December
4.  St. James Cathedral was privileged to host a festive celebration in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Madre de las Americas.
11.  Archbishop Sartain celebrated the annual Advent Mass with the Filipino community, Simbang Gabi.
19.  Our annual Readings and Carols service featured the wonderful talents of our Cathedral children, as singers, readers, and altar servers.
25.  The annual celebration of the Nativity of the Lord brought thousands to St. James Cathedral.  In his homily, Father Ryan shared the story of David, a Cathedral parishioner with Downs Syndrome.  “The truth is that no matter how dark the landscape, there is always light.  And the truth is that when we become small and vulnerable like David, when we learn to give up control over our lives and trust in God’s plan for us—even when that plan leads us to places we’d rather not go, or are afraid to go—that is precisely when Christ can take flesh in our flesh and the light can begin to shine in the darkness. Christmas was then, yes, but Christmas is also now: a most blessed, and present, and living reality!”
 
January
2.  We celebrated the great feast of the Epiphany.
15.  We gathered with Archbishop Sartain and members of the African American community of the Archdiocese of Seattle to celebrate Mass in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
16.  We celebrated the Santo Niño—Holy Child at the Noon Mass.  This annual celebration includes a blessing of images of the Child Jesus and a fiesta and entertainment provided by a wonderfully generous team of parishioners.
 
February
2.  Vietnamese Catholics from around Western Washington gathered for a a solemn celebration of the Eucharist on the eve of the Lunar New Year.
10.  The results of the Parish Survey, conducted last fall, were published both on the Cathedral website and in the parish bulletin.  Father Ryan noted:  “If I had to sum up the survey in a sentence, it would be this: you like your parish, you support it, and you feel that you are a part of its life and ministry. And even though we are a very large parish and pray in a very large building, by far the majority of you feel that St. James is a community, your community; you know that your presence and participation are vital to the life of this community, and you are happy to be part of it.”  The complete survey results can be found at the parish website.
 
March
6.  At a special First Sunday Youth Celebration, the last Sunday before Lent, the children of the parish said “farewell” to the Alleluia.
9.  On Ash Wednesday, hundreds gathered to mark the beginning of Lent.
10.  We celebrated the Rite of Election with Archbishop Sartain and our twenty-one Elect.
27.  The annual Eco-Health Fair, co-sponsored by our Health and Healing Ministry and our Eco-Justice Group, gathered a wide variety of exhibitors, with information on everything from acupuncture to composting!