Quietness at Community Church

— from Meredith Griffith —

On Sunday, November 29, at 5 p.m., Orcas Island Community Church will launch a new weekly Vespers service designed for the many people in the church and on the island who are seeking a more contemplative worship experience.

“After undergoing a careful reevaluation of our attenders,” said Senior Pastor Dick Staub, “we discovered that our members are drawn from 40 denominations with widely diverse worship styles and would like more options.”

As a result, the church set a long-range goal to accommodate a broader range of worship, musical and learning styles. The current 9:30 a.m. Sunday worship service blends a variety of music, teaching, quietness and a community sharing time. In 2014, the church offered six contemplative services that were well attended. Over 30 percent of those who came were islanders not currently attending any church.

“This type of service is important because throughout the ages, quietness and silence have been essential for spiritual grounding, and in this noisy age the hunger for quiet is greater than ever,” said Staub.

The 45-minute Vespers service will be led by Staub and Associate Pastor for Congregational Life Brian Moss. Moss is a former worship pastor whose musical background and experience provides expertise that will combine Celtic worship music, reading, prayers, the Eucharist and most importantly, quietness and time for personal reflection.

“The Vespers service will be a time set aside for evening prayer,” said Moss. “This contemplative worship service will include meditation, Scripture reading, communion, and music. The music for this service will be simple and draw from many different traditions including hymns, chants, and the music of Taize and Iona. I will be singing and playing keyboards and look forward to working with other stringed instruments and small vocal ensembles.”

The service will follow the Revised Common Lectionary, which is a way of reading through the Bible over the course of three years. There will also be a time set aside for silent prayer.

“We want to provide a welcoming and hospitable environment that allows people to contemplate the mysteries of God,” said Moss, adding, “Mother Theresa once said, “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

Sounds like Orcas Island!

The public is welcome to attend this and all community church activities.