The Church’s activities evolve over time depending on a variety of factors including the contemporary needs of the membership, who is available to teach or lead and what physical resources exist to support our activities.  Typically they include:

Worship Services

We get together the Sunday after every solstice and equinox for a formal worship service dedicated to deepening our connection with God. These are powerful ceremonies that include a candle lighting ceremony using our gorgeous hand-forged floor length candelabras, readings from the sacred texts of various religious traditions, singing or listening to spiritually-based songs, a sermon, group meditation, and benediction. The presence of the divine can be visceral. We have a potluck afterwards.

If you can make it to Olympia, you are welcome to attend, whether or not you are a church member. Right now we are a “house church” so the meeting place varies. Contact us and we’ll tell you the location of the service you want to attend. We hope to be able to stream services via the internet one of these times.

Baptisms, Weddings, Memorial Services and Other Rites of Passage

The Church of the Harvest offers individually-designed ceremonies for various rites of passage for our membership at no charge.  Depending on availability of ministers, we are also very happy to provide said services to members of the community with whom we are not formally affiliated.  In the latter case, ministers are directly paid by the community individuals for whom they provide the service.

Speakers Corner

Long-term meditators typically develop a spiritual perspective on life that can be quite illuminating to others. On an individual basis, many Church members are actively engaged in issues of common concern, such as the environment, health and safety, animal welfare, economic inequality and social justice. In Church activities we keep the focus on individual spiritual development but we also know that dedicating oneself to the inward-dwelling God inevitably leads to a need to serve others. As a community we usually find creative ways to support the activism of individual members, knowing that each person will be drawn to working for the common good in their own unique way.

If you are working to change something in our world that needs changing, and think that we can help you make that change by offering a spiritual perspective that will open up hearts and minds, feel free to contact us. We will try to match you up with a Church of the Harvest member with the interest in your issue and a dedication to spiritual development. In most cases, an honorarium or some other way of balancing giving and receiving will be expected.

Classes

Since teaching skills that enhance connection and communication with the Creative Source of the Universe is our express purpose, we offer a variety of classes. We almost always have a Beginning Meditation Techniques Class going. Other possibilities include an Advanced Meditation Techniques Class, a Women’s Class, an Affinity Class that targets improving the communication between Body and Spirit, and a Healing Class.

All classes are eight weeks except the Healing Class which is eight weeks of instruction and eight weeks of internship learning to do healing with others under supervision. New students pay tuition for all classes, usually $20 a session. Community members who have completed a class may drop in on any subsequent sessions of that class for free to refresh and improve their skills.

Individual Spiritual Counseling

Our ministers offer hour-long counseling sessions for folks who need to understand more clearly where they are at on a spiritual basis and/or the state of their energy system.  These sessions are not about religious dogma, giving you advice or predicting your future.  They are about increasing your awareness of what is happening in your world right now, things that may not be so apparent on the surface.  They can also be helpful in healing old wounds.  These sessions typically cost $100.  They can be Skyped for those not in western Washington.  Contact us for more information.

Clairvoyant Training

. Individuals who have meditated for several months or years using our techniques almost inevitably reach a point in which they want greater understanding of spiritual reality and more detachment about physicality. Typically there is a growing craving for connection with the Creative Source of the Universe and a hunger for awareness of God’s plan for the world. To quote Jesus of Nazareth: “The truth shall make you free,” (John 8:32).

Clairvoyant Training is a one to two year skilled-based program for advanced, committed church members, taught in Thurston County. It is a means to train the mind to see clearly and approach life from a more compassionate, respectful perspective. This “graduate level” training is our form of a seminary. At the beginning of each student’s program they are invited to choose between the track of training to become a minister in the traditional sense of providing religious instruction, rituals, and counseling to the public; or learning the spiritual skills that will allow them to serve the divine from a more secular stance.

Community Healing Times

We gather once a month in what is essentially an “open house” kind of activity.  Members of the public as well as church members can drop by and get information or support as needed.  Church members who are in training with or have completed the Healing Class are available to help people clear their energy systems.  This is a situation where the recipient simply sits in a chair while a healer with sensitized hands works around them without actually touching them, for about twenty minutes.  Recipients make a donation of food or money to the Church.   Location varies so contact us when you want to come.

Sacred Readings Group

This is our version of Bible Study groups except that we study the sacred texts of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, the Christian Holy Bible as well as works from other religious traditions.