September 2016 • Volume 18, Number 5
Bridging our new 6th-graders into the Youth Ministry
Raging: 2 It’s Our Mission Edition! Find Mission Updates: 7-11 What is Patrick Reading Now?: 13 Photo Album: 15 Another Matching Grant: 15
FROM
In this issue:
Raging
Music Ministry ...................... 6
This is the sixth in a series of ten essays Patrick is writing on the lesser-known stained-glass windows in the nave of Christ Church.
Family Ministry..................... 7
“M
Youth Ministry ...................... 8
ay I open the casket just to slip in something,” the harried priest asked.
into the freshly dug grave. I then consented to the priest, “By all means. If my dad can do anything for someone else, have at it. I just hope the teeth are delivered to the right address.”
He was late. The awkward assembly had been standing there around my father’s coffin making strained conversation. We did not know one another well, and we had never laid eyes on this bedraggled Roman Catholic priest. My Aunt Catherine, a papistical tornado with whom to reckon, had furtively arranged the Church burial for my dad, as the last time he was at worship, Latin alone was spoken. Even so, I heard my august aunt breathe an uneasy sigh upon seeing the unkempt clergyman trudge heavy-footedly up the hill.
While the rest of the delegation marshaled on the knoll were caught
Our Church Life .................10 Page Turners.......................13 Calendar of Events.............14 Great Commission..............15 Photo Album........................15
Sunday Services: 7:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite 1 9:00 a.m. Family-friendly Communion Service with Music 10:00 a.m. Christian Education for Children, Youth, and Adults
PATRICK GAHAN Rector patrickg@cecsa.org
He made his way along the grassy hill at Elmwood Cemetery, tucking his shirt as he walked, and mopping the sweat off his bald, rubicund head. He approached us and breathlessly asked, “Is a family member present?” I responded, “I’m his oldest son.”
11:00 a.m. Choral Eucharist, Rite 2 6:00 p.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite 2 Visit us on-line at www.cecsa.org
Cover photo by Julie Zacher Back cover photo by Susanna Kitayama
Hearing that, the priest pulled a plastic lunch bag from his right pant’s pocket and waved it in front of my face. “Was that ketchup or a squashed tomato in the Baggy,” I wondered? But not for long, for he asked, “May I put this into your father’s casket? I just came from the scene of a terrible auto accident and had to give Last Rites to a man who died there. Yet afterwards, I noticed that his teeth had been knocked out and were scattered all over the road. I collected as many as I could and placed them in this lunch bag,” which he now held above his sweaty head for all of us to see. “I don’t want the poor man to enter heaven without any teeth; so, may I place them with your father?” Aunt Catherine began to quaver. I gave her my arm so that she did not descend
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From Our Rector... somewhere between stupefied and horrified, I was grateful for the comic relief. Over the years, my father’s life intersected mine with pain, fear, abandonment, disappointment, and disgust – but never comedy, never laughter, never anything less than tumult. For that reason, I cannot gaze at our sixth great stained glass window, “The Miracle Window,” that encompasses our nave without thinking of my dad. The two small panels on the left side are awash in the raging Galilean Sea. In the top panel, Jesus spreads his arms over the riotous waters to calm the angry waves, and in the bottom panel our Lord serenely walks upon the sea – as if on a carpet. My father’s entire life was lived upon clamorous waters that never abated and were never pacified. I was warily stepping into my own adulthood before I realized the storms that raged outside and inside of my dad. If I had not come to comprehend the fierce tempests he endured, I could have never made peace with my own life. My father was reared in Springville, AL by two brittle alcoholics. While Springville in those days – some thirty miles northeast of Birmingham – was a rather pastoral setting, I can vividly imagine the madness of his childhood. I can only claim this knowledge because his mother, my grandmother “Ma,” would come to live with our young family for months at a time. Fueled by her drinking spells, Ma would terrorize the entire household with her angry delusions. Once while in third grade, I had a big strapping boy over from my class for a sleepover. Right after supper, when we were playing soldiers on the floor of the living room, Ma entered, pointed at the nine-year-old boy and screamed, “I know who you are. You’re a demon!” Needless to say, the boy phoned his parents thirty minutes later and was packed up for home. As an aside, I met the young man some years later after he had finished his career playing defensive end for the LSU Tigers. He confided in me that the night in our home stands as the most horrifying he had ever experienced. That’s saying something after four seasons in the SEC. Thus, I can only imagine the distress and
loneliness my father endured during his own childhood, with no one to call and nowhere to escape.
United Nations troops engaged some one million Red Chinese soldiers in wave after wave. Suffering from sub-
Pfc. William P. Gahan, seated lower right, San Luis Obispo, CA. August 30, 1950 Photo: Office of US Marine Corps Department of Defense Photo, by Cpl. R.J. Leitinen
As soon as he could take flight, he did. You could join the Marines at seventeen in those days, as long as you had one parent’s signature. Dad waited until the time was right, and quickly obtained my grandmother’s signature. Upon discovering the deception, my grandfather tried to stop the proceedings, but it was too late. Dad was off to Paris Island. Ecstatic over his deliverance, he did not foresee Kim IlSung’s North Korean Communist Army crossing the 38th parallel into South Korea on June 25, 1950. My teen-aged Dad would be quickly trained in South Carolina and shipped 7,000 miles to South Korea, an exotic and terrifying prospect for a seventeen-year-old boy from rural Alabama. Not even yet a man, he could not have predicted that the furious Pacific Ocean on which he sailed would define the remainder of his life.
zero temperatures in the coldest winter in over 100 years, many of the Marine’s weapons would no longer operate. Frostbite, snow blindness and exposure were more torturous than the horde of Chinese warriors. In the end, after bitter, bloody fighting and a lethal retreat, 13,000 of dad’s fellow soldiers were either dead or missing. Four Octobers later, I was born to him, his oldest son, but Dad never left the Reservoir. He remained frozen on the inside.
Dad landed at the port city of Wonsan in October, 1950 with the First Marine Division. From there he marched to the Chosin Reservoir, where the Marines, Army, South Korean regulars, and
I can laugh about that part, but not about home. I will spare my audience the details, but suffice it to say our household was unpredictably horrifying. The Great Santini had
He also remained a proud Marine until the end. Before I learned “Jesus loves me this I know,” “The itsy bitsy spider,” or “Old McDonald,” I could sing every line of the Marine Corps Hymn. I would sing it to house guests, birthday parties, and every time Dad took me to some dive and set me on the bar. Men would weep and buy Dad another drink.
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From Our Rector... nothing on Bill Gahan. I dared not even cross by the threshold of any room he occupied. Only when he left for work or passed out on the sofa could I begin to play or even speak. When my mother clandestinely sneaked all four of us children out of the house and onto a plane in order to escape him, I learned decidedly that freedom is worth far more than money, far more than comfort, far more than a splitlevel house in the suburbs. My mother, I realize now, was a soldier of some distinction and not of a little courage herself. I would like to tell the story of how the Lord walked across the fomenting waves to my father’s heart and thawed the frozen tundra there. I cannot. That is his story to tell and not mine, and besides I did not see my father except in four to seven-year increments, when he would surface for a day or so and then slip back to his secret life into which I was never invited. The problem, of course, is that the calamitous white caps that surged through his life crashed into mine. Once, in fact, when I was eighteen and had not seen my dad for five years, I coaxed my Aunt Catherine to give me his phone number in Atlanta. When he answered, I excitedly told him my news, “Dad, I’m going to play football for the Naval Academy. I am going to be a Marine just like you.” To which he curtly responded, “I don’t give a shit about that.” And he hung up. The problem, of course, is that I could never hang up the phone on my end. Kay and I had been married for a year, when I found myself alone in the bright little apartment we shared on the south side of Birmingham. My father had phoned to say that he needed to see me, which started the waters of my childhood to again roil frantically inside of me. I thrashed about the house for an hour or more, repeatedly picking up the phone to dial my mother or a friend, but then slamming down the receiver. Why should I reawaken this storm in
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my mother’s history? What friend did I have who could begin to understand the tempest I carried around inside me? Stuck in the middle of an unfriendly ocean with no harbor in sight, I knelt down and prayed that God would come to me and heal me. The words that came to me were not the ones I expected or wanted: “Forgive him.” I got up from my knees and madly punched the air like a boxer showing off before a bout. I didn’t want to forgive him. I wanted
conversation arising from the house. He thinks that some venerable rabbi from Jerusalem must have stopped in, when he hears the truth that his younger dissolute, despicable brother has returned home. “Why don’t they just throw a party for Mephistopheles,” he rails to the field hands, and he refuses to even enter the house. The father runs out to the older son, just as he had done earlier when he spied his younger one limping home across the horizon. The father’s words reach out to all of us adrift on the lonely ocean of heartbreak and anger: ‘My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ Luke 15:31-32
Patrick Gahan, November 1957
vindication. But the two words kept coming: “Forgive him.” Worn out from my solitary voyage that morning, I knelt down again and forgave my father. The storm immediately began to recede. I could see land, a port in which to sail. I know what being “born again” feels like. Twenty-one years old and making a mess of my marriage, every job opportunity, and every relationship – I was a dead man sailing. At that moment, I felt as if I could finally come home to myself. The Bible story that rises up in my mind is the pitiful spectacle of the older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. As he trudges in from the fields that afternoon, he smells the aroma of barbecue and hears the clinking of glasses and jocular
The father’s short speech hits me like an unanticipated breaker across my bow. All the warmth and love of the father’s home is prepared for him. The party is as much for the older son as for the younger. The father is celebrating the wholeness of their lives that he feared had been dashed on the rocks of an uncontrollable storm of destructive selfishness. But they had been delivered. All the older son must do now is to forgive, just as his father has forgiven, and enter the house, join the celebration, and live. “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours,” the Father says to both you and me. God’s grace is a gift we can scarcely believe is ours due to its monumental proportions. The Father does not just want to save us from eternal destruction. He, like the father in the parable, deeply desires to usher us into the munificence of his kingdom. However, we must want to walk through that door. Jesus’ words ring lyrically and pointedly to us across the ages: ‘Do not be afraid, little flock, for
From Our Rector... it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ Luke 12:32-34 “Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out,” is Jesus’ summons to the party. The fury of agitating anger, fomenting unforgiveness, and rampant regret keep us standing outside the house with our embossed invitation melting in our sweaty hands. I know. I have been the pitiful spectacle standing on that stoop. Even though the Lord had already given me my heart’s desire in Kay, had planned for me a life of ministry and meaning, and already fashioned beautiful children and grandchildren for me – I was stuck outside with “the thief,” who was intent on eating my life from the inside out. Forgiveness was the key that unlocked the door. The equation Christ gave to Simon the Pharisee is unfailing: ‘He who is forgiven much loves much, but he who is forgiven little loves little’ (Luke 7:47). Once we realize how much we have been forgiven, the party begins as we openhandedly let go of all the transgressions committed against us and begin to celebrate with all the others with empty hands. Living with empty hands was lingering in my mind on Thursday morning when I was taking my morning walk. After circling Trinity University, I took East Kings Highway off of Shook, as I often
do when I have an early meeting. As I neared McCullough, I came across a stark white metal sign on the edge of a driveway, the same curious sign I have encountered for four and a half years. In black, cheerless block letters the sign reads: …AND HE THAT BELIEVETH NOT THE SON SHALL NOT SEE LIFE. JOHN 3:36
How bewildering – if not downright inconceivable – that no sooner does Jesus offer those dumbfounding words of forgiveness than the soldiers start gambling for his clothes right beneath his bleeding, sagging body. Maybe that’s it. If we do not believe and act on Christ’s demand to open-handedly forgive, we are gambling with our life, glibly playing Russian Roulette with our remaining days. My own father’s remaining days baffled me as much as that black and white sign. I was in my early thirties by then, raising a family, and coaching high school football in Tennessee. I was actually on the field the afternoon that the head coach informed me that I had an emergency message at the office. I ran over and was told that my father was dying at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, and he was asking for me. I was doubly shaken by the news because I had not seen my dad since that day when I was only twenty-one years old – over a decade before. I cleaned up and made the three-hour drive to the hospital. Upon seeing me, my auburn-haired father waived me into the room. He sat on the edge of the bed and peered at me for a second or two.
These are the final recorded words of John the Baptist in the Gospels, and I’ve imagined all this time that the sign was placed there to harass the St. Anthony Roman Catholic High School students as they exited the campus each afternoon or just to needle the neighbors. Yet at 6:30 AM last Thursday, I had a more positive take on the sign’s message to my neighborhood. Certainly, I agree that our trust – our earnest, complete belief – in the Son, Jesus Christ, ‘transfers us from the power of darkness to the kingdom of the Father’s beloved Son’ (Colossians 1:13). However, the scripture can be read a second way, as well: We have to “believe” the Son points the way to life. Jesus Christ tells us and shows us the way to really live. ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing,’ Jesus gasps from the cross (Luke 23:34).
He finally spoke and asked, “Son, are we square?” “Ye…ssirr, we’re square,” I responded aghast. Then he dismissed me with the wave of his hand and without another single word. I walked down the bright hallway of the hospital shaking my head and my fists, “150 miles of driving and he only has that to say!” Then I caught myself. No other words were necessary – at least on my side of the relationship. My father needed to know that I had forgiven him, and I had. The raging storm within me was quelled, and I could live. Your brother,
Patrick U
‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing,’ -- Luke 23:34 5
MINISTRY The Binding Power
W
hen I gaze out from my second floor office window, I am blessed with a panoramic view of the Columbarium and the surrounding JOSH BENNINGER garden with its Director of Music beautiful flowers, and Worship joshb@cecsa.org plants and trees. If I listen closely, I can hear the gentle sound of water flowing in the fountain. But my attention is often drawn to the two brief but powerful pieces of scripture located higher up on the church wall: In my Father’s house are many mansions…I go to prepare a place for you. –John 14:2 I will come again and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there ye may be also. –John 14:3 Without a doubt these are comforting words. When peering out onto the Columbarium, I feel the blessed assurance of our eternal presence in God’s Kingdom. On occasion it also brings to mind the tragic and premature death of a childhood friend. During my first year as a freshman in the high school concert band, we lost our lead clarinet player to a terrible car accident caused by a drunk driver. His favorite piece of music was “Air in D” from J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3. As a gesture of remembrance, our concert band director had us perform it at our first concert that Fall. Even though this musical selection is frequently chosen for inclusion in weddings because of its slow moving and peaceful beauty, I will forever associate it with the death of a friend. Music has a way of sticking to us, it binds to us in more ways that we can imagine. For me, there are particular songs that when I hear them, they bring me back to specific points in time. Some of those times are joyful, and others not so much. For the curious minded,
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of
Music
I’ve provided a short list of a few that come to mind: Boléro (Maurice Ravel) I listened to Bolero over and over again as a young child, probably too many times if you asked my parents! I guess I appreciated its repetitive theme. Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 (Mozart) One of the first pieces I mastered on clarinet in the seventh-grade band; this piece by Mozart is the one that got me ‘hooked’ onto classical music. Toccata and Fugue in D minor (Bach) This one should be obvious. Simply put, I wanted to learn how to play the pipe organ after hearing it. Requiem (Mozart) Mozart’s Requiem mass reminds me of an eighth-grade school trip to D.C. where, among the many national monuments I visited that day, it was the Vietnam Memorial that stuck out. I remember it being a haunting experience. Water Music (Handel) Water Music was one of my favorite pieces I played in the high school concert band. Symphony No. 4 “Italian” (Mendelssohn) As a teenager I would listen to this fastpaced music while racing through my neighborhood on a bicycle. Così fan tutti (Mozart) My parents took me to see the opera Così fan tutti performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Adagio (Samuel Barber) I listened to Barber’s Adagio frequently during my last few months of high school.
Symphony No. 5 (Shostakovich) This one reminds me of the brutality of war that I witnessed while serving in the military. Because of the bad memories it evokes, I am no longer able to listen to this music. Total Praise (Richard Smallwood) Total Praise is a choral anthem that will always bring to mind the Spirit-filled and loving sound of the CEC choir!
Josh Benninger Children’s Choirs Have Begun Wednesdays at 4:30 PM. Don’t miss the fun! Contact Ruth Berg at ruthaberg@ gmail.com or (210) 4229963 to sign up your child.
MINISTRY
Late Summer Reflections – A Summer
I
of
Contrasts: New York City
the people it serves. This was a sacred was privileged place – a place where these men and to be part of women of the streets could consistently two amazing gather as a family of sorts. This was a and enriching safe place in their unsafe world. What experiences this an amazing gift to know of such a summer thanks place and of such people. My eyes were to Christ Church. opened to another world than mine My first was to be where there was unexpected goodness part of our High in the midst of what we might perceive HALLETA School Mission as bad. HEINRICH Trip to New Director of York City Family Ministries where ten halletah@cecsa.org of our high schoolers, and our Youth Ministers, Gavin and Lena, and I served at the Catholic Worker Houses on the Lower East Side. We worked in the Soup Kitchens serving soup and bread to the homeless and distributing clothing. The Holy Spirit was really present in those places in an obvious way as the kids ministered to a variety of homeless men and women of all types and ages, listening to their stories in such a manner that was so respectful of their dignity. They all have a story, you know, and are eager to share. I was so proud of our kids! One of our Youth after the Studying the parable of the True Vine (John 15) ending of a day of service stated IN a vineyard! with such conviction, with her face all aglow, “I love this! I want to do this again.” She was illuminated from within with the joy of helping those in Then there was Napa in California Wine Country. In the little town of St. real need. It was the Holy Spirit. Helena I completed my final training of Bud, the man who runs the men’s soup Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, the kitchen and is a friend of Gavin’s, had beautiful Christian Formation program been working there for twenty-five that we have had at Christ Church for years after being healed of alcoholism. the last twenty-five years. This training Bud shared that he owned nothing and has been my “seminary.” The town of had never experienced such joy. What St. Helena is probably the opposite of a revelation! His joy was his God-given New York City. The people don’t lock purpose to serve those in great need. their doors, they keep their windows I met a woman there that was around open at night to capture the crisp, cool my age who had lived and served at air that comes each evening - no matter the Catholic Worker House for women how hot it was that day. The kids ride since she graduated from college their bikes all over the town and into forty or more years ago. She was not the surrounding vineyards without a ordained, but God had ordained her to care. Kind of like Heaven on Earth. I told this priesthood of service. She seemed every child I met there how fortunate satisfied and fulfilled in her life, a very they were to grow up in such a place – a intelligent woman who followed God’s seemingly safe place. call for her life. How appropriate to be in this Then there’s the soup kitchen itself and welcoming, safe place for the last of
to
Napa
my Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Training. In Catechesis we are taught as a basis of everything we learn and teach to the children, that we are unconditionally loved by Jesus, Our Good Shepherd, who leads us out and calls us into the safety of the sheepfold. The church is seen as that sheepfold where we are called to be fed, nurtured, and protected before we go out and bring others back to be part of this Body of Christ, for Jesus tells us, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them, also. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock and one Shepherd.” John 10:16. Children in The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Atrium classrooms are reminded that the Good Shepherd Jesus knows each of them by name and calls them continually to Himself even when they are lost like the Lost Sheep in the parable. This is unconditional love, the love of God, that forms the foundation for all future learning. St. Helena is a little like the Catechesis Atrium and the parable of the Good Shepherd. It is a safe place and small enough for everyone to know one another’s names. It’s a little hint of Heaven for sure! After completing the final Level III Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for nine through twelve-year-olds and even up to teens and adults, I came out of it with the final summation of all it teaches and all we and our children need to know – “Who God Is” and “Who We Are.” God is our loving father and we are his beloved children. It’s very simple and profound at the same time. The ultimate stage in the cycle of Faith Development from all I’ve studied is childlike faith. After ministering at Christ Church for twenty-eight years, I think I may be finally getting there. I thank you and your children for this blessing! My eyes continually are being opened to the wonder of God’s love. With Love and Gratitude,
Halleta 7
MINISTRY Taking Christ
G
GAVIN ROGERS Youth Minister gavinr@cecsa.org
uatemala and Shining Stars, Dorothy Day and the City that Never Sleeps, a Dragon’s Café and the Big Easy. That was the Summer of 2016.
on the
Road
with our
trip was truly fulfilled, to bring “students and the poor together cross-culturally to encounter God, share the Good News, disciple and serve others in occupational ministries.” To watch the mission team’s video recap that Allie Cochran (another CEC member) and I created please go to https://vimeo.com/173063822.
One of these stars was Texas A&M college student and CEC member Anna Beck. Here is what she had to say about our Guatemala outreach:
M
y time in Guatemala was amazing, eye-opening and definitely life changing. My favorite part of the trip was the people we served and lived among in this beautiful country. From my host family to random people on the street (who are always willing to say hello and greet you with a smile) everyone was so kind and willing to help you with anything. I could see the influence of living a Christ-centered life in the home visits we would go on as we all shared life together. Not only did I get to meet new people, but I was also on the trip with my little sister, which was amazing to be able to grow with her and have this experience with her as I am now in college at Texas A&M and she is in high school in San Antonio. The vision of our
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and Bethany Heinrich), visit the 9/11 Memorial, and attend the famous Red Sox vs. Yankee’s baseball game in the Bronx! We didn’t get much sleep but what do you expect when you travel to the city that never sleeps. Here is what high school sophomore Emma Barton had to say about her trip to the Big Apple.
O
Here at CECSA Youth we had a wonderful and eventful summer! In June we traveled to Guatemala with our college and older high school students for two weeks to live in host homes and serve the community though occupational ministries. Our vision for this trip was seeing students and the poor transformed into the likeness of Christ and discovering their true calling. I am confident each student met this vision and practiced their hearts to live out the love of Christ through their work and community engagement. Daniel 12:3 states, “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”
Youth
After we returned from Guatemala we repacked our bags and went with our younger high school students to New York City! There we got to serve at the Catholic Worker house founded by Dorothy Day. Dorothy Day reminds us that “Love casts out fear, but we have to get over the fear in order to get close enough to love them…as for ourselves, we must be meek, bear injustice, malice, rash judgment. We must turn the other cheek, give up our cloak. Go a second mile.” And man…did our students go the second mile! There we served among the Catholic Worker community as we served hot meals, folded clothes, labeled the Catholic Worker Newspaper, and participated in conversations with the men, women, and children living in the Lower Manhattan community. We also volunteered at Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church and made brown bag lunches for the homeless. In between service projects we got to have fun in New York City, watch and tour a Broadway show (thanks to Halleta
n our youth group trip it was the first time I’ve ever experienced anything like New York. I got the “warmest” New York welcome of a big puff of cig smoke in my face and indepth convos with the natives consisting of eyerolls and one word responses on their behalf. After we settled in, the next morning we volunteered at the Catholic Worker house. My favorite memory was with a little girl I met named Leslie who loved Disney and knew all the words to “Let it Go.” She and her mother lived there, and I didn’t expect much from them in terms of their willingness to converse and share their space. What happened instead surprised me and warmed my heart; they were so open with us and they laughed and sang and prayed with all of us, and little Leslie made a special connection with Lauren White. If there was only one thing I learned while in the Big Apple, it’s that the people who have the least give the most. A few weeks after our trip to New York and a fresh load of laundry later, we boarded the “Sunset Limited” Amtrak train with our Junior High Students and headed to New Orleans, Louisiana. There we ate beignets in the French Quarter, rode the famous street cars, dined at the home of the World’s Most Famous Fried Chicken, and toured the powerful WWII Museum. On this “Soul Train Trip” we studied the Epistle of James and volunteered all around the Big Easy. We only served there for what seems like a few short days, but Dorothy Day reminds us that:
Youth Ministry...
Youth
cont’d we were making a big difference as we spread all over the building to clean. The last service project we did was a soup kitchen. We went to work as soon as we could and finished before we even knew it! We had so much fun and tried a lot of new things that we probably would never have tried anywhere else. It was great to be able to talk to the people of New Orleans. They may have come from different living conditions and worked through hard times. It was amazing for us to be able to hear their stories.
“What we do is very little, but it is like the little boy with a few loaves and fishes. Christ took that little and increased it. He will do the rest. What we do is so little we may seem to be constantly failing. But so did He fail. He met with apparent failure on the Cross. But unless the seed fall into the earth and die, there is no harvest. And why must we see results? Our work is to sow. Another generation will be reaping the harvest.”
James calls us to have an “Active Faith” and, oh man, our Junior High Students have such an active way to display their faith! It was powerful to witness. Here is what junior high student Abby Covelli has to say about her experience in the Pelican State.
M
y first mission trip was an incredible and exciting one! We did so much together and got to know everyone very well, all while serving our neighbors in New Orleans and learning about and growing closer to God. On the first day, we explored New Orleans. We got to learn about the area and see the tourist attractions. My favorite part was Café Du Monde! The next day our volunteer work began. We went to the Dragon Café to serve meals to the homeless. This was a very new experience for a lot of us, but I think we all enjoyed helping very much. After that, one of the hardest projects began… Cleaning the homeless shelter! This was actually one of my favorite projects because we had the chance to grow closer to one another as we cleaned. I like to think that
All the Junior High and teen chaperones had so much fun together. It was sad to have to say good-bye. Of course, none of this would’ve been possible without Gavin and Lena. They are amazing and were so patient while dealing with us when we got crazy. They are always ready to listen to our problems and teach us about God. Thank y’all! You’re the best!!! Lena and I cannot be more p r o u d of our students this past summer. They were amazing! During these three trips (along with a trip to Schlitterbahn and a trip to Lake LBJ) our students were able to practice in the Love of God, serve those around them who are in need, grow deeper spiritually, and share in community with their friends and church family. We are excited about the year ahead of us and hope to continue building on the momentum created these past three months. In Christ,
Gavin & Lena 9
Waco
and
Honduras - Two Worlds Not So Far Apart
O
BRIEN KOEHLER Associate Rector for Mission and Formation brienk@cecsa.org
nce again, for our annual Short FUSE weekend mission, our team headed north on I-35. We work with Mission Waco, one of the premiere urban ministry organizations in the United States.
As Mission Waco volunteers, our Short FUSE team participated in service projects to improve and maintain Mission Waco facilities, “Street Camps” (a mobile Bible School program) presented to at-risk kids in their neighborhoods, and worship and encouragement among the homeless served by Mission Waco shelter programs. This July we offered three days of programming focused on Saint Peter: The first day featured Peter called by Jesus to be a “fisher of people” with a puppet show and crafts to support the Bible message. The second day told of Peter filled with fear and denying Jesus. And the third day was Peter restored and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit so he could spread the message of the Gospel.
were in direct contact with poverty in the city of Waco. We also visited a nonprofit food store under construction by Mission Waco, and we learned about “food deserts” in the middle of cities all over the United States.
Short FUSE also involves a time of fellowship Our work this summer and worship was multi-directional. with people Elizabeth Martinez living in the continued cooking transitional instruction that she began s h e l t e r in the summer of 2015. The for the women of Cristo Salvador homeless. parish are polishing their We began skills at cooking for large Cooking in Honduras a day by groups. Christ Church cooking breakfast at 5 AM for the has equipped their kitchen with basic overnight residents in the Mission Waco appliances, a propane range, and shelter “My Brother’s Keeper.” Later in utensils that make it possible to host the same day we spent an evening of groups of fifty or sixty for a meal. singing, prayer, the Holy Eucharist, Meeting space is hard to find and often and friendly conversation with those expensive, and hosting groups that we had served in the morning. This is rent the parish buildings is a source of a powerful experience to say the least. income for the church and the families. We close the weekend with Sunday worship at the famous Church Under the Bridge before returning to San Antonio. Church Under the Bridge began as a small outreach to the homeless, and now is a fully organized congregation providing worship and study opportunities for homeless and other interested people Sunday by Sunday, under an interstate highway bridge in the middle of Waco near Baylor University. We were at worship with the people we had met at My Brother’s Keeper, as well as several hundred others who had gathered to share the love of Christ in worship.
O Church Under the Bridge
Mission Waco seeks to educate its volunteers. In the most recent Short FUSE, we viewed a documentary on the effects of poverty on families and children in the third world, and we
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we seek to support and empower the clergy and lay leaders of the dozen churches in the Deanery, we offer programs for women and children designed to improve their daily lives and deepen their Christian faith, and we seek to improve the communities beyond the churches.
We also completed painting in a building that had served as the church until Christ Church completed construction of a new Church begun by Episcopalians in Louisiana several years ago. The former church provides a meeting place for the alternative school program that members of Christ Church sponsor. The alternative school (called Educatodos) provides elementary and secondary education to children and adults who for one reason or another cannot or did not attend public school. There are presently 45 participants ranging in age from 6-years to 30-years. Our oldest first-grader was a man aged 65 in a previous year.
ur summer trip to Copan in Western Honduras near the Guatemala border is a week of intensive relationship-based ministry with the Episcopal Churches in that region. Our teams travel to San Pedro Sula by air from San Antonio, and then by SUV to the town of La Entrada. Our work is in the mountains about a thirty minute drive from the hotel which serves as our home base.
We also offered a Bible School program (the same one presented at Short FUSE, but of course presented in Spanish). And, we encouraged and supported the people of Cristo Salvador as they undertook a community outreach project by painting a public kindergarten building (an adopted school project a bit like Christ Church and James Madison School in San Antonio!).
The work in Honduras has three parts:
Brien Koehler
Our Church Life...
Making 2016 Band
and
Bible Mission
I
t all began with a passion for Jesus and a love for bands. In June 2012 the Rev. Eric Fenton participated as a member of the Diocese of West Texas mission to Uganda to teach at women’s conferences in Nebbi Diocese and Bunyoro-Kitara Diocese. While there he discovered that the British brass band tradition was 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 where-ever they perform. The problem was that the instruments they had were old, in poor condition and barely playable. They did make a joyful noise that would always draw a crowd. Upon his return “Rev. Eric” described what he learned to Richard Wallace, a retired band director and member of the Church of the Resurrection in San Antonio. They put together a plan to collect old band instruments to take with them the next summer and put on a Band and Bible teaching clinic. This year was their fourth trip. Richard teaches the brass band musicians how to maintain and repair their instruments, how to read music, play in tune with each other, and improve their skills. Michael Bahan is a professional percussionist that joined them for their last three missions. He was an instant “hit” as they say “He plays like an African!” Eric presents a Bible teaching and leads the daily worship. This year he taught from Randy Frazee’s book “Believe” that was a teaching program at Christ Church. The team works with three bands. The 1st Mengo Boys and Girls Brigade Band is in the capital of Kampala at Namirembe Cathedral. This is a Christian organization that teaches the Bible to young people ages 11-20 and uses the band as a tool to learn discipline, teamwork, and ministry to others. The Nebbi Diocese Brass Band
a Joyful
Noise
and a
Splash
is composed of people of all ages, some of whom have played together for many years. After the mission this year, 15 of their members headed out on foot to evangelize in the Congo traveling for a week from village to village. The Bunyoro-Kitara Diocese Brass Band is part of the diocesan school and has a teacher assigned, Felix Kasumba. This is the band that Eric saw on that first trip and was the inspiration for this mission. They saw this band in action as they added to the celebration of the water well project at St. Luke’s in Kagadi. Scholarships for band members is also a very important piece of this
mission. Ugandan schools charge fees and require uniforms as well as school supplies. Many children do not continue their education because their parents have no funds. So any additional funds go to help them go to school. The difference this makes is huge as these scholars share their appreciation. Moses Sengozi wrote, “I remember two years ago I had no hope about studying due to that I have a single parent which is my mum. By that time she had failed to get money to support my study. But God never forgot me. Thank you, Rev., and all the merciful people who have played a great role in supporting me.” The team wishes to thank 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.
in
Africa Water Project at St. Luke’s Church, Kagadi, Uganda
Last fall the Rev. Wilson Atuhire contacted the Rev. Eric Fenton to ask for help with a much needed water project. Generous donations from Christ Church Missions Committee, members, the “noisy offering,” and the Diocese of West Texas provided the funds. A well was dug, a water tower erected and distribution pipes were set up. Until this well, the water was supplied by the nearby Cult whose leader claims to be God. They charged for their miracle water. Rev. Wilson wrote: On behalf of St. Luke’s Church we extend our gratitude to you and the entire team who came to our Church in Kagadi. It was a day we shall always remember in our deep memories. Many people were excited at seeing you and most importantly what the Lord inspired you and other friends to do in Kagadi. Most of the other religions and sects were shocked at seeing what the Lord did for our Church and of course not all of them were happy. Some members from the Cult were present that day. A man from the Cult came to my home and asked for the visitors book wanting your contacts so that he can communicate to you. They are not happy because they have started loosing people because of this project. From the time we got water, there was total relief, first in us the staff, and the entire public. This water has attracted many people to our church because it was long overdue and therefore it was timely. Please pray for the clergy and people of St. Luke’s Kagadi.
Eric Fenton 11
Our Church Life...
The Well: A Church
O
ver the course of the last several months our 20-40s Fellowship’s leadership team has been gathering together to discern what our community is called to be and do. Many thoughts have been shared about how wide and deep; how broad and how high the demographic of our fellowship should be. While the group was initially created to provide for the spiritual needs of our fastest growing demographic, adults in the 20-30 year old range, it is the consensus that age should not be a determinative factor of who we wish to become. We are made up of twentyyear-old married couples and singles. Our community consists of college students and young professionals. Our community has forty-year-old married couples with kids who desire a place to grow in a unique way. Indeed, all ages and conditions of folks gather at The Well, seeking connection, replenishment, and community. Throughout Scripture the community
within the
well is the gathering place. It is where the women come to draw water for the day’s chores. It is the place where livestock and camels are watered and replenished. The well is also the place where Jesus performs his first mission to the outsiders—The Samaritans. Indeed, the well is where things happen.
Taking it a bit further, we gather around a well each time we baptize. We gather at the font and immerse those called to the Lord’s service in the baptismal waters that well up to eternal life. We sanctify and bless God’s holy people and in that very special communion at the Well of Eternal Life. We gather, we are replenished, and in a very special way we are connected to one another,
CCW - Uniting Women
C
hrist Church Women is the ministry that brings all of the marvelous women of Christ Church together as one. Women of all ages, interests, and responsibilities participate: women who work outside the home, those who work inside the home, retired women, younger women, older women, young mothers, women consumed with family responsibilities, women seeking refuge and laughter, women who know the benefits of fellowship with other women, women needing support and women willing to give support, knowledgeable women, women seeking knowledge, and women ready to serve others. All of these marvelous women love God and attempt to come together a few times a year. The CCW mission is to encourage women in all seasons of life to connect with each other and deepen their relationships with God as passionate followers of Christ; indeed, CCW aspires to build relationships among
12
Church
of
as well as with angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven. Therefore, the leadership team has decided to rebrand our fellowship in a theological and visionary way rather than a demographic descriptor. Our new identity will be: The Well and our vision of who are is: A Place to Gather, Replenish, and Connect. We envision our unique fellowship to be essentially a church within our much beloved Christ Church. We aspire to be a place where people can gather for fellowship and deeply connect with others in a fun, joyful, and Christ-centered way. We plan to be a people that are replenished by God’s Word in shared study and unique opportunities to connect our faith with the world we live in. We will connect our community with the needs of our neighbors near and far as we serve the world in Christ’s Name. So join us and GATHER at The Well; REPLENISH at The Well; and CONNECT at The Well.
All Ages
Christ Church women, to encourage the involvement of every Christ Church woman, and for Christ Church women to be united together in Christ through fellowship, service, spiritual growth, and outreach in our San Antonio community.
A blessed force of love and hope! Join us! To get involved contact Winifred Cocke at (210)824-4340 or Kay Bashara at (210)822-6504 or kaybashara@ sbcglobal.net.
The hope and goals outlined above heralded the birth of CCW in 2015 and launched 2016 as the year of Christ Church Women. CCW is a new ministry; however, many events, opportunities, and services of earlier groups have contributed to the CCW mission of uniting all women of this parish into a cohesive unit of many ages and gifts on a journey of praying, studying, and serving God and this parish.
Quiet Moments with God Thursday, September 29 9:45 - 11:30 AM in the Parish Hall Coffee & Quiche with a Presentation by Marsha Martin
Christ Church Women schedules its different activities at varying times (sometimes day; sometimes night) to better accommodate all. There are over 550 women ranging in age from 21 to 100+ at Christ Church.
Calendar
of
Events
for
2016-2017
Fall Fiesta - October 24 5 - 7 PM at La Fonda Alamo Heights Fireside Chat - December 14 10 AM at Kay Bashara’s home Storyteller Liz Swayze Luncheon - February 23 in the Parish Hall Tour of the San Antonio Missions April 6 with tour guide Ferne Burney
Our Church Life..
PAGE TURNERS – From ♪Sumer
time…. and the reading is easy...♪ Oh yes, and I am enjoying the change of pace and pages! The first week of our vacation, Kay handed me the novel, The Holy Thief, by William Ryan. This is a detective story with a riveting educational twist. The detective is Captain Alexei Korolev of the Moscow Militia in 1936. That’s right, he is solving cases during Stalin’s Great Terror. The story opens with the brutal torture and murder of an American nun in one of Moscow’s thousands of “re-purposed” churches. Korolev, for his part, is just a doggedly faithful, scrupulous investigator. What he does not bargain for is that the notorious NKVD – the KGB – watches his every move and is determined to silence him. Read this book for the fine writing, spellbinding plot, and well-developed characters. But also read it to learn about a Russia that was off limits to most of the world and has begun to fade from our collective memory. There is yet another reason Christians should read this book, but I will let Korolev explain that fact to you himself. Only occasionally on a summer vacation do you find it. When you do, it is not by effort, but more serendipitous than anything else. This summer I found it in North Conway, NH, of all places. Kay and I were walking about this bright New England town, attempting to recover from our aches, pains, bruises, and pulled muscles from climbing Mount Kearsarge, a name that will loom in infamy for the rest of our lives! Regardless, Kay and I were poking
the
Rector’s Book Stack
around in a small bookstore looking for prizes, when I found THE book in the reduced rack. The novel, The Coldest Night, by Robert Olmstead, drew me because it chronicles the bitter horror of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War. My father, a Marine, fought in that battle when only 17 years of age – just like the book’s protagonist, Henry Childs. I have read a succession of histories about Chosin in an attempt to understand the pain my father harbored. Not one of those volumes captures the frozen agony and holloweyed despair experienced by those isolated Marines as Olmstead does. I caught a glimpse of my dad walking on the steel-hard tundra north of the 38th Parallel. I should be quick to add that the battle itself makes up just a portion of the novel. At heart, this is a comingof-age story. Henry Childs, reared in the hidden, impoverished recesses of the Appalachians, falls in love with Mercy, an heiress. Their love is, at once, wonderful and terrible. Olmstead, a professor at Ohio Wesleyan, will emerge as one of the finest writers of our generation. You will see in him the genius strains of Ernest Hemmingway, John Knowles, and Marilynne Robinson. I must admit that after reading but two pages, I said aloud, “Cormac McCarthy!” Alas, I could not help myself. While still here in Maine, I ordered O l m s t e a d ’ s bestselling civil war tale, Coal Black Horse. My only challenge was to read it slowly, drinking in every line. Olmstead’s prose in this volume is reminiscent of Faulkner’s. For instance, the story opens when the mother sends her fourteenyear-old son from their isolated cabin in the mountains of West Virginia to find his father, who is fighting for the Confederacy. “Go and find your father, and bring him back to his home,” she orders. To equip him for his journey, she sews him a reversible coat – gray
on one side and blue on the other. “She told him to be on whatever side it was necessary to be on and not to trust either side,” which ends up being prophetic instructions, as men and women on both sides reveal themselves as equally malevolent. The mother kisses the boy, and he strikes off: His eyes were wet and for reasons he could not name his chest throbbed. He wiped his stinging eyes and cursed out in the darkness, but he did not know what he was cursing. Just a boy’s curse when he is told to do something. Even if the boy secretly wants to do that something, by nature he will curse the redirection of his will. Where before he had possessed time, now time was no longer his. He was being sent into the world and him now fourteen years old and so ignorant of its ways. For his conveyance into the unknown and soon-to-be very dark world, the boy is given a mighty coal black horse. The horse is almost mythical in its strength and wisdom. The horse hearkens the reader’s imagination to Jason’s swift ship, Argo, or the hero Bellerophon’s winged horse, Pegasus. The ghastly battlefields the boy enters rival any demonic lands conjured up by the ancient Greek poets. In fact, when asked, Olmstead has stated that he wants his readers to experience what it must feel like for a soldier to return from Iraq or Afghanistan, to recover from a world so terrible and from actions so violent that home seems almost unattainable.
Patrick
The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. Acts 15:31 13
OF EVENTS September 7:
Children’s Choirs begin
September 10: Safeguarding God’s Children, 9 AM - 12 PM in the Parish Hall September 11: Love & Logic Parenting class begins, 10 AM Dedication of the Veterans Chapel, 11 AM The Well lunch at La Fonda on Main, 12:30 PM Youth Visioning Night, 6 PM in the Parish Hall September 13: Knitting Group resumes, 1:30 PM in the Library September 18: Monthly Noisy Offering and Food Pantry Offering at 9 & 11 AM Acolyte Training and Junior Acolyte Training, 12 - 2 PM World Missions Committee Meeting, 12:30 PM in the Heritage Room Third Sunday Lunch Bunch at Order Up, 12:30 - 2 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, Associate Rector for Community Formation, robh@cecsa.org Carol Miller, Pastoral Care Administrator, carolm@cecsa.org
September 20: CCF Outing to the Toyota Plant, 1 - 3 PM CCM Outing to Top Golf, 6:30 PM
Halleta Heinrich, Director of Family Ministry, halletah@cecsa.org
September 23 - 25:
Family Camp at Camp Capers
Lily Fenton, Nursery Director lilyf@cecsa.org
September 24: CCF Evening of Dinner, Drinks and The Saga at San Fernando Cathedral
Gavin Rogers, Youth Minister gavinr@cecsa.org
September 29: CCW Brunch “Quiet Moments with God,” 9:45 - 11:30 AM in the Parish Hall
Lena Bozzo, Assistant Youth Minister lenab@cecsa.org
October 5:
Joshua Benninger, Music Minister & Organist, joshb@cecsa.org
St. Francis Day Pet Blessing and Dinner, 5:30 PM on the lawn
October 6 - 9: The Well Spiritual Retreat at Mustang Island October 9: Flu Shot and Immunization Clinic, 8:30-11:30 AM in the Heritage Room October 13:
Thursday Morning Women’s Bible Study begins, 9:45 - 11:15 AM
October 21-23: Junior High Retreat to Brenham October 23:
Consecration Sunday, Celebration meals after every service
October 24:
CCW Fall Fiesta at La Fonda, Alamo Heights, 5 - 7 PM
October 25:
CCM Barbecue “Burn & Brew II,” 6:30 PM
October 31:
Trunk or Treat, 5:30 - 8 PM in the Parking Lot
November 2:
All Souls Day Celebration, 5:30 PM in the Parish Hall
To have your CEC event (on or off campus) added to the Church Calendar please submit a CEC EVENT SCHEDULING FORM All church related activities, events, meetings, etc. MUST have a CEC EVENT SCHEDULING FORM submitted to the church receptionist, Donnis Carpenter. EVEN events that take place off-campus must be submitted in order to be added to the church’s master calendar. Submission forms can be found on the Lucite racks outside the reception office.
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Ruth Berg, Director of Children’s Music, ruthb@cecsa.org Robert Hanley, Parish Administrator parishadmin@cecsa.org 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
ALBUM
SOCIETY
An Interview hard time. that?
Editor: How long have you worshipped at Christ Church and what has the parish meant to you and your children? Monica: We joined Christ Church in 1998, mainly because of the strong children’s program. I was, and still am, so very humbled by the love and kindness we received from the CEC community when my daughter, Caroline, died suddenly in a car accident. It taught me what genuine caring looks like in a Christian community and helped teach me to mirror those actions in my life by loving others the same way God loves each of us. Editor: You have often said that Christ Church brought you through a very
with
Monica Gose
Would you tell us about
sermons, Lessons and Carols, and Happenings. As I prepared my will, I geared my thinking toward helping my Monica: In November of 2004, my children, once I am gone. The more I mother died of cancer. Ten days later, thought about it, the more I realized that two friends died in a plane crash and CEC is my family too and I also want to two days after that, my sweet Caroline share with the church. Sure, I am not died in a car accident. That was by far giving hundreds of thousands of dollars, the hardest time of my life. I did not but I do know that every amount helps know who to grieve for first or how to keep up the church’s daily operations, sift through all the emotion that goes community outreach and those times along with death of when it gives loved ones. I had no “Charitable giving is not a back to grieving idea so many members and race. Giving is a gift to thank families of our church would people in need. step forward to give God for His goodness and I also realized me words of wisdom small amounts we all know He will accept are nothing to and prayers for my children and me. They any amount of love as He be ashamed of treated me just as Jesus or embarrassed gives us endless love.” Christ would and that by. Charitable experience truly helped giving is not a me grow closer to Him. race. Giving is a gift to thank God for His goodness and we all know He will Editor: Recently, you made a decision accept any amount of love as He gives to make a gift to Christ Church at your us endless love. death. What motivated you to do so — especially since you work at three Editor: At this point in your life, what different jobs just to make ends meet? do you see as your role in the parish? Monica: I have received so many gifts from our parish. Joy from friendships I have made throughout the years, spiritual growth through worship,
Monica: For now, a greeter. In years more involved in that might present
I am a member and to come I hope to be other opportunities themselves.
Don’t forget! A family in the parish is matching dollar-for-dollar every gift to the Christ Church Endowment for Buildings and Grounds. That means every dollar miraculously becomes TWO! Talk about the loaves and the fishes. 15
Enjoying some good, clean fun at church
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 18, Number 5.
Periodical Postage PAID San Antonio, TX Christ Episcopal Church 510 Belknap Place San Antonio, TX 78212 www.cecsa.org