless and release an Advent Ale called Gaudete.

Gaudete is a unique Christmas style beer (dark, porter based, with a bit of smoke, sweet spice and a dry finish) and is a 'limited release' (like, only three cases exist). It is to be enjoyed reverently, in moderation, and with thanksgiving to God, at various celebrations within our community this season.

Our Abbey brews come from our friend Joel at Two Beers Brewing, a new and true 'micro' brewery currently located in our own Fremont neighborhood in Seattle.

We support their ethos and 'theology' of brewing, which is as follows from their website.

We are connected to the Earth.  We are connected to each other.  And we cannot escape either of these realities. Is that a reason to make amazing beer?  We are at Two Beers Brewing Company think so.  You see, beer is one of the original beverages that was created thousands of years ago.  Long before soda and even lemonade.  Beer is made from all naturally grown ingredients and always has been.  No artificial sweeteners, no susbstitutes, nothing that is a product of 21st century invention.  Therefore when a crop fails somewhere the prices change in ingredients.  Making amazing beer is a beautiful way to remind us that we are connected to the earth. Drinking amazing beer certainly isn’t fun by ourselves either. It is much more fun to invite some friends over, or go to a pub, and enjoy a beer in community.  This also causes us to slow down just enough to remind us that we are connected to each other.  We do enjoy our friends.  And although our life may still feel slightly out of whack we are momentarily comforted by the fact that there are people around us. So take some time.  Look at the world. And surely you will gain a new perspective. " (from Two-Beers Brewing).

So, if you are in the Seattle area and in need of Good News, good company, and great tidings of joy to all the earth, join Church of the Apostles for our two remaining Advent masses: Saturday Dec 15, 5 pm (at Fremont Baptist Church) and Saturday, Dec 22nd, 5 pm (at the Fremont Abbey) and the Mass of Christ, Monday Dec 24, 10 pm (at the Fremont Abbey).
Gaudete in Domino to you and yours (Abbess Karen).

 

'Good Habits' ;-) Karen's Sister Act

I'm off this week at a small, urban convent in San Francisco for a week of rest, reflection, prayer and spiritual work (under Bishop's orders).

I have been sent here by my Bishop, Nedi Rivera (pictured left).

She says that I need 'Abbess work,' cause I'm not the best Abbess (I'm over working, driven, over-reaching and 'sleepless in Seattle' and thus not the best model of the spiritual life for my beloved Apostles community (ouch).

Bishop Nedi can say this to me because she is a Franciscan, so I'm going to the Community of St. Francis (an Episcopal Franciscan Convent), but THANK GOD this is not out in the middle of nowhere. As an urban Abbess I get jazzed by the sights and environs of the big city. So as convents go, this place is perfect for me, as it is in the hip Mission District of San Francisco (relief).

Church of the Apostles is 'new wave Benedictine' oriented (ora et labora) prayer/liturgy and work is our focus, but hanging with the Franciscans will be great for me to soak in the Franciscan charism.

It will be a time of rest, prayer and daily Eucharist with time for writing (I'm working on the 'commentary' for our Apostles rule of life) so all of this is appropriate for an 'Abbess @ boot camp' to do.

On a few outings I'll visit some friends (yes, I can leave the convent). Fr. Will Scott from Grace Cathedral (whom I met on the blogsphere), Fr. Tommy Dillon from St. Aidan's Episcopal (whom I met at an Episcopal Evangelism conference) and yes, Episcopalians can spell the word and Mother Leslie Nipps (dreaming up Bay area emerging ministries and living in Oakland).

And I'm NOT in a big habit (like the lady to the left).
But I did find a source for them online if YOU want to get one.

I am 'into' habits here, but ones around ora et labora, prayer and worship to help better ground my Abbess work at home at COTA.

P.S.
I do NOT sing, and I've NEVER met Ted Danson ;-)

URBAN IONA - CELTIC IN THE CITY

My friend, Fr. Kurt Neilson's new book is out.

Apostles, Seattle is proud to have Saints Peter and St. Paul Episcopal church (SPP) as a 'big sister' church in Portland, Oregon. We have a similar commitment to trying on new/old versions of monastic hospitality as a way to embody the Reign of God in the city.

I love visiting SPP. It is a retreat for me. This is my church in Portland, Oregon (along with the Bridge Church). When i visit these two places, i'm home.

SPP is straight up Anglo Catholic, but with great love and Celtic hospitality. They also run an active center for Celtic Spirituality in the city called the Columba Center (which has inspired us to start St. Brigit's House at COTA).

So if you visit Portland, OR and want to encounter church  'emerging' in the city, go to SPP and the Bridge to see the range of true emergence.

Emergence (in my view) is not about any certain flavor of worship, or having a pastor with tats... and it is about discovering what God is doing in your area and current culture and seeking to be part of it with humility, openness, attentiveness and expectancy for God to act and incarnate within the world and within you.

If you are interested in ways of learning about or doing emerging church in the mainline, and out of a 'traditional' church, and as an Anglican and IN THE CITY, PICK UP THIS BOOK

faith as a way of life

church of the apostles, quest, and monkfish abbey communities in seattle got some press today, related to whole life faith/ new monasticism. CHECK IT OUT HERE

Helping Episcopalians Party (and others too)

our Apostles Church sponsored learning parties got a plug in the Jan 06 issue of Episcopal Life, the national paper of the Episcopal Church (our big mama church denominaton).

the article is good. so far, we have been in 'Mom's' national paper twice in the last two years, but we have not been featured in Dad's (ELCA's The Lutheran), so we are still waiting for that one, so we won't become a big ole Mama's baby. - CHECK OUT THE EPISCOPAL ARTICLE HERE

P.S. we have an 'EMERGING CHURCH' LEARNING PARTY FEB 18 IN PORTLAND and a 'NEW MONASTICISM' LEARNING PARTY APRIL 27 (IN SEATTLE).

register for one (if you are near seattle or portland) to learn and party into fresh expressions of church.

from 'mission trips' to 'mission formation'

for anyone who has ever wondered about the prevailing 'youth ministry' paradigm of 'mission trips,' you would do well to read these two posts (below) by dixon kinser in nashville. dixon is a 'professional youth minister' who is growing less comfortable wearing this venerable modern church mantle.

this young man has nailed it (in my estimation). he both deconstructs and then helps reconstruct the notion of mission trips in helpful ways that reflect a shift from a more modernist form of 'do gooding' to a more emerging praxis of 'being' in the way of christ.

in jan 2006, apostles will host a 'city dive' for the princeton forum on youth ministry. what we will do for our dive is not modeled on a 'mini mission trip,' but on being and life, so it is more of a pilgrimage visitation or mini retreat, in and with a christian community (apostles) as we attempt to 'do life' in our context in the way of christ.

at our new fremont abbey, we hope to host more groups of young people from our own diocese and synod here (before of after the trip to mexico) and spend a day with them on missional being and spiritual formation in the way of christ, in their own seattle backyard and within their own souls.- so if any parish youth group in the diocese of olympia or northwest washington synod is interested to do an alt form of mission trip at or with the fremont abbey, contact us info@apostleschurch.org

read these: MISSION TRIPS DECONSTRUCTED and
and MISSION TRIPS RECONSTRUCTED

soul in the city aka life in the hood

i was on jonny baker's blog and found a link to a reflection article on doing 'mission' in the city out of a u.k. event. - the reflection is by simeon whiting, a church youth worker who participated in a two week 'urban mission' 'project' in the u.k.

below is my commentary on his reflection. you can read my comments on his comments before of after you read his article LINKED HERE, as you like:

simeon's comments are wise and telling. it shows that doing 'mission' activity is not about 'parachuting down into a place and expecting to be extracted soon afterwards, as in military parlance, that is called a 'raid' and in trafffic mishaps that is called a 'hit and run.'

whereas effective 'mission' (i'm liking this word less every day) seems to have another characer... that of lived life. it is not sexy or glam... it means sticking around long enough for you to find out how annoying it is when your 'mission' 'leaves the toilet lid up' or when you don't put the top on the local toothpaste and there is a bad reaction from the natives, that is, until you become one ( a native) which takes a huge amount of time. so, are you wedded to your 'mission' yet?

we are learning what this is slowly in our zipcode (98103). after being here for over 1.5 years we are still scratching the surface of life here, and this is after having served over 1,000 pots of tea.

we are learning slowly, as we meet up with the local block watch and people tell us their concerns about what we think we are doing... we are quite slowly learning how to listen, which is more important and prior to any speech.

to help remind us of our calling, we have taken on a staff 'vestment' or habit. it is not the usual anglican clerical collar or priest cassock, but a big urban hip hop inspired sweatshirt called a 'hoddie' made by an online company called neighborhoodies.'

our hoodie is our vesture. currently it is a big dark blue swetshirt with 'fremont' in orange letters across the chest. (when our new abbey get's going, we will get a new habit (a big hoodie in monk dark brown).

we don our hoodies as a symbol that we are seeking to become part of, and help curate 'soul in our city.' - we are not gonna do a hit and run. we are gonna learn over time and many years of service, how to put the top back on the local paste.

SEEKING 'MISSION BUILDERS'

okay, i need to post this...
apostles is struggling very hard this year to make the 'jump' into our nu monastic future, and purchase, recycle and morph an old urban lutheran church building here in seattle into a 'nu monastic hub.'

we need help to make rent this year (in our commercial storefront) until we can secure the loan to buy the building and move into our new old non-profit community arts center/abbey 'hub' by year's end.

we are seeking 5 episcopal, lutheran or other mission minded congregations or individuals to invest $5,000 in us this year to help our mission 'take place.' BELOW is a pic of our current living:room
cafe which looks out upon the old church we love and are trying to buy:

with 5 mission builders we can clear the $25,000 rent for our current non-profit cafe space and monastic studio apartment we offer free to post-modern pilgrims who come to visit us on a very regular basis from all over the nation and world.

so if you are from a missional church willing to invest in a merry band of agents of God's future in seattle, email me, karen@apostleschurch.org

'MISSION SHAPED CHURCH - LEARNING PARTY (APRIL 17)

today apostles sends home two young british baptist church planter interns (matt and steve picutred on drums and electric guitar at our lent 1 service) who have been with us for two weeks. our love goes with them back to the u.k to discern their own church planting call.

our next visiting missioner friends are ian and gareth from moot, london. they will help apostles put on our first sponsored workshop in seattle called MISSION SHAPED CHURCH - A LEARNING PARTY - SUNDAY APRIL 17TH, 2-8 PM The Church of England published a great REPORT on this, so we are keen to help do our small part to awaken an indigenious movement towards 'mission shaped church' in the episcopal, lutheran, evangelical and other mainline churches here in cascadia.

if you live in greater seattle, portland, oregon or vancouver, b.c, we'd love it if you could come party with us and bring folks from your congregation or planting team. get info and REGISTER HERE

APOSTLES MUSIC CD

church of the apostles first full length MUSIC CD is now available. it is called 'ORDO'
(music for mass/eucharist). featuring mostly original songs from our community. the CD also contains pdf LEADSHEETS of all the songs and permission to sing/use/perform the music under our creative commons licence.

sale proceeds support our nu monastic urban mission work in seattle. also on our store webpage is a myspace link to a few audio tracks and clips of the music. use any major credit card to buy ORDO at our paypal store. if you are able to support our mission by purchasing a CD you can do so HERE. thank you and God bless.