Finding Baby Jesus in A Cake

“God did not enter the world of our nostalgic, silent-night, snow-blanketed, peace-on-earth, suspended reality of  Christmas. God slipped into the vulnerability of skin and entered our violent and disturbing world.”
― Nadia Bolz-Weber

This month’s Pub Church fell on Epiphany / Three Kings Day, celebrating the time that the wise people/magi/kings followed the star and found Jesus! This story is a reminder that birth stories are messy, and we often need many perspectives to help us hear what happened.

The word epiphany comes from the Greek word meaning “to reveal”. We were treated to quite a reveal when we found our own baby Jesus in the cake!

Beyond delicious food, together in community, we discussed what is making us stop and look these days. We also were given a “star word” for the year to see how it guides us in the time ahead!

What are you following in wonder during these times?

We’re holding tight to starting 2025 by feasting on tasty Three Kings Cake & tamales, good conversation and the reminder that Jesus is everywhere!

Jesus can be found often in places we least expect it:

Even in a brewery or a cake

Keep watching, keep wondering, keep conversing!

Food=Love

At Echoes Food=Love

Birchwood Food Desert Fighters Food Boxes can use our help as we fill them each month on the 4th Tuesday! You can bring your shelf stable donations on Monday, December 23rd to Dinner Church and we will make sure they are delivered to the Birchwood Neighboorhood in time for Christmas.

Our neighbors in need, still need nourishment, especially at the start of the winter season.
We’ve still got a cold season ahead of us.
Your donations help. We’ve seen it.

Food Box Needs
hot hands   |  granola bars  |  canned / shelf stable milk  |  nuts  | canned/pouch meat/fish  |  canned beans  |  canned fruit  |  soups/stews  |  jerky  |  fruits / veggies stable in cold  |  oats  |  sauces  |  spices  |  tea / juice  |  parmesan cheese  |  syrup  |  sugar  |  cereal  |  tortillas  | sliced bread  |  rice |  salt / pepper  |  socks  |  hotsauce  |  condiemnts  |  can openers  |  silverwear

 Bring your donations to Dinner Church on 12/23 for delivery on the 4th Tuesday of the month!

Advent Meditative Service 2024

Our Meditative Service in December 2024 invited individuals to pause, light a candle and BE.

By taking time to meditate on the ancient symbols we can go deeper into the Advent Season.

We had folks meander in no particular order through each meditative prayer station.

*Candles (Fire) - Light a Candle & Pray for Peace/Those In Need
*Inspiration (Pause) - Finger Labyrinth & Art for comfort
*Nativity (Just Breathe) - Meditate on the Nativity/Read Story Proceeding Jesus’ Birth
*Guiding Light (Stars) -Follow the Star/Think on your own journey

Our bodies know what they need. Our spirits know the practices that bring us closer to wholeness.
How can we take time to hear the voice encouraging us to move with an unhurried pace?

Whether through candles, art, finger labyrinth, cosmic medtiation or just sitting, time spent in community is never wasted.

In December how are you slowing down?

Winter 2024 Spotify Playlist

We’ve created this year’s Winter 2024 Spotify playlist to share with you!

Featuring artists like Matt Pond, The O’Pears, Gungor, Dr. Dog & more!

Listen Here!

Just in time for the advent season, this playlist invites you to slow down and hear some seasonal classics in a new way. Something we hope happens with the Birth Story of Jesus every year on Christmas too.

(Even if you don’t have a spotify account you can listen for free with ads just like the radio :)

More Than Nourishment

Food isn’t just nourishment, it’s love. And this time of year we can share our love with our neighbors who need it most. Bring your donations either shelf stable food or monetary donations to our Dinner Church on 11/25 to share food with your community!

In a recent Western Front article the necessity of all forms of food donations to keep people fed cannot be overstated:

“Trish Twomey, executive director of the Washington Food Coalition, said food system stability requires support from a variety of stakeholders. 

“There's our tried and true community donations and schools and churches,” Twomey said. “But … those are small quantities of donations, and to have something stable and ongoing is really what the food programs need.” 

Most support for the Whatcom County Food Bank Network comes from organization, individual, business, foundation and grant donations totaling approximately $4.8 million annually. “

Every Bit Counts.

Thank you for your help to Feed your Neighbors.

Food Box Needs
granola bars  |  canned / shelf stable milk  |  nuts  | canned/pouch meat/fish  |  canned beans  |  canned fruit  |  soups/stews  |  jerky  |  fruits / veggies stable in cold  |  oats  |  sauces  |  spices  |  tea / juice  |  parmesan cheese  |  syrup  |  sugar  |  cereal  |  tortillas  | sliced bread  |  rice |  salt / pepper

 Bring your donations to Dinner Church on 11/25 for delivery on the 4th Tuesday of the month!

Blessing of the Animals 2024

Blessing of the Animals 2024

God, our Creator, help us to love all creatures as kin,
all animals as partners on Earth,
all birds as messengers of praise,
all minute beings as expressions of your mysterious design,
and all frogs as voices of hope.
Amen*

Prayer from Norman Habel

Gratitude for all the animals and humans who came to our Wild Church - Blessing of the Animals last weekend at Lake Padden. We blessed those present and those virtually and in spirit via photos and videos.

We noted that these past 11 years of Blessings of the Animals have seen drastic weather and so far we have made it through torrential downpour, snow, smog/sun, atmospheric rivers and light sprinkles, reminding us that blessings can happen rain or shine!

What a gift it is to offer thanks for the beloved furry friends who make our world brighter, more cuddly and muddier!

Fighting Food Deserts in Our Own Backyard

Food insecurity affects many Americans and especially those in Whatcom County. Although food insecurity occurs for a number of reasons, one cause is a lack of access to food, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables, despite having the means to buy it. This creates a Food Desert.
This is not ok, anywhere. Especially in our backyard!

“According to the USDA, a food desert occurs when more than 33% of the population in urban spaces is further than one mile from a supermarket. In a rural setting, 33% of people must be more than 10 miles from a supermarket. By this standard, over 18 million people lived in food deserts in 2019.”*

At Echoes we find this unacceptable.

When we discovered not only a food desert and monopoly to not open another grocery store in north Bellingham, we were grateful to learn about the work of the Birchwood Food Desert Fighters and what they have been doing to address the food desert created in 2016.

Together we are helping to fill 3 food boxes in the Birchwood Neighborhood on the 4th Tuesday of the month! We collect donations for filling boxes at our Dinner Church on the 4th Monday, this month 10/28 @ 6:30pm @ 2116 Walnut Street.

Bring your shelf stable foods or money to help purchase foods to fill the boxes! We so appreciate your help to share food and share love with our neighbors!

Here’s a great article about the work of BFFD!

*https://www.morningagclips.com/hungry-in-america-exploring-the-food-desert-crisis/

Pride Blessings 2024

We are filled with JOY after the 2024 Pride in Bellingham Parade & Festival on July 7th!

So much diversity was on display and we are grateful as a faith community that was founded at Bellingham Pride in 2013 to be a part of it (11 years woah)! Thank you to everyone who helped us pass out pocket hearts, stickers, bracelets, buttons and….POPSICLES!
It reached over 80 degrees in downtown and a cool treat was just what many folx needed as they concluded their day at Pride. Sharing in the love sometimes means refreshment AND sugar.

We shared in worship before the parade and are offering some of the words we shared with one another before we shared the love downtown!

Pride Blessing
In this PRIDE season, let us celebrate the grace of the Divine, who liberates us from limitations, the boundless love, mercy, and justice of the Creator, who crafted a kaleidoscope of identities, and the wisdom of the Holy One, who urges us to embrace this magnificent diversity.
May these blessings be with you all. And also with you.

Inclusive Lord’s Prayer
Our Sovereign, Divine Mystery,
unbound by gender, name, or form,
hallowed be your all-encompassing love.
May your will for liberation and wholeness be done,
On this earth and where every being has begun.
Give us courage as we give to others,
to face the challenges that silence our truths.
Forgive us for the times we've hidden our light,
as we forgive those who bring oppression's night.
Lead us not to conformity but fierce authenticity's embrace
and deliver us from the fear of speaking our truth.
For yours is the love, the passion, and glorious diverse design,
now and forever.
Amen.

Sending Blessing:

May the divine spark, ever-shifting and boundless like queer love, ignite within you. May this essence propel you forward, a radiant disruption in a world clinging to binaries. Go forth, a testament to God's love that transcends categories, and be that love for all creation. And we say amen.

Boxes Filled with Love

Whether sharing the table at Dinner Church or filling the food boxes of our neighbors, at Echoes we believe that Food is Love. With your help and donations we can fill boxes that serve a food desert in the Birchwood neighborhood. Donations are collected on the 4th Tuesday of the month for the Birchwood Food Desert Fighters

Together we can help fill a need for our neighbors

Monetary donations/gifts are welcome to purchase foods that are still needed to round out each box (often ready to serve/eat meals).


FOOD DONATIONS COLLECTED 6/24 @ DINNER CHURCH

Summer Food Box Needs
granola bars  |  canned / shelf stable milk  |  nuts  | canned/pouch meat/fish  |  canned beans  |  canned fruit  |  soups/stews  |  jerky  |  fruits / veggies stable in cold  |  oats  |  sauces  |  spices  |  tea / juice  |  parmesan cheese  |  syrup  |  sugar  |  cereal  |  tortillas  | sliced bread  |  rice |  salt / pepper

2024 Trashion Show Eco-Chic Echoes Outfit!

Bellingham Blooms

30 Hours, 600 Hymn Sheets, 13 People & Infinite Glue Sticks Later...
Echoes created a Rainbow Trashion Show Success!

While we didn't win a prize, this 2024 Trashion Show collaboration was all about community, and we were overjoyed to interact with so many people who were seeing these re/upcycled hymns. May this dress be a reminder that every expression of authenticity and boldness and love, is DIVINE!

Our "Bellingham Blooms" submission was a tribute to our founding at Bellingham Pride and our commitment to seeing the beauty in making old things new.

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to this fabulous fundraiser to support Habitat for Humanity Whatcom County and their efforts to create more affordable housing! This experience of creative re-use was a fantastic reminder to use what we have and see the treasures all around us!

We are delighted to be featured in the Cascadia Daily Article that showcases the many wonderful outfits!
Photo by Cocoa Laney from said article above