We have decided on a booklist! We’re meeting in-person at the church house (11049 8th Ave NE) with a zoom link available for a hybrid discussion. Currently we’re planning to meet at 4pm on the fourth Tuesday of the month – starting May 26 at 4pm PDT. However, if this does not work, we’d like to know what times and dates are good for you! Go here to let us know your preferences. (when you get there, “log in” by typing your name – the password isn’t necessary.) Once you’re in, click on days and times that are best for you!

Booklist:

• Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford <–reading in May/June 2026
• The Finder of Forgotten Things by Sarah Loudin Thomas
• Stride Towards Freedom: The Montgomery Story by Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Ordinary Grace by William Kent Kreuger
• The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Additional books that people suggested – if only we had more time!

• Ghosted by Nancy French
• Frozen River by Ariel Lawhorn
• Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
• The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede
• Ladder to the Light by Steven Charleston

Though Olympic View Community Church has existed in Seattle for over 75 years, just knowing that does not help you know who we are today. Our mission is to step out in faith in the power of God’s love. Our vision is to be a church seeking transformation.

Our Vision Statement:

Bearing witness to the radically transforming power of God’s love,

we are a church that risks all

to be Jesus in a church, community, and world

which needs people to step out in faith.

What is the basis for our beliefs?

The New Testament is our rule of faith and practice. We covenant to live by its precepts as taught and revealed in Jesus and affirmed by the apostles.  When faced with inconsistencies in scripture we lean on the words of Jesus as our guide.  We believe that the clear interpretation of scripture requires us to also understand the context, historical culture, and social customs of the times when it was recorded.  We believe that God is still revealing His will through the scriptures, but we also believe that it is not always a crystal-clear message “For now we see through a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.” (I Cor 13:12)

All members are ministers. We are called not only to serve one another, but also to live in harmony with all of God’s creation.  We believe in living in harmony with all people, in peacefully solving conflict, and in not harming or degrading any other person.  Loving God and loving our neighbor is at the core of all that we do and this should extend to every living thing and to all of creation.

We believe the corporate discernment of the gathered church is our understanding of God’s will.  Each member of the church is a valued part of the whole body. God endows each member with spiritual and natural gifts, and the church values each member’s opinion and contributions.

We are known by our fruits (Mat 7:15-20), and Christ should be glorified and revealed in all we do (Mat 5:16).  We are called to help the needy in the world, for what we do for the least of these, we do for God (Jesus) (Mat 25:40-45).

We believe that Jesus came to redeem the world (John 3:16-18), and that we are saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9).

Our practices:

• We believe in radical hospitality; thus, everyone is welcome at Olympic View Community Church.
• Our denomination, the Church of the Brethren, is an historic peace church whose purpose can be summed in this statement: “Continuing the work of Jesus, Peacefully, Simply, Together”
• Olympic View is open and affirming of all people without respect to their economic, social, or political status, or gender affirmation.  All people are seen as God’s children and are worthy of God’s love and grace.
• We celebrate Christmas and Easter, make communion available monthly and have a Love Feast each year on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter), remembering the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples where we wash each other’s feet.
• We practice full immersion baptism of adults to welcome them into the body with the full faith commitment of both the new member and the congregation.

A) Church of the Brethren Denominational Ministries – “One Great Hour of Sharing” is collected for these ministries

Core Ministries

Emergency Disaster Fund/Brethren Disaster Ministries

B) Pacific Northwest District

C) Other Brethren Agencies and Brethren Aligned Organizations

D) Local Organizations and Ministries

We are currently reading through the gospel of John.  

This is a conversational and informal study. To prepare, read the passage for the week and annotate the text with three things:

• Breakfast at Sally’s
• Confessions of Saint Augustine – Translated by Sarah Ruden
• A gentleman in Moscow
• Revelation for the Rest of Us
• Gilead – Marilynne Robinson
• The Lemon Tree

Here’s how you can help!

• Donations of food or dollars – you can contribute online here: click “give as guest”, select “Transitional” instead of “General Offerings”, and we only want your email for tax receipt purposes.
• Packing boxes, dividing up vegetables, delivering boxes – after we buy all the food, we need to organize it. Need volunteers between Nov. 19-23
• Buying food – we shop the deals! We have done a great job so far and gotten all of the turkeys and pies that we need. What’s remaining on the list is broth and butter. Safeway and QFC have sales for butter at  at Safeway, limit 5 pounds at QFC. You may need to activate the coupon on the store’s shopping app. We can reimburse you!
  • • Safeway: butter for $1.77/lb with limit 2 pounds
    • QFC Butter for $1.77/lb with limit 5 pounds
    • Broth in tetra boxes – 3 for $5 at Safeway

Our current inventory is here. Text or call Harriet at 206-992-2407 so she can update the totals!

We are giving away Thanksgiving baskets Monday, Nov. 22, 2021 from 2-5pm at the north entrance to the church. We’re welcoming the parents from Olympic View Elementary School who signed up for Thanksgiving dinners with all the trimmings: yams, potatoes, carrots, and celery, rolls, butter, green beans, cranberry sauce, corn, stuffing, gravy, a whole bird,  and pie with whipped topping for desert. We hope you will be able to enjoy this day in November as a time to appreciate each other and everything we’ve been through this year. We are able to serve around 70 families and 300 people of all ages, with about half of the food going to a domestic violence shelter, and the rest feeding families from the Olympic View community.