The Beauty Of Beginnings

I’ve long been a member of Lynnwood’s Trinity Lutheran Church. The past year and a half or so, we’ve been transitioning pastors. Never the easiest process. But we’re on the other side of that journey. 

Today we welcome Pastor Hector Garcifas-Toledo. Pastor Hector represents, to me, the evolution of my little suburb. First, we’re not very little anymore. And our ethic make up has changed radically since I was a kid. 

Growing up, Lynnwood was very white, middle class. My neighborhood is quite multiethnic now. We have myriad languages nearby. The microcosm of our planet, reflected here, delights me deeply. 

Pastor Hector has lived this microcosm. Born in Mexico, having lived in Taiwan, and serving as a pastor throughout the U.S., he understands diversity at the deepest levels. He IS diversity. 

I’m quite excited for him to join us, and for my congregation to move forward into the  next stage of our journey. The world is changing. My city has changed, and is changing. We’re ready to embrace that, finding ways to serve our neighbors. It’s quite wonderful, indeed. 

So, welcome to our neighbor Pastor Hector! I’m excited to see what our journey together brings. 

Compline at St. Marks Cathedral

Every Sunday night at 9:30, Seattle’s St. Marks Cathedral hosts compline. For those not versed in Anglican church history, compline is sung evening prayer, harkening back to monastic traditions. They’ve been performing this weekly for decades.

It was compline that attracted me to the Episcopal church. After attending the service for several months, a friend of mine and I tried regular worship. And I became a member there, staying for several years. Met several of my dearest friends there, and it’s s key piece of my faith journey.

Many years ago, KING FM started broadcasting the service live. At one point, they shifted to playing a recording of the week prior. I’m listening to that right now.

I’m flooded with memories. Of this massively diverse array of humanity and it’s conditions. There are millionaires sitting eith street people. All are welcome, and all hold the moment holy

Someday soon I hope to introduce my son. Such a deep, powerful and rich part of my life, and Seattle’s. I want it to be part of his experience, too.

And now this weekend is done 

​Spent the evening with my folks celebrating Mothers Day. I love that I’m physically close to them, so can keep an emotional closeness. Though, at times, it’s surreal to be back in Lynnwood, within sight of the home I grew up in.

Many, many memories can and went. Stories told with my son, developing the generational connections. So much of my life took place right here, within a short drive of my folks’ home. So many transformative memories flowed through my mind today.

Most of the day I slept. Fighting some kind of virus, wakefulness was elusive.

Yesterday we went to the Reptile Expo at the Monroe Fairgrounds. Then down to the old Woodway highschool for the Edmonds Heights production of Addams Family. The reptile expo was cool, opening my eyes more to herpetological fans, and what they see in their fine scaled friends. And I thought the kids were wonderful.

Now I’m on my couch listening to St. Mark’s compline service on KING FM. So many rich memories here. I was a member at the cathedral for many years. I’ve so many memories of the halls there. And many evenings, sitting in the darkened gnave. Surrounded by this microcosm of Seattle. Wealthy socialites, broke college students, street kids, the roughest-edged folks, all crammed into the cathedral every Sunday evening.

The tranquility I’ve felt there has rarely been equalled. Someday I need to take my son down and introduce him to this ancient worship style. It holds deep meaning​for me.

An Evening With Aaron Strumpel At Trinity Lutheran

I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with Aaron before, so it was really a delight to see him perform again. The tranquility his music elicits calms me, settling my brain into a contemplative place, connecting me with the divine. Below is one of the pieces performed this evening. When you have the chance to hear him, take it.

Performing with Aaron was Keith Thomas, with ethereal computer assisted cello-work. This evening, he utilized looping much like one of my favorite contemporary artists: Zoe Keating With only the briefest time for web searching, I found this video featuring his work with the ensemble Primitivity. Though with a similar modernist quality, it lacks the looping effects. Keith currently lives in Seattle, and hopefully we’ll get him a web presence set up. He has another performance in early December. More details are forthcoming.