The Holden Village Podcast

Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light (WAIPL) transforms faith into action for the well-being of communities and the environment. We organize people of faith to advocate for strong environmental policies and provide strategic guidance to religious communities working toward environmental justice. To learn more about Holden Village, visit: http://www.holdenvillage.org or to listen...

John Beck  received a BS in Art Education from Western Oregon University, completed a 5th year Art Education program at Portland State University, and received a MA in Education from Portland State University.  He is a member of the Oregon Art Education Association as well as the National Art Education Association. To learn more about Holden Village, visit: http://www.holdenvillage.org or to liste...

Cecie Suknaic Saulnier (she/her) was born and raised in Austin, Texas. She has been a part of Lutheran faith communities all of her life, and has been deeply impacted by the love, grace, and commitment of the people who have made up church for her. As a youth and young adult, Cecie felt most at home in church communities - from her weeks at summer camp to weekly Wednesday night youth group in high...

Due to the fires this Summer, many PCT hikers were diverted to the village. As a result, the village was blessed with many a hiker finishing their long journeys. For this episode, we have the amazing Monkey (trail name), who was kind enough to share her stories over tea. Please click on the link below to see how Monkey is raising money to procure more forests in her homeland: the Netherlands. www....

Elise is a Northwest Artist and Instructor. She connects gardening and art through printmaking, painting, photography, and journaling to explore inherent lessons in nature's beauty. Her backgrounds in Montessori education, food sovereignty, and teaching botanical art focus her work into a course curriculum for everyone. Elise started Joyful Plant to inspire you to take more time to learn abou...

Peeyush Kumar is a systems scholar of cultures, economics & technology. His primary work is to build social technologies which support in building cultures of harmony, richness and equity. We live in a complex world with unprecedent precarity across both natural and human systems. It needs a holistic approach to bridge across these systems to create a culture of harmony and richness. Currently...

E.N. West, affectionately known as "E" (they/he), proudly hails from the DC metropolitan area, by way of Alexandria, Virginia. E deeply believes "we are uninhibited when we know our power" and is committed to co-creating a world where everyone intimately knows how powerful they are and directs that power toward collective liberation. They are many things, but at the heart of al...

Joshua McGuffie will complete his PhD in the Department of History at UCLA in May 2023. His research focuses on biology, medicine, race, and the environment as they relate to the US Manhattan Project and post-WWII atomic testing. His dissertation, Atomic Salmon: Biology, Medicine, and Ecology in the Medical Section of the Manhattan Project, follows an unlikely group of medical doctors and fisherie...

Sara Olson-Smith is a pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa. She is the author of recent Bible studies in the Women of the ELCA's Gather Magazine. In her writing, teaching, and pastoral work she weaves together God's ancient stories in scripture with contemporary struggles, movements, and hopes. In community, we can (re)discover a Spirit-led life of freedom, joy, and care...

Glocal Musician Educators are a group that creates music influenced by global themes in communities throughout North America, the Caribbean, and beyond. Through their intentional diversity—including representation from many countries, denominations, and several cultures—the group embodies ways to stand in mutual solidarity while amplifying marginalized voices.  Glocal Musician Educators are commit...

Laura Mariko Cheifetz (she/her) is a queer biracial Presbyterian Church (USA) minister curious about race, gender, identity, public theology, the meaning of citizenship, and fun television shows. She and her partner grew up in opposite parts of the country, met in the middle, and have lived for the past 13 years in the southeast (currently in Nashville, TN). Laura is multiracial Asian American of...

Welcome to Holden Main Street: a playful podcast series dedicated to capturing the daily life and creative musings of ordinary folk at Holden Village. Who are the people drawn to this wild and uniquely transformative mountain community? How do their descriptions of hilarity, wilderness living, shared work and interior exploration shape the landscape of their time here? Expect to be delighted by im...

Dr. Maren Haynes Marchesini serves as Director of Worship & Music at Hope Lutheran Church in Bozeman, Montana. Maren is a choral director, cellist, vocalist, composer, and scholar with broad-ranging musical interests. She holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington where she focused on megachurches, gender, and ritual (specifically at the former Mars Hill Church), and she...

Welcome to Holden Main Street: a playful podcast series dedicated to capturing the daily life and creative musings of ordinary folk at Holden Village. Who are the people drawn to this wild and uniquely transformative mountain community? How do their descriptions of hilarity, wilderness living, shared work and interior exploration shape the landscape of their time here? Expect to be delighted by im...

Once a week, Holden Village initiates a contemplative vespers service titled Prayer Around the Cross. In this service, simple chants are sung while community members and guests are welcome to light a candle in prayer. Our singers this week included the talented Emily Meyer and Eleanor Sherry...and our guests included the schools from our May Youth Program. To learn more about Holden Village, visit...

For this episode we have the amazing Lola Deane, who helped pioneer the Holden Store...as well as Island Books on Mercer Island. Past - Farm girl, UW Graduate as Family Nurse Practitioner, Wife, Mother, Mercer Island resident 1957-1985 and founder of Island Books, Shaw Island resident 1985-2019. Community Volunteer/Activist. Present - Mercer Island resident again, still a Mother, Grandmother, Grea...

Welcome to Holden Main Street: a playful podcast series dedicated to capturing the daily life and creative musings of ordinary folk at Holden Village. Who are the people drawn to this wild and uniquely transformative mountain community? How do their descriptions of hilarity, wilderness living, shared work and interior exploration shape the landscape of their time here? Expect to be delighted by im...

Welcome to Holden Main Street: a playful podcast series dedicated to capturing the daily life and creative musings of ordinary folk at Holden Village. Who are the people drawn to this wild and uniquely transformative mountain community? How do their descriptions of hilarity, wilderness living, shared work and interior exploration shape the landscape of their time here? Expect to be delighted by im...

Welcome to Holden Main Street: a playful podcast series dedicated to capturing the daily life and creative musings of ordinary folk at Holden Village. Who are the people drawn to this wild and uniquely transformative mountain community? How do their descriptions of hilarity, wilderness living, shared work and interior exploration shape the landscape of their time here? Expect to be delighted by im...

Introducing a brand new evening prayer service written by members of the long-term Holden community. This service debuted during May Youth Weekend and seeks to honor night and darkness as times of blessing and renewal in our lives. It also has themes of creation, embodiment, and justice. It will be one part of the musical offerings during Summer 2023.  To learn more about Holden Village, visit: ht...

Welcome to Holden Main Street: a playful podcast series dedicated to capturing the daily life and creative musings of ordinary folk at Holden Village. Who are the people drawn to this wild and uniquely transformative mountain community? How do their descriptions of hilarity, wilderness living, shared work and interior exploration shape the landscape of their time here? Expect to be delighted by im...

Welcome to Holden Main Street: a playful podcast series dedicated to capturing the daily life and creative musings of ordinary folk at Holden Village. Who are the people drawn to this wild and uniquely transformative mountain community? How do their descriptions of hilarity, wilderness living, shared work and interior exploration shape the landscape of their time here? Expect to be delighted by im...

During the non-Summer months, Holden village dedicates one Vespers session a week to the lives of villagers. We call this Staff Story and this particular session centered around the current longest tenured villager: Jonah Jensen-Young. This also happened to be his final week in the Village, so it also served as a sincere farewell. In order to succinctly articulate our love for Jonah, I am includin...

"I have been coming to Holden since 1971 and became intrigued with the Prayer of Good Courage early on because the prayer has been at Holden since the beginning, in 1963. I have been the unofficial historian of the prayer, especially in telling people who wrote it. It was not written by Marty Haugen, Carroll Hinderlie, Martin Luther, or a Holden committee." Pastor Nancy Winder has been a...