Everyone is invited and welcome to attend (and bring a favorite holiday food) to the potluck Holiday Party and celebration of the 50^th year of Subud Seattle owning our property.  Please join the festivities on Sunday, December 10, around noon (after 11AM latihan).  There will be 50 mugs available to help commemorate this event. A donation to cover the costs (and contribute to the building costs) is requested.

[From an article that Sebastian Tedrow did with Chuck (now Robert) Cary]
“The history of Subud in Seattle starts in 1959. We were opened by a group of Subud Members from Vancouver BC. Members of the Vancouver group were originally opened by the Von Bissings who I believe were on a world tour to promote Subud and sailed from San Francisco to Vancouver in a yacht.”

The article continued: “Ann and I were opened in what later became the first Subud House in Seattle… Sebastian: The address is 959 Broadway E. It is currently a Bed and Breakfast – ‘The Bacon Mansion.’” Cary continued, “Before it became a Subud House it was leased by an organization called the ‘Center of Integration’”.  [To read the full article, click here]

After the group was no longer able to lease the house, it rented a storefront on Belmont and Olive in Seattle. It was in a crime ridden area of the city with heroin sales happening on the street and in the tavern next door, according to an interview that Paul Nelson did with Sebastian and Robert in March of 2022. After doing some fasting for help with finding a suitable building, the group was led to our current location. [To hear the full interview, click here.]

After seeing the building Lawrence Crouse wrote a binding check for $500 for the purchase of the house, He and Roseanna Crouse provided the main part of the loan with Bob and Andrea Maynard and others contributing as well. Sebastian Tedrow agreed to be the chairman and to sign the documents for the loan.

Rachman Cantrell discovered an article that Robert (now Sebastian) Tedrow published in a SUSA article describing the new purchase in this post he made on May 26^th of 2021. It included a picture he took of the house in 1973. To read that article click here

One of the first renovations that the house received was in 1976 when Bapak came to visit and what is now the ladies latihan space was converted into his bedroom and the toilet on the first floor was added.

Other renovations have happened since then through the contributions of many current and former members including Evan Padilla, Marston Gregory and Insiah Caspers. It is their efforts that have modernized the house and made it possible for us to continue to worship Almighty God in our own facilities.

It is only through the efforts of those willing to serve our community that we have purchased and been able to maintain our facility.  Please consider becoming one of those members who do the hard work of keeping it possible for us to worship in our own facilities by becoming a member of our committee in January of 2024.

We ask all Subud Seattle members to consider serving on the next committee in preparation for our selection process on Sunday, January 14th after latihan.  Please open yourselves to the possibility of serving our community

Positions to be tested are chair and vice chair.

The current committee will be available for mentoring and guidance should the new committee want that.

We’ll have many documents pertaining to our rich Subud Seattle Culture which came from David Freeman via Salamah O’Brien.

If you can help identify them and the people in the photos, with dates, etc., your help would be greatly appreciated.

Rayma’s Experience at the Kejiwaan Retreat

Gathering at Menucha Retreat Center this past weekend with 85 Subud members left me with a
feeling of gratitude that I carried home and remains with me as I write. There was enough of
everything. Enough together time, enough apart time, enough time for latihan and testing,
enough support from fellow travelers on this path.

As is the tradition, we sat in a large circle at the beginning of our time together there. Each of
us introduced ourselves and said a few words about why we had come and what we hoped for.

At the end, again in a circle, we each shared a bit of what we were taking away. This year, the
take-away for many was a feeling of deepened experiences in the latihans, and more connection with others present and within our greater Subud community. Love, really. I pray that feeling travels with each of us into our daily lives in the aftermath of our time together.

It was great to connect again with lots of long-time Subud members, and with some of their adult children, and also to meet Jennifer, who had come after being opened just 4 days earlier
in Palo Alto. Not only that, but seven members from Subud Canada made the trip, too!

My take-away was a sense of reawakening and reconnection. A sense of possibilities. Thank you to everyone who put in a lot of hard work to help make this past weekend a reality.
-Rayma Norton

Rasjad with Bapak and Sharif in Marin County, California.

Rasjad Hopkins on the way to a Subud meeting, circa 1968.

Rasjad Hopkins, a long time Subud member and one of the founding members of Subud Seattle has passed over to the next world.  Below is a link to a Zoom interview I did with him in July of 2022.  It gives some history of the beginning of our group, his very interesting life happenings and some of his Subud experiences.  It is quite powerful and well worth watching till the end!  The video is 34 minutes long.

Click the link below to see the YouTube video.

https://youtu.be/lVpoM3_FGmo?si=WEJh4OQvfziVpRdm