Simply, Peacefully, Together in Maple Leaf
Olympic View Community Church meets inside the Northaven Retirement Community in Seattle's Maple Leaf neighborhood, gathering in a downstairs room called the Harbor Room. The congregation's motto, "simply, peacefully, together," captures the tone of a long-established Church of the Brethren fellowship that openly welcomes every person into the life of the community, regardless of identity.
Worship on Sundays at Eleven
Worship is held at 11:00 a.m. each Sunday in the Harbor Room. Services are also livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel and Facebook page, so members and friends who cannot attend in person can still take part. Parking is available in the gravel lot behind the little green house by the Northaven entrance. Visitors come in at the back of the building and head downstairs to worship.
Love Feast and the Brethren Practices
Olympic View holds to the practices that have marked the Church of the Brethren for centuries. Communion is celebrated as a Love Feast, a full meal that includes bread and cup together with a simple shared supper. Other recognized practices include anointing, baptism and the washing of feet, all offered as part of the congregation's life together and available to those who wish to mark significant moments of faith. Weddings are also celebrated in this Brethren setting.
Peacemaking and Relief at Home and Abroad
Peace and justice work runs through the congregation's outreach. Olympic View supports Heifer International in its work against hunger and poverty, partners with On Earth Peace, and contributes to Brethren Disaster Relief efforts. Local projects include the annual CROP Walk against hunger, Thanksgiving food baskets for neighbors in need, and ongoing engagement with Creation Care and Sustainability. Past mission trips have included a 2012 Guatemala immersion, and art-based relief efforts have raised funds for Haiti and Puerto Rico. The church also sends members through Brethren Volunteer Service.
Sunday School, Bible Study and a Book Group
Sunday School meets for children, youth, young adults and adults, giving the congregation a chance to learn together each week. A weekly Bible Study has moved to Zoom, and the Loren Arnett Memorial Book Group gathers readers around titles such as Michelle Obama's Becoming, Tara Westover's Educated, and Daniel Defoe's A Journal of a Plague Year. The church also helps young people attend Camp Koinonia. Pub Theology brings the conversation out of the building and into a neighborhood tavern, and a Men's Breakfast keeps another regular circle going.
A Building Shared with the Neighborhood
The Northaven building hosts far more than the Sunday gathering. Recovery meetings including an Alcoholics Anonymous group meet on site. New Point Korean Church and Iglesia de Cristo Voz de Reino share the space for their own worship, and Sunny Language Academy offers a Chinese-language preschool in the same facility. A Toastmasters club rehearses there, and the Northwest Jazz Big Band has played in the fellowship space. The congregation also sustains a steady friendship with the residents of Northaven Retirement Community, with the church providing music and presence alongside the seniors who live next door.
Seventy-Five Years on the North Side
The congregation is celebrating seventy-five years of ministry, dating back to 1951. As a member of the Church of the Brethren's Pacific Northwest District, Olympic View continues to seek God's wisdom revealed in Scripture and the still-speaking Spirit, to work as peacemakers for justice for all people, and to use the spiritual gifts of its members to make a difference in the city, the nation and the world.