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October 6 Announcements

Faith Formation:

This week in Sunday school we’ll explore the Gospel lesson about Jesus healing a man with a skin disease (Luke 17:11-19), focusing on verse 15, “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice.” 

We’ll take special notice that Jesus’ healings always included more than just the physical affliction, but extended to relationship healing too. Jesus’ compassion crossed barriers and together we’ll learn that given Jesus’ teaching, we can participate in relationship healing no matter what barriers seem to prevent us from doing so. As always, we’ll get our creative juices flowing by working on a special craft to remind us of Jesus’ unbounded love for us and all of God’s good creation! That is something to be truly grateful for. Please join us–and bring a friend, everyone is welcome!

Over the next two weeks in Adult Education, we’ll observe Indigenous People’s Day by learning more about our neighbors, the native people of this land, the Suquamish Tribe. On October 9, we’ll watch a clip from one of the four video recordings of the Port Madison Dialogues, which was an exploration of the history, culture, and current issues facing the Suquamish Tribe. We’ll begin discussing the importance of Land Acknowledgement statements and how local places of faith have incorporated a Land Acknowledgement into their worship, meetings, and other gatherings. 

On October 16, we’ll continue the discussion and “workshop” a land acknowledgement statement to be used in our congregation. In between these Sundays, the FFF group will take a field trip to the Suquamish Museum on Wednesday, October 12. If interested, please see the sign-up sheet on the bulletin board outside of fellowship hall for more details. Everyone is welcome!

Bible Study Groups: The Women’s Bible Study group meets on Monday, October 10 at 9:30am. The Men’s Bible Study group meets on Tuesday, October 11 at 8:00am. Both groups will meet in fellowship hall.

FFF October Gathering: Let’s take a field trip! The FFF group will meet next on October 12 for a field trip. We will carpool from the Bethany parking lot to the Suquamish museum. Come to Bethany at 10:30am and bring a sack lunch to enjoy. Cost for the museum is $3 per person. If you plan to attend, please add your name to the sign-up sheet on the hallway bulletin board or call Debbie at 206-842-4241.

New Member Sunday: We will receive and celebrate new members on Sunday, November 13. Bethany has a number of people who have expressed interest in being received as new members, and we are looking forward to celebrating this in gathering! In advance of this, we will have an ‘orientation’ to share with potential new members ‘all things Bethany.’ Pastors Paul and Erin will meet with this group on Thursday, November 10, from 6:00-7:30pm, including pizza and salad, for introductions and conversation. Please contact Pastor Paul if you would like to join this group, AND if another time to meet individually would be preferable. or 206-842-4241

Opening Up the Nursery: The nursery is open for children 4 and younger! While the sanctuary work is being completed, the nursery is located in a classroom in the Education Building. Your children can start in worship and be escorted after the children’s message or brought straight to the nursery. Sunday school children should start in worship. We are looking for a couple more teens to round out our nursery team. Nursery workers are paid and do not have to be available each Sunday. Interested or have questions? Contact Debbie at .

City Council Meeting: The Bainbridge Island City Council is holding a public hearing on Tuesday, October 11 for the revised draft ordinance 2022-2 which provides a density bonus of up to 23 units of affordable housing for Bethany Lutheran Church. The Affordable Housing Task Force encourages you to send quick notes of support for Bethany’s initiative to the City Council at

Bainbridge Prepares Workshop: Bainbridge Prepares will hold a workshop on disaster preparedness for houses of worship on Saturday Oct. 15, 2022, 1pm to 3pm at Bainbridge Island City Hall. Pastor Erin will attend and warmly welcomes anyone else in the congregation who would like to join her. The event is free, but we need to RSVP so that the group can plan accordingly. Please let Pastor Erin know if you plan to attend ( ).

The workshop will feature an expert panel to discuss:

+ An overview of emergency preparedness steps for faith-based groups

+ A deep dive into organizing and conducting evacuation and earthquake drills in houses of worship

+ Discussion, questions, and knowledge sharing among local congregations

Please contact Laura Samant at if you have any questions.

Women’s Schola: Women’s Schola of Bainbridge Island will sing the Office of Evensong at 6 pm on Sunday, October 16, at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church. Come hear traditional plainsong, anthems, psalms, and chants, and let the grace of sung prayer refresh you for the week to come.

Altar Flowers: The altar flowers this weekend are given by Alice & Bruce McClain in honor of Alice’s birthday and in memory of her parents.

Prayers are Requested: For Mary Toepel Coar who is now recovering at home; for Mark Sather, son of Pat and DeMar, contending with serious health concerns.

Thank You to this weekend's Worship Assistants:           
          Altar Duty: Alice McCain
          Saturday 5:00pm – Greeter/Usher: Gail Christensen; Lay Reader: Gail Christensen; Hospitality Hosts: Jim & Veronika Rohrscheib
          Sunday 10:00am – Greeters/Ushers: Eve & Mike Curtis; Lay Reader: Andy Rimkus; Communion Assistant: Alice McCain; Hospitality Hosts: Debbie & Andy Rimkus

Next weekend's Worship Assistants:
          Altar Duty: Kathy Dudgeon
          Saturday 5:00pm 00pm – Greeter/Usher: Barbara Michael; Lay Reader: Barbara Michael; Hospitality Hosts: Carol & Ron Fenner
          Sunday 10:00am – Greeters/Ushers: Doug Dudgeon & Mike Cauter; Lay Reader: Marcy Daley; Communion Assistant: Wayne Daley; Hospitality Hosts: Bethany Choir

September 29 Announcements

A Noisy Offering Indeed!: A huge thank you for a very generous noisy offering last Sunday. We raised over $320 for the CROP Walk and its mission to end hunger!!

Faith Formation:
This week in Sunday School, we'll be focusing on the scripture lesson offered in 2 Timothy 1:1-7 and challenging ourselves to commit verse 7 to memory: "...for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and love and self-discipline." Together we'll explore how God's Holy Spirit works in our lives, taking special notice how the Spirit moved in the scripture story, and how the Spirit works in the lives of our "faith family," or those who have encouraged and supported us to follow Jesus. As always, we'll have time for prayer, snacks, and a fun activity too! Please join us! You are welcome, and...YOU ARE LOVED!

p.s. We challenge the whole congregation to commit to memory the verse we'll be talking about in Sunday school: "...for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and love and self-discipline." (2 Tim 1:7). After all, we are one big "faith family" who encourage each other along the way of following Jesus!

Adult Education: This week in Adult Education, we'll wrap up a three-week series based on Shane Claiborne's "Economy of Love: Creating a Community of Enough." Please join us, everyone is welcome even if you haven't been able to make it to the other discussions in the series.

This week's discussion will center on "Practice," or in other words, how do we take seriously the vision we see in scripture, where Shane Claiborne says, " it’s neither people living in poverty nor in super affluence, but people who are living into this idea that we need this day our daily bread. Not for “me”...”my daily bread,” but “our”... “...this day our daily bread.” For all of us. And until that is fulfilled, we have to hunger for justice and for righteousness. We’ve got to hunger with the poor. We’ve got to fast from the luxuries of this world to make sure that other people can have their essentials." 

Questions we will ask one another are:
* When considering the idea of shared economics, what questions arise?
* What thoughts or feelings prevent you from experimenting with this way of living?
* Have you had any experience with relational redistribution? How did that experience change the way you think about stuff?
* What about being openhanded with your possessions makes you uncomfortable? Which of your possessions do you feel most attached to or most territorial about?
* Are you willing to fast from certain luxuries, to practice simplicity, so that others might receive their daily bread? Which luxuries?
* Will you let your hands and feet lead you into a new understanding of Christian community? If so, how will you begin?

Bud Johnson Memorial: The memorial service for Bud Johnson, known at Bethany as the husband of Myrna Johnson will take place on Saturday, October 1st at 11am.  The service will be held here at Bethany in our fellowship hall, followed by a reception in the same space.  

FFF October Gathering: Let’s take a field trip! The FFF group will meet next on October 12 for a field trip. We will carpool from the Bethany parking lot to the Suquamish museum. Come to Bethany at 10:30am and bring a sack lunch to enjoy. Cost for the museum is $3 per person. If you plan to attend, please add your name to the sign-up sheet on the hallway bulletin board or call Debbie at 206-842-4241.

Opening Up the Nursery: The nursery is opening for children 4 and younger! While the sanctuary work is being completed, the nursery will be located in a classroom in the Education Building. For this Sunday, bring your little ones to worship and they will be escorted to the nursery after the children's message. Starting October 9^th, children can start in worship and be escorted after the children’s message or brought straight to the nursery. We are looking for a couple more teens and an adult to round out our nursery team. Interested or have questions? Contact Debbie at .

Women’s Schola: Women’s Schola of Bainbridge Island will sing the Office of Evensong at 6 pm on Sunday, October 16, at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church. Come hear traditional plainsong, anthems, psalms, and chants, and let the grace of sung prayer refresh you for the week to come.

Altar Flowers: The altar flowers this weekend are given by Rachel and Lloyd Pritchett in humble gratitude for 35 years of marriage.

Prayers are Requested: For Mary Toepel Coar who is recovering from a stroke at Swedish Cherry Hill; for Mark Sather, son of Pat and DeMar, contending with serious health concerns.

Thank You to this weekend's Worship Assistants:           

          Altar Duty: Heather Ballaine
          Saturday 5:00pm – Greeter/Usher: Jennie Harris; Lay Reader: Jennie Harris; Hospitality Hosts: Marlene & Al Orwiler
          Sunday 10:00am – Greeter: Jan Thrun; Lay Reader: Claire Dasler; Communion Assistant: Vicki Browning; Hospitality Hosts: Claire & Marty Dasler

Next weekend's Worship Assistants:

          Altar Duty: Alice McCain
          Saturday 5:00pm 00pm – Greeter/Usher: Gail Christensen; Lay Reader: Gail Christensen; Hospitality Hosts: Jim & Veronika Rohrscheib
          Sunday 10:00am – Greeters/Ushers: Eve & Mike Curtis; Lay Reader: Andy Rimkus; Communion Assistant: TBD; Hospitality Hosts: Debbie & Andy Rimkus