30th anniversary dinner, bishop visit for St. Clare’s Episcopal

Published 3:12 pm Friday, March 7, 2014

St. Clare’s Episcopal Church marks its 30th year of serving the Valley, with an anniversary and potluck, 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 11, at the church, 8650 Railroad Ave., Snoqualmie.

Bishop Greg Rickel of the Diocese of Olympia will attend.

Starting as a group of residents meeting at a member’s home, St. Clare’s was officially recognized as a Prayer Station by the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Olympia in 1984, and as a Mission Church in 1990. Si View Park in North Bend was the first site for worship, until fire damaged the park facility in 1987. In 1996, the congregation moved into permanent space at the former Assemblies of God building on Railroad Avenue. Several floods took a toll, though, and the building was abandoned in 2006 and later demolished, with the social hall becoming a sanctuary. The church has since added two large portable buildings, with space for Godly Play, a Montessori-based class program for children.

The church continues its food and soup kitchen programs, hosts AA meetings, English-as-a-second language classes, and adult Christian education classes, and partners with other churches for Vacation Bible School and the Crop Walk.

You can learn more at www.stclareschurch.org or follow the church on Facebook.