Sacred Grounds

The Sacred Grounds Stewards are charged with maintaining and improving all of our parish grounds that are sacred to us. They maintain and improve our external church environment while gradually implementing the ongoing phases of “Encounter,” our Master Landscape Plan that was approved and adopted years ago.  The Stewards follow a regimented landscape management plan that was developed and approved by the Vestry in 2019.  This plan states our gardening philosophy, provides a month-to-month checklist of garden chores, pruning guidelines, and defines our pest management policy.  It is considered to be a model for parishes in the entire Episcopal Church. The committee meets monthly.

Here are some projects the Sacred Grounds Stewards completed in recent years:

RainWise – Phase II.  The RainWise program is a King County and Seattle Public Utilities partnership to address stormwater pollution and combined sewer overflows by offering rebates to private property owners who install rain gardens and cisterns.  Phase I was completed in January 2020 and included a system of rain gardens and cisterns.  Phase II will include the installation of four additional cisterns to capture the rain runoff from the south end of the church and Mentzer House.  Vestry, Buildings and Grounds, and the Stewards are working on the details of this plan so there is a zero net cost to the parish.

Outdoor Garden Shed – has been cleaned and reorganized to make room for a nearby rainwater cistern.  

Sculptural Piscina Project – our sacristy piscina (the special sink that empties into the earth for the consecrated communion wine) has not worked properly since 2015.  Altar Guild, Sacred Grounds, and Buildings & Grounds have been studying this issue for several years.  Before our pandemic shut-down, the Altar Guild members were pouring excess communion wine into the ground by the library door and bike rack.  We commissioned a Native American sculptor to create an aesthetically pleasing outside piscina basin to safely return the Precious Blood of Our Lord to the earth.  This piscina tower is crafted from native basalt stone and has been placed just outside the library doors in the first niche on the east side of the church building.  It emphasizes the visual and theological connection between the altar of celebration/sacrifice and the earth.  This project was being entirely funded by the gift of a generous donor family.  No parish operational funds are being used for this purpose.