Lake Chelan Lutheran Church

216 W Nixon Ave
Chelan, Washington

Team Members

Paul Palumbo: pastor and team leader
Rolf Vegdahl: director of music and composer
Wendy Schramm: lay representative, artist and teacher

About this church

Lake Chelan Lutheran is a small congregation located in Chelan, WA, a small agricultural town of 3200 located in the north central part of the state. Average worship attendance at Lake Chelan Lutheran is sixty-five.  They have an active Catechumenate program; over thirty-five people have gone through the Catechumenate process in the past four years.  Recently, their “Sunday School” program has been expanded into an intergenerational program of artistic Christian expression.

Abput the project

Liturgy for the Visitation of the Dying

Lake Chelan Lutheran Church proposes to create a liturgy for the visitation of the dying that will connect the hope of dying daily in our baptism with the dying that takes place daily in the bodies of those around us.

Accompanying the dying is hard work.  It means swimming against the stream of our culture of denial by acknowledging that death is all around us.  It means facing our own mortality in the dying eyes of a fellow human being.

A common liturgy, shared by the community, not only comforts the dying, but also forms the community.  It offers words and song to people who feel they have no adequate words.   It offers courage to face the helplessness of our dying sisters and brothers in Christ while facing our own vulnerability.

Combining the beauty of music and poetry with that of the fine arts., the liturgy to be developed will be set in illuminated manuscript by local artists.  The goal is to have the manuscript printable for distribution to other congregations.