The Message - May 2023

The Message this month:

Contributors:

Christ Church Staff:

The Rev. Patrick Gahan, Rector

The Rev. Scott Kitayama, Associate Rector

The Rev. Brien Koehler, Associate Rector for Mission and Formation

The Rev. Justin Lindstrom, Associate Rector for Community Formation

Karen Von Der Bruegge, Director of Vocational Discernment and Pastoral Care

Halleta Heinrich, Director of Family Ministry

Catherine deMarigny, Coordinator of Orange Curriculum

Lily Fenton, Nursery Director

Front cover photo: Charissa Fenton

Easter Procession

Back Cover photo: Molly Duggan

Easter Egg Hunt

Editor: Gretchen Duggan

Wednesdays 11 a.m. - Eucharist with Anointing and Healing Prayers. *The service is also live streamed

Saturdays

8:30 a.m. - Eucharist on the Outreach Pavilion lawn

* www.cecsa.org/live-stream

Visit us on-line at www.cecsa.org

Follow us: facebook.com/ChristChurchSATX @christchurchsatx

Avery Moran, Youth Minister

Susan Lindstrom, Director of College Ministry

Joshua Benninger, Music Minister & Organist

Jennifer Holloway, Assistant Music Director, Children’s Music Director & Social Media Manager

Charissa Fenton, Receptionist

Robert Hanley, Director of Campus Operations

Darla Nelson, Office Manager

Donna Franco, Financial Manager

Gretchen Comuzzi Duggan, Director of Communications

Monica Elliott, Executive Assistant to the Rector

Elizabeth Martinez, Kitchen Manager

Robert Vallejo, Facilities Manager

Rudy Segovia, Hospitality Manager

Joe Garcia, Sexton

2023 Vestry

Lisa Miller, Senior Warden

Doug Daniel, Junior Warden

Rick Foster

Garry Schnelzer

Garnett Wietbrock

Spencer Hill

Julianne Reeves

Scott Rose

Thomas Duesing

Alison Sawyer

Patrick Tobin

Heather Yun

AVERY MORAN

PATRICK GAHAN

HALLETA HEINRICH

JENNIFER HOLLOWAY

ERIC FENTON

CATHERINE deMARIGNY

The Shape of Grace

by Patrick Gahan

My first hero was an Eagle Scout. I was five years old, the golden years before my father’s nightmares from Korea destroyed the marriage he forged with my mother. Secure in their love for one another and us, the one-year-old twins and I lived in an idyllic stone house on a sleepy street on Birmingham’s southside. I remember the sputtering, second-hand school bus that lumbered down the road each Saturday hawking fresh produce, with yellow squash, sugar-snap peas, and string beans hanging in crude baskets from its windows. The stately home to the left of ours had a greenhouse in its backyard filled with orchids, roses, and tropical flowers shrouded by a toxic insecticide dust, all which fueled my surreptitious forays amongst the exotic rows of plants. The two-story brick colonial to the right of us is where Brett lived. Brett was a high school junior, a tight end on the Ramsey High Football team, a starting second baseman on the diamond, and an Eagle Scout. I sat on the rock wall between his house and

mine every afternoon waiting for him to come home from school. When he saw me, he always said, “Hey, buddy,” and I would break out into an unpreventable smile. Brett would walk into the back door of his house, but I would sit there, shake my head, and promise myself, “I’m going to be like him one day.”

Brett’s affability towards me only intensified my promise. Late spring afternoons, he and his buddies would play basketball on his driveway, the goal situated above the two garage doors. His friends rarely acknowledged my presence as I sat atop the rock wall. Brett would give me his “Hey, buddy,” and then offer to shoot some baskets with me when the game was over. He never forgot, and the promise I made to myself grew stronger. At the same time, I realized the great distance of age, size, and character separating Brett and me. In eleven years’ time, would I come to reflect his genial, generous, unfaltering dignity in any way?

Until I read the final writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I had not thought of Brett

in a long time. Two years before he was executed by the Nazis, Bonhoeffer wrote a short compendium of his thoughts in After Ten Years: A Reckoning Made at New Year 1943. Gone is the optimism of much of his earlier work. Here Bonhoeffer laments the tragic failures of the German Church when confronted by Hitler and his demonic enterprises. In his final addresses to Christians, not only those in his native Germany, but around the world and across time, Bonhoeffer asks what the Church must do in the face of fierce opposition that tempts us to make expedient accommodations. If we compromise our faith when threatened by power or lured by prestige, how can we come to be anything like the person of Jesus Christ? ‘All these things I will give you, If you fall down and worship me,’ the devil promises Jesus, but then we wake up to realize he is also speaking to us (Matthew 4:9).

To be fair, Bonhoeffer did not expect to take the position of a critic. The wellrehearsed story of his childhood bears this out. Born into an enlightenment oriented, nearly agnostic family, fourteen-year-old

Bietrich Bonhoeffer on a weekend getaway with confirmands of Zion’s Church congregation, 1932, Bundesarchiv Bild

183-R0211-316, Dietrich Bonhoeffer mit Schülern

from our recTor...

Dietrich dumbfounded everyone when he announced that he planned to be a theologian. His older brother ridiculed him by saying, “Look at the church. What a sad, paltry institution—you hardly go yourself.” Undeterred, Dietrich countered, “Then, in that case, I shall reform it.” That was in 1920. Twenty-three years later, Bonhoeffer realized he had not “reformed” the German Church. Making matters worse, he had not even stirred the Confessing Church, the dissenting Christians of Germany of which he was a founder, to make a solid break with the Nazis. Bonhoeffer, in a chapter of After Ten Years entitled, Are We Still of Any Use? lamentably writes:

We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretense; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical.

Where did Bonhoeffer gather the courage to stand up to Hitler without the support of his church? The short answer is “America.” When he was only twenty-one, Bonhoeffer published his doctoral dissertation, Sanctorum Communio (Communion of Saints), for which he received immediate acclaim. Karl Barth, the greatest New Testament scholar of that era, immediately defined the work “a theological miracle.” His star already rising even before his dissertation was published, Bonhoeffer was invited to visit seminaries and colleges the world over; thus, from 1924 to 1932, he crisscrossed Europe, Northern Africa, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States. His comments about American seminaries were not always laudatory – accusing them of being more concerned with politics than gospel. But while serving a fellowship at Union Seminary on the Upper Westside of Manhattan, he began visiting the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. He spent long days frequenting the apartments, cafes, and shops surrounding the Abyssinian congregation. Even amid the struggles of America’s Great Depression and rampant racism, the

preaching, singing, praying, and discipline of those Black Christians showed him what a life lived in obedience to Christ looked like. They prepared him to return home, where, during the eight years of his absence, Hitler steadily strengthened his reins of power in Germany. Because the Abyssinian Baptists had filled Bonhoeffer with renewed fervor, he was undeterred by the Nazis. Recalling how Black Christians fueled their faith in the face of persecution, Bonhoeffer charged his students in Berlin to undertake a consistent life of prayer and Bible reading – perhaps laced with the African American spirituals he had learned and loved. He directed his students to quit reading the Scriptures as texts to be dissected. Instead, he led them to be challenged by the written word, the Bible, and thereby avail their lives to be transformed by Jesus, the Living Word. During this time, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) began to inhabit Bonhoeffer’s heart and mind. Remembering the witness of the Black Christians in Harlem, their joy in the face of poverty and abasement, and their determination to strive for the Kingdom of God regardless of the cost, the radical demands of Jesus’s greatest sermon were no longer abstract musings but a call to action. Bonhoeffer’s understanding of grace took on a new, concrete meaning, such that the fundamental question for him was not “how shall I be saved from the wrath of God, but what is the shape of a life lived under the constraint of grace and in obedience to Jesus.”

Bonhoeffer’s revelation was that grace not only saves us, but it shapes us. Christ has set us free to become increasingly more like him throughout our life’s journey. We are not merely receptive vessels of salvation but born again, Spirit-inhabited, obedient human beings who reflect the glory of God in measurable ways; therefore, we refuse to “make our bed” with evil. This is the way of Jesus. This is the path of imitating Christ. Knowing

this truth, Bonhoeffer was gravely disappointed with the Church he had worked exhaustively to reform. Forsaking the radical call to action in Christ, they appeased themselves with meager consolations. For one, they believed that “reason” would win the day. All the Nazi framework needed was a tweak here and there, and the system would be set right. German Christians needed to be reasonable and exercise some patience. But evil is not reasonable, and Christ never made peace with it. Bonhoeffer makes a similar assessment of “virtuousness,” Characterized by women and men who close their eyes to the muck and muddle of injustice all around them and yet maintain their private morality. Did Christ retreat from evil, or did he walk right through the middle of it on his way to Calvary? Christ is Head of the Church, and his body of believers must take collective, concrete action insists Bonhoeffer. Finally, after dismantling all the German people’s charades of faithfulness, he declares the only durable avenue for Christians to undertake:

Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all of this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God. The responsible man, tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.

“The responsible man makes his whole life an answer to the question of the call of God,” says Bonhoeffer – but how? Jesus gives us his answer in one of his most disturbing one-liners. The line comes at the end of a short parable Jesus offers after his disciples’ desperate plea, ‘increase our faith.’ To this Jesus thunders his response, ‘If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, “Be uprooted, and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you”’ (Luke 17:5-6). Jesus has told them what their increased faith could do – even a measly seed-sized increase – but has not told them how to increase their faith, nor has he yet let loose his disturbing one-liner. Jesus is building up to the parable that follows:

“...Grace noT only SaveS uS, buT iT ShapeS uS. ”

from our recTor...

‘Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, “Come along now and sit down to eat?”? Won’t he rather say, “Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink?” Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So, you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”’ Luke 17:7-10

Jesus’ punchline is a zinger and certainly disturbing. If neither the disciples nor we can “increase our faith” by doing what God, our Master, tells us, how will we ever be faithful? Jesus’ answer comes through their next encounter on the road to Jerusalem. Nearing Samaria, ten lepers approach Jesus and beg to be healed. Jesus tells them to go show themselves to the priests in their villages so they would be deemed “clean.” With that, all ten scurried away. However, one of them saw that he was cured of his leprosy and sprinted back to Jesus, shouting praises to God with every footfall, and fell on his face in the

dust thanking Jesus for what he had done. Jesus takes note that the man was not a Jew but a Samaritan, and then he muses, ‘Were not ten cleansed, but the only one to return is this foreigner?’ And then Jesus tells the man, ‘Rise and go on your way, your faith has made you well’ (Luke 17:11-19).

With that, the disciples have their answer. The key to experiencing “increased faith” is to realize where it comes from. Faith is a gift of God. Likewise, our healing is a gift from God, as is our creation, our salvation, our loved ones, and love itself. All are gifts. All are grace. The leper returns to the giver of grace – Jesus. Similarly in Jesus’ parable, the servant doesn’t waltz into the dining room insisting he has done his quotient of good works for the day. No, he sets the table for the One who has given him sustenance, purpose, life, and grace – the Master. Therefore, Bonhoeffer, moving closer to Hitler’s gallows by the day, railed at his Christian peers. Did they not know that every ounce of grace they have experienced is a gift from Christ? How could they now not “answer his call?” How could they sit self-satisfied at tables they had neatly set for themselves in the face of the Nazi anti-Christs? All our

life in Christ is a response to the Giver. The German church’s inaction was an anathema.

Considering Bonhoeffer’s consternation from his prison cell, I recalled another long-suffering Christian writer. Early in my adult Christian formation, I was drawn to the Chinese evangelist, Watchman Nee (1903-1972). Nee’s humility was unusual in that day replete with triumphalist preachers. He would still be unusual in our own time. I recall in one of his many books he said something like, “I did not ask God to consecrate me to be a great preacher, teacher, or evangelist. No, I asked God to consecrate me to Him. That way, wherever I am, the kitchen, the market, at my children’s school, our bedroom, or standing in front of hundreds of people – I am set aside for God’s purposes.” To see ourselves that way is to get into the skin of the Samaritan leper, to realize that everything we have, every talent we exhibit, are gifts from God. It is also to understand what Bonhoeffer is begging his fellow German Christians to do, regardless of the immense danger they face: They must act in complete obedience to the Giver of all gifts. Just now, recalling

Cleansing of the Ten Lepers, Codex Aureus Epternancensis, ca. 1035-40

from our recTor...

the witness of Watchman Nee in my life, I realize why he was so important to me. He was the first to emphasize to me that Christ claims every part of our lives –public and private. Christ is not divided (1 Corinthians 1:13), and neither are we. C.S. Lewis famously quipped, “There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God or counterclaimed by Satan.” If that’s true, there is not a square inch of our body or a single minute of our time that is simply up for grabs. Paul, the first Christian theologian, expresses this truth in a way that has never been surpassed: ‘Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body’ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Individual Christian men and women must live and act from a posture of gratitude to Christ, the giver of all gifts. The Church, the community of Christians, the body of Christ, must undertake the same posture. So often we have failed to do so, which is not only a disgraceful witness but a betrayal to the One who gave his life for us. I do not have to look outside our own country for examples of the Church’s perfidy. Our grandstanding with political power bosses and our affiliation with party factions has been the antitheses of our Lord, who refused to align himself with the Temple elite or with their Roman overlords. While it is good to love the nation and participate in the republic, we can never let our love for country outdistance our love for God, who bequeathed us this land.

Looking beyond our own borders in recent days, we have been gravely disappointed

in the Russian Orthodox Church. During the sixty-nine years of Soviet atheistic oppression, many in the Russian Church clandestinely remained faithful – often at a great price. I was director of a historic, worldwide mission group after the fall of the USSR, and we were enlisted to help the Orthodox Church recover and reprint its sacred writings. The leaders with whom we worked only increased their zeal during those sixty-nine years. Knowing that, it is unfathomable to me that thirty-two years after liberation, the Russian Church has become the main propagandist and cheerleader for Vladimir Putin’s assault on the independent nation of Ukraine. They seem to be rehearsing the same mistake as Israel, who when stepping into the Promised Land, quickly forgot the LORD who freed them from Egypt and gave them a land of their own. In like manner, the Russian Orthodox have exchanged their gratitude for the LORD for unquestioned fealty to a narcissistic, pagan demagogue. The result thus far are the deaths of 65,000 Russian soldiers, more than were killed during their nine bloody years in Afghanistan, more than died in Chechnya, and more than their casualties in Syria –combined! Add to that the over 15,000 Ukrainians who have died in the senseless fighting, and we have the most battlefield deaths since WWII. The Russian Orthodox Patriarch and his faux patriotic minions would do well to read Moses’ final words to Israel as they prepared to cross over the Jordan River into Canaan, the land God promised them:

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. Deuteronomy 30:15-18

I would be hypocritical to level this

criticism solely at Eastern autocracies. Christians in Western democracies have often aligned our churches with power to seek a share of that power or, worse still, to escape the responsibility of standing against evil. A contemporary example of this lack of obedience to Christ is being experienced across our northern border in Canada. Stumbling upon this report recently, I was stunned by the Canadian Church’s deadly silence. Their disobedience stems from their reticence in the face of Canada’s rapidly expanding program of state sponsored euthanasia known as MAID – Medical Assistance in Dying. MAID, which was sanctioned by the Canadian Parliament in 2016, has resulted in assisted suicide becoming the sixth leading cause of death in the nation. That’s over three percent of all deaths in Canada, and the number is rising. In 2016, there were 1,018 deaths executed by MAID. For 2021, the number had increased to 10,064. That’s a 979% increase in six years. Those numbers are certain to balloon now that physicians are counseling certain patients to consider assisted suicide. Of course, as you can imagine, the disability community is registering their growing concern and fear. One of the most startling statistics are those younger and middle-aged persons, who, suffering with depression, elect to end their lives through assisted suicide. Through all this, the Anglican Church, The United Church of Canada, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have not offered a note of opposition, but instead promise to “offer pastoral care” to those considering MAID. The Lutherans go even further in officially stating, “We affirm that everyone has a human right to assistance in dying.” I cannot find a single line in the Bible that gives humans this authority. Yet this is what happens when we forget to whom we are grateful and to whom we are obedient. It is not just a matter of misplaced loyalties but, quite literally as Moses declared, a matter of life and death.

When Kay, the children, and I served in the Newfoundland outports in 1992, we would have never predicted the medical community in Canada would take such

“faiTh iS a GifT of God. likewiSe, our healinG iS a GifT from God, aS iS our creaTion, our SalvaTion, our loved oneS, and love iTSelf. all are GifTS. all are Grace. ”

from our recTor...

a dramatic turn, nor could we have foreseen the people of that gracious nation accepting this dark verdict. In the isolated, desperately poor villages where we led worship, taught, pastored, and led VBS, over 90% of the population filled the white frame churches every time the parish bells rang out. Their simple, unfettered love of the Lord rose to the surface of their lives. As a side note, I should add here that when Kay injured her back, the physician on Ramea Island warmly insisted he make a house visit. These “Newfies,” who straddle the lower rungs of Canadian society, must now feel particularly vulnerable, as will anyone who is or has a loved one who is considered less able, less healthy, less cognitive, or “less human,” as the Nazis would say.

How do we eschew the idolatry of power and perfection, stand bravely against principalities much greater than ourselves or the Church, and maintain our gratitude to God, which leads to our primary obedience to Him? How do we gradually move closer to the courageous character of Christ in much the same way as I, when a young child, promised to emulate Brett, my Eagle Scout next door neighbor? The answer comes from a word coined by the New Testament scholar Michael J. Gorman – cruciformity. In his exhaustive book by that name, Gorman defines cruciformity “as the Spiritenabled conformity to the indwelling crucified and resurrected Christ. It is the ministry of the crucified and now living Christ, who reshapes all relationships and responsibilities to express the self-giving, life-giving love of God that is displayed on the cross. Although cruciformity often includes suffering, at its heart, cruciformity—like the cross—is about faithfulness and love.”

When we approach the cross with our eyes and minds wide open, we realize we are among the “less.” We may have some admirable assets, even some notable achievements, but none of those attributes make us worthy of our Lord, who is the most beautiful expression of humanity and who sacrifices himself so that we may be delivered from God’s judgment and

live. In a stark contrast to worldly powers who assist our physical deaths, Christ, our Savior, gives us eternal life. More compelling still is the content of eternal life, a word derived from the Greek aionios, meaning “that which is not brief and fleeting but continues and participates in the ageless divine life.” So, not only does Christ’s cross stand between us and death borne of deserved judgment, but it marks the greatest turnaround of fortune in human history – we can now share in the divine life. We can become far more than we are. To honestly comprehend this gift brings us to our knees in gratitude like our brother the Samaritan leper. No wonder we kneel at worship during the Eucharistic prayer. When we realize what we have been given and if we had room in the nave, we’d likely lie prostrate with our faces on the floor during the prayer.

Our gratitude, not fear, arouses our obedience to Christ, and that obedience, like our deliverance, is a gift. The Holy Spirit first gives us the faith to trust in Christ’s sacrifice conveying us from our death-bound existence to sharing the divine life. That same gift of faith stirs

our obedience to Christ, not as a yes-man or yes-woman, but as someone being reshaped into Christ’s likeness. That’s cruciformity. Gorman, in the spirit of Watchmen Nee, insists that the expression of this life is not markedly heroic, but rather it is where we live, day-in and dayout, a cross-shaped life in the community where we have been placed. Above all, the gift of cruciformity converts us from our obsessive drive for self-preservation and advancement to forego our rights, our prerogatives, our social standing in sacrificial love for others whom Christ has brought to us.

The boy sitting on the rock wall on Birmingham’s Southside, watching Brett’s every move, still lives in me. The desire to escape my mediocrity and become more has never faded. And yet now I mostly peer at the cross above Christ Church’s altar and imagine the One tortured on it, and I want to be like him, love like him, offer my life like him. In the end, I realize that I can’t make up the distance between who I am and who Christ is. But thanks be to God, He can, and He will.

Caspar David Friedrich, Tetschener Altar, 1808, Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden

makinG a Joyful noiSe

muSic miniSTry

by Jennifer Holloway

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.

Psalm 98:4

I am so excited about our 3rd annual Children’s Musical Camp! Our musical this summer is “Once Upon a Parable,” a wonderful musical retelling of Bible stories

like the Good Samaritan, Zaccheus, and the Prodigal Son, just to name a few. All children Kinder through 6th grades are welcome. Children do not have to be a choir member to participate.

We will have time every day for singing, instrument exploration, arts and crafts, playground time, fun games, and, of course, rehearsing the show. The cost for the week is $30 but scholarships are available.

The camp runs July 24 through 28 from

9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Children Kinder through 2nd grades have the option to be picked up at noon or stay until 3 p.m. Our performance is in the Sanctuary on Sunday, July 30 at 10 a.m.

Parent and teen volunteers are also needed. Please contact me for more information at jenniferh@cecsa.org.

Go to www.cecsa.org/special-events to register now.

The GifT of Grace

youTh miniSTry

by Avery Moran

During my time working as a music leader at different places, someone pointed something out to me that I hadn’t noticed. I almost exclusively chose songs that had to do with resurrection. It was something that I hadn’t noticed, but slowly came to understand why.

I think we all have different things that

draw us to Christ, and Christianity as a whole. For me it’s the feeling of a new beginning. That I can look at the mistakes that I make and realize that they don’t define me. God is offering me a new life, a life where I can move past the things that weigh me down, a life where even I can find peace. I don’t know if I remember that all the time. Picking these songs serves as a constant reminder for me.

There are so many things that God offers us, some that we have no trouble accepting. I never have trouble accepting the idea of communion with one another,

or the promise of Heaven. I think it’s worth looking at the things God offers us and seeing which of them make us uncomfortable. For me, it’s hard to accept grace. I think I’m pretty good at having grace with other people, less so with myself. God offers us these gifts, and he wants us to accept them. It can be hard for us to accept a gift that we don’t feel worthy of, but it allows us to move from living in fear, to living in love.

a beauTiful communiTy

cec family miniSTry

by Halleta Heinrich

Our Children’s Communion Class this year was filled with seventeen very lively and unique children - mainly first graders, but a few in second grade and one third grader. Community was really strengthened during this eight-week time by the children and their parents. Parents helped each Sunday and an army of parents helped at our Saturday Communion Retreat. We could not have had a successful class without this team of dedicated parents. It would be a dream come true if we could have this type of close community every Sunday at Christ Church – parents working as teams to provide their children with the most important education there is - Education in our Christian Faith. This education is eternal!

My hope is that these children will continue to have a bond with each other all throughout their years at Christ Church. They come from different schools and parts of town, but they are brothers and sisters in Christ. I pray that Christ Church can be for them a place of safety where they can be accepted as who they are and grow into who Christ wants them to be. I pray this bond will take place for the parents, too. I saw during the past eight weeks something beautiful –relationships growing between the children and the adults. It truly has shown me what the Body of Christ can be!

The class scripture theme chosen for this year is Psalm 18:28, “You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into Light.” Pray for these children that the Holy Spirit will fill their lamps and shine forth from them as the Light of Christ.

Caroline Cox

Milo Duesing

James de Marigny

Donovan Falk

Helen Hawa

George Hawa

Grace Kassahn

Cora Kothmann

Sophie Lormand

Eli Miller

Olivia Muecke

Luke Reeves

Andrew Pape

Charlotte Rutherford

Josey Seay

Teagan Vance

River Wilson

Children’s Communion Class 2023

a GrowinG communiTy

cec family miniSTry

by Catherine deMarigny

Orange you glad… to see so many children at church? As we come to the end of another school year, it is incredible to see how the children’s ministry has grown. The theme for Orange this year was, God’s Big Story: The Journey of God’s Love Through Time. Indeed, the Kindergarten through fifth grade children began with the Greatest Commandment, “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). They flew through the Old Testament in the fall, as God showed them his love through the stories of Creation, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, and Esther. During Advent, they celebrated God’s greatest gift of all. This spring, Jesus taught God’s love through his baptism, the stories of Zaccheus and the Prodigal Son, the joyous Easter celebration, the walk to Emmaus, the Ascension and Great Commission, and Pentecost. But wait, we’re not done yet! Even if children aren’t traveling over the summer, they’ll get to travel with Paul as he shares God’s love with the people of the early church. The journey of God’s love through time ends as children learn that God will make everything right in the end (Rev. 21:3-5a).

All these lessons were grouped into themes such as, love (of course), courage, respect, humility, and faith; each theme had a memory verse to match. For example, with the stories of Zaccheus and the Prodigal Son, the theme was forgiveness. Forgiveness was defined as, “deciding that someone who has wronged you doesn’t have to pay.” The corresponding verse was Colossians 3:13, “Put up with one another. Forgive one another if you are holding something against someone. Forgive, just as the Lord forgave you.” The theme and verse are woven into the activities and lessons for the week.

Each Sunday was and is an adventure! From skits and trivia games to discussions and reflections to arts and crafts, each week has been fun and engaging. A second grader told his mother, “My favorite part of Sunday is Sunday School!” A father stopped me one morning to tell me that despite not making it to the service, he had to bring his daughter because she refused to miss Sunday School. Parents also have the opportunity to catch up on any missed Sundays and continue these lessons on God’s love through the weekly devotionals found in the Parent Cue app that follows along with the curriculum.

However, absolutely none of this would have been possible without an amazing team of teachers who took a leap of faith to teach

and minister our children. When you see these people, please thank them for their commitment to our children; Robin & Ted Eccels, Margaret Pape, Carrie Yastremski, CeCe Griffin, Jeannie & David McArthur, Barbara Black, Karen Von Der Bruegge, Drew Welch, Louise & Jimmie Thurmond, Lisa Miller, Joe Kaski, Lauren & Pete McLaughlin, Greg Sethness, Kristin Tips, Ashlee Beichlin, and Ben Kasukonis.

Orange you glad… we’re gearing up for another incredible year with Orange! As of writing, the 2023-2024 theme is not available, but as of publication, we will be well into the excitement of planning a new school year. If you’re interested in learning more about Orange or joining this incredible ministry, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

“praiSe him wiTh TrumpeT Sound”

cec world miSSionS

by Eric Fenton

The Band and Bible Mission will make its 10th journey to Uganda this July. Every year we have enjoyed seeing our band students grow in their skill and faith. The scholarship recipients from secondary school through university have made us proud of their achievement.

We will be celebrating a special graduation this year as Emmanuel Mugoya, seen below right, graduates from the medical school of Uganda Christian University. He is a former band captain of the Mengo Boys and Girls Brigade Band at Namirembe Cathedral. He has also had scholarships from secondary school through Makerere University earning a B.S. in Public Health.

Last year Richard Akugi and Charity graduated with Information Technology degrees. We are funding internships for both of them. Richard is working for the Archbishop of Uganda in the provincial office and Charity is working with the Bishop Ruhindi Theological College in the Bunyoro-Kitara Diocese.

Out team this year will be the Rev. Eric Fenton, Janet Fenton, Richard Wallace (band instructor), Robert Packer (percussion instructor), all pictured above, and Dr. Heather Yun and her son Eli, seen below. Heather said, “We are so excited to be part of this trip this year. Music speaks straight to the heart, faster than words, and we know it will be a powerful experience for everyone.”

The British brass band tradition is a key Church of Uganda ministry. They perform at weddings, funerals, and community celebrations, as well as in church on Sunday. They are much loved wherever they perform. Often the instruments they had were old, in poor condition, and barely playable. They did make a joyful noise that would always draw a crowd. Christ Church

saw an opportunity to make a difference and the Band and Bible Mission has been helping since 2013.

The team works with three bands. The Namirembe Boys and Girls Brigade Band is in the capital of Kampala at Namirembe Cathedral. The Nebbi Diocese Brass Band is composed of people of all ages. The Bunyoro-Kitara Diocese Brass Band is the only one with a teacher assigned, Felix Kasumba. This is the band that Eric saw on that first trip and was the inspiration for the mission.

How to support the mission:

• Donations of musical instruments of any kind.

• Donations for scholarships and Mission expenses.

• Most importantly, we earnestly desire your prayers. They are much appreciated!

The team wishes to thank the people of Christ Church and all who prayed and paid for the success of this mission. You have made a difference in the lives of so many. God bless you!

pSalm 150:3

paGe TurnerS – from The recTor’S book STack

Friedrich Nietzsche asked in 1882, “Is God Dead?” and Time Magazine asked the same question in large red letters on the cover of their April 8, 1966 edition. Eric Metaxas, author of authoritative biographies of both Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, answers them both, Nietzsche and Time, with a resounding “No!” The Rev. Joe McDowell and his wife Helen, stalwart Christ Church members in Cocoa Beach, Florida, gave me a copy of Metaxas’s 2021 fierce response, Is Atheism Dead? Following the lead of C.S. Lewis’s apologetics (from Greek apologia, an intelligent defense), Metaxas takes on the likes of celebrity atheists Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (The End of Faith), and Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great). Metaxas devotes a lion’s share of his book, eleven chapters in fact, to denouncing the theories purporting the earth’s impersonal creation and accidental design. With exacting examples, he discusses the careful placement of the earth’s orbit around the sun, the density of the universe, the strength of the physical forces governing the universe, and the properties of water and sunlight that are fine-tuned so carefully that they could not have emerged randomly. Considering these observations, many of the leading lights in science are now convinced an intelligent, beneficent creator must be the architect of the universe and, in particular, our planet. By far, the most interesting part of Metaxas’s book for me is his chapter on New Testament manuscripts. The fact that we have some 5,000 ancient Greek texts containing all or part of the New Testament is astounding. In comparison, we have only eight manuscripts of the Greek historians Thucydides and Herodotus and no more than five of Aristotle’s work. The textual evidence supporting the Christian faith is somewhat staggering. So staggering that it is likely that onetime vocal antagonists of the faith, Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Anthony Flew became believers late in

their lives. Metaxas concludes, “Atheism is no longer an option for those wishing to be intellectually honest.”

Bob Woodward, of Watergate fame and a 50-year correspondent with The Washington Post, and Robert Costa, CBS commentator, have written a trilogy of books, Fear, Rage, and Peril, that narrate the Trump White House, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the military rise of the People’s Republic of China. Jack Walters loaned me the third volume, Peril, and I have to agree with other reviewers, it moves as fast as the landscape seen from the window of a bullet train. Amidst these fastmoving sequences, Army General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since October 2019, plays a significant part. I will not go into detail about the text due to its political content; however, I will say that it is meticulously researched. In fact, the book includes so many supporting citations that it does not have the fluidity we associate with Woodward’s seasoned journalism.

Two by Ursula Le Guin

Early in my high school teaching career, I was drawn to the Earthsea Trilogy written by Ursula Le Guin. I immersed myself in her fantasy world of isolated islands that stretched across a vast and foreboding ocean, not because I am an inveterate sci-fi fan, but because I appreciate the way Le Guin understands and portrays adolescence and the difficulty we have growing into our unique selves. Ged, also known as Sparrowhawk, the self-serving teenage hero of the three Earthsea novels, nearly destroys himself and others through his wanton acts of egotism. In short, he uses his trove of gifts for selfish ambition instead of the good of others. His coming of age is long and painful…reflecting our own.

the Horn Book Award, the Newbery, and the National Book Award, she ventured to write a fourth edition to the series, Tehanu. This novel examines the struggles of early childhood along with the challenges of later adulthood. The protagonist is Tenar, the heroine of the Tombs of Atuan, the second book in the Earthsea Trilogy. She has redefined herself in late middle age, married a farmer, born two children, and accepted her simpler life. Tenar is wrenched from her predictable days with the sudden death of her husband and the discovery of a young child, Therru, who has been brutally raped and murderously thrown into a campfire. Rescuing the half-blind, terribly disfigured child, Tenar is unknowingly thrust back into the cosmic fight with evil that has not abated during her years of retreat on the farm. Ged, who has markedly declined due to his successive years of battle with those same dark forces, also reenters Tenar’s life at this time. The two of them will experience redemption at the hands of the wounded child Therru, in a most unexpected revelation. In the end, “a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).

Le Guin wrote Gifts, the first in her Annals of the Western Shore Trilogy, in 2004. Returning to her theme begun in A Wizard of Earthsea, the novel expresses the coming-of-age struggles that beset two sixteen-year-olds, the narrator, Orrec Caspro and his girlfriend, Gyr Barre. The two live in an Appalachian-like wasteland, marked by poverty, insufficient farmland, and tribal feuds. The clans protect themselves by the passing of hereditary “gifts.” For Orrec, it is the gift of “undoing,” which can destroy another man or creature with merely a glance. For Gyr, it is the gift of “calling,” which enables

Twenty-two years after Le Guin finished her Earthsea Trilogy, whose volumes garnered continued....

her to draw animals within the firing range of hunters. The two agonize over their gifts and their families’ expectation that they use them. The drumbeat of the novel is its besetting question for all teens: Do you blindly accept the gifts and expectations levied on you by your kin and society, or do you strike out to see if your gifts truly match your passions?

Ursula Le Guin wrote and published books, stories, and poems for over sixty years, a body of work that includes 23 novels, 12 volumes of short stories, 11 volumes of poetry, 13 children’s books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. She married Charles Le Guin in 1953, and the two raised three children. Her commitments to her family and community inspired her to write more honestly about humanity and the unique stress we experience at each passage of life.

No biography has inspired me to lead more effectively than Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I should begin by stating the book is riveting. I found myself either reading or listening to an abridged version of it on Audio Books every time I had a spare ten minutes, had to drive to the Medical Center, or work for an hour or so in the yard. As an aside, I should mention that Richard Thomas, John Boy from the Waltons, is the perfect choice to read the book. You imagine Lincoln himself is reading his story. If you have the Libby app, you can listen to the abridged version for free. I must add a shout out to Nancy Torgerson who gave me this book, knowing full well that I would love it.

Kearns begins the biography in spectacular fashion. The 1860 Republican Primary in Chicago, IL is about to open, and Lincoln is running fourth in a very strong field. Canny as he is honest, Lincoln strategizes to be everyone’s “second choice.” When the

strongest candidates split the vote, Lincoln emerges as the convention’s compromise candidate and is elected on the third ballot. Astonishingly, the president-elect’s first three actions are to call the three “rival” candidates into his cabinet. William H. Seward of New York would serve as Lincoln’s Secretary of State; Edward Bates of Missouri as Attorney General; and Salmon Chase of Ohio as Secretary of the Treasury. Hence Lincoln’s first lesson in leadership: Do not fear your adversaries, yoke their strength, and make them allies.

Equally impressive was Lincoln’s dexterity in dealing with conflicts and personal attacks. He never responded to rabid criticism or character assaults in kneejerk fashion. In fact, some of his closest counselors considered him deaf to those attacks or merely indifferent. He was not, but Lincoln refused to be lured into open, exhausting warfare – especially when he may be able to garner the passion of his enemy and redirect it to good purposes. Lincoln was known to write letters of rebuttal or disapproval and allow them to sit on his desk for days. Often, he would not have to send the letter at all. (If only social media enthusiasts would learn that lesson.) Lincoln’s second lesson for me is don’t be quick to make things worse; go slow and you may make a friend.

Lincoln’s determination to win friends extended more broadly to his view of the divided nation. We should recall his Second Inaugural Address declared in almost Prayer Book prose that has rung across the ages:

‘We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.’

Lincoln never vilified the South. His broad, reconciling vision could only see “One nation under God…” His third leadership lesson for me is to have a larger vision. Do not be corrupted by the warring culture to shrink your dreams. Reflecting on Lincoln’s words from the East Portico of the Capitol, it is tragic beyond words that only forty days

later, John Wilkes Booth would fire a bullet into the back of Lincoln’s skull at point blank range. Surely, it escapes no American that he was assassinated on the evening of Good Friday.

Where have all the thinking people gone? I’ve asked myself that question repeatedly over the past few years as empty-headed debates have raged across the political, science, and religious spectrums. That’s one reason I ordered How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds, by Alan Jacobs. The second reason is that I had previously read with admiration and pleasure Jacob’s Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind, The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography, and Original Sin: A Cultural History. This book, How to Think, has not been my favorite; however, his Thinking Person’s Checklist is worth the price of the short volume. Allow me to list the seven that convicted me: 1 Value learning over debating. 2. Don’t talk for victory. 3. Avoid people who fan flames. 4. You don’t have to respond like everyone else in order to signal your virtue.

5. Gravitate toward people who value community and can handle disagreement with equanimity.

6. Seek out the fairest minded people you know whose views you disagree with – then listen to them without responding for a bit. Try to describe the other’s opinion with words they would use. 7. Patiently, and as honestly as you can, asses your revulsions, for sometimes the ‘ick factor’ is telling; sometimes it’s a distraction from what matters, and his most important advice – 8. When someone provokes you, do not respond right away, but give it five minutes. ‘Take a walk, weed the garden, chop some vegetables. Get your body involved…and you’ll have a better chance of thinking. Imagine the immeasurable improvement in our discourse if we took Jacob’s checklist to heart.

a TribuTe To carol brown

by Halleta Heinrich

Carol Brown Biggs

October 18, 1939 – April 5, 2023

Carol Brown was an angel of a lady who served as Director of Children’s Ministry at Christ Church before me. I got to know her at diocesan events when I worked part time at Saint Marks as their Children’s Ministry Director. I owe her so much, because she recommended me for the Children’s Ministry position at Christ Church which has blessed me and my family for 35 years. She told me she could just see me sitting in her office at the desk where she had sat for five years. Carol knew I would be right for the job. She had to move to the Dallas area due to her beloved husband George’s job. I had resigned from St. Mark’s because I needed to work full-time and God called me to be a full-time Hospital Teacher for Northside School District for several years which had also been a blessing.

When Carol called, I knew this was God

calling me back to Children’s Ministry, and Christ Church was the only Episcopal Church in the Diocese of West Texas which had a full time Children’s Ministry position. I knew this was it! I said “OK, God! You get your way.” God had shown me several years before that He wanted me to use my teaching gifts to serve Him. When I spoke to Carol about Christ Church, I asked these questions “Is it Bible centered? She said, Oh yes!” I asked her if Christ Church was led by people of integrity. She said, “Yes.” When the position was offered to me, I had to say “Yes!”

I saw John McNaughton, former Christ Church Rector and then new Bishop of the Diocese of West Texas, soon after my agreement to serve at Christ Episcopal Church, and he warned me that the people of Christ Church demand excellence from their leaders. He also shared with me that the characteristic of Carol Brown that came to mind most

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vividly was that she wanted to bring joy to the children. I have tried to follow in Carol’s footsteps by providing excellence in Children’s Ministry and joy to our children. Thank you, Carol, for being my role model!

EPISCOPAL

Christ Episcopal Church

510 Belknap Place San Antonio, TX 78212 www.cecsa.org

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 25, Number 3.