Walking Through Grief – is a 9-part educational and inspirational grief program offering support and hope to those experiencing the loss of a loved one (e.g. spouse, parent, friend, or child) in their lives, will be offered at no charge:

Beginning Date: October 11th, 2023
Times/Day: 7 PM (to 9 PM), each Wednesday evening
Events Will Be: Held Online via Zoom
Ending Date: December 13th, 2023

During each weekly session throughout the 9-weeks, those attending will gain insight and education about their loss as they watch professionally produced videos featuring professionals in the field.  These professionals are joined by a group of contributors who share their own grief journey and provide inspiration in how they dealt with their own loss.  Each week will have a specific topic and include a group discussion as well as some workbook self-tasking to work on between meetings.  A workbook is provided, along with some tools, handouts, and articles to help in your grief journey. If you are grieving, or someone you know is grieving and you feel that this may have some benefit for you –

If you know someone who may need grief support, feel free to let us know so that we can contact them as well for further assistance to see if this ministry is a good fit for them.

Contact: Frank Hammock (Lead Facilitator), by notifying the Parish Office.

To learn more about “Walking Through Grief,” go to: walkingthroughgrief.com/.

St. John the Baptist Upcoming Timeline:

September 23rd: Archdiocese announces all parish groupings at https://archseattle.org/partners/

October 2023: Parish wide consultation.

• October 5: Parish councils and committees consulted
• Oct. 11 at 7 pm, Oct. 12 at 10 am and 7 pm, Oct. 14 at 10 am and Oct. 15 at 3pm:  Parishwide consultation, register via the form above.
• Childcare will be available at the evening sessions. Please check back here for the registration link.

January 2024: Final parish family configurations announced

July 2024: Parish families become official and begin process of joining communities.

By 2027: Each parish family becomes one canonical parish

In June 2023, the Archdiocese of Seattle released a “Current Reality Report” providing data and context behind the reason Partners in the Gospel is needed. The report covers trends occurring from 2010-2019 around topics like Mass attendance and demographics as well as forecasts the state of the Archdiocese in the upcoming future. The full report can be accessed below. More information can be found at archseattle.org/partners.

"Free to choose whether to migrate or to stay"

This week is National Migration Week, culminating with the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sunday, September 24. The Catholic Church has been celebrating the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR) since 1914. It is always an occasion to express concern for different vulnerable people on the move; to pray for them as they face many challenges; and to increase awareness about the opportunities that migration offers. Every year the WDMR is the last Sunday of September; in 2023 it will be celebrated on 24 September. As the title for his annual message, the Holy Father has chosen

From September 1 – October 4, 2023, the Christian family unites worldwide in prayer and action during the Season of Creation. The 2023 theme is “Let Justice and Peace Flow.” The theme is from Amos 5:24 “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

St. John the Baptist’s Creation Care Team is sponsoring two events and working on 2 projects in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ and in the hope of reducing the amount of waste we produce and tending our landscape to produce fresh food and remove invasive weeds.

First, we plan to tackle the invasive English Ivy that is taking over the woods near the South entrance to St John’s campus on Saturday, September 9 from 9:00 am to noon. The ivy is growing up the trees, smothering ornamental plants, and preventing native plants from growing in the understory. Please join us! We recommend wearing long sleeve shirts, long pants, and garden gloves. Bring your pruning shears if you have them. Community service credit will be available for high school students. Register here by September 3: archseattle.ccbchurch.com/goto/ forms/485/responses/new

The Creation Care Team of St. John the Baptist invites you to a street cleaning event on Saturday, September 23, from 9:00 am – 11:00 am. We hope you can help clean our adopted street in front of our parish. Removing trash from land surfaces helps keep it out of tributaries and rivers, thereby respecting The Mighty River. Because of safety reasons, these cleanups are unfortunately limited to adults only. Please register here by September 17: archseattle.ccbchurch.com/ goto/forms/483/responses/new

We continue to tend the Garden of the Good Shepherd, harvesting beans and beets, and we are working on a policy that will encourage the use of either compostable or washable dishware at all parish events. We will keep the parish updated on these and other Season of Creation initiatives!