Every Sunday 11:00 am
Join us for services in the park this summer! We are living into the rhythms of summer by having simple services in Martha Washington Park. Click the button below for a link to a map of the location
Multicultural, Family-friendly, Spiritually Vibrant
The 11am gathering is a new service, launched in the fall of 2016. It lasts about 75 minutes and is designed to be energetic, family-friendly, multicultural and multi-ethnic, and empowering to those who want to live more fully in the rhythms of the Spirit and the way of Jesus.
At this service, we emphasize gospel music and world music. Each week we celebrate Communion, a sacrament where all who desire to affirm grace, that they are loved without condition, are welcome to come forward and receive bread and grape juice.
People tend to dress in a variety of ways, from fancy to casual. Coffee and healthy snacks are available throughout. It’s a new and growing service, and right now about 60-100 people show up to this gathering, including many kids.
Children are very welcome at Valley & Mountain! Programming is designed and overseen by Rev. Emily Tanis-Likkel, our Minister of Spiritual, who brings together spiritual depth and expertise in childhood education. Families stay together for the first 15-20 minutes of the service and then kids are invited to join the program in the children’s space for about 30 minutes (families can stay together if they choose). At the 11 am service we have more kids so we have multiple classrooms for the different age groups. We take the spiritual lives of children seriously and offer a play-based, story-centered, empathetic, liberatory form of spiritual education that moves beyond black-and-white moralism and indoctrination, and into helping kids develop compassionate ethics and a genuine spiritual imagination.
An engaging, relevant, provocative reflection or interview is part of both Celebrations each Sunday. We plan to provide an archive soon. For now, you can link to one of John's reflections by clicking below (you'll be directed to a youtube page).
The 11 am service offers a world music mix, with an emphasis on gospel music. Our leader is Yasmin Ravard-Andresen, who also directs the Resistance Choir.
Interested in helping with music? Reach out to Yasmin to connect more about what that might look like.