One of the highlights of our trips has been the time we have spent in the Center of the Universe that is the Fremont District of Seattle. Fremont is the location of both the Church of the Apostles and the Monkfish Abbey and the motto of the neighborhood is "Delibertas Quirkas." Yesterday, we spent over two hours visiting with Rachelle Mee-Chapman, the urban abbess of Monkfish Abbey. For several of us, this was one of the highlights of the trip. Monkfish is a neo-monastic community in Freemont. They meet on Thursday night over dinner and they seek to be a missional church actively involved with their community. They are associated with a Vineyard Church in Seattle but they are doing some very innovative things to extend the love of Jesus Christ to their community. In addition, while Rachelle was working on her masters in Theology, she studied with Eugene Petterson and she wrote contemporary liturgy for the Vineyard church and I am fascinated in how she brought tradition into a non-liturgical, non-traditional church. Rachelle herself was a wonderfully warm, passionate and articulate woman. It was a true blessing to meet her.
We also met with Rabbi Ted Falcon at the office of Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue. He too was a very warm, articulate person. And like Rachelle, he gifted us by sharing his story of how he moved from the traditional expression of his faith to the non-traditional (although Kabbalah is an old tradition itself). We will meet with him and his colleagues this afternoon to discuss Interfaith community.
And, as if our tradition, we finished the day off with a great dinner and music. Last night we went to Tulas, one of USA Today's Top 10 Jazz Clubs. Unfortunately, it was open mike night so we didn't stay too long.
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