Yule
Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024
5 p.m.
St. Luke Church’s seasonal liturgies are celebrated on the solstices and equinoxes through the year. Through music and poetry, ritual and movement, we acknowledge the beauty of the natural world and the interweave of the seasons with our own spiritual lives.
Seasonal Liturgies
You won’t hear a sermon at these liturgies. There’s no Eucharist, either. Instead, you’ll hear poems by Gary Snyder and John O’Donohue and readings from Marilynne Robinson and John Steinbeck. You’ll find visual art, chant, and meditation from all sorts of cultures and genres. These liturgies create space for a mystical experience of God—something more ethereal than the usual liturgy, more applied than the general artistic world, and more present than our typical relationship with nature.
As for music, traditional hymns always make an appearance in some form, alongside other songs not usually found in a church service—songs written by artists like The Byrds or Sweet Honey in the Rock, and performed at St. Luke’s by musicians from throughout the Pacific Northwest: gospel singers to banjo players to acapella groups. These liturgies draw on the Diocese of Olympia’s musical talent; St. Luke’s, St. James, and St. Thomas all regularly contribute musicians.
St. Luke’s designed these seasonal services to reach beyond their own parishioners, and attendees come from Episcopal, Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, and Reformed backgrounds, as well as a number of visitors who don’t claim any faith as their own. All are welcome here.