Spiritual Sunday

Today was a long, long, LONG day. We started with morning prayer at 6am. We headed to Sunday School at the Buddhist Monastery in Seattle and learned lots about Buddhist theology, meditation, and enlightenment. We then headed upstairs where we practiced what we learned. The Buddhist prayer service was something to experience. Some of us observed, others tried the meditation mantras, and others even recited the Tibetan prayers. What we learn us that many people connected with this temple, crawled across the Himalayain mountains into India to escape religious persecution. 

What would it be like for a Christian in the US to do that. We are lucky we have the freedom to worship as we choose. May we come to never take that for granted. 

After this service we headed to the Episcopal Church of the Apostles for Eucharist. We worshiped like Episcopalians but in a very different very cool way. The youth left energized and excited because they saw how real and cool church can be. It also really helped that the gospel reading and sermon where about the exact thing we have been doing here. It was like we we're any to be there in that time and that place. 

Our evening of worship ended with an amazing sung compline service at St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle. For many this was the first time they had heard compline sung. While the compline was great and sounded wonderful in that space, what made the service was the diversity of the people there. People from all ways of life were present where they liked (pews, altar rail, chancel). Some sat. Others knelt. Some even layed prostrate next to the altar. It was very clear that all are truly welcome in the episcopal church. The girl with the super short blue hair, the man in the business suit, the homeless, and a youth group from a different St. Mark's are all beloved children of God and this evening all of the above and more worshiped and acknowledged the Creator together.