Worship
We are now able to have worship in person! Please join us at 8 AM or 10:00 AM, for Holy Eucharist Rite I (8 am) and Holy Eucharist Rite II (10:00 am) service each Sunday, as well as online at Facebook Live, at the link below:
Services are about an hour in length as well as the online Facebook service at 10:.00 am.
Please join us for worship and fellowship!
For any seasonal liturgies, please see the home page.
Contact office@holyspiritvashon.org with questions about accessing our worship services through Facebook.
Past Sermons
As we listen to the scriptures on this last Sunday after Epiphany, before we begin again with the season of Lent, we hear Jesus speak words we might associate with the angelic beings who accompany events of God appearing to human beings: do not be afraid, fear not, do not be afraid. Today we read and hear an account of the transfiguration of Christ on the mountain. Our field of view is adjusted especially on that moment, and another mountain moment that prepared the way for it. Never mind for now that Moses must descend early to deal with the golden calf debacle, and that as the disciples descend the mountain, they immediately face the demon afflicted people quaking in need of healing. We’ll get there. Today we remember the moment on the mountain, what God discloses to us there. As Episcopalians our calendar celebrates the feast of transfiguration, in…
Read Full SermonSermon, 2-12-23, CHS, Evan Graham Clendenin Happy are they who observe his decrees * and seek him with all their hearts! If you turn on your tv, or fire up your handheld surveillance capitalist tracking device, you will be reacquainted with all the junk out there competing for your attention. How can we avoid but turning our soul to this or that daily heart-rending or anxiety-inducing news item, prophetic voice or big pharma influencer. And if that is the house built for us, it can be really hard to know yourself, to get a feel for what you say no to and what you say yes to, to have a feel, an acquaintance, a home in your own heart, a heart more and more whole. And it is in the heart that the psalmist, a voice speaking to us from long ago, speaking to us as if the one speaking…
Read Full SermonThe Rev. Evan Graham Clendenin What does the Holy One ask of you, but to act justly, love kindly and walk humbly with your God. If you have flown on a commercial plane, they you will know what a safety briefing is. “Please ensure you are free of distractions while we share a few of the safety features of this boeing aircraft.” Nowadays we watch a light-hearted video that walks us thru the unlikely events of a water landing or a sudden loss of cabin pressure. Ever since I read ‘deep survival’ by laurence gonzales, I read the card and watch the briefing, and locate the nearest exit, which may be behind you. Gonzales is a pilot and journalist, and he says these kinds of practices of preparedness, really of being humbly in touch with reality, can save your life. The briefing, whether to commercial passengers or elite fighter jet…
Read Full SermonRCL A 1-22-23, Holy Spirit, Vashon, Evan Graham Clendenin 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. In Christ crucified, we come into contact with the living power of God. We come into contact with a desire of God to meet us collectively where we are at, and awaken in us the loving, generative energies put there to begin with. We come into contact with power, a gentle, patient, compassionate power. A medieval Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Dream of the Rood” envisions this coming into contact with Christ crucified from the perspective of the tree that was made into the cross. A poet and faithful pilgrim dreamt of this tree. The tree, cut down before its time, grieves its role in the crucifixion, descends with Christ. But that’s…
Read Full SermonThe Rev. Evan Graham Clendenin, Church of the Holy Spirit, Vashon Many of you at CHS have been enjoying your Wednesday night gathering for fellowship and learning. I haven’t been able to join you so far given the gift of limits on my time, but I’ve been curious, and quite pleased with the readings and topics. It sounds like you get to the heart of good theological questions and spiritual experience. How was the conversation this past week? As you listen and speak and wonder together, what callings in to deeper, more grounded life with God are you hearing? Since you were discussing the topic of wonder this week, I’d thought I’d add a dish to the fellowship table. “When wonder becomes a fundamental attitude of our spirit it will confer a religious character to our whole life, because it makes us live with the consciousness of being plunged…
Read Full SermonHoly Spirit, Vashon, The Rev. Evan G Clendenin, January 8, 2023 I went for several walks around the land where my parents live this past week. Among this things I noticed was how slowly things seems to change in the forest. Yes, there are definitely some trees that my dad, or I, mostly my dad, had planted which are 4 times the size they once were. But the red maples still look like they did ten years ago. The deer still seem to follow usual deer thoroughfares. The bee trees are maybe a little more rotted out. The scars from where skid trails cut deeply into the wet earth during some poorly done logging are still scars, without much new growth. But I felt okay with this all in a way that other times I wouldn’t have. Let things be I heard. Let things be…well, wouldn’t it be a great…
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