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

 

Normandy Park embarks on Summer of Kindness

Normandy Park UCC in Seattle is joining the United States Kindness campaign of the Ohio nonprofit, Values-in-Action Foundation, and its initiative to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary by doing 250 acts of kindness.

Normandy Park UCC's sign announces its participation in kindness campaign. Photo courtesy of Normandy Park UCC

Amy Hitchens, pastor, read about it in the national UCC Wellness Ministries Newsletter, said the church and members plan to do 250 acts of kindness.

“The goal is to reframe the narrative of the U.S. during its 250th anniversary to move beyond the government’s nonsense in a time marked crassness, crudeness and little civility,” she said. “I like the idea of promoting kindness, decency and goodness in the U.S. and being on the same page with others to promote kindness.”

The newsletter said “spiritual, mental and physical wellness are justice issues.”

Amy explained that kindness is a stronger, deeper value than just being nice.

Normandy Park UCC, a church of 75 members that draws 30 to 45 on Sunday mornings—in person and on Zoom. It was a church plant of Fauntleroy 65 years ago for people who bought homes south in Normandy Park. It included folks in Burien and Des Moines, and now also draws from Auburn, Kent, Federal Way and Port Townsend. On Zoom some come from other states.

The church has several plans for its kindness campaign.

• Amy will preach sermons on kindness through the summer. She will also invite people to share stories about when someone has been kind to them.

• One Sunday in June, they will use resources from the UCC Wellness Ministries and passed out “Make America Kind” buttons—two for each person who comes, so each has one to give to someone else.

• It plans a Father’s Day breakfast with conversations and activities on kindness.

• A retired elementary school librarian is creating a summer list and will share children’s books on kindness.

• Members will read and discuss the novel, The Incredible Kindness of Paper, and do activities related to origami.

“The campaign gives us a focus that amplifies our message of welcome and hospitality to our neighbors,” Amy said, adding that it’s easier for members to “evangelize kindness” to their neighbors. “While they may be uncomfortable talking about religion, they can give a kindness button and talk about kindness.

“We are infusing acts of kindness into all that we do as church together this summer. It is not that we are changing what we do, it’s that we are being more intentional in how we do it,” she said.

While they will develop some specific activities for the campaign, Amy said Normandy Park, like many, has kindness built into its church life.

• In early June, they had a booth at Pride in Burien.

• On fourth Tuesdays every other month, 10 members join three neighbor churches—Prince of Peace Lutheran, Grace Lutheran and Des Moines United Methodist-—that to offer a community meal for 50 seniors on fixed incomes and folks in group homes. The other churches are do it monthly.

• Some members volunteer one night a month to prepare food bags for the food bank.

• For 25 years, others have volunteered bringing meals to a hospitality house related to a women’s shelter started by area churches and housed at a church in Burien. Normandy Park supports it financially and has a member on the board.

• The church has been involved until recently with Mary’s Place, which is undergoing renovations.

• Members also sew cloth bags and fill them with hygiene products—toothbrushes, deodorant, pads and more. They give them to school nurses at three high schools and a middle school to give to students.

• Normandy Park also joins the local CROP Walk.

• Amy meets with six Presbyterian, United Methodist, UCC, Unitarian and Jewish clergy to plan ecumenical events, such as a Thanksgiving service.

• Within the congregation, kindness also comes in the form of a spiritual formation class doing enneagram study and contemplative prayer, stewardship practices of recycling and composting, and holding a Bibles and Brews Bible study on Zoom.

• In 2025, Normandy Park became a Creation Justice Church. With a grant from King County, it is using part of its four acres of land to grow vegetables. One member is becoming a master gardener.

• As a way to foster healing, it offered a Sound Bath on a recent Saturday morning. Sitting on yoga mats, 30 participants meditated and relaxed as they listened to tones of Tibetan singing bowls, crystal bowls, chimes and ocean sounds.

• Participating in the church’s choir, lay worship planning, card writing, pastoral care visits and a lunch bunch are also ways to spread kindness.

Given how easy it is to do acts of kindness, Amy invites other PNC churches to join Normandy Park.

“We can all do fun, simple things to be a positive force in our communities during the summer, into the fall and to the end of the year. Kindness is meant to be shared,” said Amy, who came to fill in at Normandy Park in July 2017 and was called as the settled minister in 2018.

She grew up Presbyterian near Normandy Park and graduated from Burien High School. Her mother, a nurse, lives in Des Moines. Amy’s grandparents were Presbyterian missionaries for 20 years, so she grew expecting to serve. By 19, she knew she wanted to serve God but did not expect to be ordained.

After graduating from Seattle Pacific University in 1996 in European studies and Spanish, she spent two years as a Presbyterian volunteer in mission with migrant workers in Forest Grove, Ore., where she attended a UCC church.

She went to Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley to prepare for nonprofit work. A PSR friend interested Amy in doing a year residency in clinical pastoral education (CPE). That sparked her interest in chaplaincy and path to be ordained in 2004 as a hospital chaplain before starting at Normandy Park.

For information, call 206-824-1770 and email amy@npucc.org.

 

Pacific Northwest United Church of Christ Conference News © June 2026

 

Share this article on your favorite social media