October 16-18, Clarkston, WA

Blessed with beautiful fall weather, we gathered for fall Convocation in Clarkston, Washington, on the lands of the Nez Perce (Niimipuu) peoples. We began with worship. Bishop Meggan Manlove preached and we installed Liv Larson Andrews as Director of Evangelical Mission. After sharing the Eucharist, we welcomed Vance Blackfox as our keynote speaker. He led us through some embodied work called the Blanket Exercise. This powerful, challenging experience set the tone for several meaningful days of learning. This learning continued the next day with a deeply informative lecture called Indian 101.

In addition to Vance Blackfox’s teaching time, we watched the Covenant of the Salmon People film, a movie made by the Nez Perce tribe about their story, salmon, and breaching the Snake River dams. Chairman Shannon Wheeler of the Nez Perce tribe joined us for discussion following the screening. Wednesday morning also featured time with a Nez Perce guest, Rachel Wilson. These local voices, along with field trips to educational sites in the area, helped us contextualize the information brought to us by Vance Blackfox.

On Tuesday evening, we enjoyed two different musical offerings. We sang Bless This Night, new evening prayer liturgy composed at Holden Village. Thank you, Holden! This liturgy is available to order through fireweedliturgies.com. We also witnessed an amazing rap by Pastor Joel Skindlov that celebrated our synod. (“Don’t forget Cathy, she’s the real Steiner!’) J Wednesday morning wrapped up our time with a sending Eucharist featuring a sermon by Vance Blackfox and a litany of the nations which sang the names of all the indigenous nations within our synod. Thank you to Pastor Kimmy Meinecke for working on that litany and leading it for us.

We are eagerly looking forward to Bishop’s Convocation 2024 at the Marcus Whitman hotel in Walla Walla, Washington on October 14-16.