Greetings!
Happy Easter! New life seems to be springing up all over! I am so grateful that we got to be back in church celebrating the season in full style at our dear St. Patrick’s Parish. All the joy that you see pictured in our Easter photo is also bittersweet, as it is almost certain that this is our last Easter together at St. Pat’s, and our parish is scheduled to be closed in the next few months. We are heartbroken that the Archdiocese is (so far) not willing to consider creative options in how a parish is run as the numbers of priests are diminishing. Sigh! Our parish is so dedicated to the creative vision of Vatican II, but the church takes a LONG time to live into emergent visions!
Meanwhile, I wanted to share that St. Pat’s has been invited to merge with our neighboring Jesuit parish, St. Joseph Church. In the midst of our grief is the fact that a new pastor has been named at St. Joe’s, Fr. Chris Cartwright, and he happens to be an old friend of mine from our days of being in the Fountain Square Fools liturgical story theatre company 42 years ago. The Spirit is full of surprises! This Lent, I got to embody the story of Lazarus with the help of Fr. Chris at St. Joe’s. May new life abound! I will keep you posted on our church journey.
Because this is likely the last time we get to celebrate Easter Vigil at our beloved St. Patrick Catholic Church in Seattle, I wanted to post a link to our Easter Vigil service where we interpret five of the readings in movement! Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah (Come to the Water), Ezekiel and the Gospel come to life with American Sign Language, music, dance, drama, incense, angels, kites and more. The video is cued up to our Genesis story, which is full of color and beauty! Feel free to scroll through our offerings to catch glimpses of Easter beauty.
Blessings of the dancing Christ to you, my friends!
With love,
Betsey
Betsey Beckman, MM