Search PNC News for stories of people and churches in our UCC Conference:

 

Alki UCC embodies caring for community

After a journey of preparation through varied churches and types of ministries, Emily Tanis-Likkel felt her skills matched the ministry leadership needed when she began ministry in 2022 at Alki UCC.

Emily Tanis-Likkel has served Alki UCC since 2022. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Butner

She and Alki emphasize embodying faith.

Through the years, Alki UCC has found ways to embody its faith in the West Seattle neighborhood on Puget Sound.

In 2022, the church called Emily, who believes in expressing spirituality by embodying faith in movement, story and action.

“Churches need to be a beacon of hope in their communities,” said Emily. “In our diversity of race, culture, disability and ability, personality, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, we reflect God, who wonderfully reflects all we are and do.”

Since its founding in 1909, the church has been a center not only of social activities—music, poetry, shows, parties and luncheons—but also for social justice, family counseling, food and housing security, welcoming immigrants, supporting Black Lives Matter and Pride, and serving weekly meals with the Westside Interfaith Network.

In 2003, Alki UCC began sharing its building at 6115 SW Hinds in West Seattle with Kol HaNeshamah, a progressive synagogue.

“Sharing our space and nurturing the relationship takes understanding and listening with awareness that our values, cultures and traditions differ,” said Emily, aware from living in a multigenerational household with her husband, children and parents—the necessity of clear communications.

“Jewish people are marginalized, so at Alki UCC we make sure not to post things or use decorations that might make members of the Jewish community uncomfortable,” she said. “It’s important to communicate, not make assumptions and have grace.

“When we put out art, we converse on how they feel about it,” she said.

For example, members made a bird feeder out of an old Christmas tree and leaders said it was fine – but some in the Jewish community were uncomfortable and felt it was too Christmassy.

“I assumed they would not like green boughs as too Christmasy, but they saw the greens as lifegiving and not just about Christianity,” Emily explained.

When Emily came in July 2022, she and the rabbi then became good friends, but the synagogue now has an interim rabbi.

Member Kristen Michel told of a moment that epitomized why she values the synagogue’s presence.

“They rent from us and are our partner. We learn from each other,” she said. “One day when I was attending a church class on Islam in the narthex, the woman presenting was wearing a hijab and Jewish worshipers in the sanctuary were wearing yarmulkes. They were both in our church with us.”

Wooden sign installed from entry way roof is sturdier than the Black Lives Matter flag that was vandalized.

In August 2023 and several times in February and March 2024, the Pride and Black Lives Matter flags the church displayed outside were vandalized and then replaced. After the fifth time, they sought a different response.

Cinda Stenger, chair of mission and outreach, said they asked a local artist create a sign on wood to express the church’s message of love and justice, using words of the prophet Amos, quoted by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Let justice roll down like water.”

Below: Church and community members joined in a May 19 Collaborative Art and Social Justice event to paint the sign as a creative action in response to repeated vandalism.  Photo courtesy of Alki UCC

The artist outlined a river of grace flowing from a torn edge. One Sunday last May, members painted the image of water and words.

“We decided to use art to move from confrontation,” said Emily, adding that they also installed better security and asked neighbors to email if they saw anything suspicious.

Alki UCC partners with Fauntleroy UCC’s Immigration Task Force in its journey to become an immigrant welcoming UCC church.

One Sunday in 2022, two mothers and two children from Peru came to the church. Speaking to them in Spanish, members learned they needed food, clothing and housing. Working with Fauntleroy UCC, they met those needs and found housing with an Alki member. More family came.

They were not granted asylum, so Alki and Fauntleroy are exploring next steps, said Vicky Smith, who has helped with Alki’s refugee ministry first with Cambodians and 20 years later with Afghanis.

The Alki mission and outreach team works with the Westside Interfaith Network (WIN), in which several faiths sign up to donate, cook and serve the weekly meal, “The Welcome Table” on Saturdays for 100 to 150 immigrants, low-income seniors and unsheltered neighbors.

“We provide toilet paper, toiletries fresh produce and other food to help during the week,” said Cinda. “For the unsheltered, we provide backpacks, sleeping bags, tarps and warm coats,” she added.

Some members volunteer at the Westside Neighbors Shelter and the Second Chance tiny homes village.

That ministry team also explores ways to respond to the climate crisis, to address racism and offer education and advocacy on issues.

Emily’s ministry of embodying faith grew over the years.

Growing up near Grand Rapids, Mich., the daughter of a Christian Reformed pastor—who later became Presbyterian—she knew at the age of eight—when she was baptizing dolls—that she was called to ministry.

After two years at Calvin College, Emily married and moved with Brett to finish communication studies at Seattle Pacific University in 1999. Brett, who is in tech, readily found a job. In 2003, she graduated from Fuller Seminary’s multi-denominational Seattle program and was ordained in 2005 in the UCC.

“I found the UCC while riding a bus to class. Repeatedly, I saw an ad about Plymouth UCC’s Feed Your Soul lunchtime program and jazz service. The ad showed Kris Ostrem, one of my professors at Seattle Pacific,” she said.

“I had never been to a UCC church. The moment I walked in the door, the denomination of my youth rolled off my back. I felt embraced,” said Emily, who became an intern at Plymouth.

She believes the next few years of her pilgrimage made her a better pastor.

Emily, Brett and baby Eva moved to Bainbridge Island, where Emily became associate pastor of Eagle Harbor Congregational, UCC. Their son, Day, came along a few years later.

Feeling called to church planting, Emily began a new ministry, Tapestry. They moved back to Seattle, where she was trained in and taught Nia, a holistic movement practice. Emily also developed a method of integrating Scripture with movement, called Embody the Story, which she has taught to intergenerational groups.”

Next, she taught at Presbyterian and Lutheran preschools and then at a Lutheran middle. She also served as minister of spiritual play at Valley and Mountain United Methodist Church, where she used Godly Play as a way to introduce children to Scripture.

From 2018 to 2022, she served as family life minister at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Seattle.

In August 2022, Emily was called as a bridge pastor of Alki UCC and in December was called to be their pastor.

“God prepared me for this ministry through my ministries in other denominations with children and families,” she said.

“The church is in a healthy place with about 50 attending on a Sunday. Last spring in assessing my ministry, they suggested I could be more challenging in my sermons,” she commented. “That gave me permission to be bold and edgy in my sermons.

In her ministry, Emily acknowledges that each person is of infinite worth and value.

“Humanity bears the image of God,” she said. “Everything that we are, God is.

For information, call 206-935-2661 or email pastor@alkiucc.org.

 

Pacific Northwest Conference United Church News © December 2024

 

Share this article on your favorite social media