Join Derek Webb and Flamy Grant for a small and intimate concert on April 20 at The Well.

If you love music and have struggled with church because…well, for many reasons, this concert is for you. Here is a space for your spirit to be free.

Tickets are $25 and doors open at 7:30 PM.

Tickets start at $25 and are available now!

Tickets are pay as you are able through Eventbrite.

Join us on March 13 for this presentation and conversation on mental health and teens. The event is designed for parents, educators, mental health professionals, and others who accompany teens.

Caleb Visser (LMHC, MACP), will draw from a decade of experience with teens to talk about teenage brain development, typical challenges to well-being, and general treatment goals. Trained in psychodynamic theory, Caleb also relies on ideas from interpersonal neurobiology and CBT. Dr. Natalie Goodwin, PhD, will consider common challenges for families seeking to support their teens. She draws from years of work in the field of disordered eating, and training in emotionally focused family therapy.

Caleb received his Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. In more than a decade of work in clinical settings his focus has always been with adolescents and teens, starting with work in a residential foster home, spending two years working for the Cowlitz Tribe, and most recently in a contracted position in a local high school. Caleb works well with teens, building rapport quickly, working with parents when it's helpful, and trying to get to the heart of difficulties. Caleb is heavily influenced by the work of Daniel Siegel (The Whole-Brained Child, Mindsight, Brainstorm) and feels that the teenage years present a special window of opportunity for learning greater insight and empathy, as well as skills for self regulation.

Dr. Natalie Goodwin is a native Seattle-ite who loves living in the Pacific Northwest and taking advantage of all the natural beauty it has to offer. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and she completed pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She returned to Seattle and served as a clinical manager and clinical director at Eating Recovery Center Bellevue for 6 years and then spent 3 years in private practice. Her professional focus is in the area of treatment of eating disorders. She enjoys providing therapeutic intervention with clients and their families, as well as supporting others who are providing care through teaching, supervision and general support. Therapeutically her favorite interventions are Family Based Treatment, Emotion Focused Family Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. She is certified in Exposure and Response Prevention treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and also have training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Prolonged Exposure for PTSD.

Join therapist Caleb Visser as he helps adults think through how to discuss mental health with teens. His focus will be primarily on identity formation and fostering agency within teens.

Tickets are Pay are You Are Able through Eventbrite. Reserve your spot for this limit space workshop.

Caleb received his Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. In more than a decade of work in clinical settings his focus has always been with adolescents and teens, starting with work in a residential foster home, spending two years working for the Cowlitz Tribe, and most recently in a contracted position in a local high school. Caleb works well with teens, building rapport quickly, working with parents when it's helpful, and trying to get to the heart of difficulties. Caleb is heavily influenced by the work of Daniel Siegel (The Whole-Brained Child, Mindsight, Brainstorm) and feels that the teenage years present a special window of opportunity for learning greater insight and empathy, as well as skills for self regulation.

Common Good Tacoma and The Well welcome Rev. Ben McBride on Sept 15 at Common Good Tacoma. He has a new book out "Troubling the Water: The Urgent Work of Radical Belonging." I know this is something that we are all talking about - belonging. For Seattleites, I know we always expect people to come to us, but here's an opportunity to be part of a small gathering with this activist who also stands in our shared spiritual space, working and laboring for a spiritual renewal and a spiritual movement of justice. For those in South King Co or Pierce Co, this is a great opportunity.

Please reserve your space. Space is limited...tickets are free. Just get to eventbrite and reserve your spot.

Rev. Ben McBride is an internationally recognized peacemaker, faith leader, activist, and speaker who has spoken in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East. McBride is the co-founder of the Empower Initiative, a capacity building firm devoted to empowering organizations and communities to foster belonging.

Previously he served as director of PICO California, the state’s largest faith-based community organizing network. McBride was featured in the Sundance Film Festival award-winner The Force, and in 2020 the Center for American Progress listed him as one of the top faith leaders to watch. Ben lives in Oakland, California, with his wife, Gynelle, and their three daughters.

“This visionary and courageous book stands in the great tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. Ben McBride powerfully and persuasively shows how radical belonging and radical self-care are integral to a radical Christianity—a Christianity serious about the radical love of Jesus Christ.”

—Dr. Cornel West, philosopher, activist, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary

Join us for a vital conversation about how theology frames depression. This vital conversation will walk us through how theology has talked about depression and will look at how we might “sketch new maps” for addressing living with depression as people of faith.

Dr. Jessica Coblentz is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Theology, Gender and Womens Studies at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN. She also has lived with depression. Her book “Dust in the Blood” explores the complexities of depression and how it has been discussed in a variety of Christian theologies. Dr. Coblentz puts her hands in these theologies and pushes and pulls them into a new shape that helps people today expand our theological framing of depression so that we may respond to it in new ways.

Tickets are being sold through Eventbrite. They are pay as you are able.

Notes of Rest is a practice of contemplation and creativity that moves us towards the rest we were created to receive. This workshop - Sabbath and Our Ancestors - will use music, teaching, and interaction to explore how we carry in our bodies patterns of work and rest inherited from our ancestors. As we explore how some patterns helped our ancestors survive, we will ask how those patterns serve us today. And, what from our ancestors - familial and spiritual - has been buried deep inside of us that yearns to be released and given life?

Notes of Rest is a spiritual formation ministry grounded in scripture and black music that helps the body of Christ receive God’s gift of rest.

Julian Davis Reid is a pianist, producer and composer with a focus on jazz, electronic music, and gospel. He is a founding member of the jazz-electronic fusion group The JuJu Exchange (in partnership with Grammy Award winner Nico Segal and drummer-inventor Nova Zaii). Julian holds a B.A from Yale University and an M.Div. degree from Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Julian and his wife live in Chicago.

Scholarships are available if the ticket price is a hindrance to attendance. We charge to offset costs, but we never believe that cost should keep someone from attending our public engagements. Call us or email us if you need financial relief to attend.

Tickets available via Brown Paper Tickets: https://juliandavisreid.bpt.me/

Dr. Cornel West joins us by Zoom for a live talk with Q&A. He will present on the philosophy of non-violence as the organizing principle for change used by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This event will be part of several sponsored by The Well and the Seattle Regional Committee of the Poor People’s Campaign leading up to the Mass People’s and Low-Wage Workers Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls on June 18.

REGISTER HERE: It is FREE!!!

Many Christians are taught that God is all powerful, can do anything, and can fix everything. Dr. Thomas Jay Oord explores how a relational and loving God inherently can’t do and fix everything - not alone. A provocative idea for many, come and wrestle with the problem of suffering and evil and a God who strives to heal.

Dr. Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is director of the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times as professor at Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, Idaho. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and Wesleyan/Holiness/Church of the Nazarene thought. While Dr. Oord’s presentation will come from the breadth of his work, his conversation with us will primarily come from his book God Can’t: How to Believe in God and Love After Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils. We encourage people to read the book prior to the presentation. If you would like to read with others and discuss, please let us know. While we charge for this event to offset our costs, all are welcome to attend regardless of ability to pay. Just let us know at thewellqueenanne@gmail.com.

Tickets are $10 General Admission and $5 for Students. All are welcome to attend despite ability to pay.

This event is one part of three events with Dr. Oord in the greater Seattle area. Feb 8 @The Well, Feb 9 preaching at First UMC Seattle (Thank Goodness God is NOT in Control), Feb 9 evening talk at Bellevue First UMC (God Can’t: A Better Way to Think about God & Suffering - RSVP & more info at fumcbellevue.org/oord.)

Dr. Thomas Jay Oord will be at The Well Feb 8 to discuss the idea that God Can’t Fix Everything and That’s a Good Idea. Read the book first and come discuss.

This 1.25 hour conversation will help determine the questions to bring to Dr. Oord’s conversation and allow space for us to explore power, agency, love, coercion, and divinity. Have you ever wondered if God is omnipotent why there’s suffering in the world? Would a God with limits on power be a blow to your faith? However you decide on this, asking hard questions is always a good thing for our faith. Come, ask, discuss, and get ready for the talk on Feb 8.

There is no charge for the book group, but please RSVP to thewellqueenanne@gmail.com. At least 3 people must sign up for this group to take place.

The Brilliance’s David Gungor will draw from the forthcoming album “World Keeps Spinning” for an intimate gathering that will include conversation about anxiety, loneliness, division, community, creativity, and art. He will play excerpts from the album and talk about the fractures in our society and our relationship, and the journey toward one another (rather than away from each other) that t is needed during these times. We will close the night with some Christmas sing-along time. You can be part of this conversation. We hope you will be. 

The new album was created in partnership with Biola University Orchestra and Chorus.

This suite, World Keeps Spinning: An Antidote to Modern Anxiety, asks the question, Is this the end of the world? It seems like the end is always around the corner. From ecological disaster to the presidential impeachment process to international discord, bad news is all around. It is hard not to have a new emotional baseline rooted in anxiety. Existential dread is at our throats. 

Advent, a season in the Christian year, is a time of preparation and waiting for something better, two difficult things to do when the world seems to be spinning out of control. In this time of waiting - in the dark of December - perhaps we can find the space needed to slow down, to take deep breaths, and to find our way into communities of creativity and belonging.

As always, all are invited to our events regardless of ability to pay. If you need a scholarship, email us at thewellqueenanne@gmail.com

Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets.

Come, let your spirit breathe. For forty minutes, find solace in prayer, song, and silence. We enter Advent with the hope that the Divine will collapse our world of violence and greed through the inbreaking of the Prince of Peace. This will be our meditation this week.

This service is free and open to the public.

In a day long retreat with Dr. Charles L Howard of the University of Pennsylvania, we will explore how to curate hope and care for personal integrity during these times of division and discord.

We will look at public discourse and what is happening nationally. How do we engage in prophetic acts with compassion and care?

We will look at how public discourse and the national temperature affects personal relationships. How or even can we maintain relationships amid deep divisions, especially when those divisions expose differences in core values?

What does it mean to be spiritually grounded and widely loving?

What are personal practices that can help us look at the world as it is without finding ourselves in deep despair?

These and other issues will be explored in this full day of silence, sharing, learning, and resting.

Climate Forum with State Senator Reuven Carlyle

State Senator Reuven Carlyle will speak about the significant climate legislation that was passed in the last legislative session, his expectations for 2020, and opportunities for our local community and the State of Washington to lead on environmental and climate change issues.  We will also discuss the values that call us to steward our world, and the concrete steps we can take to help address climate change in Washington State. 

Reuven Carlyle is a member of the Washington State Senate, representing the 36th legislative district (which encompasses NW Seattle neighborhoods of Queen Anne, Magnolia, South Lake Union, Belltown, Greenwood, Crown Hill, etc.), and a member of Kavana. Cosponsors include: Kavana Cooperative, Earth Ministry, Queen Anne United Methodist Church & The Well, Queen Anne Christian Church, Queen Anne Presbyterian Church, and United Church. 

Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin are taking the "Beating Guns" book and their forge on the road with the Beating Guns Tour, a 90-minute event that will feature music, art, and stories of people impacted by gun violence, culminating with an invitation for the audience to take the hammer and transform a gun into garden tools.

Tickets are free. Register for the event here.

Nadia Bolz-Weber will speak about her newest and most personal book Shameless: A Sexual Reformation.

Out to slay a giant by going after the church’s teachings on human sexuality, Bolz-Weber weaves narrative, history, scripture, and wit together to show how Christianity has often turned the glorious gift of bodies into something ugly and shameful, telling us that true holiness equates to sexual repression — “as if the God of the Universe had programmed into creation a passive-aggressive test of our willpower.”

Joining Nadia for the conversation is Seattle’s own Gail Song Barnum.

Tickets are $7.50-$15 and are available through Eventbrite.

We are grateful to University Temple UMC for allowing us to co-sponsor this event with them.

2 Modules.
Part I: Resistance and Love (Thursday night) - POSTPONED UNTIL 2019
Part II: Not Losing Hope (Friday morning) - POSTPONED UNTIL 2019                                         Full Event Both Tickets - POSTPONED UNTIL 2019

Dr. Charles L. Howard will use lecture and conversation in exploring resistance to injustice without losing relationships, one's own integrity, relinquishing the struggle, or giving in to despair.

In today's increasingly polarized world people are retreating into their own circles. Relationships are being lost at alarming rates. Sometimes people feel they have to sacrifice principles or integrity in order to maintain relationships. It's easy to give in to despair. If one has the luxury, it can be tempting to give up the struggle. 

Over two sessions, Dr. Howard will help us explore how to seek the destruction of policies, practices, and a culture that encourages harm without seeking to destroy people. He will help value the power of hope and encourage us to hold on to it. He will walk us through the power of maintaining integrity even in the midst of division and conflict. 

Despite the awful face that Christianity often presents in the public commons, Dr. Howard believes that we are trending in the correct direction. There is reason to hope.

The Rev. Charles L. Howard, PhD is the University Chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater.  Prior to his return to Penn, he served in both hospital and hospice chaplaincies, and as a street outreach worker to individuals experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. His writing has been featured in such publications as Black Theology: An International Journal, Daily Good, Sojourners Magazine, Christianity Todays Leadership Journal, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Huffington Post, The Christian Century, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Forward, and Slate.  He is the editor of The Souls of Poor Folk, a text which explores new ways of considering homelessness and poverty, and the author of The Awe and The Awful, a poetry collection and Lenten Devotional, Black Theology as Mass Movement, a call to theologians to expand the reach of their theological work, and Pond River Ocean Rain,  a collection of brief essays about going deeper with God. He shares life with his beloved wife, Dr. Lia C. Howard and their three daughters.

• Posted in Power Violence Peace, Difficult Conversations

2 Modules.
Part I: Resistance and Love (Thursday night) - POSTPONED UNTIL 2019
Part II: Not Losing Hope (Friday morning) - POSTPONTED UNTIL 2019                                    Full Event Both Tickets - POSTPONED UNTIL 2019

Dr. Charles L. Howard will use lecture and conversation in exploring resistance to injustice without losing relationships, one's own integrity, relinquishing the struggle, or giving in to despair.

In today's increasingly polarized world people are retreating into their own circles. Relationships are being lost at alarming rates. Sometimes people feel they have to sacrifice principles or integrity in order to maintain relationships. It's easy to give in to despair. If one has the luxury, it can be tempting to give up the struggle. 

Over two sessions, Dr. Howard will help us explore how to seek the destruction of policies, practices, and a culture that encourages harm without seeking to destroy people. He will help value the power of hope and encourage us to hold on to it. He will walk us through the power of maintaining integrity even in the midst of division and conflict. 

Despite the awful face that Christianity often presents in the public commons, Dr. Howard believes that we are trending in the correct direction. There is reason to hope.

The Rev. Charles L. Howard, PhD is the University Chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater.  Prior to his return to Penn, he served in both hospital and hospice chaplaincies, and as a street outreach worker to individuals experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. His writing has been featured in such publications as Black Theology: An International Journal, Daily Good, Sojourners Magazine, Christianity Todays Leadership Journal, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Huffington Post, The Christian Century, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Forward, and Slate.  He is the editor of The Souls of Poor Folk, a text which explores new ways of considering homelessness and poverty, and the author of The Awe and The Awful, a poetry collection and Lenten Devotional, Black Theology as Mass Movement, a call to theologians to expand the reach of their theological work, and Pond River Ocean Rain,  a collection of brief essays about going deeper with God. He shares life with his beloved wife, Dr. Lia C. Howard and their three daughters.

2 hr Workshop - $15

Great strides have been taken in the church regarding safe sanctuaries that protect children from abuse. However, the church often overlooks how they might minister to the adult survivors of abuse in their midst. Survivors of child sexual abuse often hide in plain sight, and the church has little awareness of the spiritual wounds they bear. In this workshop, we will discuss the many aspects of church that can prevent survivors from feeling safe or connecting with God. We will explore simple adjustments to common rituals that will allow those wounded ones among us to participate more fully in the life of the church, as well as the ways in which church members, clergy, and staff can reach out to those victims and walk alongside them in appropriate and healing ways.

Sue Magrath is the author of Healing the Ravaged Soul: Tending the Spiritual Wounds of Child Sexual Abuse. She is a retired psychotherapist, having spent 14 years as a pastoral counselor working with victims of child sexual abuse. She is active in the UMC as a spiritual director, retreat and workshop leader, church consultant, and advocate in the area of clergy wellness.

"Interrupting Silence: God's Command to Speak Out" is a new book by Walter Brueggemann. For 8 chapters, Dr. Brueggemann walks readers through an in depth Bible study about why and how Christians must speak out and act in solidarity with those who are oppressed and marginalized. 

We will discuss the full book in two sessions covering four chapters each time. This will be our second conversation covering chapters 5-8.

Chapter Titles: The Oppressed Break Silence, Prophets Refuse to Be Silenced, Silence Kills, Jesus Rudely Interrupted, Casting Out Silence, The Crowd as Silencer, Truth Speaks to Power, and The Church as a Silencing Institution. 

Please RSVP to thewellqueenanne@gmail.com if you would like to join. Books are available through a local bookstore or Amazon (including Kindle).

Tickets are $30 for advanced registration and $40 at the door. 

16th ANNUAL MULTIFAITH COMMUNITY SUMMIT

Religion, Race, and Politics are Tearing Seattle Apart . . .
Or are they?

Why Can't We Get Along?

You want to better your community, right?.

But what exactly does better look like?

Our various religious, racial, and political traditions provide different answers to that question. 

This one-day gathering will help us unpack those views and dream up ways we can be better together.

Are you a believer, adherent, observant or practitioner? Are you none of those? 

Are you curious about how people outside your socio-religious bubble view the conflicts that divide us?

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions then the road to better communities is paved with great practices.

At "Why Can't We All Get Along?" youll learn new listening practices that will enable you to cross those relational boundaries that currently block you from connecting with colleagues and loved ones.

Follow the compass to find the 1% you can agree on and then devote 100% effort to building bridges that will better serve the community . . . regardless of the different viewpoints. 

Register now, and invite someone you know with whom you dont always agree but would like to work with to build a better community.

This event is co-sponsored by Interfaith Northwest, Call of Compassion NW, Treacy Levine Center, and more organizations are coming on board...

"Interrupting Silence: God's Command to Speak Out" is a new book by Walter Brueggemann. For 8 chapters, Dr. Brueggemann walks readers through an in depth Bible study about why and how Christians must speak out and act in solidarity with those who are oppressed and marginalized. 

We will discuss the full book in two sessions covering four chapters each time. Our second session will be August 28, 1-2 PM.

Chapter Titles: The Oppressed Break Silence, Prophets Refuse to Be Silenced, Silence Kills, Jesus Rudely Interrupted, Casting Out Silence, The Crowd as Silencer, Truth Speaks to Power, and The Church as a Silencing Institution. 

Please RSVP to thewellqueenanne@gmail.com if you would like to join. Books are available through a local bookstore or Amazon (including Kindle).

Register here:  https://self-compassion-june-2018.eventbrite.com
 

This one-day workshop focuses specifically on practices that enhance our capacity for self-compassion and self care - which is foundational to our ability to be of true service in the world.

We all know that at the core of our ability to bring compassion to others, those closest to us as well as those suffering around the globe, we must embrace our ability to be compassionate with ourselves. And yet that seems to be one thing so many of us have the greatest difficulty with.

Join us for a rejuvenating and inspiring session focused on honing the precious jewel that exists at the heart of our being.

Your Facilitator: Susan Partnow is co-founder of Conversation Cafes, Let’s Talk America and Global Citizen Journey. She is a former teacher and speech pathologist, author of Everyday Speaking for All Occasions, co-author of The Art of Compassionate Listening, certified mediator, and an organizational development consultant/trainer for over 20 years, with an M.A. from Northwestern University.

Cost: Total cost for the one-day workshop is $75 to $150. You'll be able to choose what you pay within this range at the end of the workshop. Those able and willing to contribute at the higher end help support our ability to provide partial scholarships for those who are in need. 

Pre-registration of $50 is required. This pre-registration fee goes toward the total workshop fee. The remainder of the fee is due at the end of the workshop. We're unable to accept any credit cards at the workshop so bring cash or checkbook! eturning participant

Partial scholarships may be available for those unable to pay the full fee, so please don't let cost be a barrier.

Cancellation Policy:If you cancel with more than two weeks notice, we can apply $40 toward registration toward a future workshop. With less than two weeks notice, we can apply $25 toward a future workshop. There are no refunds.

Continuing education credits may be available for this workshop.

For more about The Compassionate Listening Project,
visit www:compassionatelistening.org