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Chapel for Little Doves students has been rocking out lately with some new music. Here are the videos with the motions too. The Good Song (based on Psalm 34:10) Trust in the Lord (based on Proverbs 3:5-6) Be Strong and Courageous (based on Joshua 1:9)
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Spirit of Life donated 140 hygiene kits to the people of Mission Creek Correctional Center for Women near Belfair. They were distributed on Feb 8, 2024. Dozens of thank you notes were collected and recently shared with us. Some are pictured below, other hand written notes are posted on the bulletin board in the church entryway. Check them out when you have some time, and remember to pray for people who are incarcerated.     Welcome to Lent 2024 with Spirit of Life. This year, we will follow Jesus, as he is up to a lot in the stories from the gospels of Mark and John. After his baptism in the Jordan River, he comes up to hear God's loving words. He makes it clear that following him means taking up a cross. He says that the temple will be raised up in three days.
In the spirit of what Jesus is up to, we're adopting a new take on Lent. Instead of giving up something you love (such as chocolate or sugar or carbs), consider “getting up to something” for the sake of The Good. What is The Good? Well, that's something we can consider together, but for the purposes of opening that conversation, let's say it's something that makes the world a better place, creating life and abundance for ourselves and others, injects a little more joy into our every day lives. Being “up to something” doesn’t have to be anything big, or life-changing, or unnecessarily piled onto an already-busy schedule. Finding “practices” that elevate our spirit can sometimes simply be a more intentional minute of reflection about something that shows up already in our lives. One way to enter into this Lenten practice is a daily journal. You can download a copy of the Daily Journal here. The journal is a fillable PDF, so you can simply store it on your computer and fill it out each day. It can also be printed. And printed copies are available at church. Another great way to enter into Lent is our UP playlist. It's available through Spotify. Click here to access it. This playlist incorporate the songs we sing in worship each week, along with some old favorites and honest, heart-breaking songs by Joy Oladokun, who sings beautifully about real life and her encounters with the Divine. At the January 28, 2024, congregational meeting, Spirit of Life members adopted an operating budget. Part of this budget includes a benevolence amount that Spirit of Life gives to the Southwest Washington Synod each month. This year, according to the adopted budget, Spirit of Life will contribute 10 percent of its giving to the synod. This is projected to total a little more than $14,000 over the course of 2024.
A little background: Spirit of Life is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a large national Lutheran denomination. The ELCA is made up of 65 synods, which are regional bodies that oversee different church operations. These operations include, but are not limited to:
(Editor's Note: Inspired by the Solstice, Spirit of Life member Karen W. authored this post, and while the solstice is passed, we are still in the dark days of winter. Take in her words of comfort.) By Karen W. Compassion to you today in whatever darkness you wade in this solstice. “Compassion to your worst self.” Has been my personal motto for myself and to those around me this season. Due to my health and cognitive impairment challenges, I haven’t been able to write in quite a while. And we’ve been kept busy by some weighty difficulties. I often find myself in places beyond language. In exasperation, devastation, or just pure exhaustion. And yet. These places are often quickened with sudden and profound divine energy or insight. What I am learning in this season is that in my haste to capture, share, or glean meaning from these intense fully present moments destroys them. They vaporize. Also, these actions completely miss their purpose. The intimacy was meant for me. In that place. At that time. The point was the moment itself. Not the write up. So I’ve allowed myself to sit with it. Even if it meant never even finding words. Even outside these moments of insight, I did have ideas and intentions for posts these pasts months that I never had physical energy or mental acuity to follow through with so here is a partial round up: Resources List:
This week I have been enjoying this “Hymn of Healing” from Beautiful Chorus. (Link: https:// insighttimer.com/beautifulchorus/guided-meditations/hymn-of-healing ) For 8 minutes It just repeats: I am a radiant being of light and healing I feel peace I am safe I heal from a whole place If you do anything for Solstice, gift yourself 8 minutes of this today. I have had it on repeat for the past hour. Things have been heavy, I needed that. I have to say I’ve been loving the Spirit of Life introduction of the song Holy Darkness and repeating it enough to get stuck in my head. I appreciate how it pops up when I need it most. Tomorrow the light begins to grow. By Karen Whistler
Spiritual Trauma. If these words send a chill down your spine, you may have been harmed by toxic theology or damaging church practices. I am so sorry if that is your experience. As I have learned, these situations are so deeply violating and disorienting. It cuts down to our core sense of belovedness when God is used as a justification to control others or a weapon to instill a sense of fear. All too often the church, which should be our sanctuary, has been the source of harm. This is real. And it is not okay. This post is quite personal to me. I didn’t have the language for it until recently, but a number of years ago I spoke at my previous church of the wrestling I had with faith amidst tremendous suffering. What I didn’t realize until years later was the extent of how my suffering was exacerbated by my faith community and messages from the pulpit. I felt grateful to land in the safety of the church where I first shared my story, but the lasting wounds are still being untangled in my heart and faith. My very own counselor, Hillary McBride recently released a podcast in collaboration with Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries that I pray will transform lives towards healing. We met Hillary when I was pregnant with our second child, nine years ago. She was part of a birth trauma counseling program through BC Women’s Hospital. Hillary helped Nate and I prepare to enter into the delivery room after a dangerous and volatile experience with our first child. She has been my therapist ever since. In the compelling Holy/Hurt podcast, Hillary explores what trauma is, as well as what it does to our bodies, minds, and spirits. She explains just how insidious spiritual trauma can be, particularly when our identity and sense of belonging are tied into the church families that have caused us harm. Leslie Roberts from Sanctuary Mental Health unpacks her own experience and announces the Holy/Hurt podcast here. This podcast is meant to be experienced in order. So, start at the beginning. Hillary dives into the technicalities of what we know about trauma. She validates the messages our bodies send us when things are not okay. Bodily messages that in my own church experience were labeled as “sin” and disobedience because they were viewed as questioning doctrine—further driving a wedge between the intuition of my spirit and my desire to obey “God” and be good. In truth, I’ve come to understand that these signals were the Divine voice of love speaking Wisdom to me. Honestly, I had to pace this out series out. To listen, to pause, then to give myself space to process before continuing on. If you do embark on listening, please be gentle with yourself. Whatever comes up is real and is telling you something. Listen to your body and pay attention to what the spirit brings up for you. And if Spiritual Trauma is not your experience, I challenge you to listen. To learn and to ask yourself how we as a body can create space for the spiritually wounded that is safe and honors the loving intent God has for each of us. If you like Hillary’s work, here are some additional resources from her: Mothers, Daughters, & Body Image: Learning to Love Ourselves as We Are (Link: https://hillarylmcbride.com/mothers-daughters-and-body-image/) The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection through Embodied Living (Link:https://hillarylmcbride.com/the-wisdom-of-your-body/) Other People’s Problems: (Link:https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/186-other-peoples-problems) a podcast where Hillary broadcasts real therapy sessions to reduce the stigma of therapy. Podcast episodes featuring Hillary (Link: https://hillarylmcbride.com/media/) By Karen Whistler
When we lived in Vancouver, BC we knew a number of people who collaborated with or had affiliation with an organization called Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries. “Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries equips the Church to support mental health and wellbeing.” They ask the question: “How can a church become a sanctuary? A place where people with mental health challenges can feel safe, supported, and a sense of belonging?” Sanctuary has developed useful curriculum in the intersection of spiritual formation and mental health. The Sanctuary Course is available for free on their resource portal. Admittedly, I signed up for the course years ago but failed to completed the coursework. The content is well crafted and delivered from an organization that tenderly holds space for all experiences under the umbrella of faith. Writing this is a good reminder to myself to dig back in! Over the past year, Sanctuary has been collaborating with the music collective The Porter’s Gate. The final album was released last month. A few singles were shared leading up to the full album launch (some, featured on the Awakened Brains Playlist! Many of these songs already feel like old friends. With stylistic variety, the album reiterates again and again God’s endless pursuit of us within our darkest thoughts and places. The lyrics remind me that I am held. They carry a weight that transcends abstract notions of God’s love to a tangible sense of belonging to one another. Stream on their website. https://sanctuarymentalhealth.org/sanctuary-songs/ Additionally, “Since 2020, Sanctuary has devoted October to running a month-long mental health awareness campaign. With this week being Mental Illness Awareness Week in Canada and the U.S., and World Mental Health Day on October 10, it is a time of year with increased public interest in mental health.” Access their 5-day devotional here. Sanctuary will also be releasing content on social media channels throughout October. More information available on their blog. As we enter into the darkness of fall, I implore us all to consider holding space for the mental health of ourselves and others as a part of our spiritual practice. By Becky Brown Music has infiltrated my head and my heart. It's not my fault. I was surrounded. It was there in church, at camp, in school, at home, and in the car. It all rubbed off on me and then the music started pouring out of me too. I write songs to process my angst (and haircuts). I sing to mend the tears in my heart. I sing to put my children to sleep. I sing to bring light to the dark nights of winter. I sing to make the joyful moments a bit brighter. I sing because I can't not sing. And I blame you. I blame my parents (my dad has an amazing operatic yawn). I blame the band and choir directors of my youth. I blame the sopranos who stood next to me with their stronger voices. I blame the Indigo Girls. The people may come and go, but the music lives on. You can't stop it. 
By Pastor Marietta Each week the Little Doves students and staff gather in the sanctuary for chapel. We sing songs and pray and hear stories and bless ourselves and each other. Recently we've been learning some new songs that we want to share. These videos come to us from sermons4kids.com. Check out these videos and learn the actions to share with your kids! By Karen Whistler
I can’t tell you how I found Joan Chittister, but I can say I have a propensity for reading footnotes, reference notes, and bibliographies. Since discovering and devouring The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life I subscribed to her newsletter The Monastic Way. For the month of August 2023, the newsletter was framed with our life as a melody. Her unpacking of this metaphor touched me deeply. Joan recounts how her love of music became a grievous longing after losing her piano at age 10. She then reflects on how fruits of grief and losses in our life can’t often be recognized until God weaves them together much later. I found her words soothing to all the unfinished yearnings and closed chapters of my own journey. Each newsletter includes a short daily meditation. August carries the theme of music throughout each day. I recognize August is nearly over, however these are valuable no matter the day. This week, I enjoyed reading through the list and selecting one to sit with in a moment of silent reflection. A few examples: Thursday, August 3: “Music,” Victor Hugo wrote, “expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” Like music, life is made up of both spoken and unspoken elements. Getting the right relationship between the two is what makes it beautiful. Friday, August 11: “The music of my life drips into the soul, low and dolorous, high and excit- ed, until finally, we come to hear the song we’re meant to sing. Then, it won’t matter if anyone else hears it or not” Read the web-friendly version here. See the print layout here. I am curious how you respond to this thick use of metaphor? Does the use of musical language to describe life strike you as too heavy-handed or does it resonate with your experience? |
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