Well, almost! Hours are before us now, as we await the hope and blessing of Jesus Christ coming into our lives. I write this forever grateful for what you are in my life. I am blessed by you every day of the year and give thanks for the honor I have of serving as your bishop. I wish for you all in this Christmas season, some refreshment, some deep quality time with family and friends, and some restoration that allows the love of Christmas, the love which is the meaning of this celebration, the love of Jesus so that you may be empowered to share that gift with the world.
Merry Christmas,
+Greg
The Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, 8th Bishop of Olympia 
I wish the same for you! Rich, restorative, restful remembrance.
Grateful for the Spirit’s teaching among us over the past month. An advent lesson of refocus.
Blessed Christ-mas to you and yours. See you at the Cathedral today!
kae
We are so blessed to have you in the Diocese of Olympia. Thanks for the message. With blessed wishes for the season and the year.
Sue Lane/St Stephen’s Longview
Here are a couple of paragraphs from a short article scheduled to appear in The Log of St Andrews Seattle next week. They relate to the Churches’ response to the Occupy movement. I think there are more folks than one might imagine who are interested, and I’d love to hear from some of them. My thoughts:
KEEPING THE WINDOW OPEN
The Occupy Movement and Faith Response
At University Temple Church in the U District a few weeks ago I attended an extended discussion between members of the Occupy Seattle movement and religious leaders, and listened attentively as Robert, formerly of New York City, voiced his reasons for attaching himself to the movement here. He said that beginning with Occupy Wall Street, a great deal of discussion has focused on politics and income inequality, and rightly so. But underneath, said Robert, there is a spiritual crisis, and to divorce the two is not acceptable. “There is a disjunction between ordinary daily language and spiritual language, “ he asserted.
This prophetic insight came from a person of no professed religious faith.
Here’s a question: what language (and what actions) might we use to bring together the “political” and the spiritual in this crisis?
(The Rev.) Dick Gillett