Beloved of God,<\/p>\n
September has arrived\u2014and what a full September it promises to be!\u00a0 Our RE\/vision process is in full swing with smaller focus groups meeting in earnest (look for a progress report before the month is out).\u00a0 Our worship life shifts into a new gear beginning September 11thas we mark the beginning of the program year by observing the four week long Season of Creation<\/span><\/em> (note the invitations that come with that season elsewhere in this edition).\u00a0 Unique and important seminars on the stewardship of creation are on the calendar this month (details below) as is the 25th Anniversary AIDS Walk and the marking of PLU Sunday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n John Gulhaugen, who served faithfully and admirably as Peace\u2019s choir director for the past eleven years, tendered his resignation over the summer and Chris Kindem has been appointed as Interim Choir Director; a search team for a new Director of Music is being formed under the leadership of Council Vice President Dustin Smith.\u00a0 We will miss John, and his partner James, as they move on to new ventures.\u00a0 On October 16th we\u2019ll take the opportunity to recognize and thank John for his contributions to our worship and community life.\u00a0 Stay tuned for more on that as the month unfolds.<\/p>\n Combined with the start of the school year, the long litany of new activities, responsibilities, and commitments can leave me feeling, at times, breathless.\u00a0 Where to find the balance?<\/em>\u00a0 That\u2019s a question we all struggle with.\u00a0 This month, perhaps especially, I mean to take the advice Mary Oliver offers in her poem The Trees<\/span>: to think \u201cquietly and deeply\u201d<\/em> of our firmly rooted forest kin who have found a way to remain amply rooted and flexible (rather than rigid), as they lift their branches toward their Creator, \u201cholding on to the old, holy ways.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n God tend your roots and branches!\u00a0<\/p>\n Pastor Erik<\/p>\n \u00a0Do you think of them as decoration?\u00a0 \u00a0Think again. Here are maples, flashing. And here are the oaks, holding on all winter to their dry leaves. And here are the pines, that will never fail, until death, the instruction to be green. And here are the willows, the first to pronounce a new year. May […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-newsletter","category-pastors-pen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1224"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1268,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1224\/revisions\/1268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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