March 2018 message

MARCH 2018 • Volume 20, Number 2

Preaching: 2 Lord Have Mercy: 6 Love and Marriage: 10 Expanding Outreach: 11 What is Patrick Reading Now?: 12 Photo Album: 15

The Children’s Communion Class reenacts the Last Supper

FROM

In this issue: Music Ministry ...................... 6 Youth Ministry....................... 7 Family Ministry .................... 8 Our Church Life .................10 Page Turners.......................12 Great Commission..............13 Calendar of Events.............14 Photo Album........................15

Sunday Services: 7:30 a.m.

Holy Eucharist, Rite 1 9:00 a.m.

Family-friendly Communion Service with Music 10:00 a.m.

Christian Education for Children, Youth, and Adults 11:00 a.m.

Choral Eucharist, Rite 2 6:00 p.m.

Holy Eucharist, Rite 2 Visit us on-line at www.cecsa.org

Front Cover photo by Barbie Walther Back Cover photo by Gretchen Duggan Editor Gretchen Duggan

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Preaching This is Patrick’s fifth epistolary essay in this series about the Christian ministry.

D

ear Alex,

I could not help but chuckle at your assessment that “preaching was like a good PATRICK GAHAN Rector game of charades.” patrickg@cecsa.org Accompanying my mirth, however, was the realization that you were onto something. Good preaching leads to discovery.

To be honest, when I read your words, I imagined Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, and their family playing their rollicking game of charades on Christmas Eve. They play, as I understand, until the Queen is worn out and must make her way to bed. Imagine if our preaching was so lively and convicting that our people had to forego their customary stop at Luby’s, La Fonda, or the Country Club in order to race home to take a nap.

Our preaching will be akin to a boisterous game of charades if our message is both artistic and revelatory. Regarding the first, we must carefully craft our sermons so that they will be eagerly heard. Surely, Princess Kate does not stand up in front of her family at the party and blithely enact clues for them to stumble on the undisclosed item or action. How humiliating it would be to be acting out her part, while the others drink, eat, and carry on conversations, seemingly oblivious to her presence.

Woefully, a good many preachers have long ago resigned themselves to that ignominious fate.

In terms of the second, our preaching must reveal deep truths about God as exhibited in the Good News of Jesus Christ. We are working with a script here. Just as in a game of charades the participants are given the item or action they are to inventively reveal, the preacher is given the Bible, from which she or he mines the eternal truths the people need to apprehend. Beware, however, transferring knowledge is

not the end of the preacher’s task. The hard part is challenging the people to actually participate in the Gospel truth revealed to them that day. Can’t you just see Prince Charles breaking out of his stiff persona and wildly crying out, “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!”

So, you are correct, Alex, preaching is much more like a game of charades than it is a lecture with row after row of people sitting on the edge of their pew in rapt attention suddenly realizing, “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” Act on your own description, and the pews in your parish will be full with people asking for more.

Georgia-Georgia Picturing a church full of eager, engrossed people, I was flummoxed to find one in Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia. The nave was literally packed wall-to-wall on a Tuesday night. John, our youngest son, often retreated to Tbilisi from Azerbaijan, when he taught in an isolated village east of the Georgian border. Kay and I stood amongst this sea of people, shaking our heads in the knowledge that this was the birthplace of Stalin, the veritable vanguard of 20th century rabid secularism. Lucky for us, our visit in Tbilisi coincided with the Orthodox feast day of St. Andrew, who is heralded as the first person to share the Gospel with Georgians twenty centuries before.

Kay, John, and I, hearing of the feast day celebration, leisurely strolled up the hill overlooking the city on which Holy Trinity Cathedral sits. The three of us were in no hurry, as we were certain we’d find the sublime vaulted cathedral empty. Nearing the stately edifice, we were shocked to see streams of people squeezing through the stone doors on the north and south sides of the cathedral. The towering oaken front doors were curiously shut. Consistent with the ancient Orthodox Church, there were no chairs in the nave.

Frankly, there was no room for them with such a throng of worshippers.

From Our Rector...

Once inside the cathedral, we noticed the youthfulness of the crowd; very few were over the age of forty. They formed themselves into serpentine lines before each one of the scores of gilded-framed icons. (I should add that these icons miraculously resurfaced the very day the Soviet Union fell!) One by one, the young people would take their brief turn before the icon, most of them kissing the frame and then breaking out in fervid tears. I could not understand what they beheld in those brightly colored, pseudo-anatomical shapes, yet some portal had opened up for them, such that even the most burly, bluecollar men were visibly shaken.

Spellbound, Kay and I studied these inexplicable encounters for well over forty-five minutes when the great entrance doors opened with a flourish.

In marched a troupe of altar boys, a platoon of lay catechists, followed at a distance by the thurifer, mechanically swinging the pendulous silver thurible from side to side, encompassing us in fragrant, stinging smoke. Twenty-three deacons processed in next, and behind them a retinue of thirty-one priests, but all of this was preamble to the solemn entrance of the Patriarch of Georgia, who was spirited in by his cortege on a red and gold litter. I suddenly felt like a child under the big top when the circus filed in. If this was the overture to worship, I could not wait for the main event.

Tbilisi. Holy Trinity Cathedral (Sameba)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2014_Tbilisi,_Sobór_Trójcy_Świętej_(17).jpg

Once the company filled the chancel, a mighty men’s chorus thundered from the choir loft. Hidden from sight

by design, the rich, a cappella voices last beyond the final stanza of the echoed off every inch of the ceiling, concluding hymn. Presented with the walls, and floor. Not one word of the vast waterfront of the Bible, with its reverberating Georgian could I make eddies, inlets, canals, and variegated out, nor could I decipher the carefully shoreline, we may wonder that the choreographed movements of clerics cross rises so much higher than the rest crossing the chancel stage, but I swear of the story. But the cross is the story, I felt amongst “that multitude without as if every ounce of the Bible were tied number standing before the Lamb on his up in a water skin and attached to the throne” (Revelation 7:9). That was the crossbars of that deadly instrument. point, really.

Not only do all The Georgian the waves of Christians “The truth is that every one of us human history were playing crash upon pressed into that stone basilica, apocalyptic Christ’s cross charades in while separated by language and at Golgotha, order to unveil but also the custom, all “ the sacred to e n d u i n g us. No wonder m e a n i n g (John 12:21). We did not want every inch of of what it to be told about him, reproved, the cathedral means to be was filled human or manipulated. We wanted the truly with plodding streams from curtain pulled back to see the one that terrible pilgrims like Kay and me. place. That’s who loved us into life and loves The truth is why grown, that every one barrel-chested us without end.” of us pressed men crumpled into that stone over sobbing basilica, while separated by language in front of those ornate icons. Those and custom, all “wanted to see Jesus” men came face-to-face with Christ’s (John 12:21). We did not want to be told cross and his “love that comes mingling about him, reproved, or manipulated. down to them.” Confronted with such We wanted the curtain pulled back to a confounding love, they eventually see the one who loved us into life and walked out of those oaken Cathedral loves us without end. doors on that Tuesday night to meet the swarm of demands, delights, and Hopefully it goes without saying, that disappointments flooding toward them I am not advocating the addition of in the week to come, yet they met them more ceremony and spectacle to our upon a much higher plane. preaching. I am, however, urging us to align our goals with the Georgians. Let’s No doubt my contention about the make it our aim in preaching to reveal centrality of the cross rings both Jesus and his kingdom to our people. archaic and barbaric in this modern The words and images of our sermons age. That reaction is hardly new. St. should create a portal through which Paul, when confronting the spiritually they may kiss the Sacred. Like the smug, confidently cosmopolitan invisible male chorus, the message we Corinthians, who thought they had offer should resound within our people advanced beyond the coarseness of long after they depart the church house the crucifixion, tells them frankly, ‘The for home. message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those The Message of the Cross who are being saved it is the power of One word describes the message that God’ (1 Corinthians 1:18). According to will indisputably follow our people New Testament scholar and Episcopal beyond the grand doors of the nave priest, Fleming Rutledge, the “message into their busy, sometimes disorienting about the cross” is better translated, lives – the cross. If the cross of Christ “the preaching of the cross.” Paul is does not stand starkly in the middle putting his pseudo-sophisticates on of our preaching, we do not offer notice. Without the cross, they have no our congregation anything that will Gospel – only sentiment. For Paul, the

wanted to see Jesus”

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From Our Rector... cross is not merely evidence of how much God loves us. No, something really happened when Christ was crucified. The tectonic plates of human existence shifted, and humanity’s future was redirected. The cross is actually ascendant over creation.

According to the Bible, Christ is the actor in both (John 1:10). However, on the cross Christ restores humanity and rescues the creation from dissolution.

Again, Fleming Rutledge refers us to one of the collects for Christmas from the Book of Common Prayer1: O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine nature of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jesus Christ, who is fully God, “empties himself” to become like us in becoming a human being, but he then empties himself further to be executed in a public spectacle at Golgotha. Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, dies on that cross, and is buried in a stone tomb. But Christ breaks through the certainty of death and rises to his rightful place where he orchestrated the artistry of creation. All of this is the story of the cross. That is why we recite the lines each Sunday, so as not to forget that Jesus Christ takes our deadly fate to the cross and thereby destroys it. At another place, Paul says as much, ‘Christ erased the record of sin amassed against us. He set it aside by nailing it to the cross’ (Colossians 1:14).

Furthermore, when Christ walks out of the tomb, he takes our transformed natures out of death with him, so that we, too, can live with a higher purpose and act in accordance with that purpose. Again, in Romans Paul avers, ‘Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life’ (Romans 6:4). This cross is our story, without which we have very little to offer and almost nothing about which to preach.

1 Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans: 2015), 12-22.

Providentially, I am reading Rutledge’s painstakingly composed masterpiece on the cross of Christ.

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The 5-Way Test How can our preaching measure up to such exalted expectations? We must begin by submitting our sermons to five primary tests?

1. Is God in our sermon?

2. Who is God in our sermon?

3. What am I asking the people to do?

4. Will this sermon be heard?

5. Does this sermon reflect my

pastoral ministry?

I have lived with these questions for almost thirty years. My seminary homiletics’ professor Hilmer Krause prescribed the first three to me. The fourth one is my addition; nevertheless, it, too, was garnered from his wise, deliberate, unambiguous instruction.

The fifth test comes directly from the lips of M.L. Agnew, who fastidiously trained me for the priesthood.

Is God in this Sermon?

The first query is not as open and shut as it may seem. Actually, we can compose a vaunted, eloquent, convicting sermon from which God is entirely absent. We can argue with sententious ardor for our congregation to take the moral high road, or feign some prescient knowledge to warn our people of social or political calamity fomenting on the near horizon, or we

can shrewdly serve up recipes for more righteous living – only to discover God makes no appearance in our lines at all, save some pious nod to Him. To my horror, I can recall more than once that the only god present in my sermon text was myself.

Who Is God in this Sermon?

Second, if God is preached in our sermons, is He the God revealed in Jesus Christ? Is the God we preach framed in the cross and empty tomb? Is God the One whose grace is sacrificial and whose love rises unbounded?

Failing to present God as embodied in Jesus Christ and defined by his sacrifice at Golgotha, is to betray the people we’ve been called to serve, and the reason is obvious. To that point, someone will approach me and declare, “With all this suffering in the world or in the face of this latest disaster, I can’t believe in God.” My reply to these pronouncements is always the same, “Please tell me about this god you do not believe in.” Once they conclude their description, I respond, “I couldn’t believe in that vindictive, mercurial god either, but let me tell you about the God I do believe in, who is disclosed in human history as Jesus Christ. His love is demonstrated on the cross, and through his resurrection we can attain a completely new life today!”

We preachers are always speaking to that critic in our sermons. Thus, we must carefully scrutinize our sermons to insure the God of Jesus Christ is presented and not some imposter, who cannot save, who cannot heal, and who cannot destroy death.

What Are We Asking the People to Do? Thirdly, like that Georgian a cappella men’s chorus, hidden, yet resounding in sonorous peals from the balcony, our preaching must walk out the door with the people. We are not finished until we ask them to do something with the Good News that they have heard that day.

To uncover the deepest Biblical truth about Christ and his kingdom is not enough. The people should be charged to take on the mantle of the Gospel, much like Elisha picks up his teacher Elijah’s mantle (2 Kings 2:13). Every Sunday morning, the music of the Good News must process out of the building and into the world with the people.

From Our Rector..

Here Fleming Rutledge weighs in to add that it is curious, if not scandalous, that God entrusts this saving message of the Gospel to all of us unremarkable human beings. Unless, the people take the Good News out from the stately doors of the church, so many will remain in darkness. Here Rutledge quotes the celebrated African-American preacher, Johnny Ray Youngblood (b. 1948), “God sends sinful men to preach to sinful men. I’m just another beggar telling other beggars where to find bread.”2 Imagine if we sent people out to merely tell others, “The breadline starts here and there is plenty to spare!” We would do well to recast ourselves as coaches sending our people into the game, where they play the major part, as we sit back and watch in wonder.

Will Anybody Hear What I Have to Say? That being said, even when we exercise the best intentions and scrupulously undertake steps one, two, and three – we can be summarily ignored. I learned this the hard way, both from Professor Krause and from my first congregations. Dr. Krause often issued this adage: “Your job is to fall in love with your people, not with your text.”

My unsmiling Hessian taskmaster believed that you must maintain eye contact with the congregation, meaning that you could not read from your text. In fact, at one of our classroom homiletics exercises when I briefly peered at my sermon text, Krause boomed, “Sit down! Sit down!” so that I was not allowed to utter one more syllable of what I thought was my cleverly crafted sermon. I thought Krause patently unfair until I served as Chaplain of an Episcopal High 2 Fleming Rutledge, 22.

School. In that very public laboratory, I learned that the second I looked down at my sermon text in daily chapel, the students clicked me off like a bad radio station. The reactions were amplified when Kay and I were serving isolated, intergenerational fishing villages in Newfoundland. Once the people figured I was more attached to the paper in front of me than to them, they hung up on me like an unwanted telemarketer.

This fourth step requires more strenuous sermon preparation. The scriptures assigned for that day must be studied, followed by prayer and quiet in order to receive insight and images to convey the Gospel message.

Only then can the sermon be prepared.

The preacher is far from finished at that point. For the next several days, she or he must practice in order to both memorize it and hone the message.

This, of course, necessitates composing the first draft of the sermon early in the week, so that the text can be revised repeatedly and committed to memory.

We have all marveled at the preacher or the entertainer, for that matter, who seems at ease addressing the public and has the ability to spontaneously improvise or even change course in mid-stream. In so doing, the preacher can paint vivid pictures, punctuate essentials, highlight more Scripture, lead the people into deeper introspection, and become a portal to the kingdom. Such artistry, confidence, and seeming spontaneity is the result of one ingredient – practice.

Do the Words Reflect My Pastoral Ministry?

Of course, we assiduously practice because we love the people we’ve been called to serve in Christ’s name.

No one has exhibited that love of a congregation more faithfully than M.L. Agnew, under whom I served both in Natchez, MS and Tyler, TX. M.L. was fiercely devoted to the people we served, regardless of their social rank or perceived influence. During my time serving under his tutelage, he wrung out of me any notion that preachers are some sort of independent contractors or spiritual peddlers, who can ply their wares in one fellowship just as well as any other. He would sometimes remark, “You can only be in one place at a time,” meaning that God had set you amongst a particular people at this specific time for a reason.

From that conviction, M.L. insisted that our preaching reflect our daily pastoral ministry amongst the people of that community. “Sunday is the celebration,” he would say, “so our weekday work needs to show up in our words.” He, therefore, wanted me to pay attention to daily life in the parish – Bible studies, visits to the sick, Wednesday night covered dish suppers, youth work, outreach, vestry meetings – and then inculcate those recently lived experiences into my sermons. For M.L., if we failed to incorporate those weekday experiences, our preaching came off as inauthentic, plastic, and disengaged from those amongst whom we had been called to serve. Those hearing our words are thereby invited to uncover and recast their own ordinary experiences to discover they, too, are choked full of the divine. And there we go playing charades again.

Your brother,

Patrick U

Holy Week at Christ Church Sun. March 25: Palm Sunday 7:30, 9 & 11 AM and 6 PM The Passion of Christ

Wed. March 28: Holy Wednesday - Tenebrae

5:30 - 7 PM in the Parish Hall A Service of Light and Shadow with Holy Eucharist

Thu. March 29: Maundy Thursday

Sat. March 31: Holy Saturday

Fri. March 30: Good Friday - The Way of the Cross

Sun. April 1: EASTER DAY

6 PM - The Seven Last Words Led by the Youth 8 PM - 6 AM - Prayer Vigil in the Veterans Chapel

10 AM - Children’s Easter Egg Hunt 5 PM - Easter Vigil First celebration of Easter and baptisms 7:30, 9 & 11 AM (No 6 PM service)

12 - 1:30 PM Featuring Fauré’s Requiem

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MINISTRY Making All Things New – Part II Oh sing to the Lord a new song; For he has done marvelous things!

–Psalm 98:1

F

or the second installment of Making All Things New, I elected to compose a JOSH BENNINGER new setting of the Kyrie eleison (Lord, Director of Music have mercy). What started in the early and Worship church as a Greek supplication to joshb@cecsa.org intercessory prayers is now widely used by the Episcopal church. It is our tradition at Christ Church to sing the Kyrie in place of the Gloria during the penitential seasons of Lent and Advent.

GOOD FRIDAY March 30, 2018, 12:00 PM The Way of the Cross On Good Friday, the Christ Church Chancel Choir and members of the San Antonio Symphony will present Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. All seven movements from this masterwork will be interlaced amongst the 14 Stations of the Cross meditative readings. These

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Since we all fall short, it is appropriate for us to offer up this prayer as a response to the following command from our Lord: Jesus said, “The first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is the only Lord. Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandant greater than these.” - Mark 12:29-31

Josh Benninger

readings encompass the last moments of the life of Jesus Christ, from his condemnation to his crucifixion, death and burial.

Follow this link to listen to the Cambridge Singers and members of the City of London Sinfonia perform this work: https://youtu.be/H3SlIemXgEU.

MINISTRY Words CAN Hurt

T

his past month during Sunday School we focused on the themes of sarcasm, bullying, and hurtful language. In the teenage world sarcasm is real GAVIN ROGERS and happens at Youth Minister home, in school, gavinr@cecsa.org and in social life.

It is all over the place. If we are truly honest, sarcasm strongly exists among adults if adults don’t learn how to control language! So, we adults don’t get a free pass. To a certain degree, there is a form of sarcasm that can be useful in our society when it is formed around satire, trained humor, or inside certain friendships. However, more often than not, our sarcastic humor hurts more than it helps. So, the question remains...

Are there good types of sarcasm and bad types of sarcasm? Well, it depends on who you ask. Just check out these five different articles on the matter: 1. https://www.psychologytoday. com/blog/think-well/201206/ think-sarcasm-is-funny-think-again 2. https://www.gotquestions.org/ Bible-sarcasm.html 3. https://www.psychologytoday. com/blog/passive-aggressivediaries/201110/very-funny-whysarcasm-is-no-laughing-matterkids 4. https://relevantmagazine.com/ article/4-times-jesus-usedsarcasm-to-make-a-point/ 5. https://www.theglobeandmail. com/life/parenting/sarcasm-withteens-a-bad-idea/article4238795/ Paul, in Ephesians 4:29, says “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

We all have been a part of sarcastic language; both on the giving and receiving end of such language. And we have seen it used for good and bad... but, if we are honest, would we admit it has been used for mostly bad? I have to confess that I love good satire and

sophisticated humor. Great ideas and social movements can come from such satirical art forms. Even Jesus (see #4 above) and Paul used a form of satiric sarcasm. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 4:8-13: “You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.

For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.”

Is Paul’s language ironic here? You bet.

Was it hurtful? Sort of. Yet, because his intent was to form the stubborn Corinthians around the truth, his satire can still be considered loving. To be fair, Paul concludes his passage with, “I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.” But let’s not kid ourselves; more often than not our sarcastic language is not designed to build one another up but to be cruel and hurtful.

That’s a big difference, especially when our sarcasm is directed to children and students that cannot fully understand that type of humor.

Karla Pollock (famed AHISD drama teacher) reminded me about the movie “The Red Balloon” and encouraged us to send it out to our families. It happens to be one of Father Patrick’s favorite movies as well. Below is a link to watch the full movie. It’s a classic video about bullying, friendship and social dynamics. Read a good overview here: https://www.criterion.com/current/ posts/778-the-red-balloon-written-on-

the-wind.

“Parents need to know that The Red Balloon, an enchanting short film about a red balloon that befriends a little French boy, is more than a joy to watch; it’s a provocative exercise in creative interpretation that deserves a place of honor on any Classics shelf. Younger kids will enjoy it purely on a surface level as an engaging story about a boy and his balloon. Older kids will be able to read more into it and offer some mind-blowing insights. There is some tame bullying: A gang of older kids chases a boy around Paris, determined to steal and destroy his balloon.” -Common Sense Media To watch the movie: https://vimeo. com/242106940.

Our mission at CEC Youth states that our youth program exists “to help students encounter the love of God, participate in authentic community, grow to their full potential, and practice their hearts to live out the mission of Jesus Christ.”

Gavin

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MINISTRY

The Best Way

I

guess I’d heard it before, but didn’t understand it until I experienced it, “The best way to learn is to teach!” I didn’t really learn to appreciate HALLETA and understand HEINRICH history – Director of American, World, Family Ministries and Texas History, halletah@cecsa.org until I taught it to 150 middle school students per year over an eight-year period. I had a degree in History and Political Science from UT Austin (Hook’em Horns!), but I did not become a true student of history until faced with all those kids each year. I studied and learned out of the need for self-preservation. I had to be the most fascinating story-teller of fascinating stories in order to keep those kids’ attention. It worked for the most part, and I really learned! I think the kids did, too!

Then God put me in the position to teach about the most important history there is – God’s History - his plan of salvation for all creation through Christ. He called me to use my teaching gifts to serve him in the church and his most precious little ones. I had to learn so I could teach, and as I taught, I really learned about the Bible, Liturgy, and all of our beautiful Anglican traditions.

What a gift to me! Many times in church when I am observing the priest’s

to

Learn

is to

Teach!

preparation of the Eucharist and then seeing all those members of our parish lining up to receive Communion, I am overwhelmed with the beauty of our church and filled with gratitude for what God has given to me.

I recently asked some of our children’s Sunday School teachers to share with you what they have learned through teaching our children. This is what Leita Carter said, “In the past three years there hasn’t been one time that I’ve done the Good Shepherd presentation that I didn’t leave the room properly feeling more grateful than the kids that God called me into his flock.” She adds, “I’ve grown up at Christ Church and have multiple college degrees, yet sadly had to learn with our kids in class why we have colors of the calendar and when it changes. Learning that with the kids makes me feel like I finally figured that one out.” Leita concludes, “Lastly, I’d not feel right not adding that the best part of teaching this year has been meeting the parents and other teachers. It is a whole different, amazing way to get to know great members of our church that you’d just walk by normally.” Leita is one of our lead teachers in the preschool Catechesis of the Good Shepherd class and is currently going through training to be a certified Catechist along with co-teacher Monica Elliott. I thank God for her, and she is learning!

Lisa Miller, one of my great “new moms” who helps in our preschool class, shares, “I have been amazed by

what the kids are learning, and really enjoying watching the foundation they are building in Sunday School, even at such a young age. The kids teach me every week that they are more capable and curious than I ever imagined.” One of my “original moms,” Pam Broadnax, who helps in the preschool class, states, “I always received more than I could give. My purpose was to teach – and it always seemed the children taught me! Their responses to questions are always so pure and honest…God-like.

The best experience ever!” I thank God for Lisa, a great new mom, and for the return of Pam, long-time teacher and now a grandma.

Monica Elliott, one of our lead preschool teachers, eloquently shares what she has learned this year by teaching our youngest children. “Teaching a young child about the ‘Light of God’ needs to be a thoughtful and simple process.

First, I ask them, ‘What is light?’ Their answers are fire, sun and clouds. They teach me what they know, and in turn I begin to see the world in its simplest being. I introduce ‘Let the light shine out of darkness’ and ask them what that means to them. They answer – the moon, stars, and a night light. I smile. It can be difficult for me at times to have them lead me into their perspective. I take a breath and realize that I need to stay here with them as long as possible.

I guide them to the next process, we show them how we light the candles on our altar, and our journey begins in the Light of God. Oh, how happy I am to be filled with the light of these children!”

I assure you, all of our teachers are learning right along with the kids each Sunday. I want you to know that all of them are very fine Christians who benefit from being with our children.

We are so fortunate to have them! I am praying that you might be inspired to teach, too. You will learn more than you can imagine because “teaching is the best way to learn!” Please contact me at the church if you want to learn more about our Children’s Ministry and want to participate in any way.

Love in Christ,

Halleta 8

Family Ministry...

Children’s Holy Week

and

Easter Events

a celebratory Palm Procession. Those children attending the 9:00 service will join families in the service after the procession. Children participating in the 11:00 procession may attend a special Palm Sunday Children’s Chapel and will be accompanied to service to join parents for communion at announcement time.

E

aster is such a happy time of the year here at Christ Church. Make sure your children, grandchildren, friends and neighbors come to be part of the celebration!

Palm Cross Making Youth Service Project Sunday, March 18 10 AM in the Carriage House The Youth of our church will participate in making Palm Crosses for all attending the Palm Sunday Services the following Sunday in an important service event Sunday, March 18, at 10 AM in the Carriage House. Youth, including Fifth and Sixth Grade “Planet 56” class, all middle and high school students, are asked to participate.

Parents and other adults are welcome to help, also. There will be experienced Palm Cross makers present to teach this traditional, meaningful, and fun craft.

We need to make 500 Palm Crosses, so please come! Some great breakfast treats will be served for all beginning at 9:30 AM in the Carriage House for those participating in this effort.

We dedicate this project in honor of our dear Claire Levingston who singlehandedly led this tradition for many years at Christ Church. She has now gone on to Heaven, but her spirit of service to Christ and this church will not be forgotten.

Children’s Palm Sunday Procession Sunday, March 25 9:00 and 11:00 Services Children may gather outside the front of the church at 8:45 and 10:45 AM to receive palms with which to process in

Children’s Easter Egg Hunt and Family Liturgy of Light Saturday, March 31 10 AM All families will gather in the FMC first floor Tomlin Room to prepare to process to Children’s Chapel for the Liturgy of Light service. This simple and beautiful service prepares all for the reason we celebrate Easter at the Easter Egg Hunt. We tell the story of the Resurrection of Christ, the occasion in which Jesus, who out of his great love for us, defeated death and darkness.

We receive the Light of Christ as a reminder that his light and life live in us through his great sacrifice of love.

That’s really something to celebrate!

We do celebrate after the service with our Easter Egg Hunt for all ages.

Toddlers through second-graders participate in a traditional hunt. Third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders take part in an Easter Scavenger Hunt with prizes for all. A Family Easter Craft will be available along with delicious Easter treats. Bring your cameras for great family photos, and don’t forget the Easter baskets. Our special guest, the Easter Bunny, will be here to hand out Prayer Eggs and pose with the children for Easter photos.

Children’s Flowering of the Cross Procession 9:00 and 11:00 AM services Easter Sunday, April 1 Children will gather outside the front of the church with flowers brought from home with which to flower the cross. We will line up for the procession at 8:45 and 10:45 AM, fifteen minutes before each service.

This beautiful tradition helps implant the concept of the Resurrection in our children, teaching that life came out of the death of our Savior Jesus Christ when he sacrificed himself on the cross out of his great love for us.

Children in the 9:00 service will join their parents after the Flowering of the Cross. Children attending the 11:00 service may be accompanied to Children’s Chapel after Flowering of the Cross where a special Easter lesson will be presented. They will be brought into church to join parents for communion at announcement time.

Vacation Bible School 2018 June 4 – 7 “Babylon – Daniel’s Courage in Captivity” This Summer’s Holy Land Adventure VBS Co-Directors Amy Case and Lauren Vielock are already making plans for this summer’s VBS Holy Land Adventure “Babylon – Daniel’s Courage in Captivity.” Babylon will be a new VBS for us, so we are excited. We will need lots of Family Group Moms and Dads, Drama Team Members, Babylon Market Shop Keepers, and Recreation Leaders made up of adults and teens. Contact Amy Case, Lauren Vielock, or Halleta at halletah@cecsa.org if you want to help.

Registration will begin soon!

9

Mawage,

that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam...

C

hrist Episcopal Church is passionate about marriage and we want to engage with anyone wanting to champion the cause for healthy marriages. We seek those that need assistance, and we listen to their story so we can intimately provide for their needs, if possible. We strive to help prepare them to practice positive interactions with the people in their lives.

Marriage is important to the family.

Marriage is important to the church.

Marriage is important to society. To that end, we are starting a Marriage Ministry at Christ Church. The kickoff

for the Model of Marriage small group study will be held on Wednesday, April 11 in the Capers Room. Dinner will be served at 6 PM and the small group will meet from 6:30 – 7:30 PM. Childcare will be provided. The class will meet on Wednesday evenings through May 2.

The class is designed for people at all stages of married life - those just starting out and those who have been on this journey for a while. Singles, who are contemplating marriage, are welcome too. You may attend the class with or without your partner present.

Sign up to participate in the Model of Marriage group by contacting Scott Kitayama at scottk@cecsa.org.

Fall of 2018, Marriage Retreat In the fall of 2018, September 7 – 9 at Camp Capers, CEC will host a Marriage Conference with guest speakers Jack and Judith Balswick. Jack is a Senior Professor of Sociology and Family Development at Fuller Theological Seminary, and Judith is Senior Professor of Marital and Family Therapy at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Plan to join us for this great retreat nestled in the peaceful beauty of the Texas Hill Country at Camp Capers.

The conference speakers will lead us

Congratulations

O

n February 18, the first Sunday in Lent, Duane Miller was ordained as a presbyter in the Anglican Communion by the Right Reverend Carlos López Lozano, bishop of Spain at the Anglican Cathedral of the Redeemer in Madrid Spain. Among the US contingent there to support the Millers were Rev. Eric Fenton and Marthe Curry.

Duane, Sharon, and their children are currently serving as missionaries in Madrid, Spain working especially in the Muslim community.

10

to the

Artwork © 1987, 2009 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation Photography © 1987, 2009 Act III Productions, LP All rights reserved.

into a practical and sound guidance for couples on how to build a godly marriage. The retreat weekend will be a great resource and asset for couples at any stage of marriage to strengthen those bonds of marriage that God has blessed.

To get on the list for the Marriage Retreat, contact Scott at scottk@cecsa. org. The weekend is designed for adults only, so you will need to make childcare arrangements. Details on the retreat, including costs, will follow.

Scott Kitayama

Rev. Dr. Duane Miller

Our Church Life...

Christ Church

I

is

Making Plans

for

Reaching Out

t was a packed house on Sunday, February 25 for the Christ Church Community Outreach Meeting. With a delicious lunch from Jason’s Deli provided by the Becks, the gathering got to work brainstorming ideas for outreach.

neighbors before launching any plans.

After an hour of working, twenty-one table representatives presented some of the ideas proposed by their groups.

There was a common thread revealed quickly for expanding our involvement in the community through education.

There were ideas about education and activities for seniors, expanded worship in the upcoming outdoor space, growing produce, providing a variety of classes, concerts, and much more. Several brought up the need to determine the existing needs of our

The first step for the Ministries Council will be to produce a needs assessment.

The goal will be to determine the greatest needs in our immediate community as well as what the capabilities of our new facilities will be. CEC must be able to effectively accomplish any new ministry plan.

The CEC Ministries Council is currently reviewing all the ideas generated during the hour and a half long meeting. Once compiled, the information will be shared with the parish.

An area for prayer and meditation in the new outdoor space is one of the first ideas being pursued. Also, expanding the outreach of our Food

Pantry ministry through additional Saturday offerings is in the works.

So many exciting ideas were generated at the meeting. However, the need still exists for individuals to step up to lead new ministries. If you have an idea you are passionate about and are willing to serve, please let the Ministries Council know.

Future meetings will be necessary to narrow our focus as we approach the opening of our new space. Stay tuned for all the details.

Your questions, comments, ideas, and concerns can be shared with Anne Wright, chair of the Ministries Council at 210-410-4067 or awright5050@satx. rr.com.

11

Our Church Life..

PAGE TURNERS – From

I

magine my speechless stupor when Scott Rose handed me a book on inner self-discovery at 8:15 several Friday mornings ago.

To be fair, Scott is an avid reader and not a lightweight theologian.

Furthermore, he has been generous to share titles with me on subjects ranging from “salvation” to “justification,” and points in-between, the knowledge of which brought a snide smile to his face when he placed in my hands, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery, by Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile. The Enneagram may have ancient Greek roots, originating with Pythagoras 4,000 years ago. Regardless of its pedigree, the Enneagram teaches that there are nine dominant personality types, with each type demonstrating certain tendencies when under stress and still other propensities when feeling secure. Once I found myself amongst the nine, I was shocked by the Enneagram’s apparent accuracy – like unmasking myself in front of a full-length mirror when no one else was looking.

This personal stark honesty is the first benefit that emerges from the exploration of the Enneagram. We acknowledge the many disguises we wear to avoid confronting our true selves. As one of my very favorite Christian authors, Frederick Buechner, puts it, “The original shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us end up hardly living out of it at all. Instead we live out of all the other selves, which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather.” Of equal importance is the wisdom we derive about others as we study the eight other Enneagram types who surround us as co-workers, siblings, friends, children, and even a spouse. For Christians, gaining this empathetic vision is vital. Somewhat surprisingly, the Vietnamese Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh explains this best, “When our hearts are small, our understanding and compassion are limited, and we suffer. We can’t accept

12

the

Rector’s Book Stack

or tolerate others, and we demand they change. But when our hearts expand, these same things don’t make us suffer anymore. We have a lot of understanding and compassion and can embrace others. We accept others as they are, and then they have a chance to transform.”

If anything will draw me away from mindless TV, it is a good novel.

My wife gave me a riveting one for my birthday, A Prisoner of Birth, by Jeffrey Archer. Kay earlier had come across a review of Archer’s work along with his altogether colorful history. Educated at Oxford University, he served five years in the House of Commons and fourteen more in the House of Lords. The “colorful” part of his story begins with the two years Archer spent in Her Majesty’s prisons!

Archer’s latter adventure thrusts the plot of this thriller forward in a most realistic way, for the story is a modern retelling of Alexandre Dumas’s (18021870), Count of Monte Cristo. The protagonist is the illiterate, plodding, auto garage worker, Danny Cartwright, who is brutally framed for murder by three highborn, ruthless, amoral men.

Confident they have disposed of their problem, they are unprepared for the Danny Cartwright they will next meet in the arresting, sophisticated, intellectual guise of Sir Nicholas Moncrieff.

Archer is one of many reasons to turn off the television and grab a good book!

How strange to read a book with your name ornamented on the front cover, but I did so through the generosity of Dr. Eddy Del Rio. The good doctor gave me the novel, Patrick: Son of Ireland, by Stephen R. Lawhead. I greatly enjoyed Lawhead’s book on three accounts. For one, he spins a fine yarn. From page one, I was drawn into the narrative. Two, Lawhead

attempts to unravel the thick cloud of mystery that surrounds Saint Patrick and his heroic witness amongst the primitive Irish. And three, the author is unafraid to offer Christian theological considerations that are “off the beaten path.”

Regarding this third point, Lawhead suggests that young, patrician Patrick, after being kidnapped and enslaved by Irish warlords, slowly undertakes the Druid religion. In fact, Patrick’s terribly despairing life is saved by the earthy optimism of these Celtic mystics.

Lawhead later avers that Patrick was influenced by the very attractive, but discredited Pelagius, a presbyter from Britain who advocated strongly for the free will of the believer. Patrick eventually escapes his slavery in Ireland yet could never truly rest until he returned. When he did so, he was armed with the Christian faith that would become Celtic Christianity, whose rich, optimistic, earthy theology has contributed much to the Anglicanism we know and practice.

I was unprepared for the incandescent, dreamlike quality of Balcony in the Forest,

by French author Julien Cracq. In fact, the novel is unlike any wartime account that I have ever read, but reading it was sheer delight. Cracq’s sentences are so well crafted that not a word or even a comma, for that matter, is wasted.

I eagerly came to bed each night in order to enter Cracq’s pre-WWII Eden along the Meuse River in the towering Adrienne Forest.

The novel’s protagonist, French Lieutenant Grange, is assigned to command a small outpost and bunker along France’s border with Belgium.

Ironically, the bunker is set in the middle of the killing fields of WWI, but in those months leading up to Germany’s assault, the area is lushly vegetated, dark, quiet, and peaceful. Grange is enraptured by his surroundings and devoted to his simple cadre of enlisted men. When the Nazi’s “hounds of hell” are set loose to cross the Meuse River,

Our Church Life... the reader despairs along with Grange that the fabric of creation is being rent into pieces.

This wartime novel is as curious as its author. Although immensely celebrated, Cracq shunned any notoriety during his lifetime. He continued to teach geography and history until his quiet retirement. Late in his life, President Francois Mitterrand invited him on three different occasions to dine with him at the president’s residence. Cracq declined all three invitations.

If I wondered why America has been mired in its longest war in Afghanistan, my questions were answered after reading The Places In Between, by the young Scottish author, Rory Stewart. Knowing my great affinity

for travelogues and memoir, Dr. Carol Pfrommer gifted me with this stellar chronicle of the brave, articulate Scotsman, who walked the 547-mile width of Afghanistan, from Herat to Kabul, in 2002. Recall that the Taliban had just been narrowly defeated in December of 2001, and the Soviet Union had only retreated from their savage engagement there in February of 1989, a precursor to the Soviet Union’s ultimate collapse 23 months later in December of 1991.

Stewart, at age 29, is resolute that he will make this journey, and he is a force with whom to be reckoned. The 16 months before he set out on this foreboding trek, he walked across Iran, Pakistan, India, and Nepal, logging 25 miles per day through lands he did not know. Afghanistan was even more of a challenge due to its nine very different and often adversarial ethnic groups.

Sleeping in a different village each

night, Stewart comes to know Sunni Kurds, Shia Hazara, Punjabi Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and even Buddhists. Some of those he meets love the Taliban, while others despise them. Some accommodated the Soviets, while many more fought them relentlessly. Some support America’s intervention, while most others have no idea America even existed until Bin Laden’s attack on New York’s Twin Towers. If that’s not enough, the infant Afghani government tries to thwart Stewart from ever beginning his hike.

This is a book for anyone fed up with the simplistic, one-dimensional descriptions we receive about this colorful, multifaceted world in which we live. This is a book for those who think the younger generation has no gumption or fortitude. Finally, this book is written for anyone who has ever loved a dog…even a very big homely, earless one!

SOCIETY

A Taxing Task The biggest change for many taxpayers is that the standard deduction has been increased, so many will no longer be itemizing deductions unless those deductions would exceed the standard deduction amount.

M

ost of us have turned our heads toward the task of assembling all our papers, receipts, and accounts to ready them for the annual mail-in to the Internal Revenue Service. And we are aware that Congress has recently passed a Tax Reform bill. What does that mean to us?

Provisions within the tax bill include: an ability to save on taxes by donating highly appreciated stocks, bonds, or mutual funds directly to a charity.

You will not only be supporting the charity, you can deduct the full market value of the investment as a charitable gift.

An ability to contribute a large sum now to be given away later. A donor-advised fund, available from investment firms, allows you to deduct the entire amount on your taxes. The money remains in the account until you designate the gift.

An ability to “bunch” payments of taxes, mortgage interest payments, medical, and donations into one calendar year to itemize above the

standard deduction.

You can still withdraw from your IRA or 401k to donate directly to the church or to any other 501(c)3 nonprofit agency and be free from the tax burden normally associated with such a withdrawal. For those who do not really need the required minimum distribution (RMD) after the age of 70.5, the RMD can be donated directly to the church without the payment of taxes otherwise owed on it.

Our dream is that Christ Church will one day have an endowment fund sufficient in size to fund the daily operation of the church. Tithes and pledges could then get to work on the many outreach and special programs we would all like to support. Perhaps these suggestions can enable you to easily make a gift to that fund.

Ferne Burney 13

OF EVENTS March 2:

Ellison Scholarship application deadline

March 4:

Drama and Faith, 10 AM in the Library Christ Church 3.0 begins The Well Brunch at The Pearl, 11 AM - 2 PM New Acolyte Training, 12:30 PM in the Sanctuary CCF Lunch and a Movie, 12:30 PM in the Carriage House

March 9 - 11:

Community of Hope Retreat, Mustang Island

March 11:

Daylight Savings Time begins

March 18:

Noisy Offering and Food Pantry Offering, 9 & 11 AM Palm Cross Making, 10 AM in the FMC Pictorial Directory photos after the 9 & 11 AM services

Christ Church Staff: The Rev. Patrick Gahan, Rector patrickg@cecsa.org The Rev. Scott Kitayama, Associate Rector, scottk@cecsa.org The Rev. Brien Koehler, Associate Rector for Mission and Formation, brienk@cecsa.org The Rev. Rob Harris, Associate Rector for Community Formation, robh@cecsa.org

March 22:

CCW Spring Luncheon, 11:30 AM in the Parish Hall

March 23:

Poverty Simulation for High Schoolers at Mission Waco

Carol Miller, Pastoral Care Administrator, carolm@cecsa.org

March 24:

The Well Bike and Brunch, 9 AM

Halleta Heinrich, Director of Family Ministry, halletah@cecsa.org

March 25:

Palm Sunday - Charissa Fenton offers St. Mark’s Passion of Christ at 7:30, 9 & 11 AM and 6 PM

Lily Fenton, Nursery Director lilyf@cecsa.org

March 28:

Tenebrae, 5:30 - 7 PM in the Parish Hall

Gavin Rogers, Youth Minister gavinr@cecsa.org

March 29:

Maundy Thursday Service, 6 PM Prayer Vigil in Veteran’s Chapel, 8 PM - 6 AM

March 30:

Good Friday Way of the Cross, 12 - 1:30 PM The Well Seder Meal Experience, 7:30 PM off campus

March 31:

Children’s Easter Egg Hunt, 10 AM in the FMC Easter Vigil and Baptism, 5 PM in the Sanctuary

Joshua Benninger, Music Minister & Organist, joshb@cecsa.org Ruth Berg, Director of Children’s Music, ruthb@cecsa.org Robert Hanley, Parish Administrator parishadmin@cecsa.org Darla Nelson, Office Manager darlan@cecsa.org

April 1:

Easter Sunday Services 7:30, 9 & 11 AM

April 2:

Church Offices are closed

Donna Franco, Financial Manager donnas@cecsa.org

April 8:

Youth Confirmation, 11 AM in the Sanctuary The Well Brunch at Tycoon Flats, 12:30 PM

Gretchen Comuzzi Duggan, Director of Communications, gretchend@cecsa.org

April 11:

Model of Marriage class begins, 6:30 PM, dinner at 6 PM

April 14:

Junior High Lock-in, 8 PM in the Carriage House

April 15:

Noisy Offering and Food Pantry Offering, 9 & 11 AM Children’s Communion Celebration, 11 AM Pictorial Directory Photos after the 9 & 11 AM services Operation Paintbrush Outreach, 1 - 7 PM off campus

Monica Elliott, Executive Assistant to the Rector, monicae@cecsa.org Elizabeth Martinez, Kitchen Manager elizabethm@cecsa.org Robert Vallejo, Facilities Manager robertv@cecsa.org

April 21:

The Well to Oyster Bake, 12 PM

Rudy Segovia, Hospitality Manager rudys@cecsa.org

April 22

Pictorial Directory Photos after the 9 & 11 AM services

April 27:

Battle of Flowers, church offices close at noon

Joe Garcia, Sexton joeg@cecsa.org

May 6:

Children’s Musical, 9 & 11 AM in the Sanctuary Pictorial Directory Photos after the 9 & 11 AM services

14

ALBUM

15

Mastersingers and Alums gathered to celebrate Ruth Berg’s 25 years of Children’s Music Ministry

The Message (USPS 471-710) is published bi-monthly by Christ Episcopal Church, 510 Belknap Place, San Antonio, TX 78212. Periodical postage paid in San Antonio, TX. Postmaster: Please send address changes to Christ Episcopal Church, 510 Belknap Place, San Antonio, TX 78212. Volume 20, Number 2.

Periodical Postage PAID San Antonio, TX Christ Episcopal Church 510 Belknap Place San Antonio, TX 78212 www.cecsa.org