September 2015 message

September 2015 • Volume 17, Number 5

At Rally Day the children BELIEVE they will break the pinata

Friends: 2 Introducing our New Youth Minister: 8 It’s Time to Trunk or Treat: 11 Bibles for our Troops: 11 The Sound of Music: 12 From the Rector’s Book Stack: 14

FROM

Friends

In this issue:

This is the seventh in a series of essays that Patrick has offered on the Habits of the Christian life. The others include worship, prayer, rest, work, service, and study.

Youth Ministry ...................... 8 Family Ministry...................10

Grace-Land

Music Ministry ....................12

L

Strategic Planning .............13 Planned Giving ...................13 Page Turners.......................14 Pastoral Care.......................14 Calendar of Events.............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 Mark Wright Back cover photo by Dennis Eberhardt

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PATRICK GAHAN Rector patrickg@cecsa.org

ong ago in the land of Elvis, my friends and I entered into an ignoble agreement, which followed a

succession of comparable conspiracies and preceded not a few more. The arrangement had to do with girls, which was our singular obsession. On this occasion, we had been invited, as part of our boarding school choir, to sing at a large Episcopal Church in Memphis, whose name escapes me, but whose colossal fresco of the blonde Aryan Jesus hovering above the chancel has never left my memory. A big hammer in his right hand would have made our Lord a first cousin to Thor. Two years earlier, almost to the day of our visit, Martin Luther King had been assassinated a few blocks away from where we sang beneath our Nordic Jesus.

Neither Dr. King, nor the incongruence of our West Tennessee ecclesiastical venue, was on our minds that afternoon.

The promise of female companionship had drawn us into the ranks of the choir.

Our survival in an austere southern, male boarding school depended on our escape from the confines of that 450-acre mountain citadel into cities teeming with teenage girls. Dean was the only promising aesthete amongst us. He played the piano brilliantly and wrote music as easily as I made paper airplanes. Mark liked to sing and had a reasonable tenor voice to which I added my own in that small section of our neophyte choir.

Once arriving in Memphis, we were assigned to sponsoring families for lodging and meals. Our prospects seemed bright when we read that the three of us, along with Kent Westberry (later to serve as the DA of a large

Midwestern city), were assigned to White Pillars. The rest of the choristers had been farmed out to families with predictable names like – Hudson, Tremont, Carraway, and Greene – but we were headed to an antebellum estate with a celebrated moniker. Predictions of dark black servants, sporting bright white jackets, carrying silver trays of frosted pewter goblets filled with Mint Juleps flashed through my head, but they did not linger there because my central contemplation was the dance being hosted that night by Saint Mary’s and the Lausanne School – old Memphis girls’ academies. The promise of a weekend romance hung as thick as the air rising off the Mississippi River.

The chauffeur sent to fetch us in an ancient silver Fleetwood, jumped the curb and slammed into a No Parking sign. This introduction, rather than those of white-jacketed servants would soon replace our assessment of life at White Pillars. Calvin, white headed and stooped over, wore a navy blue uniform and service cap, which made him look more like a Maoist than a driver. He reached for our bags, but fearing for the condition of his heart and back, we threw them in the trunk ourselves, and bounded into the cavernous Cadillac.

Unluckily, I drew the front seat, for after Calvin disembarked from the curb with a thud and a clang, he immediately turned onto a one-way street heading in the wrong direction. “I just know there’s a one-way street here some-where,” he said. To which, in my horror at seeing a stampede of automobiles charging at us, I responded, “Yes, sir, and you’re on it!”

All was forgiven once we arrived at White Pillars, aptly named for the four towering Doric columns rising aloft like titans to guard the sprawling entrance of the mansion. Our hostess was a tiny, wizened lady, who welcomed us warmly and offered us refreshments. Calvin, no longer in his communist apparel, now wore a white jacket, but alas his

From Our Rector... silver tray bore instant iced tea – not mint juleps. Once served, our hostess announced a surprise for us, one that issued from our starry-eyed reveries.

“I have not one, not two, not three, but four beautiful girls for you to escort this evening.”

“So imagine our distress when the four beautiful ladies descended the grand staircase wearing hoop skirts straight off the set of Gone with the Wind.”

To this news, I wanted to sing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, but Mark, ever the concrete thinker, asked, “May we wear blue jeans to the dance?”

“Why of course,” she beamed, “Everyone in Memphis wears blue jeans.”

So imagine our distress when the four beautiful ladies descended the grand staircase wearing hoop skirts straight off the set of Gone with the Wind.

Their ringlet hair complemented the antiquarian portrait. The fact that all four had shoulders as broad as Dick Butkus and enough blood red rouge to make them look like mimes on Bourbon Street distorted the picture and dashed our amorous plans. Standing at the foot of the stairs in our carefully patched blue jeans and tie-dyed t-shirts, we needed shrewd stratagem in order to survive the night.

The problem, of course, was how we were going to entertain our four belles and, at the same time, ingratiate ourselves to the other gentle women folk at the dance? To return to our highland campus without tales of quixotic liaisons would seriously devalue our social currency – the femoral artery of a boy’s boarding school survival.

The formidable obstacle standing in the path of our intrigue was none other than the stalwart headmaster himself, Fr. Franklin Martin. His edict that “all ladies must be accompanied by an escort” had proved difficult previously, though not impossible. Six

months before when we had invited the Margaret Hall School for Girls down from Versailles, KY to join us for the homecoming dance, we met the letter of Fr. Martin’s law by auctioning our incompatible dates. We would find a willing and substantially broke underclassman and pay him five dollars to escort our date for the remainder of the weekend. Gary Marlowe, my enterprising future roommate, made forty dollars and seemingly enjoyed his assembled harem of eight.

plateau that we would become such devoted friends. Perhaps, as we say in marriage, “opposites attract.”

Nevertheless, looking back I realize three ingredients fused our friendship – proximity, necessity, and affinity – in that order. At its acme, Christian friendship emulates the Holy Trinity, in whose image we are made and whose qualities of affection are bestowed on us should we surrender to Him. On this accord, Gregory of Nazianzus, 4th century Archbishop of Constantinople, wrote these illustrative words:

Our Memphis quartet would not be assuaged so easily. For one, Gary Now belonging to the One, we have Marlowe was not part of the choir. For become one; belonging to the Trinity, another, we had less than two bucks we have gained unity; become of one between us. And then – eureka! The plan nature, of one soul, of equal worth; came to me, as if carried on the wings of belonging to the one Logos-Reason, Hermes. We would take turns attending we have escaped divisive unreason; to the ladies at the dance. Much like belonging to the one Spirit, we are soldiers on guard, we would rotate the stirred, but together; belonging to the duty throughout the night, each taking one who is Truth, we read the same an hour assignment. The rotation conclusions; belonging to Wisdom, worked splendidly until Westberry we are of one mind; belonging to the reported for his stint. Imagining that Light, we live together ‘as children of he willingly gamboled amid the four light’, belonging to the Way, we act in hoop-skirted lasses, we pocketed our unison…1 wristwatches and directed our “...looking back I realize three ingredients full attention fused our friendship – proximity, necessity, to the maidens of Memphis, and affinity – in that order. At its acme, who danced Christian friendship emulates the Holy alluringly to the sonorous Trinity, in whose image we are made and rhythms of Sly and the whose qualities of affection are bestowed on Family Stone. us should we surrender to Him.” Westberry, for his part, did not speak to us for the rest of the semester.

Home is Where the Heart Is The adventures, misadventures, trials, collusions, contests, brawls, and boasts Being thrown together onto a particular Dean, Mark, and I have shared during piece of geography is an incubator for our forty-five years of friendship would friendship. While I experienced this fill a volume that would make Leo certainty in a profound way in that Tolstoy wince. Separated now by many curious, isolated boarding school, I also miles, hours, and circumstances, not experienced it while serving in the Army, an ounce of awkwardness mediates especially during lonely deployments amongst us when we’re together. and long training assignments. I’ve Each one of the three of us is entirely heard it said that “distance makes the different from the others, and we have heart grow fonder,” but I believe more led decidedly distinct lives. We could not have predicted upon our first 1 Gregory of Nazianzus, “Oration 6,” cited meeting at that spare, rustic boarding by F. Gerald Downing, Anglican Theological school situated on the Appalachian Review, Summer 2013, Vol. 97, “Friends in

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From Our Rector... strongly that proximity propels us toward one another.

Indicative of that truth, I met Mark during my very first hour at St. Andrew’s School. In those days, parents were asked to merely drop off their fourteen year-old son at the flagpole, unload his one footlocker, exchange a quick hug and handshake, and then turn the car around to start for home.

Fr. Martin did not invite parents to see their son’s dorm room, nor could he see why they would want to do so. Always the benevolent dictator, Fr. Martin became to us teacher, priest, physician, psychotherapist, and parent the minute our military surplus footlockers hit the ground beneath the flagpole.

the north wall, announcing to us that the God of this place had serious designs on this unsuspecting cadre of hapless boys. Mark and I sat on the front seat of the Gospel side, where we would be assigned for the entirety of our Third Form (Freshman) year. Fr. Martin stood in the pulpit and offered us one sentence. “Mr. Speegle will now welcome you to campus.”

“Mr. Speegle,” whom I would learn was popularly known as “Coach Speedy Speegle,” was the Dean of Discipline and the Head Wrestling Coach. What his oration lacked in eloquence was masked by its striking, condensed content. I recall every word. “Number one. I have no neck. I don’t need one,” he said as he pointed to the obvious physiological trait. His large square head sat on his shoulders without interruption. “Two, we are not going to take you anywhere.

History with Sister Frances, OHC. Roy was called back to the family farm after our sophomore year, but not before his brilliant creation of the Junior Mafia of the Tennessee Mountains. While my complicity in Boykin’s Cosa Nostra got me paddled within an inch of my life by Speedy Speegle, it did establish the three of us in the lore of that venerable monastic school. Roy, for his part, would become an eminent Ph.D. entomologist, making more money off jousting with insects than Mark and I make together.

Proximity propels friendships. Where we land in this life matters. This is not only a personal observation but a Biblical one. It is not incidental to the Creation Story that, in the second I remember vividly that moment fortychapter of Genesis, humanity is placed six years ago. In order to drive me to in a garden. There, on a particular piece Sewanee on that first day of school, of real estate with noted boundaries, Mother had borrowed Sadie Adam and Eve are invited Messer’s 1956 brown and live their lives in fidelity “Proximity propels friendships. Where we to white Studebaker. Sadie was to God and to one another. saintly about loaning mother land in this life matters. This is not only a The fact that they do a bad her precious sedan, especially job of it sets the table for personal observation but a Biblical one.” since my dad had kicked in the rest of human history. the driver’s side door on his last family visit. Neither Sadie, nor If you want to go to town; if you ever Later, when Israel cries out to God Mom had the wherewithal to repair pass my Saturday dust inspection and from their anguish in Egypt, the Lord it, forcing the driver to slide in from we let you go to town, you’d best get promises to free them and settle them the passenger’s door. As soon as we your thumb out, and hope to God that a in a defined land. Within the confines pulled up to the flagpole, got out, and farmer picks you up and not one of those of that “promised land,” Israel is to opened the trunk, a senior prefect took drunk college boys.” Fr. Martin shifted become the new Eden, and, yes, live in hold of the WWII olive drab footlocker uneasily at the mention of the Almighty fidelity with God and one another. and instructed Mother and me to say a in connection with hitchhiking. “Three, quick adieu, for Fr. Martin was ready if you are walking in the woods, and God said to Moses, ‘I’ve taken a good, to give us our welcome speech in the you spy something shiny, you’d best long look at the affliction of my people Chapel. Hot, stinging tears attacked my run, because somebody’s gonna shoot in Egypt. I’ve heard their cries for face as I watched the Studebaker start you.” At this warning, I elbowed my deliverance from their slave masters; down the winding road from whence new friend and asked, “What’s shiny I know all about their pain. And now we had just come. Just then a tow- out there?” To which Mark replied, “A I have come down to help them, pry headed boy approached me, and with still, you idiot, a still.” From that day them loose from the grip of Egypt, get as bright a countenance as if we were forward, if I ever caught sight of even a them out of that country and bring at the Alabama State Fair asked, “You pinpoint of sunlight reflecting off dew them to a good land with wide-open want to walk down together?” It would on an oak leaf, I took off like Bob Hayes spaces, a land lush with milk and be the first of many walks we shared. in the 1964 Olympics. honey.’ Exodus 3:7-8 I could not have predicted our welcome speech. Among other disturbing sights and sounds, the Chapel was unlike any church that I had ever seen. White crumbling stucco adorned the outside, making it look more like a far west Franciscan mission than a Tennessee schoolboys’ chapel. Once inside, a lifesized, yellowing crucifix hung from

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Unbeknownst to Mark and me at the moment, LeRoy Boykin, from Boykin, SC was sitting on that same front pew.

Roy would become the third member of our freshmen triumvirate, and, by our estimation, a most important part. Roy was blessed with an intellect beyond Mark’s and mine and the sole reason the two of us passed Ancient

Because Israel does as poorly as Adam and Eve, God himself comes to us – not as some cosmic, omnipresent, impersonal force, but as a human being, Jesus Christ. He is constrained to a defined area. Modern Israel is only 73 miles wide, and Jesus stayed well within those confines. More importantly, God’s plan was for Jesus to come to a

From Our Rector... particular place and people and there make the ultimate will of the Father known. The lyrical first lines of John’s Gospel call to us across the ages for just that reason. Eugene Peterson’s uniquely accurate translation of John’s message sends this point – home!

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.

We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John 1:14

“Jesus makes his friends and lives out God’s plan in a particular place. Proximity is not coincidental but essential to our Christian life.”

Not incidentally, Jesus claims the seaside town of Capernaum as his hometown, and that is where he calls his first disciples – those he will later regard as his “friends” (John 15:15).

Jesus makes his friends and lives out God’s plan in a particular place.

Proximity is not coincidental but essential to our Christian life. God’s will is exercised through us in the place where we are set and amongst the friends we make there.

We are mistaken if we imagine that we are “just passing through” this world. Our lives were forged to inhabit specific destinations at exact times so that the love of God may be concretely expressed through us. Rootlessness relegates Christian ministry to a mirage always over the next horizon. When we hold ourselves back for something better in the future, the friendships God has planned for us are diminished.

While it is true that the modern economy often demands that we have a succession of homes, that should not constrain our putting down roots at each stop. Kay and I encountered the spiritual masters of successive moves in Beaumont, TX, where we served.

Petrochemical engineers and executives with Exxon-Mobil, Huntsman, Bayer, and Dupont would arrive in town on Saturday, unload their huge moving van, set the furniture in the house, hang their pictures, unpack their clothes, make their beds, and be seated in Church on Sunday morning. By noon, the wife was signed up with the Women of the Church, the man as an usher, and the children as acolytes! They did not waste time living on the fringes.

Even St. Paul, whose life seems wildly nomadic, remained in Antioch for a year, Corinth for a year and a half, Macedonia for perhaps two years, and Ephesus for three. Disciple making is inconceivable apart from friendship, and few disciples are made longdistance. Shane Claiborne, the founder of the Simple Way community in Philadelphia, states this about our place and calling:

engine blew up in Terrell, TX. Dean commandeered a car to come fetch me and deliver me to the hundred-degree practice field.

Seven months later, I would have to call him to deliver me, yet again. Knowing that I had long envisaged a date with Felice Meyer, a glamorous senior, some of the senior football players entered into a dark enterprise to humiliate me. On a Sunday night, when I was perfunctorily pouring over my Logic homework, Felice phoned me and asked if she could pick me up for a late pizza supper (How I did not smell this one out is beyond me – Felice never called me before, nor did she call me after.)

We drove to the old Pizza Hut on San Pedro, and she ate while I worshipped her goddess features across the linoleum. Once dinner was finished, we exited the restaurant, where I walked above the asphalt…but not for long.

Out of the darkness came senior, AllConference guard, Steve Cordes, who tackled me, tied me up, and threw me into the trunk of his Chevy Malibu.

He then drove me twenty miles out of town and dumped me, still tied up, in the middle of a Mexican barrio. The distraught residents thought I was a casualty of the cartel and would not

The seeds of the gospel are really small.

They are really about meeting God at dinner tables and living rooms and in little towns that may not be known by the rest of the world. But it seems that is exactly what happens when God moves into the neighborhood in Jesus… It’s that which I think we’re invited into – to grow into a neighborhood, “God’s will is exercised through us in the to plant ourselves somewhere and to get place where we are set and amongst the to know the people friends we make there.” there, and to see the seeds of the kingdom grow there.2 untie me for the better part of an hour.

It took me another thirty minutes to get Necessity is the Mother of…Friendship? directions to San Antonio.

Dean, Mark and I graduated from St. Andrew’s amongst thirty-three others in our class and set off for the larger world of higher education. Mark headed back to South Georgia, and Dean and I made the 1,000-mile journey to Trinity University here in San Antonio, and it was here that Dean orchestrated a series of rescues to salvage my education. I was making the drive in mid-August to begin early football practice, when my antique Fiat with its “sewing machine” 2 Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens & Dwight J. Friesen, The New Parish (Downers Grove, IL:IVP, 2014), 27

I then started the long walk home. Five miles into the trek, I hitched a ride on a flatbed truck hauling citrus fruit. At the junction of De Zavala and 410, I phoned Dean, who, again, borrowed a car and came to get me. We went back to campus via the fireworks stand and subsequently set so many M-80’s and Cherry Bombs in Cordes’s room that the San Antonio Fire Department was dispatched. Not to be outdone, Cordes eventually put a full-grown alligator in our room, but that’s a story for another day.

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From Our Rector...

They could see how rotten he felt, how Again he came and found them While Dean has often been my rescuer, deeply he was suffering. Job 2:11-13 sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. his most generous act was to finance So leaving them again, he went away my college livelihood. I continued and prayed for the third time, saying to impersonate an athlete at Trinity, We do not need our Christian friends the same words. Then he came to the playing both football and basketball to make everything better for us, to disciples and said to them, ‘Are you rather badly. Dean, on the other hand, solve our problems, to remedy our still sleeping and taking your rest? got a job waiting tables in an upscale challenges. No, what we most need is See, the hour is at hand, and the Son San Antonio restaurant, and every for our friends to simply be with us, of Man is betrayed into the hands of night when he returned to the room, he and let us know that we are not on a solitary journey.

People are forever sinners. Get up, let us be going. See, offered me the change he had collected. my betrayer is at hand.’ Matthew I made twelve to fourteen dollars every asking me should they stop by this 26:36-46 night that he reported to work.

Since a gallon of gas was $.39, a “He showers his love on us. He always Birds of a Feather taco $.29, and a pitcher of beer shows up. No sacrifice is too great for was $1.25, Dean made me the Howard Hughes of Murchison God to draw us to Himself. Those are our Christian friendship is also based on our attraction for one Dormitory. Alas, even with my own marching orders for friendship – another. Most would determine pockets full of Dean’s change, that “affinity” should have Felice would still not go out with nothing less.” been listed first, yet so often me. we are initially drawn to one I have needed my friends to come newly widowed person’s home or take another due to proximity and need. around me often in my life. In the midst lunch over to a friend who is recovering Outside of Kay, Mark is my oldest of trials, disappointments, loss, job from an injury or invite out a friend friend. I cannot remember a time from misfortunes, family pain, and death, who has lost his job. My answer is that first day of boarding school when Dean, Mark, and others have come always the same – “Yes.” “I am afraid we have not been friends. Never have alongside me. Only last year here in San that I will bother her” or “What if I we let the sun go down on an argument Antonio, several of you took your place embarrass him,” you ask. Friends in or disagreement between us. Actually, beside me and helped me through need do not hesitate to show their love, it is impossible to stay angry at Mark. three trials that I did not see coming. and the most important movement of He’ll just change the subject and have friendship is showing up. Our brothers you rolling on the carpet with one of You helped me get well. the disciples show us what happens his antics – antics that I have heard a When my sister was found dead by when we fail to come alongside the one hundred times over, but I still laugh. detectives in Nashville last July, my we love. Recall that terrible Thursday Sports first drew us together, I imagine. friends didn’t gloss over the tragedy, night in the Garden of Gethsemane: We both played football, where Mark but took time to be with me. On a much Then Jesus went with them to a place was accomplished. We also played smaller scale, I felt a bit like Job in the called Gethsemane; and he said to high school basketball together, but Old Testament, who loses everything his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over he shouldn’t have. We nicknamed him dear to him in a tsunami of tragedy. there and pray.’ He took with him “Zero” because he was the only player When his friends hear of it, they quickly Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, in the history of St. Andrew’s School, make their way to his side. What they and began to be grieved and agitated. who played three years without scoring do at that time is a perfect portrait of Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply a single basket. That’s hard to do. But if necessary holy friendship: grieved, even to death; remain here, you met Mark, you’d see how he turned and stay awake with me.’ And going something pitiful like that into an art Three of Job’s friends heard of all a little farther, he threw himself on form. To this day, people from all over the trouble that had fallen on him. the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, the country address letters, emails, Each traveled from his own country— if it is possible, let this cup pass from and texts to “Zero,” and most have Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from me; yet not what I want but what you forgotten why.

Shuhah, Zophar from Naamath— want.’ Then he came to the disciples and went together to Job to keep him and found them sleeping; and he Mark has been with me at every turn company and comfort him. When said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay in the road. When my brothers died, he they first caught sight of him, they awake with me one hour? Stay awake was there. When my mother died, he couldn’t believe what they saw—they and pray that you may not come into was there. When my sister was found hardly recognized him! They cried the time of trial; the spirit indeed is dead, he was the first one to call. He out in lament, ripped their robes, and willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again makes no show of his fidelity to me, dumped dirt on their heads as a sign he went away for the second time and and if the situation is gray, he, alone, of their grief. Then they sat with him prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass can get me to laugh again. That’s on the ground. Seven days and nights unless I drink it, your will be done.’ because he knows me and loves me, they sat there without saying a word.

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From Our Rector... which I do not deserve. When I speak to my children about friendship, Mark jumps quickly into their imagination.

His Georgia roots and my Alabama ones kept him in the orbit of my family. All three of the Gahan children can recite Mark stories ad nauseam.

I am rather sure someone like Mark was on St. Paul’s mind when he was admonishing the faux-sophisticated, self-satisfied Christians in Corinth. I often tell other Texans that it helps to imagine those 1st century Corinthians as if they were modern Austinites. The Corinthians were the cosmopolitan, with-it, totally-in-the-know crowd, but they had badly undershot the standard of Christian friendship and fidelity.

Thus, in the third most exalted lines of the New Testament (the first being the Sermon on the Mount and the second being John 1), Paul poetically lets them have it with both barrels: If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 Those seven verses are a snapshot of Christian friendship, a picture of true affinity drawn directly from our understanding of God through Christ.

As Paul starkly queries in another letter – ‘He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else’

(Romans 8:32)? The witness of Christ shows us unequivocally that God does not ration out his love to us like some teenager’s allowance. He showers his love on us. He always shows up. No sacrifice is too great for God to draw us to Himself. Those are our own marching orders for friendship – nothing less.

I have failed that high calling more than once, but I swore to myself that I would not fail Mark. So when he called me some years ago and asked that if I would bury his young son, Benjamin Hayes, should he die of his aggressive Leukemia, I answered, “yes,” but without thinking about it too much.

After all, Benjamin Hayes was young.

He was in remission. Happier days had to be ahead. Mark pressed on.

the South sacristans. The diminutive coffin, draped in white, sat in front of the altar. Dean was sitting there at the foot of the body, just where I knew he would be. Mark was sitting upright like a West Point cadet next to his estranged wife. I was singing the lines of the Collect for a Child’s Burial – ‘O God, whose beloved Son took children in his arms and blessed them…’ when my own mother walked down the aisle and my control gave way, but I kept on singing. This was yet another path three friends would walk together.

Your brother,

Patrick U

“I want you to bury him in the Chapel at Sewanee.”

“Okay.”

“I want you to sing the Eucharistic Prayer over him.”

“I’ll try… But, Mark, we aren’t headed that way…”

“Just promise.”

“Yes, I promise.”

Then in late October Mark phoned to say that his son had died. He was nine years old. I was to bury him on All Saints’ Day in the mammoth Chapel at Sewanee.

The day arrived, and I stood there flanked by every one of the University of

Patrick with his life-long friends

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

I Corinthians 13:7 7

MINISTRY

Crossing

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was in my early twenties and had just crossed over from a rather painful phase of life. I got an invitation in the mail that read, “Come out and ROB HARRIS create something Assistant Rector new with us!” robh@cecsa.org The invitation spoke to my soul because of course, personally, I was creating something new as well. The invitation was to join in a “renovation process” at the local Episcopal college ministry. I answered the call and went. I can remember being anxious as I crossed that threshold. I knew no one and still felt “different.”

Part of me wanted to turn around and drive home, but another part pushed me through that door. I’m glad I answered the call of the angel on that second shoulder.

The room was decorated for a dinner with tables filling the room. The tablecloths were architectural plans,

the

Threshold

emphasizing the renovation theme.

The room was filled with excitement.

There was a buzz. And what do you know? I knew someone in the room, Bryce. Bryce and I had grown up in the same town and knew of one another for years. I had no idea that this meeting would be the beginning of a flourishing relationship which I would call upon in the many years to come when grief became too much or my heart was bursting with joy.

Becoming part of that renovation process changed me. The change was not just in the gaining of a new, lasting friendship, but in being a part of the new creation of so much more. Because I and so many others took a chance to cross that threshold: more long lasting friendships were formed; incredible ministry happened; and lives were changed.

During my time there, prisoners in the local prisons were transformed; the little children of the impoverished neighborhood around us were blessed; the sick of the same low income neighborhood were afforded healthcare in the creation of a new health clinic;

and so much more. So many people were blessed because so many anxious, uncertain people decided to cross the threshold of that building to “come and see.”

The same is true at this time, in THIS place. We are renovating Youth Ministry at Christ Church and there is SO much to get done. We have plans for the expansion of our mission and service ministries this year; we will have new worship opportunities; there will be new Bible studies and neighborhood groups starting; there will be fun events; and opportunities to expand your spiritual horizons…and much more. But these things will not get done unless those that are called step across the threshold in faith. It can be a scary, anxietyinducing thing to try something new, but on behalf of the church, on behalf of our Lord, on behalf of those that will be blessed through this ministry, I urge you…cross the threshold and with us, create something new.

Rob

Introducing...

W

hile at Christ Church my hope is to continue to build upon the great legacy of proclaiming the gospel and creating disciples w i t h i n the youth program. One of my top priorities is to share in the every day lives of our students (contacting them at school, games and life events) and encouraging them to find God’s calling for their lives. However, as a youth

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pastor, my goal is not only to touch the lives of our students through God’s love, but to move students and parents into action so they can become the salt and light to a dark and tasteless world.

As we look to build upon the youth program here at Christ Church, every decision will be made prayerfully and with these questions in mind: “Does this program proclaim the Kingdom of God and the message of Jesus Christ?” “Does it participate in Christian community?” “Does it help practice a student’s heart to live out the mission of our Savior now and after one leaves home?”

Gavin

...Gavin Rogers - our new youth minister and a man who wears many hats!

Youth Ministry...

2015 Youth Ministry Calendar REGULAR EVENTS: Sunday School

Every Sunday, 10 - 11 AM in the Carriage

House (HS upstairs, JH downstairs)

Youth Group & Dinner

Every Monday, 6 - 8 PM in the Carriage House

Serve at Chandler House

Every third Sunday, 1:30 - 3 PM

SPECIAL EVENTS: SEPTEMBER 20 Sunday School in the Carriage House Begins

(High School & Middle School) 28 Meet Gavin: Fun Dinner for Parents & Youth

(In the Parish Hall on Manday at 6:30 PM) OCTOBER 4 Acolyte Training (10 AM in the Sanctuary)

Sunday Funday @ Main Event 5 Youth Group/Dinner Begins (Carriage House) 25 No Sunday School 31: Service: Trunk or Treat (5 PM) NOVEMBER 1 Sunday Funday @ South Texas Corn Maize 14 Confirmation Team Building Day 22 Service: Holiday Meal at St. Jude’s Home DECEMBER 6 Youth-carist (11 AM- 12 PM in the Carriage House)

Sunday Funday @ Incredible Pizza

Service: SAMMs Christmas Dinner 12 Bike the Missions for Mission 27 No Sunday School

Need more information?

Contact Gavin Rogers, Youth Pastor (210) 736-3132 X gavin@cecsa.org www.cecsa.org

JANUARY 10 Confirmation Classes begin

Sunday Funday @ Alamo Plaza FEBRUARY 9 Serve at the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner 21 Service: Stop Hunger Now (Meal Packs) 26-28 Spring Retreat MARCH 6 Sunday Funday @ Lazer Tag 14-17 Spring Break Beach Trip to Port A 20 Service: Operation Paintbrush APRIL 3 8-9 10 24

Sunday Funday @ Bowlero Confirmation Retreat Confirmation Sunday Service: Fiesta @ The Thunderbird

MAY 8 22

Sunday Funday: End of School Pool Party Brunch for Graduating Seniors at 10 AM and Senior Blessings at 11 AM ser vice

SUMMER EVENTS:

Mission Trip to Navajoland

Mission Trip to Guatemala

Mission Trip to Waco

Summer Texas Road Trip

Wacky Wednesday Fun Days

9

MINISTRY Fleshing Out “The Plan” So That Our Children May BELIEVE “A Plan Has Always Existed In the Mind of God….” --Sofia Cavalletti

A HALLETA HEINRICH Director of Family Ministries halletah@cecsa.org

s many of you know, I love what I have learned from my training in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, the Christian f o r m a t i o n program created

by Italian Bible scholar Sofia

Cavalletti. The overriding theme which runs through all levels of this method is the sure knowledge that “a plan has always existed in the mind of God …” called “the history of salvation” salvation of humanity and all creation through Jesus Christ, God’s Son and our Savior. This summer I started the last part of my training in this method with Level III of Catechesis, which is for 9-year-olds through adults. So watch out! Someday we may have an adult Atrium classroom. I thank Christ Church for sponsoring me in this training. Through it my faith grows deeper, but simpler. Child-like faith is the ultimate in faith development, and I think I may be getting there.

I’ve even gotten more of a glimmer of understanding of the great gift and mystery of Holy Communion through what I learned this summer.

Over my last twenty-seven years here at Christ Church, we have developed a very solid way to flesh out God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ for our children, so that they may “BELIEVE in their Hearts. Jesus is Lord!” -- this year’s Christian Education theme taken from Romans 10:9.

Sunday School

for

Preschoolers

Acceptance of the unconditional love of God through Jesus Our Good Shepherd is the foundation of our preschool Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Level I. When these little ones realize how much they are loved by Jesus, they know who they are and whose they are – God’s precious children. What a gift and what a strong foundation to build

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upon!

Sunday School for First Graders

and

Second

The True Vine parable of Jesus is the cornerstone of our first and second graders in the Level II Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Atrium. Through this teaching they know Jesus is the True Vine, source of life eternal, and they are the branches – part of Him of which they must remain. The children learn how to remain in Christ through study of the Bible and Sacraments.

They learn that they are part of God’s plan of the History of Salvation as they study Creation and Redemption in Christ, and look forward to the Second Coming of Christ (Parousia) when God will be All in All. They learn that they have an important role to play in this great history by bringing others to the Hope of Christ.

Sunday School

for

Third Graders

By the time our children reach third grade they are ready for “The Story,” a program which presents all the great stories in the Bible in order from Creation in Genesis to the Second Coming of Christ in Revelations. They will see that the source of our knowledge of The Plan of God is His Holy Word – the Bible. Third graders are the perfect age for this great undertaking as we live out a goal in Children’s Ministry to make sure our children are literate in the Bible upon leaving Children’s Ministry and entering Youth Ministry.

Sunday School for Fourth Graders

and

Fifth

Our fourth and fifth graders are grappling with much as preadolescents, so we offer them “Grapple” -- a curriculum which points them to God’s Word as the best place to find answers to questions relevant to their particular stage in life. Now it’s time to really apply all they have learned in the earlier grades to the challenges in their lives. They will learn that answers to their questions and guidance through

life’s challenges can be found in His Word – the Bible. They will know that they each have a special role to play in The Plan of God. Believe Children’s Chapel Each Sunday a lesson from Believe will be taught in Children’s Chapel from 11 - 11:30 AM. These lessons will coincide with the Believe sermons and Adult and Youth Sunday School classes. Children whose parents are attending the 11 AM service will be accompanied by staff to join parents at Announcements and for Communion. Parents who attend the 9 AM service are encouraged to bring their children to Chapel after Sunday School for the Believe lesson and pick them up at 11:30 in Chapel.

A Coffee Fellowship Time will be provided in the Tomlin Room on the first floor of the FMC during Children’s Chapel for parents not attending the 11 AM service who want to continue discussion of the Adult Sunday School Believe lesson of the day or just visit.

All of the Sunday morning programs we offer for children are presented in the hope that our children may BELIEVE and receive and share with others the greatest gift of God’s Love through Jesus Christ as expressed in John 3:16 -- “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever BELIEVES in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This verse truly expresses The Plan of God. May all of us do our part to play a role in bringing about this plan!

Love in Christ,

Halleta

Family Ministry...

“I Believe

W

e say “I believe in the Communion of Saints” every time we state our faith in saying the Apostles Creed. We will celebrate all of those Saints on All Saints Day, Sunday, November 1 at 10 AM in Children’s Chapel as all children’s Sunday School classes gather to honor this great communion of believers past, present, and future. What exactly is the Communion of Saints? Our Book of Common Prayer has the answer in the Catechism on page 862: “The communion of saints is the whole family of God, the living and the dead, those whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by sacrament, prayer, and praise.”

I love this answer because it makes clear that all who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are Saints of God. Saints are not perfect but made perfect

in

…the Communion

of

in Christ. That means we are all saints joined by those before us and those who will follow who give their lives to Jesus.

As part of our celebration, we will be doing something special for some living saints who serve in our armed forces overseas by making cards and writing notes of gratitude to them.

These cards and notes from the children will accompany Bibles for the Troops for which the children will collect funds on Veterans Day, Sunday, November 8.

Saints” they are bright and happy ones. No scary ones, please. All Saints Day is a day of Light and Love of Christ who gives us eternal Life with his Saints.

There is much to celebrate!

All Saints treats will be served after our Chapel gathering.

Children may wear their Halloween costumes from the night before to church in celebration of the saints. Make sure

Bibles

for our

O

ur children will be collecting funds for purchasing Bibles For Our Troops, a project of the American Bible Society, on Veterans Day Sunday, November 8 at both the 9:00 and 11:00 services. A $5 donation will provide a Bible for an American hero. These brave men and women who volunteer to put their lives on the line to protect us and our God-given freedom make up the Greatest Generation of our time. Let’s show our appreciation by helping to give them God’s Word.

Sometimes that’s the only thing they have to hold on to in times of danger, sorrow, fear and loneliness.

Troops Project “We put a literature rack inside our dining facility…The Bibles are placed in the rack in the morning and by lunchtime they are gone!” --a Navy Chaplain “A man’s relationship with God tends to grow a lot closer during an experience like war. The Bibles gave us strength and courage throughout the deployment.” --a Lieutenant Iraq War Veteran

The following are some great quotes from our troops from the American Bible Society:

The American Bible Society states “When our Service Members have God’s Word, they are able to experience peace where there is none.” Let’s show our appreciation to them for their service by making sure each has God’s Word in their hands.

“Having God’s Word to rely on for daily guidance is what helps keep me from despair.” --a female Corporal

Halleta

Trunk or Treat October 31  5 pm

11

MINISTRY A Gift

from

God

“Music and silence—how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered Hell— though longer ago than humans, reckoning in light years, could express—no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise—Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile—Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end.”

– The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis

T

hroughout JOSH BENNINGER these past couple Director of Music of months my and Worship fellow staff joshb@cecsa.org members and I have been reading and analyzing The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, as part of our weekly bible study. The passage quoted above in chapter 22 struck me as both comical and true. Noise is the absence of music or silence. Noise is not just to be thought of as something audible, but it can be anything that separates us from our innermost thoughts, prayer and our developing relationship with God. We have a tendency to fill and saturate every spare millimeter of our lives with social media, gossip, news stories, texting, TV shows with laugh tracks and anything and everything that keeps us from centering our focus on Jesus and his love for us. Music on the other hand, from Bach to Vivaldi, is a gift from God - it bridges the gap between the earthly and the divine.

“Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.” – Martin Luther Music is to be celebrated at all times, and starting this month I invite you to the 2015-2016 Friends of Music concert series. The first concert this season will be performed on Sunday, September 27. Kevin McCormick, classical guitarist and composer, and Gail Wettstein, our soprano artist-in-residence, will perform a concert at 3 PM. The concert will last about one hour. Kevin will also play us a song or two at the 11 AM service. I hope to see you there!

About Kevin McCormick…

Kevin has performed throughout Europe, Asia and the United States.

12

He graduated from Indiana University School of Music and his recordings include the original song cycles with full ensemble With the Coming of Evening and Squall; a collection of traditional guitar works Solo Guitar; and Americas which includes Latin American and original guitar works. On Songs of the Martin, Kevin performs on an 1840’s Martin classical guitar and includes two centuries of music spanning the life of the instrument. His latest recording, In Dulci Jubilo, is a collection of Christmas music performed with his daughter, Rachel McCormick, and includes his arrangements of classic carols, uncommon gems, and his original carol “Annunciation.”

About Gail Wettstein…

You all have enjoyed the privilege every Sunday of listening to Gail Wettstein sing from both the Chancel and up in the loft, singing beautiful choral anthems and heavenly descants. Outside of Christ Church Gail Wettstein has been a featured soloist for the San Antonio Symphony, San Antonio Chamber Choir, San Antonio Mastersingers, San Antonio Opera, “Go for Baroque” orchestra and the Magik Theatre. Gail has also performed outside the U.S. for audiences in Canada, South Africa, Denmark, England, Spain and Saudi Arabia.

Her concert engagements have included Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Bach’s Cantata #51, and Mozart’s Coronation Mass. Gail has performed the roles of “Yum Yum” in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado and “Laurie” in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s

Oklahoma! as well as “Lucy” in Menotti’s The Telephone and “Annina” in Verdi’s La Traviata.

While pursuing her degree with the Royal Conservatory, Toronto, Gail was awarded the gold medal in Voice Performance for 1997. She has studied under various vocal teachers including Ms. April Cantelo in England, Ms. Bernadette Greevy in Ireland and Dr. Linda Poetschke in San Antonio. Gail has been a music instructor since 1991.

She and her husband, Rick Wettstein, are residents of San Antonio and are the parents of three children.

“I was born with music inside me.

Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart.

Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene.

It was a necessity for me - like food or water.” - Ray Charles

Josh Benninger

“Drawing, Changing,

and

Sending People Through

the

Power

of

Christ”

I

People Through the Power of Christ” is printed every Sunday in the bulletin. The “Vision Document” itself may be found at www.cecsa/org or in the lucite rack outside the Reception Office.

To that end, your Vestry embarked on a strategic planning process that began nearly a year and a half ago. There were several workshops: some involved only the Vestry, some only selected leaders, and some the entire Parish. All were led by an able consultant. All were lively, creative, and challenging.

Most importantly, all were centered in prayer. A survey was sent to those who missed the workshops. There were thus ample opportunities to share what the future of the church should be.

Guided by the Vision Statement, the Vestry approved in April 2015 the full Strategic Plan, complete with goals and objectives flowing out of the Statement. That Plan may be found at www.cecsa.org. Assigned committees are active in determining how these goals and objectives will be accomplished.

n a real way we are all here today because of the foresight of so many over the last century who, informed by the Spirit, have made good decisions for this church.

As a result of these workshops, the Vestry approved in November 2014 a one page “Vision Document.”

The document consisted of three equally important parts: “Mission Statement,” “Core Values,” and “Vision” with its accompanying “Strategic Priorities.” Please notice that our new Mission Statement: “Drawing, Changing, and Sending

Over the next several months we will highlight aspects of the Plan in the bulletin and in The Message. We are indeed carrying out the Spirit’s vision for our future.

Let us do for those who follow us what has been done for us.

John Boyce

Chairman, Strategic Planning

SOCIETY

Insuring

Y

ou can set aside a planned giving amount that can grow bigger over time, and even name Christ Church as the beneficiary upon your death without changing your will. Not widely known is something called a “Donor Advised Fund” which functions like a private foundation, but is much less complicated.

A number of investment institutions offer Donor Advised Funds and will be happy to send you the details. In

the

Future

of

Christ Church

summary, you can make an initial investment to the fund, and that investment is fully tax deductible the year you set up the fund. Christ Church could be named as the final beneficiary and would be paid the balance in the account upon the death of the makers (typically husband and wife). The earnings on the fund (dividends, interest, and capital gains) are non-taxable, which is another benefit. You choose from investment options like the S&P 500 index fund.

As an example of possible growth over time, investing as little as $5,000 in the S&P 500 fund in December of 1995 through July 2015 would have grown to $26,761. You can do the math on multiples of a $5,000 initial investment. Note: past performance

does not guarantee future return.

Some brief checking around found the required minimum initial investment ranges from $5,000 to $25,000.

Fidelity and Charles Schwab are $5,000 minimum and Vanguard is $25,000 for the initial amount to start a Donor Advised Fund. These are the only ones I checked, and I am sure there are others.

I always say to check with your CPA if you have tax questions and that I am not offering financial advice, but I do think this creates some advantages to both the individual and Christ Church.

You are welcome to call me for general discussions on the subject, but more details should come from a provider of the product.

Christ Church has been a tremendous blessing to so many over the years, and we want to insure its future for those to come.

Bill Galbreath 13

Our Church Life..

PAGE TURNERS – From

S

iberian Light, by Robin White is proof positive that all of us book lovers must haunt thrift stores and second-hand shops. I found this hardcover thriller in a community thrift store in Cape Neddick, Maine. Set in the oil rich Siberian wilderness, the protagonist, Gregori Nowek, the mayor of a struggling backwater, perpetually frozen or muddy town, is ordered to investigate the gruesome murders of three men. Along the way, he will confront dark vestiges of the KGB, a mammoth American oil company, the Russian mafia, and the rebellion of his sixteen year-old daughter. This one will get your heart beating faster, and the book provides a window into the challenges modern Russia faces in trying to transition to a market economy. This is a treasure I found for fifty cents, and I acquired a new black belt at the same price. Try those on for size!

The Sea Runners, by Ivan Doig is an earthy, almost Herculean, story of three indentured servants who canoe 1,000 miles in winter from their captivity in New Archangel, Alaska to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. Based on actual events recorded in 1852-53, these four men of varying backgrounds,

the

Rector’s Book Stack

escape their czarist Russian overlords and the native assassins they hire, to hazard glacial temperatures, turbulent seas, ravenous hunger, and incalculable fatigue. The fact that the four men barely know one another before the trek begins makes the forging of their personal relationships as formidable as the voyage itself. Doig is a graphic, diverse, and most entertaining storyteller. Kay and I previously read Doig’s, The Whistling Season, which is an altogether different book about a colorful brother and sister who traipse out from the east to build a life in rural Montana.

We don’t live for happiness; we live for holiness. Day to day we seek out pleasure, but deep down, human beings are endowed with moral imagination. All human beings seek to lead lives not just of pleasure, but of purpose, righteousness, and virtue. As John Stuart Mill put it, people have a responsibility to become moral over time. The best life is oriented around the increasing excellence of the soul and is nourished by moral joy. The quiet sense of gratitude and tranquility that comes as a byproduct of successful moral struggle…

The Road to Character, by David Brooks is my surprise book of the year. Most will recognize David Brooks as the most gifted and fair columnist for the New York Times and the steady and lucid commentator on Friday’s News Hour on PBS. After an in-depth examination of the lives of such diverse notables as Generals George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, writers George Eliot and Samuel Johnson, crusaders Dorothy Day and Frances Perkins, philosophers Michal de Montaigne and St. Augustine, and athletes Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath – Brooks shows his hand and his underlying theme:

David Brooks, a Jew, received his early education at Grace Episcopal Church School in New York. Perhaps we can take just a modicum of satisfaction that we contributed to this brilliant and important volume. I must offer my gratitude to Anne and Robert Wright for this generous gift.

Your brother,

Patrick U

CARE

Getting Ready for the Holidays

B CAROL MILLER Pastoral Care Administrator carolm@cecsa.org

efore the busy holiday season begins, Christ Church Community of Hope invites you to a Quiet Day with Sylvia Maddox. In the serene setting of

the Bishop Jones Center, Ms. Maddox will speak on “Sharing a Glimpse of Heaven.” This quiet day is an invitation

14

to reflect on the glimpses of heaven we have received in our own lives. Through prayerful times of silence and sharing, we will bless our calling to fully live in Christ’s words: “on earth as it is in heaven.” Join us Saturday, November 7 from 9 AM to 12 PM. RSVP to Carol Miller by November 2 at (210)736-3132 or carolm@cecsa.org.

X

X

X

The holidays are an especially hard time when grieving the loss of a loved one.

We become painfully aware that our special loved one is no longer present.

Join us for “Coping with Grief During the Holidays,” Tuesday, November 10th at 12:30-2:00 PM in the Conference Room.

Our presenter will be Lucy Ziegler, Licensed Professional Counselor since 1996. She trained with the Life After Loss Program through the American Cancer Society. Come learn how we can help you through the grief process.

Contact Carol Miller, 736-3132 for more information.

Carol

OF EVENTS September 16: Two Tables resumes with speaker - Bishop Bill Frey on Grace &

Gratitude as a Lifestyle, 5:30 - 7 PM September 19: Christ Church Fellowship outing to The Saga at San Fernando

Cathedral, RSVP to Nita Shaver at nitaken.shaver@gmail.com September 20: Fall Sunday School begins for all ages, 10 AM

Lunch at Order Up in Lincoln Heights, 12:30 PM September 22: Believe Small Group for Women begins at Jennifer Shemwell’s

house, 7:30 PM, RSVP to Jennifer at shemwell@sbcglobal.net September 23: Two Tables speaker - Elizabeth Black on Grace & Gratitude

in Loneliness, 5:30 - 7 PM

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, Assistant Rector for Community Formation, robh@ cecsa.org

September 25 - 27: CEC Family Camp at Camp Capers

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

September 27: Friends of Music Concert featuring Kevin McCormick and Gail

Wettstein, 3 - 5 PM

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

September 28: Dinner with Gavin for Parents and Youth, 6:30 PM

Lilly Fenton, Nursery Director lillyf@cecsa.org

September 29: Christ Church Fellowship outing to Big Band Jazz at Blue Star

Brewing Company, 1414 South Alamo #105, 8 PM, September 30: Two Tables speaker - Mary Parker on Grace & Gratitude in

Oppression, 5:30 - 7 PM October 4:

Acolyte Training, 10 AM in the Sanctuary Sunday Fun Day for Youth at Main Event, 12-4 PM

October 7:

Two Tables speaker - Rev. Rob Harris on Stewardship of Creation and a Pet Blessing, 5:30 - 7 PM

October 14:

Two Tables speaker - Dr. John Beauchamp on Stewardship of the Body, 5:30 - 7 PM

October 21:

Two Tables speaker - Tom Frost on Stewardship of Money, 5:30 - 7 PM

October 25:

Consecration Sunday

October 28:

Two Tables speaker - Bishop David Reed on Stewardship of the Church, 5:30 - 7 PM

October 31:

Trunk or Treat in the CEC Parking Lot, 5 PM

November 1:

Sunday Funday for Youth at the South Texas Corn Maize

November 4:

Two Tables speakers - Tom and Martha Hardin on Praying with Scripture, 5:30 - 7 PM

November 7:

Quiet Day with Sylvia Maddox, Bishop Jones Center, 9 AM - 12 PM, RSVP to Carol Miller at carolm@cecsa.org

November 11: Two Tables speaker - Rev. Jack Sheffield on Prayer and Healing,

5:30 - 7 PM November 14: Confirmation Class Team Building Day, 10 AM - 3 PM

Gavin Rogers, Youth Minister gavinr@cecsa.org Joshua Benninger, Music Minister & Organist joshb@cecsa.org Ruth Berg, Director of Children’s Music, ruthb@cecsa.org Robert Hanley, Parish Administrator robert@hanleypmservices.com Darla Nelson, Office Manager darlan@cecsa.org Donna Shreve, Financial Manager donnas@cecsa.org Gretchen Comuzzi Duggan, Director of Communications, gretchend@cecsa.org Anna Jewell, Executive Assistant to the Rector, annaj@cecsa.org Donnis Carpenter, Receptionist donnisc@cecsa.org Elizabeth Martinez, Kitchen Manager elizabethm@cecsa.org Robert Vallejo, Facilities Manager robertv@cecsa.org Rudy Segovia, Hospitality Manager rudys@cecsa.org Joe Garcia, Sexton joeg@cecsa.org

15

Choir Angels prepare for worship

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 17, Number 5.

E P I S C O PA L Christ Episcopal Church 510 Belknap Place San Antonio, TX 78212 www.cecsa.org

Periodical Postage PAID San Antonio, TX