@laddb
Retired Lutheran Pastor (ELCA) B.A Biology, PLU; Grad study, Forestry, UW Seattle; MDiv Luther Seminary Board of Trustees, Luther Seminary Artist in Watercolor and Oil Hiker who shares photos Liberty Lake, Washington, USA
I wonder if TEC would have been so eager with today's ELCA where 700+ lay ministers now preside at the sacraments, as opposed to local priests ordained in TEC. I was a synod ecumenical rep and in conversations lay presiding was a tough one for them.
The ELCA put a great deal of effort into full communion agreements over an extended period, including the one with TEC that divided the dialogue team and denomination and had to be renegotiated.
And then you get a notification that you have signed in on a new device, even though you've signed in on it dozens of times.
It's actually more effective when a fellow parishioner contacts them. My mom told me she noticed a couple hadn't been in church. Should she tell the pastor? I advised her to talk to them herself. They came the next week. Making that happen isn't easy though.
I've been wearing Marmot rain pants for several years, and they're great.
Retired ELCA pastor here, ordained forty years ago. I've never heard of Advent beginning before the First Sunday of Advent. It's sometimes referred to informally as the New Year's Day of the church calendar, and my pastor remarked about that last Sunday. This question is new to me.
Maple in Manito Park, Spokane
As I hear my cat running down the hallway and talking out the window, I remember that he's already ten years old. They're such a part of our homes, our family, our lives.
Wow
Brilliant sunset
The sun set at the edge of a thunderstorm tonight.
Painting of Bryce Canyon and pine forest in the distance
Just finished a watercolor based on photos I took in Bryce Canyon in May. I enjoy the challenge of trying to create a sense of depth in a landscape. The mat and frame are simulated. #watercolor #landscapepainting
bsky.app/profile/jame...
I've been a Lutheran pastor for forty years. No one whines, complains and apologizes for their church like Lutherans have. Yes, it has been destructive.
If it's Morton, that's very much western Washington, directly south of Seattle.
A bright composite wildflower
Blanketflower, a wildflower, blooms in June in the Saltese Uplands.
Asahel Curtis Nature Trail
Pondering my recent trip to Zion, remembering the Timber Creek Trail
Three flowering stalks of lupine and leaves
Lupine Along the River
#wildflowers
Ordained forty years ago, the conversation I heard then in most congregations was (already) how much better things were twenty years before, that being 1965.
Trail through flowers toward a monolith
Monolith
Polemonium growing on a monolith
Rocks of Sharon Hike
Arrowleaf balsamroot is our local icon of spring, blooming where it has for millennia. #wildflower
Waterfall
Upper Falls, Spokane River
This area's iconic wildflower, arrowleaf balsamroot, is just beginning to bloom.
There was a fun band at the protest in Spokane today.
About five thousand gathered in Clark Park in Spokane for the #handsoff protest today. People were very respectful including of a small MAGA contingent.
There are 33m companies in the USA. Only 21k employe 500 or more. And they only make up 23% of workers.
Trump and Elon are ignoring the more than 32m entrepreneurs that can't afford to build a new factory or pay tariffs or absorb cancelled contracts.
Thanks!
Thank you!
Three Pintail ducks fly over grass with trees in the background
My exercise today was a good three mile walk at Saltese Flats. These Pintail ducks were exercising too.
