Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I’m Peter Strimer, rector of St. Andrew’s, Seattle, and I write this my first blog from my Berkeley/Yale 30th seminary reunion in New Haven. Back in 1976 as a 22-year old first-year student in my first week on campus I heard a report back from fellow students on that year’s General Convention.

Their lives depended on that convention’s results. Rachelle Birnbaum, Deborah Hentz and Susan Klein could now finish school and be ordained and be among the first Episcopal women priests.

It has been an incredible 33 years of ministry for me since that first week of school and I hope in these posts to share some of what I have learned and continue to learn as a priest of the church.

I serve in the Pacific Northwest which in a report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life was dubbed “The None Zone.” Why “None?” Because 63 percent of North westerners said that they were not affiliated with any religious group. Out here no one goes to church unless they really want to. This means we need to meet the challenge of offering meaning in the midst of a culture that is non-religious (bordering on anti-religious) and where the mountains and oceans, coffee houses and bike trails are many times the chosen spiritual paths. Starbucks’ new tag line is “Take comfort in rituals.” If only.

In this blog I hope to offer comfort, challenge, humor, reflection, connection and to stay on top of trends, books and articles in fields relevant to you. After 30 years in ordained ministry, I feel I am only getting started.