Bee House Build!

Build tiny homes for native Mason Bees!

Feb 1, 2026 Downstairs after service.

We’re building really tiny houses on February 1, 2026 — mason bee houses!  

Our native bees are threatened by habitat loss, pesticides and climate change.  

But we can give them the safe spaces to live and raise their young right in your own backyards.  

How?  

Come downstairs after our February 1 service and help build some bee houses and learn what you can do to help our little power pollinators.  

It’ll bee great!  

See you there!  

 
– Peace Lutheran Church Creation Care Team

More information about Creation Care at Peace Lutheran Church:

• What is Creation Care?
• Creation Care Team at Peace Lutheran Church
• (Archive of Creation Care-related Announcements)
• Care of Creation is a goal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA): Caring for Creation – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)

Pollinator Week Kicks Off Season of Creation June 15th

Come Learn About Supporting Mason Bees in our home gardens

Come hear Michael Truog talk about providing housing for native mason bees June 15th  after worship on the Peace Patio.

As we enter our Season of Creation this month, we also honor Pollinator Week, a celebration of the vital role that pollinators play in our ecosystems, economies, and agriculture. This year’s theme is “Pollinators Weave Connections,” a reflection on the interconnectedness of our world. It’s a lovely parallel to our focus for this Season of Creation—Robin Wall Kimmerer’s inspiring book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World.

The serviceberry, one of the earliest spring bloomers, is an essential food source for pollinators. Its shallow white flowers, rich with nectar and pollen, are followed by berries and eventually seeds, both feeding dozens of bird species. Among the pollinators drawn to serviceberry flowers are native Mason Bees, who are extremely effective pollinators thanks to how they coat their tiny bodies with pollen.

Bees, butterflies, moths, bats, beetles, and hummingbirds are essential creatures, responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat, according to the USDA. But many pollinator populations are in decline mostly due to lost feeding and nesting habitats. Pollution, the misuse of chemicals, disease, and changes in climatic patterns are all contributing to shrinking and shifting pollinator populations.

Which is why we have the Peace Pollinator Project! We’ve talked and written frequently about how we can all help these little superheroes by adding native plants to our gardens, eliminating pesticides and weed killers, and “leaving the leaves” come fall. This year, we’re focusing on how we can help native Mason Bees, beginning with a talk from Michael Truog about his experience providing housing for mason bees.

“I’ve been housing Mason bees for a few years now, they are super magical and effective at pollinating,” says Michael. “They are super gentle (they don’t sting anyone) and are easy to manage.”

Later this year, we’ll talk about how leaving your garden a bit messy in the fall protects nesting bees and, during the winter, we’ll build some mason bee houses. Meanwhile, go visit the four Serviceberry trees lining our 39th Ave. SW sidewalk!

— Deb Hagen-Lukens for Creation Care

More information about Creation Care at Peace Lutheran Church:

• What is Creation Care?
• Creation Care Team at Peace Lutheran Church
• (Archive of Creation Care-related Announcements)
• Care of Creation is a goal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA): Caring for Creation – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)

Planeat! (length: 72 minutes)
 
  Join May’s film watch party! Our Creation Care Team invites you to watch the informative and inspiring documentary film Planeat, alone or with others, at your convenience, anytime from Thursday, May 15th through Sunday, May 18th. Maybe you could even invite others over for a watch party!
 
  The film Planeat will increase our awareness as well as raise some questions about the impact our diet has on personal health and climate change. To help sort through such ponderings, CCT will be leading a zoom discussion on Sunday, May 18th at 7PM.
 
  Why watch and discuss this film? Healthy eating has long been part of health advisories and medical treatment plans. More recently, there is accumulating evidence that food choices have our greatest personal impact on climate change. Even if you already eat a plant-based diet, Planeat provides information and personal narratives for re-energizing and promoting sustainable food choices. For others, this film might sway decisions about menu planning.
 

Ann Esselstyn’s kale sandwich from the film PLANEAT. (Screencap)

About Planeat: Where have we gone wrong? Why has the death rate from heart disease and cancer exploded in recent times? Why are the ice caps melting, the oceans dying and the forests being cut down as we produce the food necessary to support our burgeoning populations? Against a backdrop of colorful and delicious food grown by organic farmers and prepared in the kitchens of world-famous chefs, Planeat for the first time brings together the ground-breaking studies of three prominent scientists who have made it their life’s work to answer these questions: Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, and Professor Gidon Eshel.
 
  PLANEAT Trailer on YouTube

More information about Creation Care at Peace Lutheran Church:

• What is Creation Care?
• Creation Care Team at Peace Lutheran Church
• (Archive of Creation Care-related Announcements)
• Care of Creation is a goal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA): Caring for Creation – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)

Westside Interfaith Network — Meeting at Peace!

Wednesday, April 23, 7 pm.

All are welcome!

WIN will hold its monthly meeting at our place, giving us a chance to share our Creation Care Ministry!

We will also invite the attendees to bring along and share 2-3 of their congregation’s “green actions” — especially timely the day after Earth Day ‘ 25.

Plan to attend? Consider bringing along some cookies, cheese ‘n crax, fruit, whatever!

(For more info, contact Marcia or Boots)

• More about the Westside Interfaith Network
• More about Creation Care at Peace Lutheran Church

Our Sixth Arena of Ministry calls us to be caretakers of Creation and is the foundation for all our climate actions at Peace.
 
As we prepare to report our 2024 activities to the congregation, we also share our plans for 2025. We hope you’ll read it and tell the members of the Creation Care Team what you think about it and what more you’d like to see us do as we strive to care for all creation.
 
You can download the plan here: 2025 PLC Climate Action Plan (PDF file 2MB)

More information about Creation Care at Peace Lutheran Church:

• What is Creation Care?
• Creation Care Team at Peace Lutheran Church
• (Archive of Creation Care-related Announcements)
• Care of Creation is a goal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA): Caring for Creation – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)

Peace Lutheran Church is hosting a stop on the National Solar Tour on Sunday, Oct. 6th from 1-3pm. The tour is the country’s largest grassroots solar, renewable energy, and sustainable living event.

Want to know more about our solar panels, rain gardens and cisterns and native pollinator plantings? We can help with that!
 
Map of the National Solar tour

National Solar Tour Home Page
 

More information about Creation Care at Peace Lutheran Church:

• What is Creation Care?
• Creation Care Team at Peace Lutheran Church
• (Archive of Creation Care-related Announcements)
• Care of Creation is a goal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA): Caring for Creation – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)

Watch on your own, discuss with us! 

Creation Care film discussions July 15th and July 28th, 2024

You’re invited to two film “screenings” followed by Zoom discussions with other Peace members and friends from other Westside Interfaith Network congregations, facilitated by the Creation Care Team. Information about how to join the zoom discussions will be sent out via email.

Monday, 7/15, from 7:00-8:00pm — Cooked: Survival by Zip Code

    (film available for viewing prior to this discussion by special arrangement for 3 days only – from Friday 7/12 through Sunday 7/14)

Bullfrog Film’s Cooked: Survival by Zip Code delves into the story of the worst heat disaster in U.S. history in 1995 in Chicago, when 739 residents—mostly elderly and black—died over the course of one week. The film links the deadly heat wave’s devastation back to the man made disaster of structural racism, shining a light on the issues of poverty, race, class, and education that underlie how natural disasters take lives. We have a license to view this film July 12-14, so watch your email for the link and password.  Make sure to schedule time to watch at home one of those three days and then join us for a Zoom discussion Monday evening, July 15th.

Sunday, 7/28 from 7:00-8:00pm —The Plastics Problem

     (film available for online viewing prior to this discussion – anytime via the link below)

The problem is simply stated: by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. It’s an environmental crisis that’s been in the making for nearly 70 years. Plastic pollution is now considered one of the largest environmental threats facing humans and animals globally.

In “The Plastic Problem: PBS NewsHour Presents”, Amna Nawaz and her PBS NewsHour colleagues look at this now ubiquitous material and how it’s impacting the world, why it’s become so prevalent, what’s being done to mitigate its use, and what potential alternatives or solutions are out there. This hour-long program travels from Boston to Seattle, Costa Rica to Easter Island to bring the global scale of the problem to light.

View the story at your leisure at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-plastic-problem then join us on Zoom to discuss the feature on Sunday, July 28th.

———————————————————————————-

Links for the licensed viewing of the first film, and for the Zoom discussions, will only be available via email from Pastor Erik and/or Kathleen Keyes, using the usual email distribution list for all congregation members. If you are a member of Peace Lutheran Church Seattle and are not receiving email from Pastor Erik or our office manager Kathleen Keyes (such as weekly Bulletins, Peace Notes, and notices of special events), you are invited to please call or email the office, or use our web contact form to be placed on the email mailing list, or to update your email address for these notifications.

For more information:
– About Creation Care at Peace Lutheran Church
– About our Creation Care Team

Thank you for all you are doing to care for creation! 

WELCOME TO PEACE and to our three week celebration of the SEASON OF CREATION!  

Our themes and liturgy during this year’s Season of Creation are inspired by Barbara Mahany’s The Book of Nature: The Astonishing Beauty of God’s First Sacred Text. She writes: “Ancient peoples read the Book of Nature as the first sacred text, the text of all of creation, inscribed and unfurled by a God present always and everywhere.” God has “infused the natural world with symbol and meaning, and if only we read what’s there in the trees and the storms and the stars and the hives, we might more fully comprehend the Creator.”

We hold the second sacred text, the Bible, to be inspired — that is “God-breathed.” The Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture provide us with inspiration which illuminates both. Our Lutheran sacramental tradition celebrates the coming together of these great streams of tradition: Water from the Earth, infused with God’s word of promise, becomes the source of our life in Christ. Field ripened grain and grapes, infused with Christ’s promise to be present, nurture God’s people.

Over these three weeks we explored three themes inspired by Barbara’s book: Water’s Edge/Salish Sea—Wind & Weather—Celestial Spheres 

Our Week One theme: Water’s Edge, coincided with minus tides that were in Seattle last weekend.  Following worship we went to Lincoln Park Beach where we joined naturalists from the Seattle Aquarium in exploring the tide flats.  Here’s the Worship Guide for Week One: Creation 1B Book of Nature 6.9.24 bulletin FINAL

And here’s the Live Stream Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub6mWlKg4Sg&t=7s

On Week Two: Wind and Weather author  BARBARA MAHANY joined us both during and following worship, beaming in from the Midwest to share thoughts about the book of nature.  The Worship Guide for Week Two can be downloaded here: Creation 2B Book of Nature 6.16.24 bulletin FINAL  The Livestream recording can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ouzaL6fWFM&t=8s

Our theme for Week Three was Celestial Spheres.  Recalling the famous color photo of Earth taken by Astronaut Bill Anders from the Apollo 8 spacecraft, (Earthrise, below) we were reminded of our home planet’s beauty and fragility – a swirling blue marble floating against the dark background of space.  To watch the Live Stream Recording, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfwZ276TZCs

Community Announcement:

King County is partnering with South Seattle College to host a Sustainability Symposium and Green Jobs Fair on March 6 from 4-7pm at the Georgetown Campus for South Seattle College at 6737 Corson Ave S, Building C. This is an opportunity to explore career paths in sustainability and clean water and attend in-depth breakout sessions to understand “a day in the life” of career professionals from King County Wastewater’s Operations team, King County Green Tools and EV maker Rivian Electric. Register for a name tag by March 1, or just show up! Look for more information on the Creation Care bulletin board in the Narthex.

More information about Creation Care at Peace Lutheran Church:

• What is Creation Care?
• Creation Care Team at Peace Lutheran Church
• (Archive of Creation Care-related Announcements)
• Care of Creation is a goal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA): Caring for Creation – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)