West Seattle Blog…

9/11 + 10: Providence Mount St. Vincent service

Some of the 1,000 paper cranes lovingly hand-made by residents, staff, and other community members at Providence Mount St. Vincent in recent days graced The Mount’s chapel for its 9/11 anniversary service this afternoon. The service featured prayers and readings from faith traditions including Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, and Hindu, and lots of music:

Mary Fierke and Ellen McClain led the music, including congregational renditions of songs from “Amazing Grace” to “America the Beautiful.” The service was followed by a dessert reception in The Mount’s café.

West Side Presbyterian Church dedicates Centennial Courtyard

Much of the celebrating was done six months ago, but West Side Presbyterian Church‘s centennial will leave a lasting memory – the Centennial Courtyard, dedicated this afternoon.

Speaking to those gathered to dedicate the new courtyard, Laurinda O’Connell and WSPC’s pastor, Rev. Paul Smith:

Rev. Smith marks a milestone of his own this year – 30 years since he became pastor of WSPC.

West Seattle churches: Hope Lutheran’s new pastor has arrived

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

A key word for Hope Lutheran‘s new pastor Peter Mueller is “connection.”

He’s thrilled to discover West Seattle’s community connections, including the new neighbors who have welcomed him and his family – he got to meet even more of them at a Night Out block party on Tuesday.

But he’s also clearly no stranger to online connection. Though his office at the church is still full of storage boxes that just arrived from his previous home in Southern California, it’s topped with one essential element – a laptop. And when we ask for specifics on a Biblical verse he paraphrases during our conversation, he pulls out not a well-worn leather-bound book, but … his iPod.

He’s even enthusiastic about the church’s website address.

Click to read the rest of West Seattle churches: Hope Lutheran’s new pastor has arrived…

Remembering former Holy Rosary pastor Father James Mallahan

Father James Mallahan, well-regarded as Holy Rosary‘s pastor from 1981 to 1987, will be remembered at the church with a Vigil Mass tonight at 7 and Funeral Mass on Wednesday at 11 am. He died last Friday at age 83. Holy Rosary School has long had an endowment fund in his name. Fr. Mallahan’s obituary is here; an online guestbook is here. (Thanks to Michael for sharing the news.)

Red Cross helping apartment-fire victims at West Seattle church

(ADDED MONDAY MORNING: South Park donation dropoff spot to help fire victims)

If you’re among those wondering how to help the victims of this afternoon’s huge apartment fire in unincorporated South King County southeast of South Park, here’s the first answer: Donate to the local American Red Cross. We just found out they are setting up an emergency shelter for fire victims at Peace Lutheran Church in Gatewood. Volunteers are setting it all up right now with the help of Amanda Rudd from the Red Cross; she told us outside the church that the latest count indicates 41 people are without a home tonight, from the 19 units gutted by the fire. They’re planning to shelter and feed about a dozen of them at Peace Lutheran. The Red Cross stresses that it cannot accept donated items, though, just money to fund operations like this; you can donate here – and we’ll let you know about any donation drives we find out about. (Thanks to Anne-Marie for the tip, e-mailing us after spotting the Red Cross vehicles at the church.)

ADDED MONDAY MORNING: From the South Park Yahoo! e-mail group, another way to help fire victims:

Providence Regina House and the South Park Neighborhood Center will be the drop off for donations to support the families who were burned out of their homes yesterday, many with only the clothing on their backs.

Here is what they need the most:

Men’s clothing (WE HAVE VERY LITTLE OF MEN’S CLOTHING AND SHOES HERE)
Full size toiletry items
Furniture for smaller apartments
Gift cards for food and stores such as Target and Fred Meyer
Non-perishable food
Bath linens
Bed linens (twin & full)
Mattresses & box springs (twin, full, queen)
Housewares of all sorts
Shoes for men, women, and children

WE HAVE LOTS OF NON PERISHABLE FOOD and women’s clothing, and some hygiene items, but could use the other things!! WE ALSO COULD REALLY USE lunch/snack friendly foods, such as applesauce cups, snacky foods, etc…so these hungry/stressed folks can snack, too.

I’m here now (address below) and will be here all day….and tomorrow….and until there is no more need!!

Paige Collins, Manager
Providence Regina House
8201 10th Ave. South, Seattle,WA 98108
206-763-9204
www.providencereginahouse.org

Video: Our Lady of Guadalupe’s pastor wears a new hat for groundbreaking

Most groundbreakings involve dignitaries, never-used-before-and-never-will-be-again shovels, and one ceremonial jab at the dirt. Not the groundbreaking at West Seattle’s Our Lady of Guadalupe this afternoon. The parish’s pastor, Father Jack Walmesley, got behind the controls of a backhoe and dug into the future site of OLG’s Parish Life Center and Gymnasium, as parishioners cheered (and, off camera, Tom Hutyler emceed). Earlier in the event, “Father Jack” wore more traditional priestly garb as he spoke about the project – we’ll add that clip laterhere’s that clip:

The new 10,000-square-foot facility will include community meeting space as well as areas for parish events and sports (read all about the project here – and see sketches – here).

June 12th groundbreaking set for Our Lady of Guadalupe project

(Rendering of new OLG center/gym, provided by the parish in 2010)
West Seattle’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish says it’s ready to start building its new Parish Life Center and Gymnasium – with more than $3 million amassed (including a loan) – so a “ceremonial groundbreaking” celebration is planned for Sunday, June 12th. The 12:15 pm event in the lower playfield will be followed at 12:45 pm by a multicultural potluck, and OLG is inviting the community to join the celebration. You can read more about the project here.

West Seattle holidays: Easter page now up – anything missing?

With one week to go till Easter, we have published, and added to the site navigation (the tabs under the sunset photo in the header), the new WSB Easter page, with three groups of listings: Egg hunts (most are next Saturday, but not all!), church services (including Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday), and a few Easter brunch notes from local restaurants. Still a work in progress, so if you are involved with, or know of, any activities/services/brunches that are NOT on the page yet, please send us the info so we can add it! editor@westseattleblog.com – which also is where you are welcome to send word of Passover activities in West Seattle, since that holiday starts at sunset Monday; we are including Passover events in the regular Events calendar.

Prayers for Japan: Admiral Congregational UCC Church vigil

That’s the Rev. Dr. Donald Schmidt, in his second year leading Admiral Congregational UCC Church in West Seattle, offering a Buddhist prayer during an interfaith candlelight vigil Monday night. It wasn’t a fundraiser, as Rev. Dr. Schmidt reminded participants, but they did have baskets available for anyone who wanted to donate. The March 28th vigil idea, he said, was inspired by Greenpeace.

More West Seattle weekend scenes: West Side Presbyterian centennial; Sealth/Denny jazz dinner; Hope Lutheran open house

The choir’s voices filled the sanctuary at West Side Presbyterian Church, just before this morning’s 9:30 am celebration service in honor of WSPC’s centennial. The church’s history is thoroughly retold online (see the links on the lower right); the centennial-celebration page also includes information about a Centennial Courtyard for which WSPC needs to raise about $66,000.

While we’re talking fundraising … one of the big hits at last night’s Jazz Dinner on behalf of the Chief Sealth International High School and Denny International Middle School music programs was the dessert dash, with creations like this:

The dessert dash alone raised more than $3,000, it was announced during the event, which drew hundreds to the CSIHS Galleria for a barbecue-chicken dinner and music, including Sealth’s Jazz Band II, directed by Marcus Pimpleton (as are the Denny musicians who played earlier):

Another West Seattle school had a big event this weekend:

Hope Lutheran School invited the community to an open house this afternoon, with first-year principal Kristen Okabayashi on hand:

Hope is expanding its preschool program next school year.

Bethany Community Church West Seattle: New WSB sponsor

This morning, we welcome a new WSB sponsor, which per WSB tradition gets the chance to introduce themselves to you: Bethany Community Church West Seattle is a satellite campus of Bethany Community Church (churchbcc.org). This community started with an adventurous group of Bethany members from West Seattle who had been commuting to Bethany’s fast-growing original campus near Green Lake, but longed to worship — and be more practically available to serve one another and our neighbors — in our own West Seattle locale. We are excited to publicly introduce ourselves to our West Seattle neighbors and invite you to join us at our open-house worship service this coming Sunday, March 20, at 9:30 am. Children’s programs are available for nursery through 5th grade. Refreshments and a children’s play area will also be available afterward.

Bethany attenders are characterized by the attitude inscripted on an old wooden sign that has been around the church for decades: “ In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” A new attender says, “ I recently moved here from Indiana. I chose to attend Bethany because it is a group of people who are committed to learning, seeking, struggling and hoping together.” Campus Pastor Shonnie Scott says, “Bethany’s mission is to connect people to God, to community and to wholeness. Our strong sense of purpose has grown out of our deepening relationships with Christ, with each other, and with our community. We’ve already engaged in supporting High Point Community Center and Navos Mental Health Solutions, and look forward to participating in Navos’ “ Planting Day” in April. It is our greatest joy to ‘pay forward’ God’s love, grace and transformation — the wholeness we receive through Christ — by actively loving each other and our local community. We’d like that to include you as well!”

Bethany West Seattle gathers every Sunday at 9:30 am at High Point Community Center (6920 34th Avenue SW) for vibrant worship and inspiring biblical teaching, while also providing children with quality programs. Visit Bethany West Seattle’s website for more information about staff, upcoming events, sermons, and a short video of a typical Sunday morning: westseattle.churchbcc.org.

We thank Bethany Community Church/West Seattle for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news on WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.

West Side Presbyterian Church celebrating its centennial

This month, West Seattle’s West Side Presbyterian Church is celebrating its centennial – 100 years in the community, though not at the same location for that entire time. From Mark O’Connell at WSPC:

On March 27, 2011, West Side Presbyterian will hold a “Generations of Faithfulness” Centennial Celebration at 9:30 am at 3601 California Avenue SW followed by a light lunch and fellowship. The Rev. Dr. Paul Smith (right), who has served at West Side since 1981, will preside over the service, which will include speakers and members of former staff families, musical selections from children and adult choirs and special ensembles, and video greetings from West Siders around the world. Members of the community, along with former church members and friends, are invited to join us in celebrating our 100th anniversary.

West Side Presbyterian Church was established in March 1911 near the Admiral Junction in West Seattle on 44th SW and Lander. It originated as a mission of Seattle’s First Presbyterian Church under the leadership of Dr. Mark Matthews, a dynamic and colorful community leader in Seattle’s early days. The church grew from 47 charter members to 583 members today. In 1948, the church dedicated its current building on the corner of California Avenue SW and Spokane Street. It has undergone remodels and expansions in the 1950s and 2000s. West Side is a stalwart member of the West Seattle community with many outreach activities and ministries.

After the 1949 earthquake when Lafayette School was damaged beyond usability for students, West Side was one of the locations where classes were held through the end of the year. West Side has sponsored Boy Scout Troop 282 for 63 years. In the 1950s, more than 1000 children attended West Side’s two-week Vacation Bible School, and notable guests have included sports editor Royal Brougham and Seahawks quarterback Sam Adkins. Ministries to lonely and shut-in members of the community have touched many people for more than 50 years, and West Side has served vital roles and support to the homeless and less fortunate in our neighborhoods, including Union Gospel Mission, City Team, and Family Promise. Our doors have been open to community members for meeting spaces, blood drives, special musical presentations and performances, and an annual garage sale that fills the church and raises significant funds for youth projects.

Through the years, West Side has sent out over 75 missionaries to countries around the world, even as we have taken in displaced families and refugees from wars and violent regimes ranging from the World War II refugees from Hungary and Austria, to those fleeing Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge. West Side’s membership is a special and unique melding of people who have lived and contributed to life in West Seattle for 50+ years, including teachers, business owners, service people, musicians and artists, and medical personnel, as well as newcomers to the community.

Further Information:
www.wspc.org
West Side Presbyterian Church on Facebook
Church office: 206.935.4477
E-mail: office@wspc.org or wspc.centennial@gmail.com

(Photo credits: Rev. Dr. Smith, courtesy of Carreen Smith; building, courtesy of Tom Hibben)

Battle of the rummage sales! Tibbetts and West Side, day 1

(Photos by Ellen Cedergreen for WSB)
They insist they’re actually glad to both have their giant rummage sales – gigantic rummage sales – humongous rummage sales – whatever-you-want-to-call-them rummage sales – on the same two days in March. But “dueling rummage sales” conjures up a fun image anyway. Tibbetts United Methodist Church (WSB sponsor) and West Side Presbyterian Church are both wrapping up day 1 of those mega-sales.

Both have outdoor merchandise as well as indoor, as you can see in the top two photos. Inside both churches, you will find tables and tables of stuff donated by hundreds of families. At Tibbetts, Marie and Floy were staffing the checkout line.

Browser’s paradise, both there and West Side:

Tibbetts continues till 4 pm today, and runs 9 am-3 pm tomorrow; WSPC continues till 5 pm today and runs 9 am-2 pm tomorrow. And if you love rummage sales, you will love West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day, which we are organizing/sponsoring again this year – registration information soon; the big day is Saturday, May 14th.

Video: New Archbishop in West Seattle for ‘World Day of the Sick’

The new Archbishop of Seattle, The Most Rev. J. Peter Sartain, was in West Seattle this morning to preside at the World Day of the Sick Mass at the Providence Mount St. Vincent Chapel today. He was joined by five other priests – Holy Rosary’s pastor the Very Rev. John Madigan, Rev. Lyle Konen of the Redemptorist Fathers of Seattle, Rev. Abraham Miller of The Mount, Rev. William Gallagher, and Rev. Richard Ward from the Order of Malta, which has a thousand-year history of devotion “to those who suffer, especially the poor and sick,” according to the program for this morning’s service.

Also participating: the Seattle University Choir:

The World Day of the Sick is commemorated each year “on the occasion of the memorial of the Blessed Virgin of Lourdes,” according to this year’s message from the Pope; holy water from the shrine at Lourdes was used in today’s service.

More West Seattle holiday help: Hope’s donations for near and far

Another story of holiday giving tonight, this one shared by Mike Jensen:

Every December for the last 15 years, Hope Church and School has quietly been making the Holidays brighter for children and families in West Seattle.

This year the Hope Community donated gifts that touched more than 350 local kids, as well as many of their parents, that otherwise would likely not have gifts at Christmas. In addition, the Hope Community generously donated items to men from the Lutheran Compass Center as well as various Hope members and shut-ins.

But they didn’t stop there. More than 500 gifts were collected to send to mission teams in Mexico where even something as simple as a blanket is as precious as a new toy. Mary Anne DeVry, Hope’s Director of Human Care Ministries, has spearheaded the Holiday giving effort all of these years and is continually amazed at the generosity and outpouring of support from the congregation and the community.

“This response is really beyond what human beings do – as a church, we don’t have funds to buy all of these gifts, but they just pour in,” said Mary Anne. “This showing is the true meaning of Christmas, that God loves his people so much that he sent this son, but also sends his care in the form of blankets, bicycles and books!”

While this Christmas-giving season is winding down, Mary Anne encourages anyone that wants to be a part of this experience in the future to contact the Hope Church office at 206-937-9330.

We have more giving opportunities listed on the West Seattle Holidays page.

Our Lady of Guadalupe tree lighting: Celebration and tribute

On the night of the Feast Day in honor of their church and school’s namesake, Our Lady of Guadalupe‘s Christmas tree shines bright near the city’s highest point. The tree lights went on during a festive, well-attended community celebration tonight. But before the lights, and the caroling, OLG’s Father Jack Walmesley had two things to share with the crowd – news about OLG’s principal Kristin Dixon, following a tribute in memory of parishioner Mitch Forrey, who along with wife Mary inspired the annual tree-lighting celebration:

Shortly afterward, the main event, the tree countdown, led by the event’s emcee Brian Callanan, a local TV journalist, West Seattleite, and OLG parishioner:

This is the tree’s second year with energy-saving LED lights, by the way. After the lighting – with the weather still blessedly dry – it was time for lots of crowd caroling, led by OLG choir director Ann Sager. “Jingle Bells” – with car keys used as impromptu bells if need be – is a tradition at this event:

Other caroling included “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”:

Also noted during tonight’s event, Our Lady of Guadalupe’s ongoing fundraising campaign to add a new Parish Life Center and gym; according to the campaign’s website, the campaign has brought in more than half the $4.2 million they’re working to raise.

SIDE NOTE: OLG is one of the local churches whose Christmas services are listed/linked on the WSB West Seattle Holidays page – if yours aren’t there yet, we invite you to send the information so we can add it there too!

Update: Turkey giveaway continues at Eastridge

Last year, Eastridge Church‘s turkey giveaway in West Seattle was over in about half an hour – this year, with double the turkeys (1,000 this time), they still had plenty left, and no line, when we stopped by less than an hour ago. (video added) We talked with Eastridge Pastor Steve Jamison about the giveaway:

He said they’ll be there as long as it takes to give them all away (the turkeys come with some other groceries, too) – across from West Seattle Bowl, 39th/Oregon.

Help for the holidays: Eastridge doubles turkey giveaway

(WSB photo from November 2009)
Eastridge Christian Assembly, in The Triangle, has sent word it’s doubling its turkey giveaway this year – instead of giving free turkeys to 500 people at each of its two campuses, including West Seattle, this year each campus will give out 1,000. Here’s the news release, just out of the WSB inbox:

Eastridge Church will be providing 2,000 free Thanksgiving turkeys and bags of groceries to families in need on Saturday, November 20, beginning at 9 a.m. (while supplies last) at their two locations: Issaquah and Seattle. This is double the 1,000 turkeys and groceries provided in past years.

“Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on our lives and the good things that we’re experiencing, but it can also be an especially challenging time for families with limited resources,” said Eastridge Lead Pastor, Steve Jamison. “We want to show that Eastridge cares by providing a blessing this Thanksgiving to those who may be struggling to make ends meet. This is our eighth year providing a turkey and bag of groceries to families and in response to the increased need in our community, we are doubling the amount we provided last year.”

When: Saturday, November 20, starting at 9 a.m., while supplies last

Where: The Issaquah campus of Eastridge Church
24205 Issaquah-Fall City Road, Issaquah

The West Seattle Campus of Eastridge Church
4500 39th Avenue SW, Seattle

The 2,000 dinner packages will be given out first-come, first-served, with no demonstration of need required to receive the assistance.

West Seattle Halloween: Tibbetts celebrates All Hallows’ Eve

The photo and explanation are from John Van Lierop, Jr., organist at Tibbetts United Methodist Church (WSB sponsor).

This year, All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween) falls on a Sunday. At Tibbetts United Methodist Church in West Seattle, the minister, Rev. Dr. Joanne Carlson Brown, is encouraging her members to dress in costume for that Sunday. Even though Halloween originated as a pagan holiday, it also has Christian roots as churches celebrate All Saints’ Day the next day. Oct. 31 also happens to be Reformation Sunday, when the Protestant churches mark the anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg church. Rev. Brown, who will be dressed in costume, believes in a God who delights in us and loves laughter and fun as well as praise.

In the photo are John, “dressed as he will be on Halloween Sunday,” with two of his piano pupils, Kira and Nicholas Branch, who also attend Tibbetts (which is at 3940 41st SW).

‘Welcome home’: Formal dedication for Westside UUs’ new church

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Tonight’s formal dedication of the Westside Unitarian Universalist Congregation‘s new Gatewood church was both a solemn occasion and a joyful celebration.

Its opening moments included that procession featuring dozens of clergy members from UU churches around the region (and from West Seattle congregations of other faiths) streaming into the sanctuary (above); its closing moments included the congregation’s children scampering into the sanctuary:

Their appearance echoed one that had kickstarted the campaign that brought the church – which met at the Masonic Hall in The Junction for two decades – into this new home, the former Gatewood Baptist/Seattle International Church (7141 California SW). The congregation moved in last month (here’s our coverage of their ribboncutting ceremony), less than 5 months after taking possession, but tonight brought the formalities and even the president of the UU denomination – our coverage, with more video, continues after the jump: Click to read the rest of ‘Welcome home’: Formal dedication for Westside UUs’ new church…

Happening now: Multiple rooms of deals @ Tibbetts UMC

We just went over to see how the Tibbetts United Methodist Church (WSB sponsor) rummage sale was going in the first hour of its two-day run. So much stuff, some of the big, sturdy items are outside, like those bikes. And inside …

… that’s just the first of three rooms (plus a hallway, plus the stage) of stuff — clothes, dishes, decorations, books, vinyl, appliances (at least 2 sewing machines), furniture, luggage … The sale’s on at 41st/Andover (map) till 4 pm today, again 9 am-3 pm tomorrow.

Video: ‘All creatures great and small’ at St. John’s pet blessing

The small creatures were represented by guinea pigs Cupcake (right) and Zoe – who joined more than two dozen dogs (no cats in sight, so far as we could see) for West Seattle’s third “Blessing of the Animals” this weekend, this time in the West Seattle High School parking lot next to St. John the Baptist Church.

Blessing some of the dogs in that photo are St. John’s Rev. Peter DeVeau next to (in Franciscan robe) Brother Kris Wilder (the photographer at right was from the Seattle Times [WSB partner]). Rev. DeVeau asked the crowd first, “Happy about the purple tent?” (upper right) – referring to yesterday’s big Washington Huskies win. Then, after a parade, it was blessing time:

(If you’ve missed our previous coverage – the reason this is done this time of year is that tomorrow’s the Feast Day for/birthday of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals.)

‘For the joy & happiness they bring us’: Pets blessed at The Mount

Patty from Highland Park came to the Blessing of the Animals at Providence Mount St. Vincent this morning with her five furry friends, two of whom are regular volunteers at The Mount. They mingled with, and sometimes barked at, more than a dozen other dogs, till Father Lyle began the blessing:

After a prayer and reading paying tribute to pets “for the joy and happiness they bring us,” the Redemptorist priest led a procession through the building – first scheduled stop, the second-floor fish tank – to bless animals that hadn’t been brought down to the lobby. The ceremony is a tradition on or near the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi – which is coming up Monday – and there will be two others in West Seattle tomorrow, at Alki UCC (6112 SW Hinds) during 10 am service and outside St. John the Baptist Church (3050 California SW) at noon.

All Souls: New West Seattle church, and new WSB sponsor

Today, we welcome a new WSB sponsor, All Souls Church. New sponsors are offered the opportunity to let you know what they’re about – so here’s their story: All Souls is a brand new church for the city, in our neighborhood, hosting their first Sunday worship on October 3, 10 am, at Madison Middle School. They are West Seattle locals, working and serving and playing where they live. They’re fixtures in the neighborhood –– familiar faces at the farmers’ market, the beach, the places with the best kids’ happy hours, the deli with the ice cream, that beverage place, that breakfast spot with the rotating menu, the cafe in the record store, and the park with the zipline. But this growing community is forming here not because our beautiful city is whole, but because it lacks wholeness. And certainly not because it needs more religion or self-help. Instead, All Souls exists because Seattle is filled with people just like us who can’t make themselves whole on their own, and can’t perfect themselves on their own, but who long to experience healing, significance, and hope.

All Souls, part of a network of grassroots, locally grown churches committed to changing cities by renewing neighborhoods, is not a church ‘just for ourselves’ — a community that makes sense only to its own members. Instead, it’s for folks on every corner of the spiritual grid. While ‘the church’ has not traditionally been a safe place to ask questions, express doubt, and work through life’s tattered edges in community, that’s precisely the hope for All Souls: a place to process freely and safely the audacious claims of Jesus, and the inevitable tension between the beauty and scandal of the historic Christian gospel. Because we haven’t heard the gospel for what it really is if we don’t find it at once horribly offensive and staggeringly beautiful. It is both heart-breaking and heart-mending.

So wherever you are on your spiritual journey, whether skeptical or mildly curious about the Christian faith, or whether you are already a committed follower of Christ, All Souls welcomes you. Because Jesus hasn’t come merely to make us Christians. He came to make us new. Learn more at www.allsoulsseattle.org, and discover All Souls Kids at www.allsoulsseattle.org/kids.

We thank All Souls Church for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news on WSB; find our sponsor team, and info on joining, all here.

Blessing of the Animals: 3 events this weekend in West Seattle

(At 2009 St. John the Baptist “Blessing of the Animals,” Br. Kris Wilder blessing Pizazz the dog)
It’s an annual tradition around the Feast Day for St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, and again this year, three West Seattle “Blessing of the Animals” events are planned. First, we just got word from Providence Mount St. Vincent about this planned event this Saturday, 10:30 am (after 9:30 am Mass) – gather in the lobby (4831 35th SW). From the announcement: “Participants will convene in the lobby. Father Lyle Konen, CSsR, will be the Mass celebrant and will lead the participants – pets with their owners – throughout the building to bless all of the Mount’s cats, dogs, birds and fish.” And from the WSB Events calendar, St. John the Baptist Church in Admiral will have its annual Blessing of the Animals this Sunday at noon in the church parking lot, rain or shine. From Rev. Peter DeVeau‘s announcement: “The community is invited to bring all creatures great and small for this celebration and thanksgiving for the gift of animals. This is an annual event hosted by the people of St. John’s Episcopal Church.” Minutes after publishing the first version of this story, we also found Alki UCC‘s website notes they’re having a Blessing of the Animals again this year, 10 am Sunday service.

Another renovation open house: Fauntleroy Church/Y on Sunday

Today, you had the chance to see what’s new at Chief Sealth International High School and at Swedish Automotive (WSB sponsor) – tomorrow, Fauntleroy Church and the co-housed YMCA (WSB sponsor) invite you to come see what they’ve been working on for about nine months! Judy Pickens showed us around for a preview – she’s in this photo with pastor David Kratz:

The renovations come just two years after Fauntleroy Church celebrated its centennial:

Tomorrow’s dedication and grand-opening event at Fauntleroy Church/YMCA starts at 2 pm – everybody’s welcome. (9140 California SW – here’s a map.)

‘Are we ready?’ Westside Unitarian Universalists’ ribboncutting

That’s a jubilant Rev. Peg Morgan and congregation president Paula vanHaagen cutting the ribbon on the Westside Unitarian Universalists‘ new Gatewood home just an hour ago, cheered by members and visitors who crowded onto the sidewalk (and inside the foyer) at the busy California/Othello corner. Afterward, they streamed in for their first service inside the 60-year-old building, which previously housed Seattle International Church and Gatewood Baptist Church; WSUU bought it this spring after 20 years of meeting at the Alki Masonic Hall in The Junction. (Here’s our story from last night with a peek inside at the results of the renovation work that’s been under way for more than four months.)